Reviews with content warning for Body horror - The Trees

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Trees by Percival Everett

25 reviews

isabezza's review

challenging dark informative mysterious medium-paced

3.75

The Trees is a gory and psychologically engaging thriller with a historically accurate theme of social justice and racial hatred. I considered this novel informative on many levels as it exposed the extreme violence subjected to black bodies in the USA throughout history. Interestingly, without a time frame given at the beginning of the narrative, I assumed this book was set pre 1960's for a few chapters based on the horrific and outdated behaviours of many characters, before cultural clues and modern technology appeared in the text resulting in my realisation that is story is representing a possibility in the PRESENT DAY. For this and many other factors, the story was eye-opening. I also enjoyed the more light hearted elements of the text, such as the brotherly banter between detectives Ed and Jim and the not-so-generous hilarious representation of Trump (although his name was not explicitly mentioned.)
My only criticisms of this book was the amount of characters becoming too complex to follow when the crimes depicted are supernatural and bizarre enough. Additionally, the writing style was a little aggravating, with "Jim said," "Ed said," etc. after every sentence of dialogue, but try not to let this get in the way of how exciting the story is.

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maireadalice's review against another edition

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4.5

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bridgette_reads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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heydebigale's review

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“Everybody talks about genocides around the world, but when the killing is slow and spread over a hundred years, no one notices. Where there are no mass graves, no one notices. American outrage is always for show. It has a shelf life.
If that Griffin book had been Lynched Like Me, America might have looked up from dinner or baseball or whatever they do now. Twitter?”

This book is a surprisingly humorous mystery about the genocide of Black Americans (via lynching)in the United States. how Percival Everett managed to create a novel that had all the beats of a detective story, and was a sobering history of lynching, while also really surprisingly funny?!

Like… genius level.

CW: lots of fairly descriptive murders and racist slurs & racism

Highly recommend reading.

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bookish_wanderer's review against another edition

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dark funny informative mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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levc's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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rubyred_reads's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Builds and builds before you know it. Horrifying in it's reality and glorious in its revenge.

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allthatjazz's review

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5.0

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crazybookishcool's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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ecarper's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny fast-paced

5.0

Absolutely phenomenal horror satire novel. It discusses really horrific things such as content warning

lynching and police brutality

but there is an element of humor throughout that, especially at the end, had me laughing with glee. After having visited the Legacy Museum in the US in recent years, this was an incredibly moving and dark testament (books that contain lists of victims’ names always hits me hard) to America’s dark history and present.

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