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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
The beginning is good, the middle is a little tedious, the ending made me bawl and want to hit something (or a very particular character really hard in the face). The neighborhood narrator thing got a bit old for me and didn't have the payoff that I wanted it to.
Overall I liked this. I did find it a bit slow somewhere in the middle when we learned a lot of details about Brad. However, it picked up again. I liked that it didn't wrap up neat and tidy.
Although it dealt with some important issues, I don't feel like this is a story that will stick with me. I didn't connect with any of the characters.
I know many people loved this book, so I am happy for the author that I'm in the minority.
Although it dealt with some important issues, I don't feel like this is a story that will stick with me. I didn't connect with any of the characters.
I know many people loved this book, so I am happy for the author that I'm in the minority.
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This book felt very "of the moment" but ultimately, it did not have anything new or interesting to say about either for the big themes which are racism and sexual assault. I felt a little bit like I was reading about Black trauma for no other reason than to show it exists. I thought the ending was rushed and I really did not like the epilogue. What was all of this trauma a lead up to Juniper's journey to law school and the mom finding yoga?
If I have to say something positive, I will say that the plot moves along and I enjoyed some of the side characters.
If I have to say something positive, I will say that the plot moves along and I enjoyed some of the side characters.
This book was interesting.
It starts off kind of slow and builds throughout the book until you end up in a high speed car chase.
It discusses many topics like race, poverty, and class in a upper-middle class neighborhood in North Carolina. The author really delves into how one move or one choice can snowball and affect so many different aspects of life in so many different ways that nobody could really predict.
This becomes a hard book to read and isn't enjoyable- and it shouldn't be. But it is real life and heartbreaking. It made me angry in a good way.
The symbolism in this book is subtle yet obvious. The tree (at the root of the story) symbolizes life, and the encroaching neighbor--who is slowly killing off the tree--is everything that is wrong with society today.
I also really liked the narrator being someone in the neighborhood. This "gives the feeling that they are part of this community, but we never know who they are. The perspective felt eerie, like the “we” whoever they might be, were invading the privacy of these two families, of the thoughts and feelings of these characters."
It starts off kind of slow and builds throughout the book until you end up in a high speed car chase.
It discusses many topics like race, poverty, and class in a upper-middle class neighborhood in North Carolina. The author really delves into how one move or one choice can snowball and affect so many different aspects of life in so many different ways that nobody could really predict.
This becomes a hard book to read and isn't enjoyable- and it shouldn't be. But it is real life and heartbreaking. It made me angry in a good way.
The symbolism in this book is subtle yet obvious. The tree (at the root of the story) symbolizes life, and the encroaching neighbor--who is slowly killing off the tree--is everything that is wrong with society today.
I also really liked the narrator being someone in the neighborhood. This "gives the feeling that they are part of this community, but we never know who they are. The perspective felt eerie, like the “we” whoever they might be, were invading the privacy of these two families, of the thoughts and feelings of these characters."
Did not finish - trauma porn about the Black experience from a white author, no thanks
So important, timely, devastating, and well written.
Valerie Alston-Holt has lived in the neighbourhood of Oak Knoll, North Carolina for a number of years. She was widowed a long while ago and has raised her biracial son, Xaiver alone. He is musically very talented and has secured a place at college in the autumn to study music.
Her new neighbours, the Whitman’s, have moved into the newly built house next door. Brad Whitman is a well known local businessman who has made his money by offering top quality customer service from his company. He is married with two daughters and it seems like they have a perfect lifestyle and marriage.
Their relationship seems cordial to begin with, but when Valerie realises that her magnificent oak tree has been damaged by the new building work next door she decides to sue the builder and Brad Whitman for $500,000. The good relations that they had just started with, end abruptly. What none of the parents know is that their eldest children, Xavier and Juniper have started to fall in love and everything that each family had built and strived for begins to unravel.
This book had a bit of a slow start as Fowler sets the scenes in each house and the context of the predominately white neighbourhood, the book group with the barbed gossip beforehand, women who are at home as their husbands work and the monied class differentials between Valerie and all the others. She is using this book to look at some of the issues of nepotism and corruption as well as the conflict that the Americans have between class and race. However, the last quarter of the book is where the predominately white Fowler unleashes the main elements of the plot and takes this from a family saga to a high stakes thriller and it was much better than I was expecting. 3.5 stars
Her new neighbours, the Whitman’s, have moved into the newly built house next door. Brad Whitman is a well known local businessman who has made his money by offering top quality customer service from his company. He is married with two daughters and it seems like they have a perfect lifestyle and marriage.
Their relationship seems cordial to begin with, but when Valerie realises that her magnificent oak tree has been damaged by the new building work next door she decides to sue the builder and Brad Whitman for $500,000. The good relations that they had just started with, end abruptly. What none of the parents know is that their eldest children, Xavier and Juniper have started to fall in love and everything that each family had built and strived for begins to unravel.
This book had a bit of a slow start as Fowler sets the scenes in each house and the context of the predominately white neighbourhood, the book group with the barbed gossip beforehand, women who are at home as their husbands work and the monied class differentials between Valerie and all the others. She is using this book to look at some of the issues of nepotism and corruption as well as the conflict that the Americans have between class and race. However, the last quarter of the book is where the predominately white Fowler unleashes the main elements of the plot and takes this from a family saga to a high stakes thriller and it was much better than I was expecting. 3.5 stars
I was prepared to give this three stars until the ending. Ugh. I never enjoyed the meta voice: the sometimes omnipotent spectator/sometimes neighborhood gossip voice that commented on the proceedings. This story took a bunch of mainly one dimensional characters, put them in predictable or sometimes too coincidental circumstances, commented on it from afar and then killed off the most likeable character. I'm sorry, but I'd had it by then.
I vote Therese Anne Fowler go back to the historical fiction that I quite enjoyed.
I vote Therese Anne Fowler go back to the historical fiction that I quite enjoyed.
I loved this book initially and thought of several people i would recommend to read it. however, the build up was 3/4 of the book and then so much happened in the end without enough attention given to the details. the ending was disappointing, though maybe more like real life than i care to admit.