The Friday Night Knitting Club - E's Review

-Erin

I don’t know one single thing about knitting. I can’t even sew on a button. But it fascinates me that pieces of yarn are woven together to create beautiful masterpieces. It fascinates me that my Great-Great Aunt Nettie crocheted me a blanket before I was even born and I still sleep with it today. I mean I still have it today. Did I just admit to sleeping with a blanket at the age of 29?

This book however did not fascinate me. It left me wishing I had connected with at least ONE of the characters. It left me not understanding why the author even wrote the book. Don’t get me wrong, I, like Anna and Lisa, flew through this book. I liked the writing style, just not the content as much. And as I was flying along I kept hoping for something that would tie it all together, a place in the book where we could cut off the loose ends and sit back and marvel at how beautifully everything came together. I never got to that point. It was an easy, fun read but I didn’t love it. And I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t recommend it.

I think I have a problem. I like to become the character(s) I’m reading about. I like to wander alongside the Lake of Shining Waters, find myself in the heart of the French Revolution or jump onto platform 9 ¾ to enter a world of magic and unknown. The Friday Night Knitting Club was an escape, sure, dodging reality for long enough to not do the laundry or wash the dishes, but it wasn’t a transformation. It didn’t take me from this world into another one and it didn’t leave me wanting. The best ones leave you wanting, yearning for more. The best ones you still hang on to even when you’re almost 30 years old…