Hanging by a Thread

I have read Littlefield before, and especially liked Banished. Now, as I am learning to sew myself the premise of Hanging By A Thread really appealed to me. Here is what's up: overall there are several stories going on here and the least interesting is the mystery. In some ways, it reminded me of a Scooby Doo episode. The “bad guys” spill their guts the second someone looks at them suspiciously. In fact, there is too much spilling going on here. People barely know or remember Clare, but within seconds they are telling her their deepest, darkest secrets. And why? She already knows from touching the fabric of their clothes! So don't read this if you are looking for a good mystery.
I know I wrote this backwards, with the bad in the beginning and the good at the end, but I want to point out what really worked in this story. First, Clare's relationships with her mom and Nana. I found her connections with them and the family's history really cool. The house in which Clare lives with her mom sparked my imagination. In fact, the entire town of Winston is in itself a character with a charming personality. I loved Clare. She was artsy and smart and more than a little nosy. I didn't “feel” the relationship with Jack (if one could call it that).
I wish more time would have been spent examining Clare's gift and I am a little sad that there is a way to rid oneself of this gift. It's a great gift! Me, I would break into museums and touch the clothes of famous dead people. Where's Blackbeard's treasure? Who shot JFK? Etc.
So, not too shabby (chic?) and not great either. Why are they releasing this in September when the story takes place on Fourth of July weekend? Why do we not see Clare's outfit on the cover? I wish I could touch a publisher's t shirt and get the answers...

If nothing else, I have to say that Sophie Littlefield's Hanging By A Thread gets points for being unique. Never before have I read a book with a premise exactly like this. Sure it has a lot of similar plot devices to most other YA paranormal, but it manages to shine a little brighter than the others. If only this book had been executed a little bit better, I know it would have become one of my favorites.

Let's start with the good. The mystery surrounding Clare's story is extremely interesting. Two years running, a local has died in a mysterious way on the 4th of July. Clare takes it upon herself to figure out exactly why. Something calls her to figure it all out. Lucky for her, she happens to have the power to see the past while touching clothes. Pretty intriguing right? I thought so too.

My biggest problem, honestly, was Clare herself. At first I was enamored with her love for vintage clothing and re-purposing old into new. However the further the book moved on, the more frustrated I became with her character. For some reason Clare seems to be drawn to the bad boy, but she never really knows why. She has a fairly sour outlook on the world, which I guess makes sense because of how she uses her powers. In fact, most everyone has some type of problem in this book. These are not a very happy set of characters.

What made it the most difficult to get through this book though was how much Clare talks about fashion. I'm no fashionista, but I'm pretty sure a lot of that could have been left out and the book still would have been wonderful. I kept flipping between really enjoying this book, and wondering when it was going anywhere. The ending saved things considerably! But by then, I was already frustrated.

Being honest, Hanging By A Thread is by no means a badly written book. The concept is great, the writing is good, it's just that the execution didn't do it for me. If you are looking for a different type of paranormal, something that is unique, give this one a shot. It might be more your style than mine.