Flock by Kate Stewart – A Book Review

Spoiler-Free Overview

Cecelia is eighteen (going on nineteen), recently graduated from high school, and forced to move in with her estranged father. Her mother is in a bad way after addiction and mental health concerns cause her to move in with her boyfriend, where there isn’t room for Cecelia. In moving in with her father, he requires her to work at his factory for one year. Then she can inherit a large sum of money, which she’s determined will turn things around for her mom.

At work, Cecelia meets another new employee, Sean, who invites her to a barbeque at his place. There she meets the rest of the town’s riff raff (they’re not, but the town just thinks of them that way), including Sean’s roommate Dominic. 

Sean and Cecelia fall pretty quickly for each other and share cute, romantic adventures around town, including a picnic at the waterfall.

Dominic, seemingly, hates Cecelia, and the two are always fighting and bickering. Sean encourages Cecelia to stand her ground, but he never stands up for her. Eventually, as it does in these books, Cecelia’s resentment towards Dom turns sexual. And Sean tells her it’s okay to love both of them. 

Liz’s Thoughts and Feelings

It might be a spoiler that Cecelia ends up with Dominic and Sean, but if you read even one review on Goodreads, you’ll find that out.

I was looking forward to this book after reading The Plight Before Christmas by Kate Stewart. I felt like the characters in that book were so mature and thought out, granted they were in their thirties instead of teens and mid-twenties. But this book was a let down. Maybe I’m just not the right age group for it, but these characters are not for me.

Let’s talk about these ages. Cecelia is eighteen, but she turns nineteen early in the book. That waterfall picnic date is when Sean takes her out for her birthday. Sean and Dom are both around twenty-five and twenty-six. Now, a five year age gap isn’t much when the younger character is mid-twenties or up. But, a girl fresh from high school shouldn’t be dating someone that just graduated from grad school – that’s Dom, he just got back from MIT. Don’t come at me if you disagree. I’ll stand my ground on this one.

So, right off the bat, Cecelia is at a disadvantage with these boys. She does not have the emotional maturity or experiences in life to match them. Sean is super cryptic about certain topics, which we find out later why, but Cecelia just goes along with it. He breaks her damn Apple watch at one point just to prove to her that she needs to disconnect more. And she’s angry for only a second before she folds and goes along with his ramblings. 

Now, college age (18-23ish) is prime time for doing dumb shit, exploring boundaries and getting into trouble. So, I don’t fault Cecelia for wanting to explore this darker, edgier side of life with Sean and Dom. She’s in a new town, and this group has accepted her. For college age Liz, that would have been enough to go along with their antics. But, I’m well past college age (at the decrepit age of thirty-three) and reading about some dumb teenager isn’t for me anymore. Maybe if this girl had a backbone I could have enjoyed this story more.

Sean is played off as the nice guy of the group. He’s fun loving, kind (or so we think), and fauns over Cecelia. Only, he’s an absolute jerk! He’s so mean to Cecelia, including getting mad at her for having a phone around, throwing dinner she made him in the trash, and giving me enough emotional whiplash I might need to call a personal injury lawyer. I’m so over the ‘but he’s nice to me’ shtick that’s actually just an excuse for him being an asshole.

Dom at least comes off as the ‘bad boy’, though he’s just as problematic. He hates Cecelia right away and is constantly pushing her, especially when it comes to her relationship with Sean. He’s a total jerk, but like most of our bad boys, he shows a softer side, specifically with his family. Then, because he can be nice to someone, that excuses being cold and heartless to Cecelia. So, they get down, which I can get. The part that fails me is that he doesn’t seem to actually like Cecelia. But he gives her a little bit of affection, and she just melts. 

All in all, I don’t get it. As a young fling, sure this story tracks, but the book opens in the future with Cecelia breaking up with her fiancé after college to return to them. These boys apparently have such a hold on her that she’ll destroy her life just to be with them.