BOOK REVIEW: The Secret Book of Flora Lea

As the main character, Hazel, decides to write her story of how things happened, the narrator tells us, “It was, after all, her story and she needed to find her way into it even if she filled in the unknowns with creative details.” 

The novel explores the intricacies of secrets and lies and survival. Hazel searches for her lost sister, Flora, who disappeared twenty years earlier, apparently one of the casualties of the famous (infamous?) plan to evacuate children from London during the war, called ‘Operation Pied Piper’. The author weaves a tale of mystery interspersed with the power of fairy tales to offer hope and comfort during troubled times.

I was intrigued with the mix of storytelling and mystery with a bit of the history and power of fairy tales. The novel does not delve deeply into fairy tale land (as you would see in Stephen King’s novel, Fairy Tale). Readers are only offered glimpses of the sisters’ fairy tale world, but it is the perfect balance to create a historical novel that works on so many levels.

I couldn’t help but think, as more than one character in the novel tells their side of the story, of how the retelling of a story is always different for the different participants of that story. We think of telling OUR story, often forgetting that there is always more than one story to tell. The narrator tells us, “Of course the story could never be exact; no story ever retold was perfectly told. But it would be true.” When you write YOUR story, you are retelling YOUR side of the story.

As always, novels such as this, that require me to jot down quotes and ponder, are my favorites. I highly recommend The Secret Book of Flora Lea.