Threading the Labyrinth

by Tiffani Angus

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 357
Rating:

Synopsis:

American owner of a failing gallery, Toni, is unexpectedly called to England when she inherits a manor house in Hertfordshire from a mysterious lost relative.

What she really needs is something valuable to sell, so she can save her business. But, leaving the New Mexico desert behind, all she finds is a crumbling building, overgrown gardens, and a wealth of historical paperwork that needs cataloguing.

Soon she is immersed in the history of the house, and all the people who tended the gardens over the centuries: the gardens that seem to change in the twilight; the ghost of a fighter plane from World War Two; the figures she sees in the corner of her eye.

A beautiful testament to the power of memory and space, Threading the Labyrinth tells the stories of those who loved this garden across the centuries, and how those lives still touch us today.

Tiffani Angus’ Threading the Labyrinth seemed like a promising choice: the idea of “garden fantasy” sounds fascinating, especially for someone who thrived on The Secret Garden rereads as a child (even if I am not really an outdoorsy person, not even as outdoorsy as the back garden). Overall, though, it just didn’t come together for me as it skipped and slipped through time, jumbling characters together and echoing them here, there and everywhere. At one point toward the end of the story the sections got really short, almost like the author ran out of patience with filling things out.

There were some lovely descriptions, and scenes which revealed character beautifully or were intriguingly mysterious. At other times, I almost couldn’t tell what was going on. In the end I found myself having difficulty not just skim-reading, because I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere.

Ultimately, not one for me, I think. Perhaps a little more patience with it is rewarding for some, but for me it just didn’t work out.

Rating: 1/5