Review of Don't Water the Marigolds

[Vivian Stones]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Don't Water the Marigolds" by James Sinclair.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Deirdre Hinton is an elderly woman living in Mayfield. She lives in an apartment previously occupied by her, her late husband, Howard, and her late mother-in-law. She decides to put a room in the apartment up for rent; however, her prospective tenant, Sharon, discloses that she has a son. Deirdre decides to take both Sharon and her son, who is later identified as Kevin, as tenants. How does this go?

Deirdre creates a bond with young Kevin, and they enjoy their time together. Everything seems to be going well until Sharon meets Anton, who becomes her boyfriend and one day disappears with him. Where do they elope to? What happens to Kevin? Does Sharon ever return for her son? Does Kevin remain with Deirdre, or is he taken away by social services since his mother is unavailable?

I liked how relatable some of the characters were in the book. James Sinclair did an excellent job with characterization in the book. I understood and could relate with Deirdre's feeling that she had not accomplished so much in life; I could connect with how lonely it must have felt living with just her pet. The author clearly described the joy that a child could bring to a lonely old woman. The book contained several themes such as child abuse, sexual assault, neglect, irresponsible parenting, and so on. I found the answers Deirdre provided to Kevin's questions enlightening and useful, so I could say that the book was informative. I found only an error in the book. It was professionally edited.

However, Don't Water the Marigolds contained some negative aspects. I did not like that the book was slow-paced; it made me bored while reading the first few chapters, and I kept wondering where the author was going with the story. Also, I was not too fond of the development of the plot; the author could have added more substance to the story to keep the reader in suspense. I did not appreciate the language that Kevin used, especially while talking about people older than him. It did not suit the image of the good boy, which the author claimed he was in the novel. I also was confused due to certain things while reading the book, and it took time to understand those parts which I was confused about.

The negative aspects of this book affected my satisfaction with it. Hence, I rate the book three out of four stars. I did not remove any other stars because the book was a good read.

I recommend this book to teenagers. It contains a lot of information that would be useful to young individuals. I also recommend it to lovers of short fiction stories.

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Don't Water the Marigolds
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[Zwelihle_Myeni]

I wonder what happened to little Kevin after his mother eloped with her boyfriend. Thanks for a great review.

[Titus Fuller]

I can relate with the plot of this story, a lot of parents abandon thier children and move on with thier lives as if the children dont exists...the book seems like a good read.