Emily Buchanan
Author of From China With Love: A Long Road to Motherhood
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Works by Emily Buchanan
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In a Nutshell: Partly, a romance-drama about an influencer who thinks that her dead boyfriend has been reincarnated as a plant. Partly, a near-future dystopian climate fiction. (Could you guess the second genre from the cover?) Not a light read. Somewhat unlikeable characters, slow-ish pacing, a bit bizarre and meandering in its plot development. Highlights the perils of social media, but also portrays environmentalists in a slightly lopsided manner. Mixed feelings, not just because the plot show more didn’t go the way I thought it would.
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Plot Preview:
I usually stay away from any book that even mentions “influencer” in the blurb. However, the whimsical claim about the return of a dead man as a plant was too tempting to ignore. Thanks to the cover and the blurb, I thought this would be a gentle exploration of grief and mental health issues after the loss of a loved one. But that is only a minor part of the plot. The actual story gets quite dark and disturbing.
Bookish Yays: show less
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Plot Preview:
Thirty-two-year-old Fiona, popular online as @FoliageFifi, hasn’t left her house ever since her boyfriend Ed died three months ago. All that she had worked for – her role as a green influencer on social media as well as the environmental activism she did jointly with Ed, is now ignored. When a houseplant is left at her doorstep with an anonymous note, Fiona is shocked. It is Ed’s favourite plant, a fact that she alone knew. Fiona puts Ed’s ashes in the soil, only to discover a few hours later that the plant has flowered. And talks to her in Ed’s voice! Fiona reaches the only logical (Ahem!) conclusion: Ed is back. As a plant! She is now stirred into action, not just to keep this “Ed” alive, but also to fight for his legacy as an eco-activist. However, “Ed” seems to be more demanding in his plant avatar. Can Fiona preserve this new Ed without endangering her own life?
The story comes to us in Fiona’s first-person perspective.
I usually stay away from any book that even mentions “influencer” in the blurb. However, the whimsical claim about the return of a dead man as a plant was too tempting to ignore. Thanks to the cover and the blurb, I thought this would be a gentle exploration of grief and mental health issues after the loss of a loved one. But that is only a minor part of the plot. The actual story gets quite dark and disturbing.
Bookish Yays: show less
A good book about a woman in England and her journey to adopt from China. This is a good book for those that deal with infertility. It is also neat to have a look at how the system works in England. What I enjoyed the most is all the hard questions Emily asks of many people. She meets and interviews people like Xinran also. Emily has always been a reporter so her questions, and the conclusions she comes to are well thought out.
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