Astrid is the daughter of the brilliant poet Ingrid Magnussen, a gorgeous and distant woman who has travelled all over the world. When Astrid is 12 years old, Ingrid goes to prison for murder, leaving her in a series of foster homes, each with their own rules, their own lessons to be learned. The story chronicles her life through age 18, her journey always returning to the same question of how to escape her mother's influence, and whether she really wants to after all. On the surface, this sounded like the sort of book I'd read to pass the time, with more interest in having read it than actually reading it. I was mistaken. Utterly. I was completely sucked in, to the point where I was thinking about it during the times I couldn't read, and had trouble putting it down during the times when I could. I read it for my entire five-hour flight from Nevada; I can't remember the last time I found a book so engrossing. I just had to know what happened next, what new mentor Astrid, so used to being told what to do and how to think, would choose. I don't know that I would necessarily call this book "exciting," but it certainly was a page-turner for me. Beyond the story, the language was intense, beautiful, and precise. I could picture it all. ( )

I didn't expect much, just another quick and easy read, but I can sincerly recommend this to anyone - and I have, I read this years ago and I stull memorise the experience. It's not a literary master-piece, but surprisingly well-written and touching. Amazing how much more sympathy I have for these characters than autobiographies by eg. Susanna Kaysen and Elizabeth Wurtzel. ( )

I'm not finished with this book yet, but I love it already. I was so excited to pick it up second hand for only a dollar!

I have lines from this book highlighted! I think that Janet Fitch is an incredible writer. I loved the book more then the movie and I read it the first time in about 3 days! Very good, true, gritty and just demanding on the heart! ( )

A passionate, hypnotic and dangerous novel about a daughter and her mother. Astrid has been raised by her mother, Ingrid a beautiful, headstrong poet. Astrid's world revolves around Ingrid; she forgives her everything. Until Ingrid murders a former lover and is imprisoned for life...

I picked this book up in a charity shop for 50p and boy am I glad! This is certainly the best book that I have read this year. The story spans five years in which Astrid tells her story as she is placed in foster care and struggles to maintain a relationship with her Mother.

It was very interesting to see how each of Astrid's foster Mothers and other influential characters, shaped her and made her into what she became.

Anyway, I highly recommend this. It is brilliant. This book is going into my permanent collection never to be given away, sold or shared :) ( )

This book is magnificent.

Finch has such a way with words, that even if the story wasn’t good the beauty of the words would have been good enough for me to love this book. But the story is good, more than good. I wished the book never ended and I could read it forever.

If you like stories about several years in someone’s life, rather than a few closely related incidents, this book is for you. ( )

I was only about thirty pages into this book when I realized I was hooked. It reminded me of reading about Las Vegas in Beautiful Children, but Fitch's portrayal of Los Angeles was executed even more richly. More than just an intriguing story emerging brilliantly, Fitch is first and foremost an excellent writer. It is a rare occasion when both story and writing style are matched so completely. Although the subject in itself is nothing new, Fitch manages to bring the foster child with a screwed up mother motif into a new shining light. She does more than convey the circumstances and happenings; the reader is thrust into the story, driving the desire to read on so that you can feel that same sun and wind, hear the voices and let them tell their part of the story. I'm not a big fan of long and winding descriptions that carry on for paragraphs without adding any significant weight to the tale or the characters. Fitch truly hits the target in this aspect. Every descriptive sentence is beautiful and well-placed, bringing the characters and the situations into focus rather than causing distraction or filling pages.

Narrated by Astrid, who we meet when she is twelve-years-old and living with her poetic single mother, Ingrid, we learn that her's is not a typical American childhood. She has lived all over the world, and her mother is her flawed luminary. All goes terribly wrong when Ingrid is imprisoned for murdering her ex-boyfriend. In the next five years, Astrid is shuffled from one foster home to the next where she slowly learns about herself through her surroundings and the people who care for her or at least are supposed to care. She constantly grapples with her own malleability and the ease with which she takes on the roles others assign her. She becomes a Christian, a semi-incestuous nymph, a fatherless child, a contentious daughter, an artist, a failure, a hard-ass. Each successive home brings with it a new Astrid and another internal struggle. The harder she tries to find herself, the more she realizes the fantastically devastating pull her mother has.

