Review of The Weed Lady
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Danielle Dawes
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Review of The Weed Lady
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Weed Lady" by Shea R Embry.]
The Weed Lady by Shea R Embry is the sequel to her 2019 novel, Backcomb & Tattoo, although it is not necessary to have read the latter in order to follow The Weed Lady. The Weed Lady follows the story of Jesi, our protagonist, her partner Nicole and their two closest friends and neighbours Rachael and Jules. Waking one morning, Jesi discovers a ‘bag lady’ pulling out weeds from her front garden / yard. She develops an all-encompassing obsession with the Weed Lady, isolating herself from and upsetting her friends and family before she takes drastic action to try to fix her wrongs. Her fascination with the Weed Lady leads to a lot of personal growth for Jesi as she begins to realise that the world does not revolve around her.
Through the symbolism of weeds, Embry explores how trauma can take root in our lives and take over unless we are prepared to tackle it at the root source. I liked this imagery and the message surrounding meditative, mindful practices to slow down and absorb ourselves for our mental health. The storyline is strangely compulsive and you do find yourself eager to find out how the characters are going to develop. Overall I liked the story and the messages it conveyed.
I feel as though one reason I was so keen for character development is because they felt fairly one-dimensional to me although perhaps this wouldn’t be the case if you had read Backcomb & Tattoo. The protagonist, Jesi, is childish, impetuous and often does or says things that I didn’t find wholly believable. She does transform but again, I found some of this difficult to swallow, partly because some of it seemed rushed and partly as quite a lot of description was too explicitly spelled out for the reader (e.g. Jesi secretly wanted her mother's attention…). I felt that my agency to infer and develop a personal rapport with characters was at times hampered because of this writing style. On a personal note also, I felt that ‘yelled’ was somewhat overused as a synonym for said and an over-reliance on reporting phrases sometimes slowed down action.
I would rate The Weed Lady three out of four stars. I did get used to the writing style but it lacked the subtlety and cleverness that would have given it four stars. That said, I thought that the plot was original and interesting with depth which is very appropriate and current (the focus on mental health for instance).
I would recommend The Weed Lady to those who like contemporary fiction, realism, themes of mental health and friendship and who are interested in character development – like a coming of age fiction for adults.
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The Weed Lady
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The Weed Lady by Shea R Embry is the sequel to her 2019 novel, Backcomb & Tattoo, although it is not necessary to have read the latter in order to follow The Weed Lady. The Weed Lady follows the story of Jesi, our protagonist, her partner Nicole and their two closest friends and neighbours Rachael and Jules. Waking one morning, Jesi discovers a ‘bag lady’ pulling out weeds from her front garden / yard. She develops an all-encompassing obsession with the Weed Lady, isolating herself from and upsetting her friends and family before she takes drastic action to try to fix her wrongs. Her fascination with the Weed Lady leads to a lot of personal growth for Jesi as she begins to realise that the world does not revolve around her.
Through the symbolism of weeds, Embry explores how trauma can take root in our lives and take over unless we are prepared to tackle it at the root source. I liked this imagery and the message surrounding meditative, mindful practices to slow down and absorb ourselves for our mental health. The storyline is strangely compulsive and you do find yourself eager to find out how the characters are going to develop. Overall I liked the story and the messages it conveyed.
I feel as though one reason I was so keen for character development is because they felt fairly one-dimensional to me although perhaps this wouldn’t be the case if you had read Backcomb & Tattoo. The protagonist, Jesi, is childish, impetuous and often does or says things that I didn’t find wholly believable. She does transform but again, I found some of this difficult to swallow, partly because some of it seemed rushed and partly as quite a lot of description was too explicitly spelled out for the reader (e.g. Jesi secretly wanted her mother's attention…). I felt that my agency to infer and develop a personal rapport with characters was at times hampered because of this writing style. On a personal note also, I felt that ‘yelled’ was somewhat overused as a synonym for said and an over-reliance on reporting phrases sometimes slowed down action.
I would rate The Weed Lady three out of four stars. I did get used to the writing style but it lacked the subtlety and cleverness that would have given it four stars. That said, I thought that the plot was original and interesting with depth which is very appropriate and current (the focus on mental health for instance).
I would recommend The Weed Lady to those who like contemporary fiction, realism, themes of mental health and friendship and who are interested in character development – like a coming of age fiction for adults.
******
The Weed Lady
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
