Book Review: The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster

By Jessica Asbell

The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster, by Scott Wilbanks, is a wonderfully inventive tale that weaves a link between 1890s Kansas and 1990s San Francisco. In 1895 Kansas, Elsbeth Grundy discovers a monstrosity of a house in the middle of her wheat field that wasnt there the day before. Infuriated, she marches up to the house to demand why the owner built it in her field, when suddenly she lands flat on her back, knocked down by something unseen. Undeterred, she writes a letter to the owner of the house and places it in a mysterious mailbox. 100 years later, but still somehow the same day, Annabelle Aster of San Francisco receives it. It seems that the red door that Annie purchased at an antique shop somehow leads her to 1895 and Elsbeth. However, neither is able to get close to the door without being repelled. As Annie and her friend Christian discover the origins of this mysterious door, they learn that its owner was murdered. Thus begins their race to stop a murder that took place one hundred years ago before it happens. As they attempt to change the fate of the magician who created the door, they find that time is a lot more flexible, and the dangers lurking within it are closer than they thought. In their race to stop the murder and to prevent Elsbeth from being charged with it, they change time in ways they couldnt have imagined and discover things about themselves along the way.

At its heart, The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster is about misfits finding a place to belong. Its filled with twists and turns and a few surprises along the way.