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A review by laurencebc1
The Memory Trees by Kali Wallace
3.0
Disclaimer: I received a free copy via Edelweiss for review purposes.
Sorrow has heard stories of the Lovegood women her entire life who settled on an apple orchard in Vermont long ago; stories of their bravery and resilience, and of the centuries-long feud with the family next door. One cold winters night, eight years ago, Sorrow's sister Patience was tragically killed, and Sorrow was sent to live with her father in Miami. Now sixteen years old, Patience finds her memory of her childhood hazy, including the night of her sister's death. In order to learn more about her troubled childhood, she returns to her family orchard for the summer and to discover what happened to her sister eight years ago.
This book was quite hit and miss for me. I loved the writing. Kali Wallace has a lovely, lyrical prose, and I adored the first half of the book. It was so atmospheric. I especially loved the generational story and the chapters that focused on the past Lovegood women. It's definitely a female-centric story with a southern gothic feel. It had a subtle magical element, but it was not really that noticeable. But I do think it started to drag after the 50% mark and it was a struggle past that, the pace really did start to lag. But my biggest problem with The Memory Trees was how Sorrow reacted to her mother's depression. She was not at all understanding, was almost angry at her mother and acting like she was a burden, and it really grated on me. There was also a lot of casual use of ableist language, especially cr*zy. It's kind of a shame because I did quite enjoy her previous book, [b:Shallow Graves|22663629|Shallow Graves|Kali Wallace|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1434989166s/22663629.jpg|42162445].
Unfortunately, I probably won't be recommending this book.
Sorrow has heard stories of the Lovegood women her entire life who settled on an apple orchard in Vermont long ago; stories of their bravery and resilience, and of the centuries-long feud with the family next door. One cold winters night, eight years ago, Sorrow's sister Patience was tragically killed, and Sorrow was sent to live with her father in Miami. Now sixteen years old, Patience finds her memory of her childhood hazy, including the night of her sister's death. In order to learn more about her troubled childhood, she returns to her family orchard for the summer and to discover what happened to her sister eight years ago.
This book was quite hit and miss for me. I loved the writing. Kali Wallace has a lovely, lyrical prose, and I adored the first half of the book. It was so atmospheric. I especially loved the generational story and the chapters that focused on the past Lovegood women. It's definitely a female-centric story with a southern gothic feel. It had a subtle magical element, but it was not really that noticeable. But I do think it started to drag after the 50% mark and it was a struggle past that, the pace really did start to lag. But my biggest problem with The Memory Trees was how Sorrow reacted to her mother's depression. She was not at all understanding, was almost angry at her mother and acting like she was a burden, and it really grated on me. There was also a lot of casual use of ableist language, especially cr*zy. It's kind of a shame because I did quite enjoy her previous book, [b:Shallow Graves|22663629|Shallow Graves|Kali Wallace|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1434989166s/22663629.jpg|42162445].
Unfortunately, I probably won't be recommending this book.