Customer Reviews

Garden Spells (Bantam Discovery)

5 star:		(202)
4 star:		(67)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

In 46 years of reading a plethora of genres, I have come to love "magic realism." Sarah Addison Allen has a gift for delivering it. The Waverley girls of Bascom, N.C. all have been blessed/cursed with special abilities; Claire has a pruned a garden that grows year round and quite rapidly. Each flower is used to enhance dishes for her catering business. Subtle spells can be gained with a pinch of marigold, a dab of crystallized pansies or an apple from a very temperamental tree. Bay Waverly, 6 years old, has a talent to know exactly where everything goes in any home she enters as well as in any life she enters. Her sister, Sydney, who has fought being a Waverley for 10 years, finally embraces her ability to style and cut hair with a magic that spells her customers into feeling self confident and flirty. Their cousin, Evanelle, gifts people items they don't know they need until something happens later. This charmed family is so endearing, so lovely, one can't help but embrace them heartily.

I am nearly jealous of those who have not read it yet. It is a vibrant experience to live between the pages even if they turn so quickly.

As a first time novelist, Allen bewitches with savory prose and keen insight, leaving this reader to want more. Think of the very best fairy tale you were ever told; now pick up "Garden Spells" and read one of the best magical stories for adults this reader has enjoyed in a long, long time.

"Every smiley moon, without fail, Claire dreamed of her childhood. She always tried to stay awake those nights when the stars winked and the moon was just a cresting sliver smiling provocatively down at the world, the way pretty women on vintage billboards used to smile as they sold cigarettes and limeade." So begins "Garden Spells." I love books with wonderful beginnings, but sometimes the rest of the book doesn't live up to the beginning. That was not the case with Gardens Spells. It has a delightful beginning and remains delightful through the rest of the book.

This is the story of 2 sisters who each find a different way to cope with a mother who was wild and abandoned them when they were young. Clare creates a very careful, cautious life for herself. Sydney, the younger sister, lives wildly trying to copy a mother she never knew. For a long time they have no contact until circumstances force them together. In the setting of a magical garden, the sisters need to confront their past in order to move forward.

This is the kind of book I like to read on a day when the world seems dark and depressing. It was light, yet still thoughtful. Magic permeates the story. It's full of delightful quirky characters and a romance which could be formulaic if the writer were not so skilled.

Highly recommend.

In a lifetime of reading, there are a few novels that are especially precious and unforgettable. Garcia Marquez' ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE. Byatt's POSSESSION. Tartt's THE SECRET HISTORY. This first novel by Sarah Addison Allen is to be added to that short list. Her prose is magical, even when dealing with the mundane ugliness of spousal abuse. Her plot is droll, pleasantly complex, and ultimately satisfying in a most soul-saving Southern graciousness. Her characters, even the most minor of them, are deliciously quirky and lovingly strange, in the most outré of ways. There are echoes of such mistresses of the magical as Alice Hoffman, Anne Rice, Joyce Carol Oates, and Joanne Harris, but Allen quite successfully finds her own voice here and provides a coloratura, if not indeed, a bravura performance. Readers of the above-mentioned litteratureuses will find enjoyment with Garden Spells, as will anyone who loves an intriguing tale well told.

This is one of those charming stories that blurs or perhaps even redefines reality by mixing magic and realism in a delightful way. How you define the book very much depends on what you are looking for. I picked up the novel as a light read and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Meet the Waverley women, each with her own special magic. Each of them (Claire, Sydney and Evanelle) can influence the lives of others through the application of their gifts. Each of them has a need which has yet to be recognised and met. In this novel they each learn that meeting their own needs can help them be even more effective in meeting the needs of others. Some wonderfully quirky characters including my own personal favourite: the apple tree.

On her webpage, Ms Addison Allen writes: 'Garden Spells, my mainstream debut, didn't start out as a magical novel. It was supposed to be a simple story about two sisters reconnecting after many years. But then the apple tree started throwing apples and the story took on a life of its own ... and my life hasn't been the same since.'

I can believe it, and I am looking forward to Ms Addison Allen's next novel.


Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This book brings to mind the beginning of another favorite: "In a hole, in the ground..." Like "The Hobbit" I can feel the wonderful magic of the Waverly garden, and when I reached the end began to miss it immediately. The easy writing style creates a kind of peaceful feeling much like that garden has upon Bay, the child destined to be blessed and grow up in it as her aunt Claire did. For all the nice guys out there, this is a most enjoyable read that places value upon the things so overlooked these days. I only hope that it is start of a long and successful series.

Allen's characters are clearly realized with distinct, memorable personalities. On the other hand, she tells rather than shows far too often--the difference between "She felt furiously angry" and "Her eyes narrowed and her fists clenched." Also, Allen's adequate grasp of plot could be strengthened; for instance, one detailed and lengthy subplot trundled along in uneasy parallel with the main plot, occasionally brushing against but never intersecting or influencing the central story. All in all, a passable debut novel that shows some promise and much room for growth.

Just how much magic can a garden have?

Claire Waverly lives in Bascom, North Carolina, where she has made a life for herself, along with a very successful catering career. The Waverly family is known for their oddities, and Claire's gift is with plants and gardening. She always knows just the right dishes to create a desired ambiance. Her cousin, Evanelle, provides people with the most unexpected, and usually quite odd, gifts- gifts that are needed soon afterwards. Claire is comfortable in her world, but now her sister, Sydney, has returned. Sydney has her daughter, Bay, with her. What changes will occur with Sydney's arrival? And can these two sisters mend the wounds of the past?

What an absolutely charming book! Sara Addison Allen creates a magical environment in which the idea of a sentient tree is completely believable. Who can't help but love an apple tree that throws temper tantrums? In fact, even the town of Bascom is almost a character in that the atmosphere of the town is paramount to the overall storyline. The eccentricities of the residents are part of the overall charm of this tale.

Sydney and Claire provide very different viewpoints on what it was like to grow up in a small town. Sydney couldn't get out of Bascom fast enough while Claire relaxed and made herself a home in an environment she felt safe in. Both sisters still have some growing up to do, and Sarah Addison Allen does a good job at showing those changes. Sydney has to learn to feel comfortable with herself and with the fact that she is a Waverly, while Claire needs to be pushed a bit outside of her comfort zone.

GARDEN SPELLS is a delightful tale! The narrator adds just the right touch of charm to make this story really work on audio. In fact, GARDEN SPELLS is so well done that I kept making excuses to drive places in my car simply so I could listen to just a little bit more of the story. GARDEN SPELLS is highly recommended!

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

I am biased in reviewing this novel, as well as Ms Allen's second, 'The Sugar Queen'. I do not fit the demographic for such fare (namely that of whimsical, magical chick-lit set in the South), as I am a middle-aged guy. However, these two books resonated for me in ways that ended up improving their ratings, simply because I have been greatly affected by the presence of romantic Love in the world, and the effects it can manifest in our lives. Specifically for me, the worst effects: my world was turned upside down by unrequited Love, by not being able to create the future that I saw so clearly for this woman and myself. So I am a member of the choir that this tale preaches to, maybe all the more susceptible because of the heartache I endured...and indeed, still endure more than half a decade later.

That out of the way, let me say that once again, as noted in the title for my review for Ms Allen's second novel, I always want more. It is a personal inclination to see possibility in things, in people, in situations. Not only that, but also the mapping-out of how everything might be brought to a higher state of potential. And with this début from Ms Allen, it's so much clearer to me what her strengths...and her weaknesses...are.

She has a wonderful knack with the fantastical. Presenting it in such a way as to not have it be some circus event, but rather something to be accepted. To be wondered at, but not in a mawkish way. Here is a very, very creative person, who has managed to go back to this well twice (three times, if the blurbs about her next effort are accurate), and provides the willing reader with a lot to smile about. Being able to 'charm' with something, whether it be a song, a painting, a magic act, a film, or a novel, is a blessed gift. And to the extent to which Ms Allen has mined her talent, 'charm' is precisely what she does. (Again, *if* you're open to the notion, to the genre, to the mindset. If you're not- Well, why are you reading this review?!?) And clearly, her wry sense of humour is something to be pushed center-stage as often as it makes sense. And her good heart is always moving things forward.

But...

But at this point in her career, the author has noticeable weaknesses of craft. Proving to me that though she's published a pair of efforts so far, she's still very much a 'writer-in-waiting'.

