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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The red and green, 15 Mar 2006
In "Hannah's Garden," Midori Snyder spins a tale of nature spirits, ancient magic and family troubles. It could easily have been a very ordinary, uninteresting fantasy story, but Snyder's likable heroine and magical writing bring it to life. Think Charles de Lint meets Patricia McKillip. When her estranged grandfather Poppie falls seriously ill, Cassie and her student mother Anne go to visit him in the hospital, and find his farm overrun and decrepit. As they try to clean it up, Cassie begins to see things -- badger-men, elfin faces, and a seductive white-haired boy. Not to mention the sinister, troll-like neighbor, who is always lurking around the hospital. As Cassie tries to convince Anne to not sell the farm, she begins to investigate her great-grandmother Hannah's journal, before Hannah "went mad" and wandered off one day. As more and more strange creatures appear, she learns of ane ancient war between two clans of nature spirits, and the otherworldly fiddler who is Poppie's secret father... Midori Snyder has explored nature aspects in her previous books, but never with the intensity of "Hannah's Garden." Don't expect a run-of-the-mill fantasy -- these fairies aren't cute or even very nice. Even the benevolent sprites might sour your milk during the night. Snyder dips into real myths and legends -- hares, the effect of ash wood -- for this book, but the heart of it is her own creation. And the most important conflict is not between the Red and Green Clans, but between Cassie, self-absorbed Anne, and the distant Poppie. They all love one another, but they can't understand each other until the fiddler brings them together. Snyder's writing brings the story to life: each description is a swirl of color, sound, flowers and earth, and even ordinary things, like sexy Bog on a motorcycle, are filled with intrigue. Snyder also reveals enough information to keep her readers from being confused about the Red vs. Green war, and about Cassie's mixed-blood family, but holds back enough to maintain the magic. Cassie herself is the linchpin, and she's a genuinely likable protagonist. Snyder avoids the sulky adolescent stereotype, in favour of a strong, nature-loving young girl who hasn't ever gotten to be a child. Other characters like Anne and her boyfriend are not so defined, but Bog and the mystery fiddler -- and even Hannah herself -- come alive whenever they appear. With beautiful writing and a unique story, Midori Snyder's latest is a book to savour. Definitely recommended.
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