3/5 stars
The Secret Book of Flora Lea, by Patti Callahan Henry (2023)
London, 1939 - During the Blitz, as German planes bombed the streets of London, parents were encouraged to send their children out into the country to stay with willing hosts ("Operation Pied Piper"). Hazel, 14, and Flora, 6, are amongst these children. Their father has already died in the war, and their mother wants to keep them safe. Hazel and Flora end up in Binsey, Oxfordshire with single mother Bridie Aberdeen and her 15-year-old son, Harry. To cope with the fears of the war, of leaving their mother, and of living with strangers in a new place, Hazel tells Flora a story. She creates a magical land called Whisperwood, where the river is full of stars, and they can become anything they want to be. Hazel and Flora settle in comfortably, and become very close with Bridie and Harry. That is until Flora disappears from the banks of the Thames. With no trace of her, suspicion falls to Bridie and Harry. Hazel knows they wouldn't have been involved, but her relationship with them ends nonetheless - too painful to continue.
The story jumps back and forth between Hazel and Flora's story as children, to Hazel in her mid-30s. Still haunted by the loss of her sister, she is still convinced that Flora could be out there somewhere. She works at Hogan's Rare Book Shoppe, though we join her on her last day, right before she starts a new job at Sotheby's. As she unpacks her final box of first edition books from America, she is beyond shocked to discover one called "Whisperwood and the River of Stars." She's certain that she and Flora were the only ones that knew about their imaginary world of Whisperwood. Did Flora survive to share the story with someone else? Is Flora still alive and living in America? Or did someone else from their past overhear the story at some point?
Hazel abandons everything to go on a quest to solve the mystery of Flora's disappearance once and for all, contacting everyone she can think of that lived in Binsey at the time. Her boyfriend Barnaby is less than supportive, creating a bit of a rift between them - all while she continually dodges calls from a reporter who is writing a series about the children that were lost during the Blitz.
The majority of the story is told from Hazel's perspective, with a few other POVs sprinkled in, like the American author of the Whisperwood book. What's interesting is that in general I thought this book was too long (redundant in places, too focused on Hazel) but at the same time I wanted more of other characters' stories, including the American author and her domineering mother.
Overall I liked the mystery and the characters, though it all wrapped up a little too neatly. Unbelievable coincidences can be hard to accept.
UP NEXT: Rubbernecker, by Belinda Bauer
Comments