“Clover Blue” by Eldonna Edwards

Title: Clover Blue
Author: Eldonna Edwards
Publisher:  Kensington Publishing
Year: 2019
Genre(s): coming of age, historical fiction
Part of a Series: No

Rating: 

Summary: Clover Blue has only known the Saffron Love Community, a commune created by a man known as Goji. Blue has a rather unconventional upbringing and education. But when he learns he was not born to someone at SLC, he wants to learn more about where he came from. Will he get his answers? Who is his real family – the one he was born to or the one that found him?

Review: I recently read something on tumblr from someone who wrote reviews for a living. They wrote about not judging the book you wanted to read but the one you read.

So that’s what I’m going to do.

Focusing on that leaves one quibble of mine so I’m going to focus on that first before moving on. Our story is told from Blue’s perspective –it’s even a first person narrator. The main part of the story following Blue from the ages of 10 to 14. But he never reads as a child. There were times in the story where someone would mention Blue’s age and I would remember that he was a child and not an adult. I’m torn between wondering if this was deliberate on Edwards’ part or just another example of an author not really understanding children. But it was jarring and annoyed me.

I think I might be able to write an entire blog post on my theories about Blue but that will be for another time (and maybe another blog).

It stood in stark contract to Harmony, who did come across as a child/teenager. She was one of my favorite characters – carefree, outspoken and not afraid to live her life when compared to the more introspective and reticent Blue.

Some characters stood out and some blended together. I don’t think I could really tell you what made Jade different from Willow or Sirona. Or Coyote different from Doobie or Wave. They were just there, making up parts of the commune but for a story about family, the actual family wasn’t as defined as they could’ve been.

But the characters who were defined stood out. In addition to Harmony, there was also her mother Gaia, who popped in and out of the story, as well as Rain and Lois/Lotus. But the central figure was Goji, the “guru” or “leader” of the commune. Throughout the book, he remains a mystery and I believe that was a good choice on Edwards’ part. We wonder what his true intentions are – good or bad – especially when it comes to his relationship with the young Rain. I have my conclusions about Goji and I would be interested to read what others thought of him.

The author did a good job invoking the 1970s and the world of the Saffron Love Community. She really captured the disconnect between those living on the commune and maintaining the more hippie lifestyle with the world that had advanced around them, leaving them behind. I do think Blue could’ve interacted with this outside world more and let the contrast stand out more but it did show how much he truly believed in Goji’s teachings that he kept himself apart from it.

Bottom line: A good coming of age story that needed just a bit more in its main character and narrator.

Sex: Mentions but nothing too graphic

Moonlight Musing

Would you give up modern conveniences to live a more natural lifestyle?