Garden Spells

Read a genre-defying book on my road trip last weekend and I really enjoyed it.  The book is called Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen.  It was a fairly quick book, I got through it in one sitting, it was one of those books you keep turning the page without realizing it.  This story is very interesting to me because it is one of those books that can not be lumped into any one genre.  It is set in the present in the fictional town of Bascom North Carolina, a genteel semi-southern town, the story deals with everyday problems such as love, loss, personal history, trying to find a job, trying to fit in, all of the fun chic-lit stuff you would expect from a fictional book aimed at that target audience. Then there is the fantasy aspect of it, the town if full of magic, but it is a really subtle magic.  There are no spells being recited, no dancing naked under a full moon, no fairies or elves...but there is a magic apple tree that tells the future.
Essentially the story is about a small town where all of the named families (that is what I call families who have been in the area for a while that you instantly recognize by there family name e.g. Kennedy) have a special "talent" that borders on magical.  The Clark women are all amazing at the art of seduction and sex ( the saying is if you marry a Clark woman you will always be happy).  There is a family where the men always marry older women as they are born an old soul in a young mans body.  Then there are the Waverly's this family has perhaps the most overt of talents.  Everybody in the family seems to posses some very specfic bit of magic and this book tells the story of three generations of Waverly girls

  The story focuses on two sisters Claire and Sydney Waverly who were abandoned by their mother at a young age to live in Bascom with their grandmother before dying in a car accident a few years later.  This leads to two very different paths for the girls.  Claire clings to her very ordered way of life, living alone in the big house left to her by her grandmother and running her catering business mainly using plants and flowers from her magic garden.  This is no ordinary catering company as Claire has the ability to use the plants and flowers in her cooking to bring about certain feelings and moods.  Sydney on the other hand felt stifled and stigmatized by her families "lower" standing in this class driven town and ran away to emulate her mother whom she idolized.  Sydney leads a wild life for several years until her daughter Bay is born, leading her to stay in an abusive relationship.  Life gets turned on its head when the girls aunt Evanelle stops by to bring two sets of sheets and strawberry Pop-Tarts to Claire's house.  Evanelle's talent is to give people things, usually random everyday objects that turn out to have a very important use later. Turns out the sheets are for Sydney and her daughter Bay (who just happens to love strawberry Pop-Tarts) who had finally left her abusive boyfriend to come home and live
       with her sister.  The story continues to introduce you to several townspeople and some of the towns history both ancient and more recent.  The sisters have to learn to love and trust one another again, and learn to let other people be part of their lives.  The story ends with a bit of tension then with a happily ever for now, which is always nice.
I found this book to be very sweet and very interesting.  I liked the writing style that the author used, it was very story telling like (I don't know how else to describe it) with bits of history or trivia thrown in where appropriate.  I like how she did not feel the need to explain all of the magic and talents, she just left it as this is how it is in this town, which to me made it feel very natural.  I have heard this story compared (favorably and unfavorably) to Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, which I can see, but to be honest I liked this one a tad bit better.  Overall a great, quick read that does not require to much effort from the reader.  Perfect for a light summer porch read with a big glass of ice tea. I give it 4 out of 5 chocolate chip cookies

What do you like to read on the porch?  Which genre would you place a book like this into?  Who wants to make me some honeysuckle wine so I can see in the dark?