Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - The Ghost Tree

I honestly don’t know what happened with this. This book started out really well and then just fell apart more and more as the story went on. This was entirely too long and did not need to be over 400 pages. Especially since the ‘big reveal’ happened basically 100 pages in. I don’t understand why Christina Henry felt the need to reveal the twist so soon. Also the racism in this was over the top. This is not that old so why did it feel the need to fall into the trap older books have of beating us over the head with the fact that a character is bad with almost constant racism. News flash, I already knew the character was bad I didn’t need to listen to her racist ideals for pages and pages. And then, in the same story she wanted to have powerful conversations about female empowerment 🤨 which fell completely flat. I honestly don’t get this book and hope Christina Henry stays in the lane of Near The Bone instead and stays far away from this kind of writing again.

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sonygaystation's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Cool concept but muddy execution. Especially towards the end. Plus i felt the slurs and vitriol to express racism was so unnecessarily too much

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thekissballad's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Loveable characters? No

2.5

The idea was good, but poorly executed, in my opinion. As much as it pains me, 2.5, and that .5 is a gift because of the potential. The rest of my review may contain spoilers so it's hidden just in case.

First and foremost, Mrs. Schneider deserved a lot worse than a shot in the foot and being slapped / punched. Her POV also felt pointless. The only time her BS mattered was right at the end, and that scene could have easily been rewritten or removed all together.

Second, Miranda's POV was completely unnecessary. Her "slutty" thoughts and behaviors had no real purpose. She was so vapid and shallow that when she died, I wasn't moved. I was actually kind of glad. Sorry, not sorry.

Third, the witchy aspects were completely wasted and not thought out very well. Hell, Lauren ignored it and refused to believe it until the very end. Then David, the one character who even did anything truly witchy, was a side character.

Not to mention the "end the curse" moment was so anti-climactic, and the ending itself left much to be desired.

Fourth, the whole dynamic between Lauren and her mom, Karen, is ridiculous. There's so much hate between them over the most pointless of shit, and then Lauren finally gets her first period and suddenly things are better? How tf does that make any sense? If this were a day or two thing, sure, I could see it, but the fact that Lauren alludes to their discourse having started shortly after (if not before) her father died, makes it such a cop out.

Additionally, Lauren suddenly switching personalities all because Jake expressed his feelings? Ugh.

Fifth, the repetition and abundance of minute details was the real killer of this book. I feel like you could have cut out all of this, plus Miranda's POV and a few others, and reworked Mrs. Schneider's existance, and you'd have a much better story. Possibly novella. And I'd probably have enjoyed it then. This just felt like an attempt to write a full novel, without having enough content to actually write the length needed.

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harleyqueen's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Loved it but at times felt like it read so fast that you would lose sense of what's happening. There is a town under a curse where once a year a girl has to be sacrificed to the ghost tree but when the wrong sacrifice is offered all rules no longer exist

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