A review by booksinbedinthornhill
The Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-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? No

4.0

I finally finished this short book. I delayed finishing it because I knew that when I was done, so was my mother. I know that might sound strange, but I started this book on January 10th. On January 13th my mother (who has been in palliative care since March 2023) took to her bed and was never to leave it alive. My 95-year-old mother passed away peacefully on January 20th, my birthday. I stayed at her house during that last week, reading bits of the book at night, and being surprised by two coincidences between the book and what was happening. 1) The protagonist's name is Bella, my mother's middle name. 2) There is a character in the book whose mother dies in childbirth, so his birthday will always be the day of his mother's death. After my mother passed away, we went through the burial and week-long mourning period and each night I tried to read The Juniper Tree but fell asleep after a page or two. It was as if I didn't want to finish it, because then I would know that my mother was really gone. Well, I just finished it. And she's really gone.