In ‘Desert Flowers’ by Paul Pen, Rose and Elmer live an idyllic existence in the Baja California desert in Mexico with their five daughters. They’re raising their family far from the problems posed by modern society, with a local teacher visiting daily for some basic schooling. They’re raising their family how they want, and dealing in their own way with some recent grief.

However, all is not as it seems. And when a young hiker calls looking for a glass of water, their carefully cultivated existence is under threat. Are they strong enough to withstand this unwelcome intrusion and will the secrets they have hidden from the girls be unravelled?

Review

It’s incredibly hard to review ‘Desert flowers’ without spoiling it for the potential reader. I’m going to be as careful as I am in my criticism but if the opening blurb above makes the book sound like something you might be interested in, I’d say go ahead and read it. If you chose to go ahead, I’ll be as vague as I can but I cannot talk about this book and hide my true feelings about it.

Firstly, it takes a while for something to happen. It felt like Paul Pen was building up the setting for half the book, establishing character and setting, but maybe it was shorter than that. It felt to this reader that it was taking a long time, and I found myself asking; what the hell is going on here?

Baja California Desert

But he does a good job of establishing the setting in ‘Desert Flowers’, especially the remoteness of the family home, surrounded by rocks and cacti. It does feel that the family are being raised far away from modern society and all the dangers it poses - there is mention of a town and filling station maybe an hours drive away, but that’s it. There’s a local teacher that visits but no one else bothers the family.

At this point I kept reading because I was intrigued by the set up, and you just felt that something was coming. When I did, I was glad - it definitely needed an added impetus. I should say at this point that I was reading this for my book club so I was going to finish it no matter what.

Secrets and Spoilers

Now the tricky part. Firstly, or lastly maybe, can I say that I found the ending deeply unsatisfying. I’m not sure how to put it other than that when something occurs in a book that I fundamentally disagree with I’m looking for some sort of literary justice. Not the clink of handcuffs or the electric chair (god forbid) just sense that balance has been achieved in the world created by the author. I didn’t get that here and for it to be hinted at wasn’t good enough for me. Simply, in an authors universe I like characters to be responsible of for their actions. Am I the only one who feels like that?

Also, one of the characters has a ridiculous rant at one stage that really annoyed me. People aren’t to blame for all the bad things that happen in the world, but the events that they are responsible for? Yes!

A little more backstory on some of the main characters wouldn’t have gone amiss, and I didn’t really get a sense of character development with them. Again, can’t say more than that (sorry!)

There’s also a scene towards the end which I found frankly ridiculous and it made me question the credibility of several of the characters. It literally requires some of the characters to forget everything they know about human anatomy. I can’t say any more than that - when you get to it, you will know, it’s the climactic action point. Let me know below if you have read the book and aren’t sure what I am talking about.

Melissa and Iris

I found the characters of the girls deeply troubling, and hated the parents for not getting them help. These aren’t spoilers as such, because these character traits are described early on. Melissa dresses Cacti and draws faces on rocks that she names, suggesting to me that she could do with a bit more stimulation and social interaction with people not her family (or cactus and rocks). Iris, meanwhile….well, how should I say this, but I think she could do with the company of members of the opposite sex, though I think how this is handled is completely OTT in one scene (I’m not going to say memorable).

Daisy and Dahlia

Another thing which really got my goat was some some of the authors dialogue. There are two twins in the book, Daisy and Dahlia. We are told early on that they repeat the same lines. For me that’s enough, but throughout the book we get:

“Let’s make a bracelet,” said Daisy.

“Let’s make a bracelet,” Dahlia said.

Or

“Please don’t leave us on our own,” Dahlia said.

“Please don’t leave us on our own,” Daisy said.

Once or twice was enough, but this happened far too often and began to drive me demented (I’m easy annoyed when I’m reading). I’m not sure if it was the fault of the author or the translator but either way, very annoying.

Summary

Phew. Glad to get all of that of my chest. I have my book club meeting this evening and I’m looking forward to getting all of that off my chest. I suppose it’s good in a way that a book generated such strong feelings in me, even if it was anger by the last page. Too many books are vanilla, and it certainly wasn't the case with this one, for me anyway.

So there you go. I found it initially atmospheric and intriguing, and it certainly has plenty of pace once it gets going, but some of the plot twists, and the ending, really rubbed me up the wrong way. Maybe I’m overreacting and you’ve read the book and loved it - please let me know below.

It may be that I’m quite alone in my feelings - It has a goodreads rating of 3.99.

My score is a 3. I was going with a 2 but it’s a much better read than that. Certainly entertaining!

Amazon UK Amazon US

First published 1 June 2017

320 pages

amazon crossing