The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Ratings168
Average rating3.7
Child teaches itself chemistry equations before the age of 10? The precocious child trope induces maximum eye-roll before I've reached the 10th page. Hard pass.
Second time I'm trying this, officially giving up. Really uninteresting and the really unnecessary ~historically accurate~ racism just pushed me over the edge to nopetown.
This was a fun mystery recommended by a friend, and I enjoyed it. It's not a Louise Penny or even the Thursday Murder Club. There were a few too many coincidences in the narrative. But I liked Flavia a lot. She's a fun and clever young detective, and some of her dialog is laugh out loud funny.
Perfect story and a good and funny main character, I love Flavia and her sense of humour and sarcasm. As it takes place in 1950 on English small town and abbey, it is really good and fun to read, I also appreciate that the story and plot goes also back to the history, something which is often done by Agatha Christie as well. The book on its own would receive 4* from me, but the fifth one goes to Martha Issová for her perfect Czech audiobook version.
Я давно не читала детективов, написанных НЕ Агатой Кристи и Джоном Диксоном Карром, тем более - детских детективов. Надо сказать, опыт получился неплохой - несмотря, на первые тяжелые 100 страниц. Конечно, убийцу я вычислила почти сразу - все-таки, не Агата Кристи) Но в целом читать интересно, история небанальна и вполне читабельна. Хорошая история для всех, и вовсе не только для детей.
This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
When a dead bird shows up on her doorstep with a postage stamp impaled on its beak, Flavia's first mystery begins. Of course, finding the dead man in the cucumber garden is also quite exciting. As a self-taught 11-year-old chemist, Flavia is no stranger to challenges, but stringing together these two events certainly puts her to the test. And she is determined to solve the case before the police do.
Flavia reminded me of a young Sherlock Holmes. And her love of chemistry was intriguing. I've read a few reviews that say Flavia's knowledge was unbelievable. True she is an 11-year-old chemist, but she isn't perfect. She's memorized information from books, and experiments on items she steals from her sisters. Throughout her investigations, she makes childish assumptions that are wrong, but to her seem perfectly logical at the time. But Flavia was the only part of Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie that drew me into the story.
While Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a mystery, there is very little actual mystery at all. The most disheartening part of the story is when Flavia spends almost half the book searching for answers, only to have her father explain everything to her in a monologue. I wanted to see Flavia unearthing more facts for herself, and being able to confirm her suspicions without having an adult tell her whether she was right or wrong. She didn't start diving full on into the investigation until the book was almost over.
The scene-setting was also borderline historical fiction at times. The history of buildings and minor characters filled the pages with information that did not pertain to the story. This drew away from the feeling of a mystery, and Flavia was swept up in telling the reader facts about her town that were unnecessary. There is also a large portion about the history of postage stamps. If you are a collector of stamps or a fan of historical fiction you would most likely enjoy this novel. If you are searching for a riveting mystery, this may not be the book for you.
Such a good read! Not the average 11yr old lol. Loved the way this was written and how the mystery played out. This is a series I will continue for sure. Flavia de Luce has my attention. ❤️
I listened to the audio. I quite liked the narrator for Flavia; she had a childlike and mischievous voice that was playful and interesting. (Which ended up fine even when I cranked the speed up to 1.7x to get through it faster.) Flavia was a bit of a hoot. I don't know a lot about child development, so I don't know if I totally buy all that stuff about chemistry being her primary hobby and knowing all the alchemical and medical stuff, but sure, we'll go with it. The conclusion was very satisfying, and her antagonistic relationships with her sisters was funny and realistic.
However, there was one issue that really reduced my enjoyment. This book was not published that long ago (in 2009, though set in 1950s), so the frequent casual racism used to infer that characters were sneaky and uncivilized felt like lazy writing and did absolutely nothing to further the story. It was jarring, and because of it, I don't think I'll be continuing this series.
I love the setting; I'm always a sucker for things set in the English countryside! Overall a great listen for my drives to and from work. I just cannot accept, though, that Flavia is only 11. It's just not believable in the slightest.
I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book as much as this one. Flavia is now one of my new favorite heroines. She's so smart and sassy, and I couldn't get enough of her. I thoroughly enjoyed every second of this book. I found myself smiling more often than not while reading, probably because Flavia's inner narrative is so fantastically funny (as is what comes out of her mouth). If you're looking for a thrilling and terrifying whodunit with surprising twists and turns, this isn't it. Though the mystery is good, you'll probably figure it out long before Flavia does. Some negative reviews say Flavia is too intelligent to be believable, and I yet I found many instances in the story where it was clear how young and naive she really is, despite having a good vocabulary and being a chemistry whiz. This story is more about who Flavia is, what she thinks she knows about people, and how she navigates her small world. It's done so well.
