September Book Review: Garden Spells
Whoa. Lookit that. I'm way early for my September book review and it's been a mere--what--week, week and a half? since my August book review? Good on me. Of course, the book was only a mere 290 pages, but...
I've been having a week. The kind of week itallicised to infer bad. I'm beginning to feel like my anxiety is drowning me in depression, or the depression is drowning me in axiety--one way or another, there's thoughts and I don't want them right now. So I found this little read, and it was so very easy on the mind.
Quick Facts:
Title: Garden Spells
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Genre: Fiction/Romance Magical Realism
Age Group: Adult
Length: 290 pages
From the back of the book: In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small house in the smallest of towns, is an apple tree rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree and the extraordinary people who tend it.
The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. Even their garden has a reputation. For the Waverley history is in the soil. And so are their futures.
A successful caterer, Claire Waverley prepares dishes made with her mystical plants--from the nasturtiums that aid in keeping secrets to the snapdragons intended to discourage the attention of her amorous neighbor. Meanwhile, her elderly cousin Evanelle distributes unexpected presents whose uses become uncannily clear. They are the last of the Waverleys--except for Claire's rebellious sister, Sydney, who fled Bascom the moment she could, abandoning Claire as their own mother had years before.
When Sydney suddenly returns home with a young daughter of her own, Claire's quiet life is turned upside down. Together again in the house they grew up in, Sydney takes stock of all she left behind and Claire struggles to heal the wounds of the past. Soon the sisters realize they must deal with their common legacy--if they are ever to feal at home in Bascom...or with each other.
I've seen Sarah Addison Allen books in my local Barnes and Noble, especially her novel The Girl Who Chased the Moon, and I always picked it up intending to buy it before I'd set it back down in favor for something a little thicker. Later on, I had read how one should should start with Garden Spells first, so this week when I was in B&N I found myself reaching for Garden Spells and actually purchasing it--along with two self-help books and a book of poetry. I told you it has been a week...
Claire's world is compact and organzied, a world of routine and familiarity for the girl who's mother raised her on the road. Unlike Claire's younger sister who wished to flee from the community of Bascom and the mantel of Waverley, Claire longed to belong to it most fully, though believing it was something she had to strive for as she had not been born in Bascom as Sydney had. She was, in her mind, an outsider clinging to the only steady and lasting thing in her life: her family name and legacy. For Claire that meant an attraction to the family garden that bloomed without regard to seasons and produced flowers and herbs that Claire skillfully used in recipes that the townspeople believed were magic. Being a smart woman, she capitolized on this and started a successful one woman catering business. While her business brought her to many social functions, she was anything but social. If anything, Clair was a thirty-something shut in who fell asleep in her garden a lot and felt most comfortable when people kept her at a distance as they were want to do.
Sydney, on the other hand, rebelled from the Waverley way (and the stigma attached) and instead romatisized her mother's early life (not knowing the hardships as Claire had, being born and raised in one spot unlike Claire) and sought to imitate her mother's wiley youth after she graduated from high school. Things happen, Sydney is free and detached but ends up pregnant and chained to an abusive relationship in Seattle. The details of the relationship are hard to read but one that readers will have already seen before: he beats her, he rapes her, he owns her and stalks her, not ever letting her escape and tracking her down when she does. Sydney swallows pride and escapes with her daughter back to Bascom and back into Claire's life. At this point in the novel I'm looking forward to emotional strains, arguments, but eventual regressions and healing. I'm expecting some deep digging into how their mother's life really fucked them both up.
Unfortunately, it never really gets that deep. And while I usually bemoan that, for this week it was just perfect. Simple, easy, and light. A book to read in and afternoon and not have to think too hard on. Apple pie without the ice cream or the odd cheddar (do people really eat apple pie with cheese on it?).
It was fun for me to read of Claire's workings in the garden and her cooking of the herbs and flowers regarding their meanings and purposes. Lavender raises spirits and prevents bad decisions, honeysuckle is used for seeing in the dark, snapdragons ward off undue influences and hexes. Not to dork out, but in my vast WoW career, my most favorite and enjoyable skill was herbalism and alchemy and I've always fantasized of doing the things that Allen's Claire does in Garden Spells. This was probably the number one reason I was willing to pick this book up in the first place and I was not disappointed by the simple magical realism the story presented. It was just quirky enough to be endearing without being completely fantastical.
The most enjoyable character out of this book (besides the tree who would throw apples at people to get their attention) was Claire's elderly cousin Evanelle and her gift of giving items to people who would come to find need for them. The story of how she gave her future husband a pebble--felt compelled to--when they were the age of six and how he used it to throw it at her bedroom window that night, sparking their romance. Or how Evanelle felt compelled to bring a young woman some condoms in the middle of church, unknowing that the woman's husband was impotent and that she was having an affair that eventually ending up in pregnancy after she refused Evanelle's gift. Little silly things that would turn into big life moments for some folks because of this old woman's gift was one of the more fun things to read in Garden Spells. While the novel focused most on the Waverley sisters, it also stopped and touched on other characters but never dealt too deeply with them--which is sad in this case, as Evanelle is so endearing and her gift is far more interesting and life-changing than the gift for herbs or perfect hair cuts.
As I've said before, this book is a simple breezey read and the romance is almost immediately boring and predictable. There's a shallowness here where everything is dandy even when it could be turmoil and it's happily ever after for everyone. It's not the best book I've ever read but it wasn't an unpleasant experience and if anything this is a perfect book for a plane ride or a vacation when all you want to do is pass some time in ease. Pick a day to be lazy and pick up Garden Spells along with a boquet of flowers and enjoy.
