Though I didn't get to interview local author Sarah Addison Allen prior to the March launch of her novel, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, that book stands out as my favorite that I reviewed this past year. Allen, a formerly frustrated romance writer, found her voice with the Southern-set, best-selling magical realism novel Garden Spells. The Girl Who Chased the Moon is Allen's third book in that genre, a dreamy work of fiction that touches the known world but in which everything seems infused with sparkle and possibility. People have magical powers — not in the Marvel Comics sense, but in the still-believable sense. These are fairy tales for grownups. — Alli Marshall
“The story, set in a small North Carolina town, is anything but small-minded. Teenager Emily arrives in Mullaby after losing her mother. She’s come to live with a grandfather who she’s never met before and, upon arriving, finds her grandfather is a real-life giant. But Grandpa Vance is hardly the oddest thing about Mullaby. For starters, the whole town smells of barbecue. The wallpaper in Emily’s room changes pattern of its own accord, the townspeople all avoid Emily like the plague, Emily’s neighbor, Julia, bakes cakes to bring back lost love, and there are mysterious lights in the woods at night. For Emily, it’s almost too much to bear.”
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