Review written by
Emery R.
I'll start with saying that I am a
person constantly on the hunt for a good book. It's a normal thing for my
mother, brother and I to drop into a bookstore when we have a weekend with
nothing to do, or when we're just finishing running errands before going home.
The fateful moment came on one such day when we had stepped into a bookstore
and were recommended The Secret Hum of a
Daisy by Tracy Holczer. I would have flown through it in a day, except I
had started reading rather late and had to retire for bed.
The
Secret Hum of a Daisy is about a girl named Grace, her mother dies on an
accident, and Grace finds the body and blames herself because her last words to
her mother were angry. That's why she (her mother) had gone outside to take a
walk, fallen along the bank of a creek, hit her head on a rock and drowned.
After her mother's funeral Grace has to pack up and leave the life she had with
Mrs. Greene and her best friend Lacey and live with a grandmother who her
mother ran away from. Grace has never met her grandmother. The book is
basically about Grace adapting to her new life and finding “home” the way she
sees it. She discovers a “home” though the countless efforts by her grandmother
to make amends for the reason she and Grace never knew each other, through a
cast of very interesting and amazing peers in her new school, and through an
inexplicable kind of treasure hunt that is just like the ones her mother would
set up for her whenever they moved.
The main characters in The Secret Life of a Daisy are Grace, 12
years old and trying to cope with the death of her mother, and Grandma, who is
trying to make amends with Grace for what she did that caused her daughter to
flee the town. My favorite character however, had to be Jo, Grace's first
friend she makes when she moves in with her grandmother. Jo is an aspiring film
director, and who has demons of her own, specifically regarding her younger
brother. She was my favorite because she's trustworthy; she won't spill your
secrets, she's very loyal to her family and friends, and she's patient. She
lets Grace tell her own story when she's ready. I felt that I could relate her
mainly because she has a little brother who she's loyal to and protective of,
and that reminds me of my younger brother and I.
My
favorite parts of this book were the school scenes. They were somewhat
lighthearted with contributions from Jo and the other students Grace meets at
school. The author gave them their own peculiar traits like Ginger Pepper, who
breaks into Shakespearian monologues, Beth Crinkle, who doesn't go anywhere
without her label maker, and Archer Lee Hamilton, who takes an interest in
Grace on her first day, and makes pretty decent sketches. I was just able to
see the cast of characters Grace has around her and the unique feel of the town
in that school.
My
least favorite parts are whenever Grace ignores her grandmother's continuous
efforts to reconcile and behaves rudely to her. I knew that Grandma had a lot
to make up for, but she was trying to make amends, and I felt sort of
frustrated with Grace whenever she blatantly refused to try and help repair the
gap between them, even if I knew where she was coming from.
I
absolutely LOVED this book. The writing just spoke to me, and I practically
devoured it. I was to the point of begging for an extra thirty minutes to an
hour before I went to bed so I could read more, but...I did need the sleep.
I
would definitely recommend this book to another person. It was an excellent
read, and I felt like I could really hear the character's voice and the voices
of those around her. The descriptions were vivid and really helped me to
picture the scenes in the book, but they weren't overdone. I was practically
living in the story for the duration of the time it took for me to finish it.
If you like realistic fiction and books with plots involving long lost, and
somewhat estranged relatives and healing than this is the book for you. I hope
that if you read this book you will enjoy it as much as I did, and that Grace
and the quirky cast of characters she's thrown in with will entertain and stick
in your head for days afterwards. Thank you very much for taking the time to
read this review.
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