The Flower Sisters by Michelle Collins Anderson

Publication April 23, 2024-Kensington Books-Historical Fiction-Teens/YA-368pp

Book Summary

Daisy Flowers is fifteen in 1978 when her free-spirited mother dumps her in Possum Flats, Missouri. It’s a town that sounds like roadkill and, in Daisy’s eyes, is every bit as dead. Sentenced to spend the summer living with her grandmother, the wry and irreverent town mortician, Daisy draws the line at working for the family business, Flowers Funeral Home. Instead, she maneuvers her way into an internship at the local newspaper where, sorting through the basement archives, she learns of a mysterious tragedy from fifty years earlier…

On a sweltering, terrible night in 1928, an explosion at the local dance hall left dozens of young people dead, shocking and scarring a town that still doesn’t know how or why it happened. Listed among the victims is a name that’s surprisingly familiar to Daisy, revealing an irresistible family connection to this long-ago accident.

Obsessed with investigating the horrors and heroes of that night, Daisy soon discovers Possum Flats holds a multitude of secrets for a small town. And hardly anyone who remembers the tragedy is happy to have some teenaged hippie asking questions about it – not the fire-and-brimstone preacher who found his calling that tragic night; not the fed-up police chief; not the mayor’s widow or his mistress; not even Daisy’s own grandmother, a woman who’s never been afraid to raise eyebrows in the past, whether it’s for something she’s worn, sworn, or done for a living.
Some secrets are guarded by the living, while others are kept by the dead, but as buried truths gradually come into the light, they’ll force a reckoning at last.

Inspired by the true story of the Bond Dance Hall explosion, a tragedy that took place in the author’s hometown of West Plains, Missouri on April 13, 1928.The cause of the blast has never been determined.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab Read and Reviewed for BookBrowse: First Impressions Program

This debut historical fiction novel based on the tragic Bond Dance Hall explosion of 1928 is a multigenerational masterpiece. Anderson populates Possum Flats with a cast of endearing characters living out their lives with painfully deep emotional and physical scars from that fateful night. The devastating, mysterious details of the tragedy are revealed through flashbacks by the twin Flower sisters, Rose and Violet, and other prominent townspeople. Now 1978, Rose’s granddaughter, Daisy, an intern for the town paper, is obsessed with getting the scoop on the dance hall explosion for the 50^th anniversary. Through interviews Daisy delves into the compelling backstory on the upbringing and choices of the victims and survivors of the 1928 explosion. The Flower Sisters, a twisting, psychological mystery, is a study of twin connections, the search for identity, and survivor guilt. The tragic lesson is that consequences from split second decisions can ripple for a lifetime. Captivating. Surprising. Haunting.

This is an informative site that describes the event: https://www.unlocktheozarks.org/local-communities/west-plains-mo/bond-dance-hall-explosion/