Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Overstory

I really loved the first part, and had the rest of the book been like it, I'd probably have given this at least 4.5 stars. Still not bad, all the nature stuff was mind-blowingly incredible, but some of the (POC) characters were pretty stereotypical and I didn't really like how all their stories intertwined in the second half.

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lindseyhall44's review

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reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

“Let me sing to you now, about how people turn into other things.”
I received a copy of The Overstory as a birthday present, and honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew that there was widespread critical acclaim, but that was the extent of my knowledge. Never did I expect to feel, think, or see as powerfully as I did with the novel as my lense.
The Overstory follows an ensemble cast of characters, as trees shape and define their life experiences. Through themes of activism, growth, and ultimately life, the trees themselves will speak to you from the confinements of pages.
The format of the novel was immediately intriguing to me, as the parts are separated by the sections of a tree.
The roots and trunk may be, for some, (almost dauntingly) slow, but Powers is a master class in character studies, and the connection once finished reading will feel like the epitome of rewarding.
Although it was one of the most heartbreaking and gut wrenching works I have read in a while, it also offered a strangely hopeful note, that like trees we too can can leave a positive legacy behind.

I took off half a star because some of the mental health depictions I thought could have been written better.

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deedireads's review

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emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

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

4.25

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

The Overstory is a sprawling, beautiful novel about trees, activism, and interconnectedness — both between us and the planet, and with one another.

For you if: You like climate fiction and / or books with lots of main characters and plotlines.

FULL REVIEW:

The Overstory has been on my TBR for a long time. It won the Pulitzer, it was shortlisted for the Booker, and everyone and their brother kept recommending it to me. So when I planned a trip to Northern California to visit the redwoods, I knew it was finally time to pick this book up.

As you’ve probably heard, The Overstory is about trees. But it’s also about people — quite a lot of people, in fact. A big chunk of the book is dedicated to introducing us to a huge cast of characters, one full chapter per person. It’s unclear what these people have to do with one another until we move into the other sections of the book, at which point we bounce between them and see how their stories start to merge. In some cases, they meet; in others, they hear of one another. But the throughline is that all of them find themselves protesting deforestation and protecting trees in one form or another.

If you read Bewilderment first, like I did, you know Powers can write one heck of a nature book. Please allow me to confirm that this is a book that will make you think more, and more fondly, of every tree you see. It’s just exquisite stuff. I especially loved when two of our characters spent an entire year living up inside a giant old-growth redwood to stop it from being cut down. What made this even more interesting is that I read it after I read Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard, whose research inspired this book.

I will say that I did find all the characters and storylines a bit tricky to keep track of, although to Powers’ credit, my confusion never lasted very long. It’s also a bit longer than I think it needed to be. But overall, the prose is breathtaking, the characters will make you ache, and the impression it leaves won’t fade anytime soon.

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missypy's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

As much as we as a species make mistakes with the nature around us the trees are here to protect us. They are the guardians of the life on the planet. And when left to their own growing patterns they erase our footprint, without malace or greed. It really made me feel part of something huge, and also protected. The scary part is taking away too much nature, and erasing ourselves from the planet. The trees, will be able to recover eventally, because they have time on their side.

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