Helpful Score: 1
This latest and much anticipated book by Caitlin R. Kiernan is some of her best work yet. The Red Tree is presented as a journal written by the author Sarah Crowe after she rents a remote farm house, in order to have solitude to write, and discovers an old typewriter and an unfinished manuscript by the house's previous tenant; Charles L. Harvey. Mr. Harvey was putting together something of a coherent history of a huge red oak tree on the property surrounding the farm house. The history of the tree is not a pretty story and Mr. Harvey's writing suggests that he became obsessed with the tree, it quickly becomes apparent that Sarah Crowe is becoming obsessed as well as her journal becomes a repository for her researches into its background and for her nightmares as well.
Like Murder of Angels, The Red Tree meanders along the boundaries between sanity and madness, illusion and reality as we watch Ms. Crowe succumb more and more to spell woven by an ancient tree with an evil presence.
The Red Tree would make a good first read for those unfamilliar with Ms. Kiernan's writing. It seems to be a stand alone novel, not connected in any overt way to her other work and the atmousphere of the story, while not really lighter, is less dark and gritty. It was very hard to put this book down. Highly reccomended.
Like Murder of Angels, The Red Tree meanders along the boundaries between sanity and madness, illusion and reality as we watch Ms. Crowe succumb more and more to spell woven by an ancient tree with an evil presence.
The Red Tree would make a good first read for those unfamilliar with Ms. Kiernan's writing. It seems to be a stand alone novel, not connected in any overt way to her other work and the atmousphere of the story, while not really lighter, is less dark and gritty. It was very hard to put this book down. Highly reccomended.
Helpful Score: 1
Sarah Crowe is a writer suffering from writer's block after her relationship with her girlfriend comes to a devastating end. She decides to rent an isolated old farm house out in the boonies of Rhode Island to recover and hide from the world.
Whilst poking around in the home she comes across an old typewriter which eventually leads her to a manuscript obsessing on the red tree on the property written by a previous renter who committed suicide on the grounds. Sarah begins to have increasingly strange dreams and as the story progresses she finds herself becoming obsessed with the tree herself and has difficulty discerning reality from her odd dream world.
The book is a disturbing first person account of one woman's slow slide into madness. It's very unsettling and definitely gets under the skin. The history of the red tree may (or may not) include human sacrifice, cannibalism, and lycanthropy. Is it real or all in her mind?
This is one of the best I've read by Kiernan.
Whilst poking around in the home she comes across an old typewriter which eventually leads her to a manuscript obsessing on the red tree on the property written by a previous renter who committed suicide on the grounds. Sarah begins to have increasingly strange dreams and as the story progresses she finds herself becoming obsessed with the tree herself and has difficulty discerning reality from her odd dream world.
The book is a disturbing first person account of one woman's slow slide into madness. It's very unsettling and definitely gets under the skin. The history of the red tree may (or may not) include human sacrifice, cannibalism, and lycanthropy. Is it real or all in her mind?
This is one of the best I've read by Kiernan.
FYI - For those of you who may be offended, this book is LGBT friendly in a major way. Although I am tolerable of other lifestyles, the book was unrealistic in the sense that almost all of the characters the protagonist met were lesbians.
The book was rather difficult to read, thanks to a protagonist with a tendency to ramble, which she confesses to almost immediately in her first 'diary entry'.
I feel as if the story line/plot had a lot to offer, but that the author just didn't follow through. I'm sure it was meant to be thought-provoking and somewhat of a thriller, though all I got from it was a mild sense of unease that developed into lack of closure.
This brings me to my last complaint: the complete lack of resolution. All that build up, and then BAM! Book is over.
Overall, would not recommend.
The book was rather difficult to read, thanks to a protagonist with a tendency to ramble, which she confesses to almost immediately in her first 'diary entry'.
I feel as if the story line/plot had a lot to offer, but that the author just didn't follow through. I'm sure it was meant to be thought-provoking and somewhat of a thriller, though all I got from it was a mild sense of unease that developed into lack of closure.
This brings me to my last complaint: the complete lack of resolution. All that build up, and then BAM! Book is over.
Overall, would not recommend.
I must say that I was very disappointed in this book. The characters were poorly developed, which led me to not really care about them all that much. The plot left a lot to be desired...
Terrible.
