dreamlike flames
explore rebellion, identity, and culture in the latest and best book reviews!
Dear Petals,
Our next installment of the Wildflower Files are here! The Wildflower Files are your neighborhood friendly book reviews — written by teen girls from all across the world! Together, all these global voices join forces right here, right now, in The Petal Press. Read below to discover your new binge-read!
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
★★★★★
This book is a literal work of art and makes you question everything. The author is so unique in her writing style and story structure in a way that makes this book hit different. Nothing could have prepared me for the twists and turns of this book and how truly devastating it was. It follows the story of a teenage girl, Cadence Sinclair, who visits her family’s private island every summer and spends all of her time with “the Liars” as they call themselves, her 2 cousins, Mirren and Johnny, and their close friend, Gat. After suffering amnesia following a terrible accident 2 years ago, Cadence finally returns to the island for the summer just to find everything is different. She relies on her close friends, the other “Liars”, to piece the whole story together of what truly happened before her accident. The writing style of E. Lockhart is truly original and tells the story of Cadence in such a thrilling way. The short sentences and short chapters throughout the book mixed in with truly powerful themes stops you in your tracks every line and makes them really think about what you just read. I had never really read a book similar to this one before. The author is able to incorporate inspiring messages about the underlying themes of racism and classism while not drawing away from the story but instead adding to it. Cadence’s family is so stuck in their ways and their own bubble in the world that they struggle to truly see anyone that is different from them. The mysterious mood and underlying family trauma leads you to really wonder what is happening to this family under the surface. Lockhart leaves you wanting more every page especially at the end of the book, setting the reader up perfectly for the next books in this thrilling series.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
★★★★★
I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I started reading this book, but the way it thoughtfully explored intense themes while still being a book you can’t put down is amazing. It is unlike most books I usually enjoy, but it was genuinely such a powerful read and left me reflecting about the message the book is sending and my own life for many days. There were so many complex storylines and character developments that branch off of the main characters Mia and Pearl who as mother-daughter move to a small town, Shaker Heights, to settle after moving around their whole lives. Their move impacts every person they interact with, especially the seemingly perfect Richardson family, some for better and some for worse. It highlights the racial and social inequities so commonly overlooked in our societies today even in suburban areas who claim to hold the ideal lifestyle. As a freshman in high school, Pearl has to navigate budding friendships and relationships in a permanent school for the first time while her mother, Mia, learns to not only prioritize her artwork, but prioritize putting Pearl’s needs before her own. The character, Pearl, is one I think a lot of teen girls can relate to as she struggles to truly find herself and her identity for the first time and stick with it. She is so used to starting new every place she lives that she never really cared what anyone thought of her since she knew she would be gone soon anyways. It’s always hard to move to a new area and school no matter what and Pearl really wants for people to accept her as she knows she is sticking around this time. This book highlights how easy it can be to let people who you think are your friends dictate the person you become just because you want to fit it at any cost. I think the author does a really good job of adding complexity to not only Pearl’s character but so many of the characters as she creatively explores how each person’s background and experience have shaped the person they have become.
How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
★★★★☆
How the García Girls Lost Their Accents is a coming of age novel following the Garcia sisters, Yolanda, Carla, Sandra, and Sofía , as they immigrate to the United States from the Dominican Republic. The novel is told in a non-traditional order, so it does get confusing when trying to piece out or imagine the timeline. The novel is told in reverse chronological order, because it traces their lives as they grow up between two cultures. You start off in Yolanda’s perspective as she returns back to the Dominican Republic from America, and there’s a full circle as you circle back to before the sisters immigrate. It gradually reveals the experiences that shaped their identities, as each chapter is told through a different sister’s perspective. It’s very interesting to read this way because you can understand such a great scope of characters. One detail that stood out to me was the novel’s unique structure, which again, moves backward in time rather than forward. I believe that this choice mirrors the García sisters’ struggle to understand their past while living in the present, as readers uncover earlier events only after seeing their consequences. This makes the book very attentive to detail and having a lot of facts from their narratives that come into play later. Language also plays a powerful role in the story, especially through Yolanda, whose relationship with words reflects her internal conflict between English and Spanish, her two cultural identities. Alvarez uses shifts in perspective to show how each sister copes differently with assimilation, whether through rebellion, silence, or self-expression. Some other themes explored in the book include gender norms, assimilation, acculturation, family, and sisterhood. The theme of losing and reclaiming identity is also very prominent in the novel, particularly in moments where the sisters feel caught between expectations from American society and their Dominican roots. I also appreciated how Alvarez portrays cultural misunderstanding because it was very realistic and in small, everyday experiences that slowly build emotional distance. The writing style felt reflective and intimate, often focusing on memory and picking pieces from either narratives. The fact that the book was not in a format of rigid linear plot, this gives the story a unique dreamlike quality that I have never experienced while reading any books in the past. At times, the characters felt fragmented and confusing, but this seemed intentional, emphasizing how immigration can fracture a sense of self. Reading this book made me think about how language, culture, and family history shape identity in ways that aren’t always visible from the outside. While the nonlinear structure required careful attention, it ultimately made sense in the end, as the ending directly cycles back to the beginning. While reading the book, it did take me a relatively long time to understand and realize all the uses of symbolism. Overall, this book is such a quiet but powerful exploration of growing up between worlds, and it resonated with me deeply as a story about searching for home and true identities within cultures.
Enjoyed reading these book reviews? You can submit your own as well — click the link HERE to register as a volunteer and earn service hours from your contributions to The Petal Press!