REVIEW: PICNIC AT THE HANGING ROCK by Joan Lindsay

Title: Picnic at the Hanging Rock
Author:  Joan Lindsay
Series: -
Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Australian Classic
Publisher: Vintage
Release: July 2nd. 1998
Source: Kindle
Pages: 189

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BLURB: It was a cloudless summer day in the year nineteen hundred.

Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock. After lunch, a group of three of the girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of Hanging Rock. Further, higher, till at last they disappeared.

They never returned.

Whether Picnic at Hanging Rock is fact or fiction the reader must decide for themselves.

EXPECTATIONS: I came across a picture in Pinterest of actresses Phoebe Tonkin and Teresa Palmer doing a photo shoot that was called 'Hanging Rock'. I at first though this was a movie but then realized that this was actually a book! I got a Kindle version of the book and read during a flight to my vacation location. After I returned I watched the TV Show and I'm sorry to say it, but the TV Show is far better!

THE WORLD: The year is somewhat 1900, the plot takes place in Victoria Australia. The town is Woodend and there is a college for girls called Appleyard College. I have to admit, I really wanted more and more about the girls lives in it. I have sort of this fetish for boarding schools and creepy stuff that happens in it!

The plot takes place when the senior girls and a few of the lower grade girls go to a picnic at this rural location with their teacher. So we get to see how people, especially girls lived in 1900 Australia. The manners, the culture, the clothes, the etiquette resembles British one to the fullest.

CHARACTERS: I wouldn't say that there is a main character in this book, we get to see numerous characters but I have admit, I cared for like three of them! The three being: Miranda St. Clare, Irma Leopold and Michael Fitzhubert. Marion is this wild girl, that is so much ahead of her time that the pressure of being a proper lady is driving her crazy. Irma I liked for her pure heart. She is from a very rich family, but she is not shallow or weak or anything like that. She is simply a very good human being that has something terrible happening to her: losing her two best friends and not being able to remember what happened to them. Michael or Mike, I liked for half of the book and then decided that he is an idiot!

Mrs. Appleyeard - had the potential to be the most badass principal ever! She was creepy, strict and just so - strong! But the author did nothing with this character! I mean literally NOTHING! 

In general I have to say this! These characters could have been so good, but they had zero character development, zero!

ROMANCE: Michael sees the girls climbing the rock and has an instant attraction to Miranda. All through the book he tries to find her just to see her again. Irma develops feelings to Michael as well. But trust me the love, is not the point of this book.

GOOD: The idea itself was amazing I think!

BAD: Everything felt very very very rushed and pushed and nothing was developed or finished in this book! I mean we didn't get to understand where the girls went, or what happened to them. The characters, who had the potential to be great, were barely characters at all. The book ended, I mean it just ended without anything happening.

OVERALL: Overall, I think this book could have been amazing, and it was just lazy done. Watch the show, the book will just get you angry!

What do you think about PICNIC AT THE HANGING ROCK?