When I first started reading this book, I found myself just the slightest bit bored.
That quickly changed.
Each chapter travels further forward in time, from the beginnings of the founding of the town of Blackwell to 200 years into modern day. Characters and relations of those characters can be found carrying over into each chapter, from ghosts to beloved bears to love found in the most uncommon of ways, and of course, love found and lost in the saddest of ways.
Surrounding it all is the Red Garden, which both begins and ends the book. I'll leave you to decide what it stands for.
An exceptional book, and for me, one of Alice Hoffman's best.
Read 2/24/11
Join me at Goodreads.com!
Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off. She's also a contributor to Art Bead Scene. She is also the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.
I loved that book too!
ReplyDeleteThis book is on my list to read too.
ReplyDeleteIf you like Alice Hoffman try Sarah Addison Allen's Garden Spells. There's a tree in the book that is a major character. It's a great book. Her second book, The Sugar Queen is pretty good too.
I either love Alice Hoffman or I'm annoyed with Alice Hoffman!! lol!!! I think that's a good thing though -- we don't have to "like" everything an author writes. I'll give this one a try!
ReplyDeleteFinished this in a quick sitting ... and loved it. It was one of Alice Hoffman's "I love her" books and I loved how she wove it through time! Thanks for the recommendation!
ReplyDelete