Lisa Van Allen

Have you ever read a book you just wanted to crawl into the pages and the story, and live there? That is how I felt about The Wishing Thread. If I could magically transport my life into this book, I would.

It's a family tradition for my brother and I to love the story of the Headless Horseman and Sleepy Hollow. We know the Disney cartoon by heart, the songs, the dialogue, even the lines from the cartoon shorts that come before it on the DVD. I loved the Johnny Depp movie version, and I am show more excited for the upcoming television show, although it involves time travel and that usually turns me off. I sadly have never read the Washington Irving story, but I plan on correcting that in October.

I looked at the blurb for the book, and was a little apprehensive. I have had bad experiences with books that take place or are based on an original story, like this one. Or Scarlett, that sad sequel to Gone with the Wind. So I started reading a little reservedly. It didn't take long for the story and the characters to steal me away into their lives.

Aubrey and her two sisters grew up with their aunt in a house that had been in the family for generations. Their house is known as The Stichery around town, and always had been. The Van Rippen family's heritage is long and winding and magical. They can knit spells, fulfilling the wishes of those who come to them, desperate, hopeful, resigned. The wisher must give up something of great importance to them in order for the deal to be made, and for the spell to work. But this is not a guarantee that the magic will work, just a sign of good faith between the two.

The idea of being able to embed emotions such as dreams and wishes, and curses like anger and despair into creative works is also called sympathetic magic. I have read this as a device in another book, where it was said that women who made quilts while waiting for their loved ones to come back from war sewed those emotions right into the quilts. I find this idea fascinating - I am pretty fanciful, and halfway believe that the transference really could happen.

The sisters grow up, and one by one leave The Stitchery - except Aubrey. She is different. She is the chosen one to stay on and grant the wishes, the sign of the choosing being her bright electric blue eyes. This part confused me, I wasn't sure if it was her whole entire eye that was blue, including the whites, or just the iris. Their beloved aunt dies, and her sisters come home for a visit. At this point, their lives start unraveling, and outside forces are working against them and The Stitchery. It is up to them to come together to change their own fates.

When I finished reading the story, I read the author interview and book club questions in the back. One of the book club questions was what would you would wish for, and what would you give up in the hopes of your wish coming true? You don't have to say, because I am sure your wishes are personal, but I think it is a thought provoking question.

This book is wonderful - magical, hopeful, yet with the real struggles that people actually go through in life, with a touch of Headless Horseman. The book was set during the fall, and it made me wish for autumn, with its crisp breezes, crunchy leaves, and sweaters and jeans, and is my favorite time of the year. And I don't knit, but I think I am going to give it a try this winter! show less

“To visit the Pennywort farm was to be reminded of everything in the world that was beautiful and bountiful…luxurious and endlessly good.”

In upstate New York, Olivia Pennywort tends the family farm and the remarkable garden maze that she has created as a haven at its heart. It is said that the maze offers its visitors the answers to their most difficult questions, but it affords no such benefit to its caretaker who harbours a secret that forces her to keep everyone at arm’s length. show more Over the years, Olivia has schooled herself to accept that there is no solution to her problem, but when Olivia’s childhood best friend and sweetheart, Sam Van Winkle, returns to town, her fiercest desires are rekindled and she is compelled to ask herself if the garden she has created is her protector, or her prison.

Van Allen’s prose is often lyrical, with vivid imagery of the garden and its surrounds. I could easily visualise the bordered up house, the stone walled garden of poisonous plants and the ramshackle cottage where Olivia’s father made his home, though I wish I had a better knowledge of horticulture to fully appreciate the individual design of the maze.

” As she approached the garden maze, she saw that it too had gone wild with the joy of the rains. The smell of flowers was so thick it crossed the line from pleasant into nearly repulsive. Inside, Olivia wound through the twists and turns, admiring how rambunctious and joyful her maze seemed, as if it were spring instead of late summer. Morning glories the size of dinner plates stayed open all day long, and thickened beds of coreopsis gave off a mustardly glow. There was a slight breeze that carried the faintest scent of autumn, and far beneath the sweetness, the mineral scent of winter.”

Though billed as magical realism, the magic wasn’t grounded in the way I would expect from the genre, and instead I feel the story had more in common with a modern reinterpretation of a fairytale like Sleeping Beauty. Olivia, beautiful and beloved by all, lives alone at a top of a tower, is essentially trapped in stasis, and is eventually rescued by her Prince Charming, who has to hack through wild overgrowth to save her.

The romance between Olivia and Sam, which began when they were childhood sweethearts, and is reignited on his return, is touching and soulful. I sympathised with their hopes and fears for their relationship, I believed in their yearning to be together and I could feel their frustration at not being able to have skin contact.

