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A review by flying_monkeys
The Memory Trees by Kali Wallace
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
"When darkness fell she poured rivers of tears into the wood and soil and stone beneath her, a well of loneliness that felt as though it would never run dry."
The Memory Trees was most definitely my kinda book. Set in Vermont during summer. 16-year-old Sorrow grieves the loss of her only sister, Patience, and wrestles with the inability to remember the details of Patience's death some eight years earlier. Sorrow's relationship with her mother, Verity, is a fragile one, yet Sorrow knows she can't hide from her memories much longer nor is she completely ready to face the truth.
The magical realism in The Memory Trees is subtle and comes alive through Wallace's imagery. (You'll probably crave an apple or cider at least once.) I could feel the frost in July, smell all the green. Lush is the word that repeatedly comes to mind.
And I loved the flashbacks to the stories of the other women in Sorrow's family - yes, going back 12 generations, all the way to the Lovegood matriarch, Rejoice.
Recommended if you enjoy magical realism that centers a feud between two founding families of a small rural town, multiple generations of independent women dating back to the 18th century, women accused of being witches - only to stand up in the face of harassment and murder, and a hopeful if not a little bittersweet ending.
Also, if you liked Of Sorrow and Such by Angela Slatter or The Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon, you'll probably enjoy this one.
So close to a perfect read!
4.5 stars
"Patience had understood something Sorrow had been too young to grasp: the stories were never just stories, and history was never only in the past. If they echoed loudly enough, those long-dead spites and long-buried hatreds, they weren't legacy but a cage--and she had wanted out."
The Memory Trees was most definitely my kinda book. Set in Vermont during summer. 16-year-old Sorrow grieves the loss of her only sister, Patience, and wrestles with the inability to remember the details of Patience's death some eight years earlier. Sorrow's relationship with her mother, Verity, is a fragile one, yet Sorrow knows she can't hide from her memories much longer nor is she completely ready to face the truth.
The magical realism in The Memory Trees is subtle and comes alive through Wallace's imagery. (You'll probably crave an apple or cider at least once.) I could feel the frost in July, smell all the green. Lush is the word that repeatedly comes to mind.
And I loved the flashbacks to the stories of the other women in Sorrow's family - yes, going back 12 generations, all the way to the Lovegood matriarch, Rejoice.
Recommended if you enjoy magical realism that centers a feud between two founding families of a small rural town, multiple generations of independent women dating back to the 18th century, women accused of being witches - only to stand up in the face of harassment and murder, and a hopeful if not a little bittersweet ending.
Also, if you liked Of Sorrow and Such by Angela Slatter or The Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon, you'll probably enjoy this one.
So close to a perfect read!
4.5 stars
"Patience had understood something Sorrow had been too young to grasp: the stories were never just stories, and history was never only in the past. If they echoed loudly enough, those long-dead spites and long-buried hatreds, they weren't legacy but a cage--and she had wanted out."