Garden Spells

The Waverly family has alternately fascinated and frightened the citizens of Bascom, North Carolina for many years. Their magical abilities are well known in the small college town. Even the plants in the Waverly garden have a reputation for their mysterious traits, especially the apple tree. Everyone in town knows that if you eat an apple from the Waverlys’ tree you will have a vision of the biggest event in your life. The Waverlys take special pains to keep people out of their garden because the visions have ruined many a life.

“He was born old and would spend his whole life waiting for his body to catch up.”

The Waverlys are the only people in the town of Bascom who are known to have magical talents, but the entire town has an air of enchantment to it. There are families who have lived in Bascom for ages, and they all have a certain destiny tied to their family name. The Hopkins men all marry older women. The Clark women are all fabulous in bed. And the Young family always has at least one male heir named Phineas who is the strongest man in town.

While Claire Waverly has chosen a very secluded life for herself, she has also made the bold decision to use her special Waverly talent to make a living. She has a gift for cooking, but her special dishes are sought after for more than their deliciousness. Claire’s recipes can change people’s thoughts and alter their feelings, and the people of Bascom keep her busy with a combination of dinner parties and hidden agendas.

Claire and her sister, Sydney, were left to live with their grandmother in Bascom when their ever-wandering mother decided to travel without them. Claire’s mother actually seemed to settle down for a while after Sydney’s birth, and Claire was always jealous of Sydney, who was brought to Bascom as an infant and had never known the turmoil of a life constantly on the move. Claire kept her distance from Sydney when they were young and, so the two girls never became close. Sydney left Bascom as soon as she graduated high school, and Claire always held herself responsible. Scared of being abandoned by anyone else, Claire makes it a point not to get close to anybody. With her grandmother passed on, her elderly cousin, Evanelle, is now the only comfort in Claire’s life.

“There, in the cluster of Queen Anne’s lace, tiny leaves of ivy were sprouting. Ivy in the garden. Overnight. The garden was saying that something was trying to get in, something that was pretty and looked harmless but would take over everything if given a chance.”

Claire tells herself that she’s happy leading a small, solitary life. She fights change like she would a weed in her beloved garden, but changes come anyway. Tyler Hughes moves into the house next door and finds himself immediately enamored with Claire, despite her best efforts to push him away. Then, Sydney returns to Bascom with her daughter, Bay, looking for the shelter and security of her childhood home. Sydney won’t tell her why she’s there, but Claire can sense the danger around her sister as the threat grows. The two sisters try to come to grips with their family’s magical legacy and begin to truly know each other for the first time. But questions still linger. Will Claire ever get over her fear of being abandoned? Has Sydney’s dark secret brought danger right to the Waverlys’ garden gate? And can Claire and Sydney heal wounds of their youth in time to help each other face the biggest challenge of their lives?

“The envelope was brighter, as if filled with lightning bugs, lit by hope.”

Garden Spells caught my attention right away. Sentences like that one played on my fondness for the magical. Sarah Addison Allen’s writing is beautiful, perhaps even a little flowery at times, but those who love a little magic mixed in with their realism will enjoy it immensely. Claire Waverly, the character at the center of this story, is rather serious and troubled. The book begins from her perspective, and the story would have been a little heavy for me if it weren’t for some of the lighter characters who show up. Claire’s cousin, Evanelle, is a reader’s treasure. She arrives on Claire’s doorstep at the beginning of the story with a sparkle of humor. The warmth and simple magic she offers gives Claire, and the reader, a sense of lightness and comfort. Evanelle’s special talent is knowing someone will need something before they themselves know they need it. She will bring someone a flashlight weeks before her power goes out or a Band-Aid hours before she scrapes her knee. Although it’s clear that Claire and Sydney each have an area where their talent works best, their magic isn’t so easily defined. They both seem to have a heightened perception of the world around them. Things that a normal person might just sense, Claire and Sydney can physically see or feel, often in the form of light or heat.

“She couldn’t make him out clearly, but there were tiny pinpricks of purple light hovering around him, like electrical snaps.”

At first I was a little disappointed with the story’s antagonists. I was particularly bothered by Sydney’s ex- friend Emma. She’s predictably shallow and jealous, and she was never truly a friend to Sydney at all. But as the story progressed I realized Emma was not the flat character she seemed to be. Sydney’s scary, abusive ex-lover, however, has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The man is pure evil. But his character drives the plot forward. One finds oneself hoping that something terrible happens to him because it seems the only way for the main characters to ever find peace.

I really loved this book, but why? I loved the subtle ways the sisters’ magic is revealed (Ah, those purple sparks!). I loved the way the garden and the house were actually characters and active participants in the story. At times the apple tree’s antics were a little silly. It brought to mind the creepy talking trees in the Wizard of Oz. But in its more understated moments, the tree’s participation in the family’s life was quite endearing. When it comes down to it, Garden Spells is simply my kind of book. There’s magic, but it’s the kind of magic that almost feels as if it could be real. There are plenty of well-developed, lovable characters, and they are flawed and quirky just as I like them. And there is love, all kinds of love. Sisterly love. Romantic love. The love between a mother and child. Love everywhere you turn.

“Here’s a secret about men. Our foolishness is always unintentional. But it’s usually for a good reason.”

I am so thoroughly excited to have stumbled upon this fabulous author. And I am very excited that she has written plenty of other books that I can read. Sarah Addison Allen is a southerner, and she allows that to permeate her writing in the most delightful way. I will be reading The Peach Keeper soon, and I’m excited to see that it takes place in the south as well. I highly recommend this book to fellow romantics and lovers of magical stories.

“I think of the future all the time. All my life I’ve chased dreams of what could be. For the first time in my life, I’ve actually caught one…I’ll give you one day at a time…But remember, I’m thousands of days ahead already.”