This book is an anthology of poetry and short stories organized around the theme of the life cycle of the flower (bud, blossom, and seed). It has strong elements of fantasy and the paranormal and also some elements of romance. There are also appearances of characters from the authors' other books (some of which are published already and some which aren't).
The first thing that should be noted about this book is that in addition to the themes mentioned above, there seems to be a strong overtone of bitterness to most of the short stories and even the poems (although the poems also tend to have a more hopeful note as well). This is neither good nor bad, in and of itself, but it is good to note that it is probably not a book one wants to read while already in a bad or negative mood.
Also of note, in relation to the anthology as a whole, is the fact that there is a fairly consistent occurrence of missing commas and several typos as well. There's not enough to completely jar the reader out of the stories, but it is enough to cause little hiccups in the experience. It is important to note here that the short stories had a very lyrical, poetical quality to them and it is possible that the writer was purposely leaving out commas in an effort to enhance the feeling of lyrical, musical prose. However, even if this is the case, it only worked to actually enhance the story (for my personal tastes, anyhow) in one or two locations.
Turning to the quality of the poetry, it is important to disclose that I am very particular in the style of poetry that I enjoy. I am not a natural lover of poetry and will read many poems before I find one that I enjoy and that speaks to me. That being said, this is what I thought of the poetry included in this anthology:
It was not traditional poetry, with measured verses and rhyme and obvious rhythms. However, I did feel that it tended towards formulaic. There were lots of poems that were comprised entirely of one word lines. It got repetitive and made it more difficult for any of them to stick out from the others. The first poem in the book, "Seed to Seed to Seed," was by far my favorite. It had some interesting imagery, a unique ordering of its words, and the line breaks seemed to have purpose. Also, as with several other of the poems in this anthology, I was especially struck by the final line in the poem. Overall, it had a polished and well-thought out "feel" to it that left an impression on me throughout the course of the entire book. I also enjoyed "Childhood." It was another poem that felt polished, used interesting-but spot on-imagery, and had purpose to the line breaks.
When looking at the short stories of this anthology, it is important to note that these stories are extremely short-more along the lines of the flash fiction end of the spectrum. When reading a short story, I look for all of the things in a novel (characters, plot, story arc, etc). These stories tended not to have all of the elements I look for. Whereas I look for a short story to tell me the story of an entire summer vacation, while these stories provided a few minutes of the vacation. In other words, I want the story of the entire photo album and the author provides the story of one snapshot.
That being said, almost every story was intriguing and left me wanting more. I felt "Crash and Burn" was especially well-written and polished feeling, but it left me feeling as if it was unfinished-more so than the other stories. Parts of "Family Reunion" felt forced, as if the author was moving the characters around on the stage, instead of the characters doing the moving themselves. However, the images-which were a bit graphic and unsettling-are likely to cause the reader to want more of the story. Finally, it's important to point out that this author has a definite knack for building intriguing paranormal worlds, characters, and situations. There were several characters and worlds who got more than one appearance in this book and I am truly hoping that I am able to read more of these in the future. They look more than ready to be given a whole novel's worth of time and attention, both on the part of the author and on the part of her readers.
This book would be good for anyone who wants the variety offered by an anthology with some of the consistency offered by a novel. There are a couple of instances of grotesque imagery in the book, however, so this is not a book for squeamish people. With just a little more polish to this anthology, it would easily have received a higher rating, but even as it is, it is an enjoyable read.
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