WhiskeyintheJar reviewed Place No Flowers Grow by Cheryl Cantafio
Vengeful, Gothic feeling love tale
5 stars
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review
a woman once lived here emerald eyes and bright smile born on the last frontier raised along the arctic mile
A Place No Flowers Grow was a book in verse told in pantoum and quintain poem format. Divided into five parts, with an epilogue, readers are taken on a haunting journey.
it's for science, though, right? the cold makes his hands throb his mettle tested by the never-ending white Roen wonders why he took the job
The first part introduces the main characters, Octavia, Roen, and Fox. Octavia grows up in the Arctic with loving parents who teach her the importance of nature. Her mother gets sick and this leads to Octavia studying plants to try and find a cure for her. Roen grows up with his mother and …
I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review
a woman once lived here emerald eyes and bright smile born on the last frontier raised along the arctic mile
A Place No Flowers Grow was a book in verse told in pantoum and quintain poem format. Divided into five parts, with an epilogue, readers are taken on a haunting journey.
it's for science, though, right? the cold makes his hands throb his mettle tested by the never-ending white Roen wonders why he took the job
The first part introduces the main characters, Octavia, Roen, and Fox. Octavia grows up in the Arctic with loving parents who teach her the importance of nature. Her mother gets sick and this leads to Octavia studying plants to try and find a cure for her. Roen grows up with his mother and grandfather and dreams of doing something extraordinary. With his grandfather being deaf, this leads to Roen studying, experimenting on animals in hopes of finding medical ways to help humans.
she was defenseless in her love for him he made hand puppets in the shadows she made him feel weak in every limb we could make lovely little weirdos
Part two has Octavia and Roen moving to Alyeska, meeting and falling in love, while part three shows that the Fox we previously meet in the wild is now caged in Roen's lab. We get povs from all three characters, showing us Octavia and Roen falling love, with Roen thinking about how the experiments are cruel to the animals but thinking the end justifies the means and how Fox is getting changed by the experiments and about to have a Rise of the Planet of the Apes “NO!” moment. It's a good contrast of how oblivious beings inhabiting the same world can be of each other, the happy in love Octavia and Roen and the angry Fox.
she thought of the caged beasts she'd avenge it felt good to be out in the wide open readying to exact her revenge Fox dreamt in her ice cave den
Parts four and five deliver the climax of the happy and angry worlds colliding and lead to an epilogue that delivers on a Gothic tale ending feel. This story was told in an interesting way and I hope readers give the format a chance because it's an atmospheric and engaging story. It's a does the ends justify the means, with morality and ethical questions, and look at all the ways humans respect, use, and abuse their place in nature, all wrapped up in a vengeful, Gothic feeling love tale.
if you wed in the spot known as Crimson Vows Vale bring yarrow and buttercups for good luck