I was first drawn to this book because it was compared to the writing of Alice Hoffman and Sarah Addison Allen, two authors of the Magical Realism genre whose books I have enjoyed over the years. Sadly, the comparison was unwarranted. The Wishing Thread lacks the expert storytelling of Hoffman, and characters did not have the warmth that Sarah Addison Allen is so adept at creating in her books. 
 On the positive side, it did teach me that Tarrytown, NY is the home of the Sleepy Hollow/Headless Horseman story, a fact that came in handy the other night on Jeopardy.