I've been having a week. The kind of week itallicised to infer bad. I'm beginning to feel like my anxiety is drowning me in depression, or the depression is drowning me in axiety--one way or another, there's thoughts and I don't want them right now. So I found this little read, and it was so very easy on the mind.
Quick Facts:
Title: Garden Spells
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Genre: Fiction/Romance Magical Realism
Age Group: Adult
Length: 290 pages
From the back of the book: In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small house in the smallest of towns, is an apple tree rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree and the extraordinary people who tend it.
The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. Even their garden has a reputation. For the Waverley history is in the soil. And so are their futures.
A successful caterer, Claire Waverley prepares dishes made with her mystical plants--from the nasturtiums that aid in keeping secrets to the snapdragons intended to discourage the attention of her amorous neighbor. Meanwhile, her elderly cousin Evanelle distributes unexpected presents whose uses become uncannily clear. They are the last of the Waverleys--except for Claire's rebellious sister, Sydney, who fled Bascom the moment she could, abandoning Claire as their own mother had years before.
When Sydney suddenly returns home with a young daughter of her own, Claire's quiet life is turned upside down. Together again in the house they grew up in, Sydney takes stock of all she left behind and Claire struggles to heal the wounds of the past. Soon the sisters realize they must deal with their common legacy--if they are ever to feal at home in Bascom...or with each other.
I've seen Sarah Addison Allen books in my local Barnes and Noble, especially her novel The Girl Who Chased the Moon, and I always picked it up intending to buy it before I'd set it back down in favor for something a little thicker. Later on, I had read how one should should start with Garden Spells first, so this week when I was in B&N I found myself reaching for Garden Spells and actually purchasing it--along with two self-help books and a book of poetry. I told you it has been a week...
Claire's world is compact and organzied, a world of routine and familiarity for the girl who's mother raised her on the road. Unlike Claire's younger sister who wished to flee from the community of Bascom and the mantel of Waverley, Claire longed to belong to it most fully, though believing it was something she had to strive for as she had not been born in Bascom as Sydney had. She was, in her mind, an outsider clinging to the only steady and lasting thing in her life: her family name and legacy. For Claire that meant an attraction to the family garden that bloomed without regard to seasons and produced flowers and herbs that Claire skillfully used in recipes that the townspeople believed were magic. Being a smart woman, she capitolized on this and started a successful one woman catering business. While her business brought her to many social functions, she was anything but social. If anything, Clair was a thirty-something shut in who fell asleep in her garden a lot and felt most comfortable when people kept her at a distance as they were want to do.
Sydney, on the other hand, rebelled from the Waverley way (and the stigma attached) and instead romatisized her mother's early life (not knowing the hardships as Claire had, being born and raised in one spot unlike Claire) and sought to imitate her mother's wiley youth after she graduated from high school. Things happen, Sydney is free and detached but ends up pregnant and chained to an abusive relationship in Seattle. The details of the relationship are hard to read but one that readers will have already seen before: he beats her, he rapes her, he owns her and stalks her, not ever letting her escape and tracking her down when she does. Sydney swallows pride and escapes with her daughter back to Bascom and back into Claire's life. At this point in the novel I'm looking forward to emotional strains, arguments, but eventual regressions and healing. I'm expecting some deep digging into how their mother's life really fucked them both up.
Unfortunately, it never really gets that deep. And while I usually bemoan that, for this week it was just perfect. Simple, easy, and light. A book to read in and afternoon and not have to think too hard on. Apple pie without the ice cream or the odd cheddar (do people really eat apple pie with cheese on it?).
It was fun for me to read of Claire's workings in the garden and her cooking of the herbs and flowers regarding their meanings and purposes. Lavender raises spirits and prevents bad decisions, honeysuckle is used for seeing in the dark, snapdragons ward off undue influences and hexes. Not to dork out, but in my vast WoW career, my most favorite and enjoyable skill was herbalism and alchemy and I've always fantasized of doing the things that Allen's Claire does in Garden Spells. This was probably the number one reason I was willing to pick this book up in the first place and I was not disappointed by the simple magical realism the story presented. It was just quirky enough to be endearing without being completely fantastical.
The most enjoyable character out of this book (besides the tree who would throw apples at people to get their attention) was Claire's elderly cousin Evanelle and her gift of giving items to people who would come to find need for them. The story of how she gave her future husband a pebble--felt compelled to--when they were the age of six and how he used it to throw it at her bedroom window that night, sparking their romance. Or how Evanelle felt compelled to bring a young woman some condoms in the middle of church, unknowing that the woman's husband was impotent and that she was having an affair that eventually ending up in pregnancy after she refused Evanelle's gift. Little silly things that would turn into big life moments for some folks because of this old woman's gift was one of the more fun things to read in Garden Spells. While the novel focused most on the Waverley sisters, it also stopped and touched on other characters but never dealt too deeply with them--which is sad in this case, as Evanelle is so endearing and her gift is far more interesting and life-changing than the gift for herbs or perfect hair cuts.
As I've said before, this book is a simple breezey read and the romance is almost immediately boring and predictable. There's a shallowness here where everything is dandy even when it could be turmoil and it's happily ever after for everyone. It's not the best book I've ever read but it wasn't an unpleasant experience and if anything this is a perfect book for a plane ride or a vacation when all you want to do is pass some time in ease. Pick a day to be lazy and pick up Garden Spells along with a boquet of flowers and enjoy.