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The other players in the book are equally unpleasant and there is an above average quota of stomach acid that they all seem to have! years later, a young girl goes missing in the hotel Holly is staying in, her previous identity is uncovered and the media frenzy starts again. When the flower girls Rosie and Laurel were aged 6 and 10, they were playing in the park and take a toddler called Kirstie down to the canal, where they commit a heinous crime. People judge when they don’t know any different, when they’re only given one story they can latch on to."
In a similar way to how you might give your bridesmaids a token gift to show your appreciation for being a part of your wedding, you may also want to do the same for your flower girls. It’s by no means a requirement, but it’s a kind and thoughtful gesture that shows your flower girls how much it means to you that they were there to play a role in your special day. The premise sounds a great one, but unfortunately it didn’t really work for me. I thought the main character came across naive at times and because of that irritated me. Also I was not pulled along by the plot...... I feel I am being hash as I didn’t dislike the book, just against others I have read it falls a little short. Maybe this isn’t what I was expecting it to be. It was compelling enough for me to continue reading but I didn’t feel like the stakes were high because sadly I could see the ending coming at me like car headlights. Maybe we were meant to work it out. Maybe I’ve just watched a lot of police dramas on TV.
In 1997, two little sisters aged 10 and 6 abducted and killed a two year old toddler. The older sister has been charged with the crime but the younger one, Rosie, was given a new identity and lived a happy life until another little girl goes missing at a hotel where Rosie is staying. The problem I have is that The Flower Girls references Jamie Bulger a lot. I feel this is to get the readers to fill in the blanks as to how horrifying the fictionalised crime is but a) that’s lazy writing, b) the author doesn’t provide any intelligent insight into the crimes, c) the book sensationalises the crime and glamorises Hazel without providing a narrative as to why this is not a good thing.
It’s been 19 years and Primrose, whose identity has now been Hazel since the scandal is at a hotel with her boyfriend to celebrate her birthday when coincidentally another toddler goes missing. Throughout the book, we’re introduced to many other characters that are equally as important as Hazel’s – multiple points of views and I would say they’re all protagonists. Part of a wave of Korean thrillers translated into English in recent months, The Plotters by Un-su Kim (translated by Sora Kim-Russell; 4th Estate) follows the trials and tribulations of Reseng, found in a rubbish bin as a baby, raised in a library where assassinations are planned, and now one of Seoul’s best hitmen. But Reseng is having reservations about his lifestyle, and starts to wonder if he has fallen foul of the “plotters” – those who run the contract killings. One assassin on the run from the plotters tells Reseng that he “wanted to find out exactly who was sitting at their desk, twirling their pen and coming up with this bullshit plan”. “You think that if you go up there with a knife and stab the person at the very top, that’ll fix everything,” responds our hero. “But no one’s there. It’s just an empty chair.” Sisters Laurel and Rosie ..... two little girls aged 10 and 6. A toddler in a playground goes missing. Laurel and Rosie in their den by the canal playing mums and dads and a crying, distraught child! The next day the toddler is found dead by the canal. Laurel and Primrose are the Flower Girls. Nineteen years ago, one was convicted of murder and the other got a new identity. But now another child has gone missing. So the Flower Girls are about to hit the headlines again... This story is told from the perspective of a multitude of characters: Hazel, Laurel, Hillier - the police detective on the new disappearance case, Max - a journalist/writer also staying at the hotel, and Joanna - Kirstie's aunt who has been campaigning against Laurel's release from prison, since she came up for parole the first time, ten years ago.In 1997 on a summers day in a small English town, two young sisters abduct a toddler from a playground while her heavily pregnant mother chats with friends. The girl’s body is found, horrifically beaten and tortured, and 10 year old Laurel, and 6 year old Rosie, dubbed the Flower Girls by the media, are soon arrested for the crime, but only Laurel is convicted as Rosie is deemed too young to understand the consequences of her actions. There must be some happiness we can have, mustn’t there? Waiting for us in the future or even here now. Where we’re not always fighting." The story comes into play because one of the guests is a young woman aged 25. Nothing remarkable perhaps aside from the fact that she’s one of the titular ‘Flower Girls,’ a term coined for a pair of sisters (aged 10 and 6) who tortured and murdered a toddler those nineteen years ago. Pleasingly deadpan, The Plotters manages to be both humorous (Reseng’s cats are called, delightfully, Desk and Lampshade) and violent, and sometimes even wise. “Ironically, the overthrow of three decades of military dictatorship and the brisk advent of democratisation had led to a major boom in the assassination industry,” writes Kim, in a translation from Sora Kim-Russell that is both seamless and intriguingly provoking: “It was time for him to make like Old Orin in The Ballad of Narayama and bash his teeth out against a millstone and go into the mountains to die.”
Traditionally, the mother of the flower girl pays for the dress, while the couple or the bride’s parents (whoever is footing the bill) cover the cost of the flowers, basket and anything else the flower girl might need. years on a little girl goes missing at the hotel her and her fiancé are staying at....of course the truth of who she is comes out....but is she involved in this crime?....she then decides to go and visit her Sister in prison, for the first time, then the truth amongst many lies starts to emergeMaybe I just wanted a more terse, psychological thriller and uncertainty. I never ask for uncertainty in stories but I wonder if here it would have been used for better effect. The book is menacing and certainly didn’t have any ‘LOL’ moments!,I found the writing cold but then am guessing it was meant to be that way, its not the book to call cosy, by any means, the regular references to Hindley etc also chill you even more The Sisters are both horrible characters, again they are meant to be and if the author was hoping to create characters to despise then she succeeded!
This is a harrowing and thought provoking novel, presumably inspired by the notorious murder of two year old James Bulger by two young boys, in 1993. That was the year I finished uni and started work, so I was studying and then working all hours, and barely watched any TV, but even in those days before instant and 24 hour news, I remember the saturation coverage and the tabloids’ fascination with the killers, which continues to this day, so while the premise seems at first unbelievable, on reflection it is plausible and therefore all the more horrifying. I was also left with questions here: one being the conspiracy of silence for so many years between the girls themselves. Rosie now goes by the name Hazel, and whilst on a holiday in Devon with her boyfriend, another young girl goes missing at the hotel she is staying in. Will the police find out Hazel is Rosie? Will they blame her for the disappearance of another toddler? Did Hazel have something to do with it? Will they find the missing girl?Some of the plot I found far fetched and some storylines petered out, I could see why they were there but just fizzled off when kinda ‘dealt with’ Then I kept thinking about it. Over and over. The more I kept thinking about it the more I realised that I didn’t want to give it 3 stars after all. I actually wanted to give it 2 stars. So I did. Twenty years later, Rosie, now known as Hazel, visits a seaside hotel with her boyfriend to celebrate her birthday and New Years Eve. When a 5 year old disappears, Hazel is terrified that her secret will be revealed and that she will be blamed for the crime, but a predatory ex-journalist, who scents a major story, persuades her to confess to the police, and all her fears come to pass. Meanwhile Laurel is half-heartedly making another attempt at parole, but having never admitted her guilt or expressed remorse, the victims family, and many of the public, are adamantly opposed to this. As the youngest (and most adorable) members of your wedding party , your flower girls may not fully understand what’s expected of them on your wedding day or why it’s such an important role in your wedding. A nice way to get your flower girls excited ahead of the big day is to present them with a children’s book about flower girls ( this is one of our favourites ). This way, you’re giving their parents an opportunity to fully explain what’s required of them on the day of the wedding, to calm them if they’re feeling nervous and make them feel special. After all, if a book is written about their role, it must be important! Laurel was sent to a children's 'prison' until she reached eighteen, then she was transferred to an adult prison, where ten years later, she remains. Rosie was considered too young to be held responsible in the death of two year old Kirstie, so was given a new identity and moved away from Laurel, with her mother and father.
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