Scan barcode
arangele's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Graphic: Police brutality, Death, and Fire/Fire injury
perseusj4ckson's review
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Police brutality
Moderate: Violence, Suicide, and Death
Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Suicide, and Car accident
leahgustafson's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
Check out what I'm reading next on Instagram @LeahsLitReview!
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide
jt0645's review
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Police brutality, Blood, Death, and Fire/Fire injury
chelsea_w's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Roots provides the background on most of the main characters in the book. Each chapter's main character has some connection to trees, but not yet to each other. In this section, I thought I was reading a collection of short stories. Each story/chapter was told in a unique way and very different from each other. I enjoyed the stories, but since they didn't relate to each other, I wasn't sure I would complete the entire collection of short stories at once. I thought I would read a few, then read another book and come back to read another few stories. Like roots, however, it may appear that each root is independent of other roots of the same tree, but they are all connected and provide nutrients and strength to the tree.
After learning about 9 people (roots) the book transitioned into describing the Trunk. Like a tree, this was the most visible and hearty part of the book. I already returned my copy to the library, so I don't have exact numbers, but roughly half of the book was spent in the trunk. This is where we see the individual characters starting to come together - sometimes with direct interaction in the book, sometimes with a sense of shared purpose. The plight of the characters is that humans are causing destruction of forests in alarming and unprecedented ways. Several ways to address this problem are explored in the plot. The methods are as varied in their approach as the characters are in their support. Powers does a good job of portraying a broad range of reactions and emotions. As a reader it was easy to empathize with each character whether I agreed with their actions or not.
The last two sections of the book, Crown and Seeds, are less distinguishable from each other than they are from Roots and Trunk. I won't spoil plots, but here we find some of the conclusion of the narrative and an attempt to sway the reader into action. There are still a lot of seemingly critical loose ends that are not fully resolved in the book. I've been trying to decide why Powers decided to leave them incomplete. Is is because the book is already over 500 pages and he didn't want to make it longer? This seems unlikely since there is already a lot of rambling and some sections of the book that could have been excised to be able to answer these lingering questions. Is it because Powers wanted to portray the book as still living like a tree and future leaves and branches are not yet visible? Perhaps, but this feels like trying too hard to make the metaphor fit. I think it is because by leaving the ending vague or uncertain, Powers is allowing the reader to continue thinking about the story after the pages have ended. There are several questions on GoodReads pertaining to the unanswered questions and a lot of speculation. I think this was a clever way for the author to get people engaged and interacting where they ordinarily wouldn't.
Overall, I really liked this book. It was long and there were parts that didn't seem to contribute to the storyline that could have been skipped, but I felt a lot of emotions reading the book: nostalgia, hope, despair, excitement, sadness, among others.
Graphic: Infertility, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Death, and Fire/Fire injury
matcha_pages's review against another edition
- 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
3.5
Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Violence
m4rtt4's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Death, Grief, Police brutality, Violence, Ableism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide
Moderate: Cancer, Racism, Sexual content, Infertility, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
lindseyhall44's review
- 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
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.
Graphic: Suicide, Ableism, Bullying, Death, Murder, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Kidnapping, Bullying, Grief, and Dementia
deedireads's review
- 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
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.
Graphic: Suicide, Death, Police brutality, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Infidelity and Grief
haleylooloo's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Police brutality, Suicide, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury