The story follows a linear gathering of characters from the mid 1760's till the present day in an area around the small town of Blackwell, MA. A rich tapestry of players enter the stage, from Hallie, a simple colonial girl searching for something more, to a contemporary girl that has her life planned out, only to be interrupted by the tenderness of a secluded poet.
Each chapter represents differing stories that are faintly connected through geographical location, sentiment or family heritage. I found this format to be on one hand, a fresh idea in a book, but on the other, it left me with a bit of a disjointed feeling. One thing that does tie the character's stories together is a liberal dose of mystery, that includes a ghost of a drowned girl, an apple tree that blossomed and provided fruit to the town of Blackwell in the year without a summer, a supposed mermaid, and of course a garden where everything that is grown is red.
Some chapter stories were painted more rich and bold by the author and some held more of an impressionist style that had me trying to read between the lines for thoughts on how all the pieces fit together and left me wondering what the characters lives were like in the future.
Over all, I found the book to be interesting, drawing me in with the layered time periods and characters that form around an area that comes to be known as the Red Garden.
