Lily wakes up one crisp Sunday morning on the side of the road. She has no idea how she got there. It is all very peaceful. and very beautiful. It is only when the police car, and then the ambulance arrive, and she sees her own body, that she realises that she is in fact… dead. But what is she supposed do now? Lily has no option but to follow her body and see her family – her parents and her twin brother start falling apart. And then her twin brother Ben gives her a once in a deathtime opportunity – to use his own body for a while. But will Lily give Ben his body back? She is beginning to have a rather good time…
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Sunflowers in February
Phyllida Shrimpton
Sunflowers in February is an absolutely gut-wrenching read, which shows the grief after Lily dies in a car accident. The grief of her family, friends and also her own grief of the life she has lost. Fair warning, there’s some graphic scenes, especially of when she dies. So if graphic detail worries you, I would recommend you pick up a different book!
This book actually took me a long time to get into and read, and an even longer time to write this review. Although the premise had me hooked, the characters and the in between scenes, just weren’t as interesting to me. So this took a lot of force to finish from myself because I wasn’t enjoying it.
Sunflowers in February is an entirely character driven book, which was unfortunate because the characters lacked. The main character, Lily, often acted like a selfish brat and didn’t seem to take the stakes seriously that she basically steals her brothers body. This was because the way it was written was quite light hearted, and it was trying to be humourous or witty in some places. But this was jarringly different to the subject matter of the plot.
The other characters aren’t that in depth either. We see them through Lily’s perspective, and I wouldn’t say an unreliable narrator, but maybe she was an inattentive narrator. Her boyfriend, her brother, her best friend – all of them could have been explored a lot more but the way it was set up was that Lily was only around them when they were focused on Lily. Because the focus was on Lily so muhc, I found that the other characters weren’t given much detail and were one dimensional.
Positives
+ Show’s heartbreaking grief
Negatives
– MC is annoying
– Sometimes graphic
I received Sunflowers in February by Phyllida Shrimpton from the publisher. This is an unbiased and honest review
