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Description edit
The Victorian language of flowers was used to express emotions: honeysuckle for devotion, azaleas for passion, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it has been more useful in communicating feelings like grief, mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster care system,... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
The Victorian language of flowers was used to express emotions: honeysuckle for devotion, azaleas for passion, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it has been more useful in communicating feelings like grief, mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster care system,... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters edit
- Hazel Jones-Hastings: A bundle of eternal love
- Victoria Jones: Main character and former foster child with a love of flowers and their meanings.
- Elizabeth Anderson: Vineyard owner and one of Victoria's guardians.
- Meredith Combs: Victoria's case worker until she turned 18
- Grant: Elizabeth's nephew and successful flower farmer. Takes a liking to Victoria.
- Renata: Owner of Bloom and Victoria's first employer.
- Earl: Devout customer at Bloom.
- Catherine: Elizabeth's estranged older sister, mother of Grant.
- Marlena: Victoria's apprentice who helps her run the business
- Natalya: House mate
- Mother Ruby: Her employers mother who has supernatural maternal instincts.
- Perla: Neighbor girl who is forced to befriend the young Victoria.
- Bethany: Add a description of this character.
- Annemarie
- Carlos
- Ms. Tapley
- Ray
- Caroline: Elizabeth's sister who is beginning to show signs of the same dementia their mother suffered from .
- Mark
Setting & Locations edit
San Francisco
First Sentence edit
For eight years I dreamed of fire.
Table of Contents edit
Part One / Common Thistle
Part Two / A Heart Unacquainted
Part Three / Moss
Part Four / New Beginnings
Themes & Symbolism edit
- Mother-Daughter Relationships: Relationships between Victoria & foster mother and other mother-daughter relationships
- Food/nourishment: Victoria is malnourished often throughout her life but food comes to mean something more than nourishment for the body. Food prepared by people who care about you is a form of love, of nourishment for the soul.
- Communication: Victoria learns to suppress the spoken expression of such emotions as grief, anger,and hate. It can be too dangerous. When she learns of the Language Of Flowers, Victoria uses it, first, to communicate dangerous emotions and later to express blossoming emotions such as hope, love, forgiveness.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Vanessa Diffenbaugh (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Ballentine
Country: USA
Publication Date: August 23, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-345-52554-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballentine
Country: USA
Publication Date: August 23, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-345-52554-3
Page Count: 336
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 813
Notes for Parents edit
Reading Level: Young AdultsThe main character is, by turns, homeless, a pyromaniac, unwilling to "go by the book" and incapable of attaching to others. Themes of isolation are heavily developed.Minimal, non-graphic sexual content, some language.
Subjects edit
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Links to Supplemental Material edit
- National Public Radio: Interview with the author.
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