Play Book Tag discussion

Victoria’s been an angry foster child forever, irritating her case worker and destroying every opportunity she encounters for a better life. Around age ten, she ends up with Elizabeth, an older unattached woman as feisty as Victoria herself. But Elizabeth has the benefit of life experience and wisdom, and, for reasons I wasn’t clear on, she loves Victoria fiercely, in spite of the girl’s best efforts to put her off.

In a second timeline, alternating chapter by chapter with the first, it’s a decade later, and something has happened to rupture the relationship. Victoria has aged out of the fostering system – and she’s determined to avoid Elizabeth. The mystery of what happened unrolls during the first timeline, even as it becomes clear from the second that Victoria has grown into an emotionally damaged woman, leery and unable to trust herself or others. Another mystery in the story is what happened to Elizabeth and her sister Catherine that caused a permanent rift between them. Both Catherine and Elzabeth were botanists, fluent in the “language of flowers,” a Victorian tradition in which specific flowers represent attributes, emotions or meanings, supposedly allowing people to communicate. Elizabeth takes it upon herself to teach Victoria the language.

I enjoyed the story for the most part but I get a bit frustrated by characters who continually sabotage themselves, although perhaps this lack of sympathy is a shortcoming of mine. I’m also skeptical of the complexity of communication possible with a “language” composed of scattered verbs and nouns, with no syntax or parts of speech. That may be unromantic and overly scientific of me but I felt we were veering into magical realism at some points. Still, the story kept me interested and it was a satisfying read in the end. I'm rounding up to 4 stars for this debut novel.