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I'm not sure why I wasn't in love with this book the way everyone else seems to be. The setting was pretty imaginative and I did want to find out what was going on with the backstory and current political events etc, but somehow I couldn't get into it. One problem may have been that it is written with a sort of preciousness that I have noted as increasingly common in tween fastasy, which may be an attempt to emulate the tone of some Edwardian and Late Victorian children's literature; however, th
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Flora lives in a huge, crumbling house with her dogs, horses, and the mad Poppy. Her fourteenth birthday is coming up, when she'll become an adult and join the army, as all of her family has done before her. But Flora is round as a dumpling and likes reading adventure stories more than fighting, and she'd rather learn to be a sneaky spy than a magic-less soldier. When she stumbles upon the secret to her house's decrepitude, she embarks upon an adventure that will forever alter the state of her f
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Interesting world and characters and a satisfying conclusion, but...the getting there. Yeesh. So convoluted and tedious at times that I ended up skimming most of the middle.
Flora Segunda is a romp. While Wilce never explicitly lays out a detailed explanation of Flora's world, the impression given is that of an alternate magical universe, in which the Spanish Conquest (or, um, Califa v. Huitzils) is turned on its head. What information we are given comes from Flora, who, as a fourteen-year-old girl with a busy, crammed-full life, is a reliable narrator only when she's sleeping. This does not stop her from having decided opinions and views on her world and her place
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I would probably have loved this book to pieces when I was twelve. However, I am not a gooey adolescent but rather a bitter adult, so I went in with reservations and came out with them intact. The world-building feels a little thin--what's there is incredibly detailed, but I don't get the feeling (as I do with, say, Tolkien or Susanna Clarke) that there's anything beyond it. Wilce's characters act in front of a scrim with her degree in military history painted on it. The language, which I think
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I really really wanted to love Flora Segunda. It's got a lot of things going for it. There's the setting: a fantasy world that seems to be a strange version of California with an old-world feel, where magical butlers that run the great houses of the city (and who doesn't love a magical butler?) There's a lot of atmosphere, and a sense of more history and past intrigue than has been uncovered yet. Then there are the characters - Flora Segunda (we never find out quite what happened to the first Fl
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This fantasy sounded cool because it is set in a house with 10,000 rooms. I also liked the idea that the house has a spirit that runs it. It is definitely very creative and original, and I liked the characters, but here's a tip to the author: if you put in a house with 10,000 rooms DESCRIBE SOME OF THE ROOMS. Also, the writing style is a little too precious for my taste. Finally, never have a main character called Pappy. That is as bad as Little Women's Marmee. Please, please, call him Dad, call
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Flora has so many problems: managing her mad father, taking care of the house while her mother the General is busy running the military, going to school, preparing for her Catorcena celebration, and then owing to a complication with the blue butler Flora begins to fade. The world of this book is vivid and wonderful, the story is funny and exciting, and you care about the characters. I cannot wait to read the rest of the series!
pretty good and i must say that i really liked the last chapters, i thought the book and flora grew and the characters and ideas introduced in the last chapters were definitely more interesting, can see why hallie says that the second book is better! :)
4 stars from Belmanoir.
Feb 23, 2009
Bette
marked it as to-read
Sep 05, 2009
Helenn
marked it as to-read
Jan 10, 2011
Lisa Vegan
marked it as to-read
Oct 23, 2011
Willow
marked it as to-read
Apr 22, 2012
Jessica
marked it as to-read
Jun 13, 2012
Sharon
marked it as to-read
Oct 27, 2013
Liz
marked it as to-read
Jun 09, 2014
Jennifer
marked it as definitely-want-to-read
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