This novel was superb, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Absolutely amazing and inspiring story of a girl who is forced through the world of foster care while her controlling and obsessive mother sits in jail for murder. ( )

A riveting read, White Oleander explores relationships, mental illness, foster care and the social services department, religion, etc. It probes the strengths and weaknesses of very vivid characters. The movie was almost as equally gratifying. ( )

enjoyed - a must read! ( )

Probably the most depressing book I've read in years, this tale of foster care hell is nonetheless compulsively readable. You're always dying to find out what happens next and the situations draw you in. It's the kind of big, drawn-out read you can devour when you're in the right mood. ( )

Incredible book. The love/hate relationship between a mother and daughter is spell-binding. I couldn't get enough of the angst-driven rebellion of a girl forced into foster care from a selfish murderer of a mother. ( )

I absolutely loved this book. The events unfold like a living nightmare and you are swept away the Astrid's tragic life. By the end of the book I felt bereft ...the sign of a great book for me. The author crafts her characters with such apparent simplicity and it is easy to visualise every person and place Astrid encounters. Despite all that happens, you are still left with a feeling of hope and the real belief in the unshaking love a mother has for her daughter......albeit a toxic one. ( )

I loved this book! It was amazing, you feel llike a fly on the wall of Astrid"s (the main character) life. You can understand how she felt at every painful event she was forced to go through, from gunshot wounds to dog bites, from the constant loss and abandonment by the women in her life. And your there when she finally learns every secret her mother kept from her. By the end you feel like you are losing someone by having to really be finished with it. ( )

This book is another of my absolute favorites! Each situation that Aster must live with is different and unique and it was so interesting to see how she tries to adapt and deal with all the changes that life throws her way. The author describes all the characters so vividly that I could easily picture them. I was completely wrapped up in this book and will definitely be reading it again! Loved it! ( )

This remains one of my favorite books and I read it almost every year. The author has a beautiful way with words. Often times you almost feel as if your reading a strange blend of poetry and prose. ( )

This is a very tragic novel about a girl that gets schlepped from foster home to foster home. In the meantime Astrid's mother is serving time for murder. Her mother, Ingrid is like the devil that whispers in her ear and always finds a way to make Astrid miserable, despite being behind bars. Ingrid always talks down about families that take Astrid in. Astrid's character develops into a strong young woman that struggles to break free from her mother's psychotic oppression. Prepare yourself to take a few antidepressants after finishing this one. ( )

The only child of a brilliant, beautiful poet, Astrid has had anything but a conventional childhood. But the summer she is 12, any sense of security Astrid has even known is blown away in the scorching Santa Ana winds when her mother is sentenced to life in prison for murdering her lover. Sharpened by harsh foster home environments, Astrid remakes herself as a survivor, and ultimately, an artist. ( )

White Oleander is beautifully written. The pain is so real you'd almost think she lived it herself.
I found it very psychologically intriguing. ( )

In this novel, the reader follows the pre-adolescent Astrid as she grows up in a number of foster homes. The world painted by Fitch in this book is dark one where no person and no thing is to be trusted. The reader sees a number of adults in Astrid's life who border from useless to downright harmful, whether it's Astrid's narcissistic biological mother Ingrid or the lovely but fragile Claire. I felt very engaged with the characters, cheering when something went well for Astrid, near tears when defeat hit her again, and frustrated when I saw Astrid self-sabotaging over and over again. Fitch has a wonderful gift for prose and writes each line as if it were poetry. This book is not for the faint of heart, but it is nonetheless a mighty feat. I'm not one hundred percent in love with the end of the novel, but I would still recommend it as an insight into the broken foster care system, and also for the novel's explorations of truth, beauty, and the human spirit's ability to endure. ( )

An incredibly beautiful book. Sharp and raw. The writing is haunting. ( )

I think that Janet Fitch is one of the most poetic writers alive today. This book was extraordinary. It is told so truthfully and.... Words just can't express how I feel about this novel. Read it, and you'll understand. ( )

The language used in descriptions in this book is superb. The theme of the novel is an unhappy relationship between mother and daughter, related by the daughter, Astrid. We accompany Astrid from one foster home to another, feeling the gamut of her emotions as if we were part of her world. ( )

I loved her feverish prose, which was a joy to read and balanced out the hardness of the story underneath. Fitch did a great job with the mother, creating someone who is both terrible and alluring so that the reader is as conflicted as Astrid herself. ( )

I enjoyed the plot, depressing as it was, but I had to skip over large portions of the book to get to it. I'm all for similes and metaphors but HOLY COW! The author could take 20 minutes describing a grilled cheese sandwich! The book could have been edited down a hundred or so pages and I would have liked it much better. ( )