Brandice's Reviews > The Language of Flowers

I love flowers although my knowledge of them is fairly limited, and I really liked this story, where flowers played a central role.

The Language of Flowers is a story about Victoria, now a young woman, who was recently emancipated from the court system at 18. She struggles with feelings of abandonment and low self-esteem, as a result of a series of events from her past, stemming from growing up as an orphan. She lives in San Francisco and works in a flower shop. She has no friends, limited relationships, and initially, pretty limited human interaction. Without directly stating this, it becomes clear that she’s afraid of getting close to people, for fear of hurting them as she expects she will yet again, be a disappointment.

The book shifts between Victoria’s life in present day, described above, and her life as a child, predominately in one of her foster homes at age 9. The story easily transitions back and forth between the two time periods. In addition to the flowers themselves, Victoria’s foster mother, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s nephew, Grant, are also central characters in the story.

At times I thought Victoria was intentionally dislikable, and constantly engaging in self-destructive behavior. I realized though that her abandonment issues played a big role in why she chose to do some of the things she did. Despite my dislike of Victoria for a fair portion of the book, I really enjoyed the story, although a bit darker than I was expecting. I did like the ending of the story too.

The Language of Flowers has messages of family, forgiveness, and learning to know one’s self, in addition to the interpretation of flowers’ various meanings.