The Pattern Shop

by Mariah Friend

Eleanorah never belonged in the bleak Midwestern town her family believes is the only safe place to be. With her fiery red hair and tendency to ask too many questions, she thought nursing school would be the escape she longed for. But when her childhood home burns down and her parents announce their divorce just before graduation, both her past and carefully calculated future go up in flames.

Exhausted by her failure to save her family or her patients, Eleanorah packs a mustard-colored backpack and buys a one-way ticket, searching for a new definition of home. With the butterfly necklace her grandfather gave her pressed tightly against her chest, Eleanorah wrestles with the limits of her love and the weight of her choices. From Ecuador to France to the one place she swore she'd never return, Eleanorah must confront the lost parts of herself—and discover what she's running toward, or risk repeating the same patterns she's desperate to change.

The Pattern Shop is a novel about the hopes and fears we inherit and the courage it takes to choose home, again and again.

282 pages, Paperback

Published December 4, 2025

About the author

Mariah Friend is a former ICU nurse turned poet and debut author of The Pattern Shop—a novel about the hopes and fears we inherit and the courage it takes to choose home, again and again. Her poetry has appeared in The Walnut Branch, Poetry South, and Entwined: Motherhood and Creativity. She writes Heartbeats, a newsletter for creative caregivers, and currently lives in the Chattanooga hills with her husband and toddler.

Reviews

[Marlise · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written debut novel!

[Jeannie Ewing · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE PATTERN SHOP by Mariah Friend is filled with thematic layers about grief, longing, family, and identity. In this literary novel, Friend's protagonist, Eleanorah, experiences a deep yearning to see the world and experience other cultures beyond her insulated upbringing in the Midwest, where her family moved in order to prepare for The End Times.

The reader travels with Eleanorah to exotic places - Ecuador, France, Africa, among them. We are invited into Eleanorah's inner world and the grappling she feels between staying away from home and returning to the people who make home what it is.

Because of the shattering of her family once her parents divorce and her childhood home burns down, Eleanorah chooses to find herself somewhere beyond the place and people who raised her.

Friend writes using eloquent language and often lyrical prose to create a truly beautiful narrative in her debut book.

I rated it at 4 stars, only because I found several editing errors that were a bit distracting to me as a reader. Otherwise, it is a gorgeous story, well worth the read.

[Katie Scoggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was such a warm and inviting read on a young woman questioning life and exploring the world for answers. As a person who lives in one of the places she visited, I love how she was able to capture the essence of the places in such a short time. I found myself think “awwww yes that’s exactly like my home!”. She captures the beauty of the land she traveled, the humanity in all her chapters and her vulnerable honestly in the main character stumbling to find her way. I imagine that a story like this would feel relatable to even those who have not stepped foot out of their home lands. That every lasting question of “what else is in store for me in this lifetime?”. Mariah captures that exploration so beautifully!

[Sha Ashra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readers of Eat, Pray, Love would love this book. Exploratory, revealing of the world's other. Reads like a memoir but with the heartbreak that you would watch in movies. For fear of giving out too much about the story, I will only say that it was beautifully written, makes the reader feel somewhat personal with the details, the history, the family. I can't wait to read what the author has to write next.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was immediately drawn into Eleanorah's story, and as I read, I found my own thought patterns in hers. I was able to relate to the roller-coaster journey of a young woman, and the insatiable seeking that takes up so much space in the heart. This is an incredibly beautiful story and one I will definitely recommend to my friends!