” And then he was threading his fingers into the mass, twisting and untwisting it in his hands. She didn’t even try to make conversation while he touched her; the sensation was too exquisite, too painful and pleasurable at the same time. He combed his fingers through her hair from top to bottom, and each time he caught a tangle it was like a little bite, a small and precise blast of desire like the spark from flint and steel.”

In terms of plot, however, the neighborly conflict seems forced and fizzles out, and though we are told the garden can offer help to those seeking answers, Van Allen never really shows this. The overall conclusion too is unrealized, almost as if Van Allen couldn’t figure out how to solve the conundrum herself, and so just hoped the reader would would accept vague assurances of ‘love conquers all’.

A tale of loss, grief, desire, love and hope, I enjoyed the story of The Night Garden. show less

Have you ever read a book you just wanted to crawl into the pages and the story, and live there? That is how I felt about The Wishing Thread. If I could magically transport my life into this book, I would.

It's a family tradition for my brother and I to love the story of the Headless Horseman and Sleepy Hollow. We know the Disney cartoon by heart, the songs, the dialogue, even the lines from the cartoon shorts that come before it on the DVD. I loved the Johnny Depp movie version, and I am show more excited for the upcoming television show, although it involves time travel and that usually turns me off. I sadly have never read the Washington Irving story, but I plan on correcting that in October.

I looked at the blurb for the book, and was a little apprehensive. I have had bad experiences with books that take place or are based on an original story, like this one. Or Scarlett, that sad sequel to Gone with the Wind. So I started reading a little reservedly. It didn't take long for the story and the characters to steal me away into their lives.

Aubrey and her two sisters grew up with their aunt in a house that had been in the family for generations. Their house is known as The Stichery around town, and always had been. The Van Rippen family's heritage is long and winding and magical. They can knit spells, fulfilling the wishes of those who come to them, desperate, hopeful, resigned. The wisher must give up something of great importance to them in order for the deal to be made, and for the spell to work. But this is not a guarantee that the magic will work, just a sign of good faith between the two.

The idea of being able to embed emotions such as dreams and wishes, and curses like anger and despair into creative works is also called sympathetic magic. I have read this as a device in another book, where it was said that women who made quilts while waiting for their loved ones to come back from war sewed those emotions right into the quilts. I find this idea fascinating - I am pretty fanciful, and halfway believe that the transference really could happen.

The sisters grow up, and one by one leave The Stitchery - except Aubrey. She is different. She is the chosen one to stay on and grant the wishes, the sign of the choosing being her bright electric blue eyes. This part confused me, I wasn't sure if it was her whole entire eye that was blue, including the whites, or just the iris. Their beloved aunt dies, and her sisters come home for a visit. At this point, their lives start unraveling, and outside forces are working against them and The Stitchery. It is up to them to come together to change their own fates.

When I finished reading the story, I read the author interview and book club questions in the back. One of the book club questions was what would you would wish for, and what would you give up in the hopes of your wish coming true? You don't have to say, because I am sure your wishes are personal, but I think it is a thought provoking question.

This book is wonderful - magical, hopeful, yet with the real struggles that people actually go through in life, with a touch of Headless Horseman. The book was set during the fall, and it made me wish for autumn, with its crisp breezes, crunchy leaves, and sweaters and jeans, and is my favorite time of the year. And I don't knit, but I think I am going to give it a try this winter! show less

First, I want to say that the cover for this book is just beautiful. I say this only because when I got my copy in the mail, I was so disappointed that the cover on the book I received was a generic galley cover. (I know, how petty of me ~ *sigh*)
That aside, I enjoyed this book so much more than I thought I would. I know absolutely ZILCH about knitting. When I was little, my sister and I were sent to an old woman in a ramshackled old house who would sit on her front porch on a battered old show more rocking chair to teach us how to crochet. My sister was a natural. Me, not so much. My "potholder" looked more like the state of Texas than the small square it was supposed to be. I can tell you that even though I didn't learn to crochet, I did learn a few things from that wizened old woman that perhaps, are worth so much more than being able to make a passable scarf. Just the time spent with my closest sister is priceless to me now. This book resonates with me in so many different ways, I felt a bit bereft when I was finished reading.
The emotional ties between the sisters was something that touched a part of my soul. I know that sounds corny but being the oldest of a biological trio of sisters myself, I saw a great deal of our own bonds that hold us together as well as the same un-nameable "something" that scatters us apart. This author has such lush prose and her characters are brought to life so vividly for me. I think this book did indeed have some magic woven into it.

FTC Advisory: I won a copy of this book through the GoodReads First Reads program. No compensation for my review was given. show less