Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Language of Flowers

The Language of Flowers
reviewed on + 43 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 7


For a first novel, this book is surprising in its rich layers and character studies. It's amazing and heartbreaking. Anyone who is a mother will be absolutely wrecked by parts of this story. While not a manipulative tear jerker (the author is very straightforward in her descriptions and characterizations), I found it difficult to remain dry-eyed while reading this. Ultimately, the message is that the hardest person to forgive is yourself, and it's difficult to love anyone else until you have accomplished that. Towards the end, the author starts trusting that the reader has paid attention to the meanings of flowers and starts using them in the story without giving the definitions. (If you want to "cheat", there's a dictionary in the back of the book.)