I started out really enjoying this, and then it tapered off a bit. It was still enjoyable, and I'm still going to give the next one a go, but I'm not as enthralled as everyone else seems to be. Flavia started fairly believable, but got less so as it went on (I'm all for precocious children narrators, but...). The mystery lagged a bit as it went on, too. Still, a fun read and I did get a glimpse of what people like so much, I just found it wanting a bit.
3.5 stars.
It was quiet an entertaining read altough I wasn't fond of the translation and guessed the murderer and plot quiet easily. Will read the next one in english to see, if the writing style suits me more.
This book was an immensely enjoyable read. It's well written, witty, and overall well researched and put together. The characters are believable and fleshed out. Believable? With an 11-year-old chemist for a protagonist? Yes. Yes, indeed. I was surprised, because I when I read the premise I thought it would be a rare writer that could pull it off. Bradley manages it. Here's why.
As someone who was - not meaning to toot my own horn here - a very precocious child myself, with interests far outside of most of my peers, and very, very lonely until I gave up on the idea of having real friends and devoted myself to books until people grew up enough (yes, I distinctly remember having thoughts, at about Flavia's age, that no one except a rare adult or two understood me at all but maybe when my “friends” grew up they might) - I found her to be not only believable but immensely charming. There, was that sentence long enough? I wish I had known someone like Flavia as a child. I'm sure my parents are grateful I didn't. I didn't ever have the brazenness she exhibits, probably because my parents were not eccentric explorers or gentry like hers. Also she was growing up in the 50s, when it was generally much safer than the 90s to allow your children to run all over town and not worry about them until dinner. I would also have been much better off if I had been able to come to her conclusion about the rest of the world at an earlier age, but, c'est la vie.
I was me. I was Flavia. And I loved myself, even if no one else did.
It's a fact of life that a girl can tell in a flash if another girl likes her...With a boy you can never know whether he's smitten or gagging, but with a girl you can tell in the first three seconds.
“I was hardly surprised to read that he (Flavia's father) had named his first two offspring after a Shakespearean hysteric and a Greek pincushion.”
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
—
This is going to be one of those quick ones where I mostly quote myself:
Our 11-year-old hero (no, this is not a kid's book [not that there's anything inappropriate for anyone who's made it through Rowling here]) is a budding, self-taught, chemist with a curious mind and a stubborn streak a mile wide. Her family life is a mess – but in a charming, amusing, English countryside way – but our plucky gal has managed to get through it pretty much intact and for the better.
So when she discovers a body on her lawn, yet the police shoo her away from the crime scene and dismiss her, she starts her own investigation. She's helped early on by a fact or two the police didn't obtain from her, and some that she kept to herself out of spite. Her father's arrest for the murder just adds fuel to her fire and becomes determined not only to solve the case before the police but to make them eat a good-sized helping of crow.
Probably not much of a spoiler to say that's exactly what she does, because the book's not about that foregone conclusion, but in watching Flavia do that while making less-than-flattering observations about her older sisters.
Oh how I love Flavia de luce she is such a witty and mischievous character. I can't wait to read the books by Alan Bradley.
Honestly one of the most charming books I've ever read. Humorous throughout and a wonderful story.
Flavia is a charming little devil, isn't she?
Quite the brain and quite the tongue and quite the initiative. Nancy Drew via Wednesday Addams.
I gotta confess I did pick out this book solely based on its cover.
But I did not regret it!
It's an amazing read, funny, morbid and clever, and you couldn't ask for a better heroine in Flavia (what a great name!)
Also, it has some of the best sentences I've read lately:
“If poisons were ponies, I'd put my money on cyanide.”
I gotta confess I did pick out this book solely based on its cover.
But I did not regret it!
It's an amazing read, funny, morbid and clever, and you couldn't ask for a better heroine in Flavia (what a great name!)
Also, it has some of the best sentences I've read lately:
“If poisons were ponies, I'd put my money on cyanide.”
What an absolutely lovely cozy mystery. Bravo, Alan Bradley.
The story is told from the viewpoint of an eleven-year-old named Flavia de Luce. She is quite precocious and a bit mad about chemistry. The story is set in 1950 in England.
If you want to know more, please read the book.
I liked the interest of the protagonist in chemistry. You don't see many girls with such a passionate interest and talent in chemistry written about. I like that Flavia is different from your average girl.
As a mystery, I have read better. I have read worse. There are memorable pieces and scenes. I liked it well enough, but I won't go back and read other books in the series. However, I am not a good series reader either.
A very fun read, featuring an 11 year old girl who is a budding chemist as the heroine of the story.
Full review over at the SFF Book Review
Who would have thought I would develop such a regard for 11-year-old, pigtailed crime solvers with a passion for chemistry? But Flavia de Luce and her utterly charming and funny voice have captured my heart. I normally don't even read crime fiction and it wasn't the plot or the mystery that kept me going with this book (and, indeed, its successor) but the character of Flavia. Her eccentric family, her small town with all its inhabitants and her sense of humor have all convinced me that these little, light adventures are worth reading. Even when not on holiday.