Review: The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland

Holly Ringland’s novels have been on my tbr pretty much since they were first published and – as is often the case – they just hadn’t quite made it to the top yet. I decided The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding, with its Australia/Denmark connection would be perfect reading for our trip earlier in the year. Obviously that is a review for another post but suffice to say I was absolutely blown away and picked up The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart almost immediately when we arrived home. Have a quick look at the blurb for the book, then check out my review below.

What is Holly Ringland’s The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart about?

A young girl loses both her parents in a tragic event, and is taken to live with her grandmother on a flower farm. Growing up, Alice learns the language of Australian native flowers as a way to say the things that are too hard to speak. But she also learns that there are secrets within secrets about her past. An unexpected betrayal leaves her reeling, and she escapes to try to make her own – sometimes painful – way through the world, and to find her story.

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is a story about stories: those we inherit, those we select to define us, and those we decide to hide. It is a novel about the secrets we keep and how they haunt us, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.

Spanning twenty years, and set between sugar cane fields by the sea, a native Australian flower farm and a celestial crater in the central desert, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart follows the life of Alice as she discovers that the most powerful story she will ever possess is her own.

My review of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

I finished this book back in July and I still don’t know how to talk about how much I adored it. Ringland has a way of writing that I can feel physically in my chest and leaves me literally gasping for breath (and fighting off more than one ugly cry!).

I still think of this novel and the characters so often. The horror and trauma of Alice losing her parents so early in the book (I think I closed the book for a second and whispered “oh she wouldn’t” under my breath when I realised where Ringland was taking the story), the found family feelings on the flower farm, the way every single one of those women is healing themselves and each other, what we learn about them as they learn about themselves. It is just. so. beautiful.

I really can’t believe it took me this long to finally read this one. Floriography and wildflowers have been a special interest of mine over the past few years (I have a lovely little section of my bookshelf dedicated to them!), and I’m really surprised that I didn’t make the connection and pick it up. I even have a much loved set of affirmation cards inspired by the book.

There is an adaptation of The Lost Flowers of Alice Heart that I’m definitely keen to watch one day – but I almost feel like I need to wait until my heart has healed from the book so that I’m ready for it to break again!

Please check this one, and Esther Wilding, out if you haven’t already – it’s an absolute gem and one of those books that I think I will carry in my heart forever.

xo Bron
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The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
Out now from Harper Collins Aus
Source: I bought a paperback copy
Category: Australian Contemporary Fiction

The Lost Flowers of Alice Heart on The StoryGraph and Goodreads

Keep up with the latest from Holly Ringland on her gorgeous website here.

Want more Auslit reviews? Click here.