Impossible

The second book that I chose to read for the RIP IV challenge was Impossible, by Nancy Werlin. This book is a supernatural, fantiful one about a girl named Lucy, who finds out that the women in her family have been cursed by an evil Elfin Knight so that after they give birth at the age of 18 to a baby girl and fail to complete their tasks, they go crazy. The story is based around the song, “Scarborough Fair,” by Simon and Garfunkle. And in the song, there are 3 impossible tasks that she must perform or else the curse will fall to her unborn daughter. The first one is that she has to make a shirt without any seams, the second is she has to find an acre of lane in-between the seastrand and the ocean and the third is to plow the land with a goats horn and sow it with 1 kernel of corn.

The thing that differentiates Lucy from her mother and grandmothers is that she has a loving foster family as well as the love and devotion of a boy. As Lucy and her team prepare for the tasks, she learns more about herself, her family, responsibility, love and that sometimes we do things that others might not understand because we know it’s the right thing to do. As Lucy’s due date approaches, she fears for her sanity and for her daughter and the visits from the Elfin Knight do nothing to help put her at ease and she feels more alone than ever, knowing if she confides in anyone, they will think her mad.

It was a very interesting book and story line and the addition of the folk song brings a new way at looking at song lyrics. Its also interesting, because it seems like a lot of authors these days are listing music playlists on their websites or at the back of their books as music that influenced them in writing or songs that fit certain scenes. So it was interesting to actually read a book inspired by a single song.

Please feel free to comment if you’ve read this book or to let us know what you are reading for the challenge, if you decided to join!

Happy Reading everyone!

~Sarah