The Flower Sisters by Michelle Collins Anderson {A Book Review}

This post contains affiliate links. I’m a huge fan of historical fiction, especially fiction set during World War II. However, I always like it when I find historical fiction set during a different time like The Flower Sisters by Michelle Collins Anderson.

About the Flower Sisters by Michelle Collins Anderson

I listened to this on audio, which I enjoyed. The book takes place in two different times–1928 and 1978. The 1928 section focuses on Rose and Violet, twins who have very different personalities. One sweltering summer night, one of them heads to the dance hall with the other teens in her town, but she never returns home thanks to an explosion that kills several people and traumatizes the town for decades to come.

In 1978, a 15-year-old Daisy comes to town. Daisy’s mother, Lettie, is running away with a man who doesn’t like kids. Daisy is to live with her grandmother, the surviving twin of the 1928 explosion. Daisy finds the small Missouri town of Possum Flats boring until she gets herself a job at the local newspaper. The editor puts her to work writing blurbs about this date in history, but when Daisy stumbles upon the story of the dance hall explosion, nothing can stop her. However, she runs up against strong resistance from most of the survivors, who all have secrets to hide and are anxious to keep that dark time in the past.

My Thoughts on the Book

This book is based on a true event, the Bond Dance Hall explosion, that happened in West Plains, Missouri on April 13, 1928. Ironically, the author lived in this town and never heard of the tragedy until 2010! In 2011, a non-fiction book was published about the event: The West Plains Dance Hall Explosion by Lin Waterhouse. (I haven’t read that book yet, but it’s on my list.)

The tragedy is terrible, and knowing it’s a true story is even worse. The author does an excellent job showing how such a tragic event changed the town and all the people who experienced it forever.

While the book focuses on the events from that terrible night, it’s also a story about women–grandmothers, mothers, daughters, sisters. I enjoyed the story she weaved around the event and appreciated the larger-than-life small town characters she created.

I give The Flower Sisters by Michelle Collins Anderson 5 out of 5 stars on the Mom’s Plans’ scale.