Writing a review for Crafting with Nana has been at times, utterly difficult. I say this because I’m more than a skeptic in magic, I’m an utter non-believer, and nothing within the book changed my mind. Believing myself to be mostly open-minded I went into the book and decided to judge it from a purely anthropological view point and to do my best to judge the writing alone. What I did not expect to happen was to encounter real life characters written with such a deep sense of love and brought to life with the warmest of memories. So you see my dilemma in reviewing the book; straddling the line between not believing in witchcraft, yet being impressed by the deep emotion that went into writing the book and the power of the oft fond memories.
The book is written decently enough, but suffers overall from choppy prose and poor pacing. The characters within the book, though lovable, are often not explored enough and vague descriptions are given for most of them. It’s difficult to find much fault here though because, as I stated before, the characters can be so endearing and they are embraced with such a fondness inherent with the writing that I couldn’t help but smile at parts.
Where I really get hung up, and the reason for deducting most points, is that even though the book can be touching and emotionally dense I don’t see anything but the most niche of readers considering this a good book. It’s inspiring, but not nearly enough to justify the entirety of the book. The characters can be heart warming, but it’s mostly due to the apparent emotion with which the book is written.
Last, but not certainly least, if you don’t believe in witchcraft or magic in general then I can’t recommend you read the book at all, as the most interesting parts of the book would be utterly invalid to you. As a true story it’s simply too hard for even the open-minded to believe, but if you want to delve into the loving written memories and a virtual love letter to the summers a young girl spent with her grandmother; then you would be hard pressed to find better.
Score: 2.5 out of 5
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review purposes.
A Flatt World 