Warning: Spoilers for the previous books in this review. Please skip if you hate spoilers and are going to start this series.

Do you think that spending too long away from a series can make you fall out of love with it? Because while I enjoyed this instalment of the Flavia de Luce series, I no longer find it as charming as I once did and might even stop reading here.

I forgot to continue the Flavia de Luce series after Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mewed (which I remember loving). But some time recently, I thought of Flavia and decided to read the next book in the series, The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place. In this book, Flavia, Dogger, and her sisters are on a boating trip when Flavia pulls up a head. Obviously, the discovery of this body delights Flavia and shocks her sister and as soon as they get to shore, Flavia and Dogger begin investigating.

The mystery was pretty solid and I have no complaints there. Instead, my main dissatisfaction with the book came from Flavia herself. Up till now, I’ve always found Flavia charming, except for when she went to Canada in As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust and came across as rather twee. In this book, she’s not charming, she’s not twee, but she comes across rather as a brat. Flavia has always been self-confident, but this self-confidence comes across as pride in this book and it’s rather offputting. And while I’m glad her relationship with her sisters has mellowed out somewhat, she’s still pretty bratty to them.

I suppose the main reason why I’m so disappointed is because I expected Flavia to have grown a bit more. She’s not only been to boarding school in Canada, where she found that her mother was part of a secret society called the Nide, she has also lost her father. It’s been a tumultuous past two books but Flavia seems to not have changed. I was wondering how things would turn out because the opening is pretty emotional, but it felt as though Flavia went right back to normal once she found the body.

While I ended up enjoying this book, I’m no longer as charmed as I once was. Perhaps I’ve left it too long between books, but I don’t think I’ll be returning to this series.

Feature Image: Photo from Canva’s Photo Library