There is no warning. No chance to prepare. The trees arrive in the night: thundering up through the ground, transforming streets and towns into shadowy forest.
When Adrien wakes to the thundering of trees coming up from the earth and destroying his home, he has no idea what happening, but neither does anybody else. Confused, scared and afraid, Adrien sets out to find some answers, primarily is his wife, in Ireland, still alive? On his journey, he comes across nature lover Hannah and her teenage son Seb who group together to tackle what the forest holds.
The reviews plastered all over this book are what got me really excited about picking this up, talking about Hitchcock, Tarantino and McCarthy’s book The Road (which I haven’t read yet but am really looking forward to picking up), all appealed to me so much that I put Room down and bought this one instead (or, rather, my boyfriend bought it).
The idea of these trees coming up out of nowhere is beyond frightening. They turn everything you’ve ever known into a forest full of destruction. What’s worse is what the forest brings with it – death, mysterious age-old creatures and the whispers.
This was set up to be an exhilarating, fast-paced, eerie novel. And while it was fast paced, and at times, thrilling, it was nowhere near as eerie as it could have been and was made out to be. I found that it only began to get a little creepy just after the 50% mark, before that it was just a long character building journey through the woods. I was stuck between giving this novel 2 stars or 4 stars. On the one hand, I really loved it, it was emotional, well written and all the characters were so beautiful in their own ways. On the other hand, this totally let me down and was nothing that I was hoping it to be. 3 stars seems like a safe bet rating.
Short review, but there’s not much more I feel I can say. If you’re looking for a creepy thriller novel, then maybe give this a miss, but if you’re looking for a character building, emotional and heartwarming novel, then this is the book for you!
Absolutely beautiful cover though. Although I have to say, your review does intrigue me! Because it seems, other than the expectations, it was good! I’ll go check it out.
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You’re right, I only rated it down because I was expecting it to be different, I think
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I actually bought this a while ago because the blurb interested me (and to be honest, the cover helped). Perhaps I should go into this book without any expectations, going by your review.
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I’d say that’s the best way to go into it! I hope you can enjoy it more that I did 🙂
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