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A review by lavidaenquotes
The Memory Trees by Kali Wallace
4.0
The Memory Trees is a haunting, atmospheric, and gripping story. It can be slow at times, but the writing makes even the slow moments quite enjoyable. The story centers on family dynamics and Sorrow’s struggles - with herself, her past, and her families.
Sorrow Lovegood has been living with her dad since the tragic death of her sister, 8 years ago. For all the tragedy and how much Patience’s death marked Sorrow’s life, she doesn’t remember much of it, and it's not a subject neither her dad, nor her mother, talk about. After years of silently trying in vain to cope with it, she decides to go back to the Lovegood farm, where everything happened, to try and collect the pieces missing from the puzzle that is her head and the mystery surrounding her sister’s death.
Wallace gives us tiny details of Sorrow’s past here and there and we, as much as Sorrow, learn to put them together and form a bigger picture. There’s a family feud, that much we know, between the Lovegoods and their neighbors, the Abramses. For generations, the Lovegood women have been at war with the Abramses men. A war rooted so deep and going so far back, that the details don’t matter anymore. Lovegood girls aren’t supposed to befriend the Abramses, no questions asked. But maybe a few questions and answers could have spared them from tragedy generation after generation.
In focusing on Sorrow's attempts to find herself through finding more about her sister and the events surrounding her death, I appreciate the lack of love interest, especially if we take into account this is a YA novel. This is a story about a girl and the women of her family; of generations of strong, independent women, and it is just right that Sorrow is allowed to go through her journey without having to juggle her feelings towards anyone else at the same time. Mental illness also plays an important role and I appreciate how it was dealt with. Sorrow’s mom, Verity, suffers from depression, and Sorrow’s memories of being a little kid tiptoeing around her mom’s unexpected ups and downs made me feel for both. It was interesting to see this side of the story, and I welcomed the personal touch it gave to the story.
I strongly recommend this book for rainy days, and for whenever you feel like losing yourself in a farm in which weather has its own mind, and the trees may say a thing or two if you’re willing to listen.
Sorrow Lovegood has been living with her dad since the tragic death of her sister, 8 years ago. For all the tragedy and how much Patience’s death marked Sorrow’s life, she doesn’t remember much of it, and it's not a subject neither her dad, nor her mother, talk about. After years of silently trying in vain to cope with it, she decides to go back to the Lovegood farm, where everything happened, to try and collect the pieces missing from the puzzle that is her head and the mystery surrounding her sister’s death.
“A memory was a thing with no shape, no mass, but an indescribable weight.”
Wallace gives us tiny details of Sorrow’s past here and there and we, as much as Sorrow, learn to put them together and form a bigger picture. There’s a family feud, that much we know, between the Lovegoods and their neighbors, the Abramses. For generations, the Lovegood women have been at war with the Abramses men. A war rooted so deep and going so far back, that the details don’t matter anymore. Lovegood girls aren’t supposed to befriend the Abramses, no questions asked. But maybe a few questions and answers could have spared them from tragedy generation after generation.
In focusing on Sorrow's attempts to find herself through finding more about her sister and the events surrounding her death, I appreciate the lack of love interest, especially if we take into account this is a YA novel. This is a story about a girl and the women of her family; of generations of strong, independent women, and it is just right that Sorrow is allowed to go through her journey without having to juggle her feelings towards anyone else at the same time. Mental illness also plays an important role and I appreciate how it was dealt with. Sorrow’s mom, Verity, suffers from depression, and Sorrow’s memories of being a little kid tiptoeing around her mom’s unexpected ups and downs made me feel for both. It was interesting to see this side of the story, and I welcomed the personal touch it gave to the story.
I strongly recommend this book for rainy days, and for whenever you feel like losing yourself in a farm in which weather has its own mind, and the trees may say a thing or two if you’re willing to listen.
“She had wept until she was scrapped raw inside, empty but for the leaden weight of every memory of the life she had left, the grasping thorns of every choice that had brought her to this bleak and howling place. When darkness fell she poured rivers of tears into the wood and soul and stone beneath her, a well of loneliness that felt as though it would never run dry.”