Reviews

A sweeping family saga with a beautiful eco-stewardship theme that’s thoroughly let down by its ending.

When I first started this book, it was a 5-star. I loved the set-up, the dystopian world, the anti-consumerist/capitalist vibe. My enjoyment started to wane a wee bit during the Everett/Willow time period. While I recognize that not every generation had a robust storyline worth sharing, we spent an awful lot of time with these two which felt unenjoyable when it became apparent how awful Willow was as a character.

The risks Everett took and the livelihood he gave up didn’t feel authentic - like why on earth go to these extremes for someone else’s kid? Willow grew up to be a neglectful, self-centered little troll too so it did feel like all of that was for naught, making for some frustrating feelings given all the time we spent on that timeline.

Dialling down the baby melodrama might’ve improved this - there were times when I felt the focus of the book waver significantly. And not in a good way.

I wish we’d had more time with Liam. Jake was also an interesting character but her actions at the end were just insane:

throwing away any chance to improve her situation and then adopting (?) some random beggar kid at the dock? What the heck was that about?!

I’m still not sure if the author was bad at characterization or wrote messy, self-sabotaging characters on purpose… either way, I closed the book feeling annoyed at pretty much every character we met!

The baby’s parentage was left perhaps deliberately opaque but I spent a lot of the book wondering if Lomax was her father, not Holt. For a family saga, it was strange how the Greenwoods weren’t actually brothers, descendants had largely absentee fathers, and their children sometimes weren’t theirs. If Willow was Holt’s, does that render the Greenwood theme invalid? It was such a mess and the more we learned, the more this family didn’t even seem like a real family?

The trees were awesome. I loved every minute of deep appreciation for trees, forests, and ecological stewardship. The messaging about how human greed poisons everything it touches was spot-on and, while infuriating, the exploitation of the old growth forests in Jake’s timeline felt terrifyingly plausible.

I stuck with this for the eco theme, the strong story, and the Canadian representation. I wish we’d had more trees and less time on family drama, particularly the Everett/Willow on-the-run timeline which was the only part that dragged for me personally.

janada59's review against another edition

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2.0

I didn't love this family saga. I liked the idea of considering families forests instead of a family tree, and the family histories being rings of trees, but didn't feel overly compelled to care about any of the characters.

Canadian literature always seems to be slightly depressing, but this one seemed extra depressing to me, no one in the story had any hope.

rachelevelyn's review against another edition

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4.75

I really enjoyed this. Everett’s story was amazing. I felt like some of the character development was a bit rushed and I’d have liked more time in the future and for the stories to have connected a bit more at the end (I get that the stories circling one another was kind of the point, but I’d have liked a bit more resolution). I definitely preferred this to the overstory which it reminded me of.

danicrids's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

violetrb's review against another edition

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fast-paced

5.0

I don’t usually read dystopian sci fi but this one felt almost non-fiction. The development of the story was absolutely incredible

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