Flower Child [Kindle Edition]

Sheila Deeth (Author)

Book Description

When Megan miscarries her first pregnancy it feels like the end of everything; instead it’s the start of a curious relationship between the grieving mother and an unborn child who hovers somewhere between ghost and angel. Angela, Megan’s “little angel,” has character and dreams all her own, friends who may or may not be real angels, and a little brother who brings hope to her mother’s world. But Angela’s dream-world has a secret and one day Angela might learn how to be real.

Product Details

• File Size: 230 KB
• Print Length: 49 pages
• Publisher: Gypsy Shadow Publishing (September 24, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005PGMT4O
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,127,128 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Metaphysics of Connection September 30, 2011

By Cheryl Snell

Format:Kindle Edition

What is the nature of reality? How do emotions distort it? The liminal state between what's known and what's not is a threshold rife with the unfathomable. Begging readers' willing suspension of disbelief, Sheila Deeth allows us to enter, through colloquial but poetic language and vivid descriptions, into the porous consciousness of her characters.

'Flower Child' explores the grief of Megan, who miscarries the daughter she names Angela for the angel she hopes she has become. But the child is in limbo, tethered to a place that recalls the Garden of Eden, a plane inhabited by angel-guardians who watch over babies until they are born. The babies who aren't, (i.e. Ms. Deeth introduces a pair of siblings aborted in favor of a third baby) stay enveloped in flower pods, swaddled in greenery. "I was safe and secure, wrapped in my nest of leaves `til it was time to wake again" Angela says, just after being miscarried.

The story is alternately narrated by Angela and her mother, so intimately and intricately connected, but each is unsure of the other. Angela worries that her mother doesn't want or love her, while Megan believes the glimpses of her little girl are dreams or hallucinations. To connect over such chasms of space and time seems impossible, but somehow they do--Angela, growing faster than a human child, goes through the usual stages of development on Megan's watch. Like any mother, she becomes suspicious, judgmental, then panicked when Angela eats the proverbial apple.

Moving from temptation to temptation, Angela falls in love with Elisha, one of the triplets sacrificed for the health of his sibling. With his love, Angela "feels real", but her mother is still in emotional limbo.... In the climactic scene echoing the Passion of Christ, Angela struggles with her choice: self preservation or altruistic sacrifice; with the skillful tying together of theme and allusion across genres, Ms. Deeth has her act on her decision.

The metaphysical complexity of the conclusion, the conflation of the mortal and immortal, recalls Freud's theory about the nature of reality -- the idea that though reality is intersubjective, this "collective hallucination" is experienced by people in both congruent and divergent ways. The shifting perspectives of Deeth's characters underscore the dynamic nature of reality, and Ms. Deeth makes us believe in a character not of this earth as easily as her all too human mother.

'Flower Child' is catalogued as speculative Christian fiction; but like most labels, that falls short in describing a novella combining the lyrical and the literary with the quotidian and the extraordinary to make a unique and touching story that will be hard for any reader to forget. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Flower Child is an Absolute 5 Star Novel October 9, 2011

By glen cantrell

Format:Kindle Edition

Sheila Deeth has created an unforgettable emotion-filled-story. A heartrending read. I felt sentiments for her characters like I've never felt before. This is one endearing work. Thank you Sheila Deeth for bringing out feelings I thought I had lost long ago. Lose yourself in the 'Flower Child' by Sheila Deeth. You'll thank this Author for pulling at your heartstrings.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant and Riveting October 1, 2011

By Catherine Cavendish

Format:Kindle Edition

I thoroughly enjoyed this poignant and lovely story. The story is a fantasy about the relationship between a mother and the little girl she miscarries. The little girl is somewhere between being an angel and a ghost and the relationship between the two is told so evocatively I couldn't put this story down and read it in one sitting. Highly recommended

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE December 9, 2011

By Karen H. Vaughan

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

FLOWER CHILD

This was Ms. Deeths shot at Heaven from the perspective of a child. Angela is an unborn child; One child that was never claimed by a parent. She describes it as being born from a flower and if the baby could not be claimed for whatever reason, the child would remain tethered to the earth by a cord until her fate is decided by her or her parents. Her friends in heaven are making decisions as to their futures choosing good over evil or vice versa and Angela and her mom, Megan go back and forth describing their feelings especially after Megan has a second child is born. I won't tell you what happens; you as a reader can draw your own conclusions.

I felt that the author handled the subject in a unique way. She presented the arguments about good and evil, heaven and hell and the presence of the snake and how the angel thing works. I have never read a story written this way but I feel she gave me pause to think of things differently as I read the short story. I give the piece 4 angels wings.

More About the Author

Sheila Deeth grew up in the UK and has a Bachelors and Masters in mathematics from Cambridge University, England. Now living in the States near Portland Oregon, she enjoys reading, writing, drawing, telling stories and meeting her neighbors' dogs on the green.