A review by icameheretoread
The Memory Trees by Kali Wallace

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

This might be a case of not getting what you think you paid for. This shows up on horror lists. Someone compared it to Practical Magic. If you are about to read this know it is more of a family saga, over many generations, with historical chapters. Normally when I am not enjoying a book, I DNF it. But I got tricked into the halfway mark on this by incorrect reviews and the idea that Sorrow finds "treasures" in the grounds that I thought were going to be magical objects. So I suffered through the rest. And goodness is it slow. Also the author can string some pretty sentences together, and really create an atmosphere but man, oh man, did she forget a plot. Sorrow comes back to her family's orchard to get to the bottom of what really happened to her sister, I guess, but instead she just kind of bumbles along and we read about other horrible things that have happened to her family. This needed an editor and to be about 100 pages shorter. It also needed tension. I would have liked more character development on the grandmother and Verity and less trips to town to meet characters that have nothing to do with anything.