Walking the Labyrinth

Lisa Goldenstein has crafted a twisty, turny tale worthy of its title. The reader is drawn along with Molly Travers and Private Investigator John Stow as they traverse the maze trying to uncover the history of Molly's recently discovered family of travelling illusionists. Is the magic real? What happened to Thorne? Who hired the investigator? The answers only beget more questions --and nobody gives a straight answer-- as they travel across the globe from Oakland to Chicago to London. They must be careful as the more they uncover, the more people are after the secrets of Molly's family and the mysterious Order of the Labyrinth.
Molly is a well-drawn and dynamic character who is as much in the dark as the rest of us. The suspense and show more wonder and confusion are keenly felt by both her and the reader. Both make suppositions and begin to guess at the eventual outcome; some inferences are right and others are wrong. The cast of supporting characters are fascinating and amusing, and as the web between them grows, amazing things begin to happen. Molly will never look at the world in the same way, and neither will the reader.
I'd like to thank NetGalley and Open Road media for the chance to review this amazing book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to see the world in a different way. show less

4.5 stars

Last December, I read Lisa Goldstein's National Book Award-winning The Red Magician and was not impressed. Thus it was with some trepidation that I accepted Open Road Media's invitation to review Walking the Labyrinth, originally published in 1998, five years after The Red Magician. My concern could not have been more misplaced; those five years were a period of spectacular growth in Goldstein's writing.

Walking the Labyrinth is, like The Red Magician, a paranormal fantasy. However, while Walking the Labyrinth is informed by the time and place of its setting, it is not driven by them in the way that The Red Magician depended on the Holocaust for its meaning. Instead, Walking the Labyrinth is a multi-generational family drama, in show more which the family members happen to possess a variety of supernatural powers. Although those powers do play a key role in resolving the book's central mystery (what happened to Callan Allalie's sister Thorne), they are just the icing on the cake; the real meat of the story (to use yet another food metaphor) is Goldstein's moving and insightful exploration of the Allalie family's internal dynamics: jealousy, envy, sibling rivalry, money issues, handling the pressures of a travelling life.

The labyrinth is found in many faith traditions throughout history. In the Episcopalian church, we view the labyrinth as both a journey to the center of the self and a process of transformation. The labyrinth in Goldstein's book has no specific religious meaning, but it does serve as a tool for self-knowledge and as a method for transforming relationships, for both the better and the worse. In this sense, the labyrinth is a perfect symbol for all families, even those (like mine) which lack magical powers. Approaching the book with this in mind makes the experience of reading Walking the Labyrinth even richer and more rewarding.

I received a free copy of Walking the Labyrinth from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. show less

I read this book quite few years ago and liked it. Rereading it, I still find it entertaining although it is hard to get into many of the characters. Molly is a likable enough protagonist and does develop in the course of the novel; still at the end her sudden recognition of her powers seems like a deus ex machina and not very satisfying. Most other characters don't engage me, perhaps because of the persistent illusions and concealments. The labyrinth is both physical and metaphorical. Emily, Fentrice, and Molly all draw power from walking the physical labyrinth. But the labyrinth is also a metaphor for personal development and learning about oneself.

Walking the Labyrinth tells the story of Molly Travers and the maze she walks in discovering who her family is, and in a way, who she is.

Be aware, this review may contain a certain amount of information that could be considered "spoilers".

I'd really like half-star ratings - I would give this one 3.5

I received this book in exchange for a review, through NetGalley. The description of the story was very interesting. The execution of the story was sound, but I found myself feeling like I would not have finished the book if I were not a little obligated to do so. Therefore, a 3-star "It's okay" most accurately reflects my feelings on the story.

A third or more of the book is actually made up of text from books within the story; a couple of show more diaries and information collected from a visit to the library. These texts were really quite interesting, but made the in-progress moments with Molly feel lessened.

Molly was, at turns, a very good, strong character and at others a very frustrating one. My biggest peeve was her "relationship" with Peter. She loves Peter, utterly. There's NO reason for it, except convenience - and the reader is simply expected to accept it. He is, by all accounts, a bore and a callous jerk - Molly is just obsessed. But she's not even really obsessed, unless there is a downswing in the momentum of the story. Peter is a filler - and meant to build tension. In a way, he does - but it's not a good way. Ultimately, the whole story would've been better without him. He was almost entirely unnecessary; without him, the story would have only required a little agency on the part of a couple other characters to make it work. Without him, Molly would've been better - while he may have served a role in her journey (through the labyrinth), her development could've been achieved in better ways, I feel.

In addition, characterization seemed to fall flat for almost every character. Alex's question to Molly (near the end) was completely unexpected and felt like another bone toward building intrigue that failed. the family's last name being 'solved' by John, the PI, was not at all a surprise to any reader, but the character unveils it (and Molly reacts to it) as though it were.

The ending felt a little bit abrupt and neatly tied everything into a bow. This wasn't a bad thing, even if it felt a little bit too tidy. What ever happened to Tom, the trumpeter? That detail wasn't particularly needed, but given the tension with the two men who are never identified... it seems like Tom at least deserved a little closure.

Overall: Walking the Labyrinth was a fairly even read. It was well written and did not require a great deal of suspension-of-disbelief even though it dealt heavily in illusion, magic, and the ways we both fool ourselves and others. Based on this book, I'd probably read more of Goldstein's work, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to everyone. I also hope that Goldstein's award winning works perform better than this one did. show less

I have several of this author's books stacked in my tbr mountain, reading them one at a time until I get through them all. This one I would classify as a light occult mystery; it was fun but really started falling apart toward the end. I was so disappointed! This could have a fun occult mystery if she had wanted to go into a little more depth.

a little peek:
The main character is Molly Travers, who lives in the SF bay area and was raised by her great-aunt Fentrice after being orphaned at the age of three. Molly gets a visit from a John Stow, who is a private investigator, looking for Molly's aunt Fentrice. Eventually, Molly finds out about her family background -- her relatives were members of the Allalie family, great magicians and show more masters of illusion in the 1930s. She also finds out that her family had a connection to something called The Order of the Labyrinth, which started in England during the Victorian period. During a trip to England, Molly finds out more about her ancestry, and in the process finds out a great deal about herself. The Labyrinth metaphor is (according to google!) "a metaphor for your life's journey" and this is the point of Molly's adventures -- to find out something about herself.

I just wish it had been a little more in depth, but it was a fun read overall. show less

This is my favorite Lisa Goldstein book. It grabbed me from the 1st page and kept me hooked all the way to the end.

Good mystery but weak ending.