Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - The Overstory

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The Overstory by Richard Powers

19 reviews

nhelregel's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

Such a wide, sweeping novel about people, trees, and the interactions between the two. I've been waiting on the e-audiobook to be available through libraries for *years* and it did not disappoint. Super long, but it never dragged and each of the characters fit into the narrative well. I'll definitely be ruminating on it for a while. Overall: very interesting, thought-provoking, and definitely sad (but also somewhat hopeful).

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elliv's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring slow-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? No

3.0

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auntted's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.25

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emmonsannae's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

2.0

This is one of those books that is objectively excellent but just didn’t work for me. I thought the craftsmanship of the novel was superb, and I really enjoyed R.W.’s style. I like that the book forces you to ask a lot of questions about its purpose and the way that purpose is accomplished. But when I finished the book, I realized that I didn’t especially enjoy reading it. I think there were some sub-themes that didn’t agree with me, which made it hard to buy in by the ending (which requires a lot from its readers).

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delaneybarry's review against another edition

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challenging reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The first part of The Overstory is wonderful, the second part—which is more than a couple hundred pages—drags quite a bit, but, the third part does bring everything together nicely. Well written and reflective, but the story does seem to move at the pace of trees.

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elizlizabeth's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

3.5

I feel that Powers is an excellent short story writer. I really loved the first part of this book because of how engaging and emotive the character introductions were. The concept of the book is pretty cool: Roots has the introductions, Trunk where they all meet, Crown where they split, and Seeds as a sort of epilogue. However, in the execution the plot felt overly dramatic and the author kept either repeating or negating the character arcs to introduce conflict. This is a book I would've loved if nothing of substance happened, but in its effort to be jaw dropping it became trite and dated.
I was expecting a well-reaearched ode to trees and the inextricable paths that join us to them and the first part IS that. I am just disappointed that it didn't continued in the same vein. Roots is so good that it can even stand on its own, so I will cherish those stories and forget the rest.

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