Reviews with content warning for Violence - A Crooked Tree

Early 1980s Pennsylvania, and it’s the last day of school for fifteen-year-old Libby and her four siblings. They’re five miles from home, bickering in the backseat, when their mother stops and orders twelve-year-old Ellen out of the car. They live on the side of a mountain and it’s getting dark, but their mother is adamant: she’s had enough. Ellen can find her own way home.

This opening could’ve gone several ways, but I’ll say up front that A Crooked Tree isn’t a thriller – though there is a sense of unease running through it. It’s a coming-of-age story about a close-knit group of siblings living in a small community, a protagonist grieving the death of her father, and a summer that changes everything.

Though our narrator is fifteen, A Crooked Tree feels decidedly not YA to me. It’s darker, the central conflicts more adult in nature, Libby shouldering a great deal of emotional responsibility before she’s ready to. Perhaps some of the coming-of-age aspects are a little on the nose – you probably know if that’s a red flag to you or not – though personally I didn’t mind.

I picked this one up because the premise reminded me of Emily Ruskovich’s Idaho, a favourite of mine. It does share some of the same themes, though from a different perspective, exploring loss and guilt and moral ambiguity. The time and place, too, are beautifully evoked – think Ang Lee’s film adaptation of The Ice Storm – and inextricably bound to both plot and character development.

Despite the high stakes opening, it’s slower paced overall; intimate in a knot-in-your-stomach way. I loved it for its sadness and its truth.

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rollinginbooks's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.75

A great coming-of-age story. A mother makes a poor choice and you follow the impact on her children and their choices over the course of a summer. A great story of 5 siblings left to raise themselves and each other told from one siblings perspective. The setting was very present and atmospheric. I though the author wrote teenagers perspectives and motivations very well. Two teenage girls' friendship also played a prominent role. Even though this was somewhat slow moving, I could not put this book down.

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