Book Review: White Oleander

When Astrid's mother, a beautiful, headstrong poet, murders a former lover and is imprisoned for life, Astrid becomes one of the thousands of foster children in Los Angeles. As she navigates this new reality, Astrid finds strength in her unshakable certainty of her own worth and her unfettered sense of the absurd.

This was a book that I can say I didn’t particularly enjoy in the beginning. The author is praised for her poetic style and yet I felt it was kind of showy and over-the-top. While I did like the detail she gave and how much she would describe things, it was so in-depth that a lot of times it would distract me from the story and plot entirely and make me focus in completely on the poetic aspects.

As this book had been sitting on my bookshelf for years as one of those ‘I heard lots of good things and I really need to check it out’ books, I made myself keep reading to try to see what all the hype was about (Oprah motivates us in all kinds of ways). Let me tell you this- I am so happy I didn’t stop reading. Once you get past all of the similes and metaphors and really pay attention to the story line, it is a haunting story that will stick with you long after you’ve finished reading it.