The Moonflower Vine by
Jetta Carleton
My rating:
1 of 5 stars
I really don’t get it, and it burns me up. I have so much book wrath right now, but clearly I’m in the minority.
I would have quit reading this book by the end of chapter 2, if I wasn’t reading it for a work committee on Missouri authors and stories. By that point, it was already clear that this wasn’t going to be a solid and enjoyable read for me, but alas, I continued onward. Each chapter felt like a new form of endless torture. I was constantly checking exactly how much was left to read, with a fervent wish that I would discover the book was shorter than it actually was. No such luck.
It was a serious chore to force my way through this book. My brain is absolutely numb from boredom, and I was never able to develop any emotional connection to the story or characters at all. There is no apparent plot. No drama. No tension or suspense. None of the characters are particularly interesting or well-developed. The writing is unremarkable. It’s just meh all around for me.
This is also a very dated story with a tedious amount of setting and description. All the characters are thrown at you at once, with way too much information, so it is difficult to keep anyone straight. I suspect this is intended to be a character driven story, which is probably why it reads so poorly, considering the characters aren’t distinct or memorable.
It also has dated language that is occasionally offensive, though still accurate to the time period. This book definitely didn’t stand up to the test of time. Perhaps if I had read it 25 years ago, it would have made a different impression, but I tend to doubt that.
There’s lots of religious commentary and undertones, so if that isn’t your cup of tea, you’ve been warned. I’m talking about the Old Testament, extremely judgmental, down your throat, you have sinned, and now we are going to quote bible verses at you and go attend sermons type of religious commentary. There’s lots of hypocritical morality, as well, which I agree is pretty common in Missouri, but it’s still exhausting.
After about the 4th time they ate ice cream in 5 chapters, I just no longer could even care about ice cream. I didn’t even want to hear the word ice cream ever again. There has to be more to a story than what you ate. Ice cream is not a plot. Playing in water on a hot summer day is also not a plot, but that also occurs about 3 or 4 times in the first 5 chapters. Also, beating me over the head with constant talk of the blooming moonflower vines does not make me like the title of the book more. But seriously? How does a book ruin ice cream? That’s a sad state of affairs.
I just really can’t believe I wasted part of my life reading this. I now understand why Oedipus poked out his own eyes. This book is way too long, considering there’s not even a decent storyline here, but I guess you need a lot of pages to continuously relay to the reader trivial domestic scenes that have no value to the overall context of the story.
Also, I have heard it compared to TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, which is a complete joke, as this is not even remotely consumable by the general public. Mockingbird is a classic that even children read in school and love, so it’s an insult to a beloved book to compare it to this nonsense. Now, I actually want to go reread Mockingbird, so I can remember what reading a good story feels like.
End wrath.
Ahhh Missouri.... yes humidity..but her writing makes me want to actually go outside. All of the outdoors summer things.
