The Night Garden by Lisa Van Allen

Nestled in the bucolic town of Green Valley in upstate New York, the Pennywort farm appears ordinary, yet at its center lies something remarkable: a wild maze of colorful gardens that reaches beyond the imagination. Local legend says that a visitor can gain answers to life’s most difficult problems simply by walking through its lush corridors.

Yet the labyrinth has never helped Olivia Pennywort, the garden’s beautiful and enigmatic caretaker. She has spent her entire life on her family’s land, harboring a secret that forces her to keep everyone at arm’s length. But when her childhood best friend, Sam Van Winkle, returns to the valley, Olivia begins to question her safe, isolated world and wonders if she at last has the courage to let someone in. As she and Sam reconnect, Olivia faces a difficult question: Is the garden maze that she has nurtured all of her life a safe haven or a prison?

From Goodreads description

There was something very familiar about this story. It is close to fairytales - a beautiful young woman is cursed by a magical gift that prevents her from accepting the man she loves. There is even a bit of Sleeping Beauty at the end. And like the modern fairytales (a la Disney rather than Grimm) you know even as you start to read that there will be a happy ending. 

The book falls into a type that I have come across before on this blog. There were obvious but not surprising similarities with the other book by Lisa van Allen that I have reviewed here (The Wishing Thread) and also with The House at the End of Hope Street by Menna van Praag. In the publisher's promotional material it is suggested that the book will appeal to readers of those by Sarah Addison Allen, Aimee Bender, and Alice Hoffman. I don't know about Addison Allen, but the worlds of Bender and Hoffman are harsher than Van Allen's. As I have said before I like my magic realism with an edge, but Van Allen is clearly writing for an audience that does not share my preferences. 

Those readers who like chick-lit magic realism will find much to enjoy here. The descriptions are lush (if with too many adjectives for my liking) and reflect the rich growth of the Pennywort magical garden in a world of drought-induced barrenness. This is in contrast with Olivia's life, which is spartan emotionally and restricted geographically. In fact all the main characters are in some way afflicted by an inability to feel and/or hold. Olivia's father has separated himself from the world by living as a hermit in a ravine, Sam literally cannot feel anything, having lost all sensation from his skin following an accident, and Olivia cannot touch those she loves without hurting them. 

Olivia's curse creates some interesting challenges for the writer. How do you write a love scene when there can be no physical embrace? If you are Lisa Van Allen, the answer is very successfully: the scene is surprisingly sexy. And how do you bring about a resolution to the story? I gather from fellow Goodreads reviewers that not everyone was satisfied by the somewhat ambiguous answer to the latter question, but it didn't bother me. Indeed, despite my comments about its familiarity at the beginning of this review, the plot is not without a few twists and unexpected revelations, which are definite plus points as far as this reviewer is concerned. 

If you want a book to curl up in front of the fire with, this might be the book for you.

I received this book free from the publisher via Edelweiss in return for a fair review.

Wishing Thread by Lisa Van Allen

The Van Ripper women have been the talk of Tarrytown, New York, for centuries. Some say they’re angels; some say they’re crooks. In their tumbledown “Stitchery,” not far from the stomping grounds of the legendary Headless Horseman, the Van Ripper sisters—Aubrey, Bitty, and Meggie—are said to knit people’s most ardent wishes into beautiful scarves and mittens, granting them health, success, or even a blossoming romance. But for the magic to work, sacrifices must be made—and no one knows that better than the Van Rippers.
 
When the Stitchery matriarch, Mariah, dies, she leaves the yarn shop to her three nieces. Aubrey, shy and reliable, has dedicated her life to weaving spells for the community, though her sisters have long stayed away. Bitty, pragmatic and persistent, has always been skeptical of magic and wants her children to have a normal, nonmagical life. Meggie, restless and free-spirited, follows her own set of rules. Now, after Mariah’s death forces a reunion, the sisters must reassess the state of their lives even as they decide the fate of the Stitchery. But their relationships with one another—and their beliefs in magic—are put to the test. Will the threads hold?

Goodreads Description

This book is women's fiction with a touch of magic.  This type of fiction isn't my normal choice, but as part of my magic realism challenge I try to read widely and it often pays off, as with this book. I enjoyed this book. It wasn't particularly challenging in subject matter or technically, but it is a good story told well. Just when I thought I knew where the story was heading, there was a unexpected twist towards the end. 

Is the magic in this story real? Is it coincidence? Is it wishful thinking? Bitty, the eldest sister, doesn't believe in it. Bitty would have been happy to believe it was real. She would have been the first person to say "sign me up!" But in the end, magic was a false security, a grasping at power that humans didn't have but desperately wished for.

The fact is that the magic of the Stitchery is unreliable. None of the guardians of the Stitchery (including Aubrey and Mariah) is able to guarantee that the spells, which they knit into the garments they create, will work. Nor does there seem to be any logic or explanation about which spells fail, which sometimes happens heartbreakingly. This questioning of the magic runs through the book, not just in the doubts of the characters like Bitty, but also in the narration - Chapter One ends with The magic of the Van Ripper family, they said, was in the knitting. If it was magic at all.

In the end it comes down to whether you are like Aubrey, who sees the magic and some sort of order in the world, or like Bitty.

It is interesting that in this book, as in The Threads of the Heart, the women's magic is based in a traditional woman's craft. In other magic realism books about women the magic is to be found in the preparation of food. I have spoken elsewhere about magic realism as a vehicle for showing women's strength. What does placing the magic in traditional female activity say about women?  Speaking for myself knitting doesn't exactly float my boat. It seems a very passive activity to me, but I can see that a lot of readers will enjoy and understand the knitting symbolism more than me. 

As the eldest of three sisters, I found the relationship between the three very different Van Ripper girls both interesting and well drawn. Both Bitty and Meggie have for different reasons turned their backs on the Stitchery and now are drawn back by Mariah's death, Aubrey's need for her family and, whilst they do not admit it, their own needs. I would have liked more about their relationships.  

This book has been recommended to people who enjoy Alice Hoffman and Sarah Addison Allen. It is light and gentle, with a little but not too much romance. All in all it is an enjoyable read.

I received this book through Netgalley in return for a fair review.