Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Review: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1) The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Set in a crumbling old estate in the 1950s, this book about a precocious young girl who solves a murder mystery that come to her home is best summarized by this quote from the book:

"I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn't. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life."

I completely enjoyed Flavia de Luce. She is a brilliant chemist, she is the slightly neglected third daughter of a slightly distant and quirky family, she is sassy and witty and I laughed out loud several times while reading this book.

I also really liked the setting of the book. I loved that Flavia had a whole well-outfitted chemistry lab from a previous relative. Life was simple during these times and young girls could go all over town on their bike digging up information and getting out of scrapes with a quick and sometimes sharp tongue.

The plot moves a little slow at times and is quite tangled but I had fun on the journey as Flavia and her excellent mind sorted it out.


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2 comments:

Tricia said...

So, I never told you that I read the first 60 pages and was bored out of my mind. I probably won't pick it up again, but I'm glad you liked it. :)

Gerbera Daisy Diaries said...

I think I am the only person not to have read this.