First and foremost, her dialogue. Some of it shines. Some of it is perfectly snappy. But there are just too many occasions when it is downright...well, execrable. Really, really, *really* bad. Yes, I know that the genre allows for a lot. But seriously; I found the bad stuff to be painful to read.

Tied into this...and the third aspect, to follow...is her deftness of touch regarding characterization. Or lack thereof. There is in this novel, as well as her second, a tendency towards being facile. Yea, I know; the genre tolerates this...again, it ain't literature...and yet I can't help but feel that she needs to dig deep and develop her chops. There was a lot more that she could have done with the characters. Either she wasn't capable of going deeper, or didn't try. The novel -and the reader- are the losers here.

Finally, there's the question of scope. There's an art to making something refined. Stripped-down. Elegantly charming in its brevity. Just as there's an art to creating the epic. The rich, the dense, the sumptuously-fabric'd. Great failures are possible when attempting either end of the gamut. Just as riding the middle can also result in mediocrity. 'Garden Spells' could have been either achingly spare at its <300 pages, or it could have been riveting at >450. As it stands, it is neither. There are many elements left unexplored. Some things were left dangling. Passages cried out for a fuller treatment...just as many demanded to have even less print used to express them. In the end, 'Garden Spells' is neither exquisitely reserved nor a richly woven. Again, our loss.

Having said all this, and keeping in mind my confession, I enjoyed 'Garden Spells'. It wasn't all that it could have been, but it contained sufficient trigger points (one of the lead characters, Claire, is so very much the literary embodiment of Heidi, 'the one that got away' for me) so as to create a constant tone for me, allowing me to be *moved* time and time again. Not enough to award it 5 stars...but then, I am a harsh critic.

My wish for Ms Allen is twofold: one, that she get the editorial input she deserves, and two, that she's able to plumb more of her talent before she has to leave this particular well and move on to other sources.

I began reading this book without any knowlege of it beforehand. I'm glad I approached it in that way, otherwise I might have passed it by and never experienced this sweet debut novel. If this book is anything to go by, Sarah Addison Allen will have many years of writing warm, enjoyable novels to keep readers entertained.

The book was a magical, joyful ride for me. Not terribly complicated but just deep enough to show the reader a family in need of healing. A contemporary romance with some dark overtones about what can happen when people make the wrong choices in their lives. Claire made the wrong choice when she decided to separate herself from the townspeople in Bascom, North Carolina. The memories she had of the life her mother had led made Claire desperate to cling to the things which would never change. She didn't even want to admit the indesputable fact that all things change and she would need to learn how to change with them.

Sydney made the wrong choice when she decided to separate herself from her entire family by leaving Bascom as soon as she had graduated from high school. It took her ten long years to realize that everything she was running from was exactly the thing she needed in order to make her life have a purpose. Her daughter, Bay, deserved the stability living life as a Waverley family member could give her. Bay was portrayed as a remarkable child, old and wise beyond her six years. And this author made me accept that level of maturity in one so young. She had already seen the dark side of life and it had left its mark on her. But there was also fun and laughter and delight and love. Sydney suffered all the physical and psychological abuse because she had originally wished to be just like her mother, a free spirit, with nothing to tie her down. Neither sister really knew the other. Just as it can happen in any family, you think you know a sibling, a parent, a child, but then something happens to make you realize you only know as much as another person allows you to know.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. This author did not start out by explaining anything about the abilities of the Waverley women. But by reading deeper and deeper into the book each of their abilities was revealed. This is not a book about witchcraft or doing magic tricks or spells. The magic portrayed here is much, much more subtle. Did the apple tree really have any power? Or was it just that people believed that it did and that made their lives change? I can't wait to see how Ms Allen handles her second book. I'm glad to say that this gentle, Southern voice rings clear and true.

This is an absolutely delightful, adorable book. I love reading about the South & its always quirky characters and this book has some of the best. I would love to know Evanelle and see what she would "just have" to give me. Also the women who just "know" how to please a man and the men who always married older women. But of all the wonderful characters none could compare to the apple tree. I wanted to be a part of this family and have lunch under the branches of the apple tree. I can still see the tree holding the family pictures and not letting them go. I can't wait to read her next book.