Stone debuts a gorgeous literary novel with a nostalgic aesthetic and themes of complex friendships, family trauma, and healing through self-discovery. Tessa Lewis is afraid that the defining “big” she hoped to find for herself after grad school will be subsumed by her role as Will Westlake’s not-quite-fiancee as he prepares to take over the family’s Toronto law firm, assuming his father’s bid for mayor is successful. A stop at the Blue Iris flower shop brings Tessa a sudden reminiscence of her late mother and leads her to impulsively take a summer job there, while the staff who form a dysfunctional family remain off balance in the wake of the disappearance of Sam, the wandering alcoholic brother who has failed to reemerge as usual for the season.Stone’s writing is rich and evocative, digging right to the difficult emotions under the surface of the often antagonistic interactions between the characters. She deftly utilizes a multiple-narrator format, offering a deeply intimate look into each character’s trauma and how it shapes their interactions. Although the twists of plot on both sides of Tessa’s split life keep the story moving forward at a slow but steady pace, there’s illuminating power in the contrast between the Westlakes’ world of public political maneuvering and that of bored housewives taking on landscapers as playthings with the visceral messiness of managing plants. Stone offers real emotional depth for characters of both genders.
Line drawings of flowers with a short phrase about the meaning head each chapter, beautifully setting the tone. Sam is most effective as a missing presence in the life of the flower shop; snippets of his point of view, written in free verse, feel by contrast underdeveloped. Nevertheless, the novel’s emotional current, showing broken people whose lives become better when they care for and forgive one another, carries through powerfully.
Takeaway: Riveting story of becoming unstuck, exploring family and trauma with a touch of hope.
Comparable Titles: Jodi Picoult’s Wish You Were Here, Barbara Davis’s The Echo of Old Books.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
