What do you think?
Rate this book
A Crooked Tree
A haunting, suspenseful literary debut that combines a classic coming of age story with a portrait of a fractured American family dealing with the fallout of one summer evening gone terribly wrong.
“The night we left Ellen on the road, we drove up the mountain in silence.”
It is the early 1980s and fifteen-year-old Libby is obsessed with The Field Guide to the Trees of North America, a gift her Irish immigrant father gave her before he died. She finds solace in “The Kingdom,” a stand of red oak and thick mountain laurel near her home in suburban Pennsylvania, where she can escape from her large and unruly family and share menthol cigarettes and lukewarm beers with her best friend.
One night, while driving home, Libby’s mother, exhausted and overwhelmed with the fighting in the backseat, pulls over and orders Libby’s little sister Ellen to walk home. What none of this family knows as they drive off leaving a twelve-year-old girl on the side of the road five miles from home with darkness closing in, is what will happen next.
A Crooked Tree is a surprising, indelible novel, both a poignant portrayal of an unmoored childhood giving way to adolescence, and a gripping tale about the unexpected reverberations of one rash act.
“The night we left Ellen on the road, we drove up the mountain in silence.”
It is the early 1980s and fifteen-year-old Libby is obsessed with The Field Guide to the Trees of North America, a gift her Irish immigrant father gave her before he died. She finds solace in “The Kingdom,” a stand of red oak and thick mountain laurel near her home in suburban Pennsylvania, where she can escape from her large and unruly family and share menthol cigarettes and lukewarm beers with her best friend.
One night, while driving home, Libby’s mother, exhausted and overwhelmed with the fighting in the backseat, pulls over and orders Libby’s little sister Ellen to walk home. What none of this family knows as they drive off leaving a twelve-year-old girl on the side of the road five miles from home with darkness closing in, is what will happen next.
A Crooked Tree is a surprising, indelible novel, both a poignant portrayal of an unmoored childhood giving way to adolescence, and a gripping tale about the unexpected reverberations of one rash act.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 5, 2021
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 712 reviews
January 21, 2021
Ooh, a storm is threateningThe 80s, late Spring. Faye Gallagher, a widowed single mother to five, has bloody well had it. Thomas and Ellen will not stop going at each other in the back seat, particularly Ellen, who, although a small 12 year-old, packs a powerful rage, and redirects that weapon at her mother, definitely playing with fire. Mom blows a final gasket and orders her out of the car, five miles from home. Faye then drives on with the rest of her brood, to their house in the Philadelphia suburbs, leaving Ellen to hoof it on her own, just as the sun is setting. This event is the spark that gets the blaze of this story going.
My very life today
If I don't get some shelter
Ooh yeah I'm gonna fade away
- from Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones
Una Mannion - image from her site
We see the ensuing events through the eyes of 14-year-old Libby. Each of the Gallagher kids has a particular interest. For Libby it is trees, the product of a cherished book her late father had given her for Christmas, The Field Guide to Trees of North America.
I grew up on the edge of a hiking trail surrounded by woods and it was deeply formative for me. When I started writing, I found I kept coming back to those woods and trails. For me it is the site of my first yearnings and loss, the home I can never get back to. It is also a geography that resonates with other stories. We were always conscious not just of the Revolutionary War but the Lenape stories connected to the topography. It felt like hallowed ground and we spent an inordinate amount of time in those woods. It became, for me, an imaginative landscape, a place I can still conjure, the turns of the trail, how the light falls through the canopy, the tree roots that break through the surface. - from the Blue Nib interviewMarie, almost 18, is getting ready to leave the nest, heading for school in Philly in the coming term. Dad had given her the two volume Illustrated History of Rock and Roll. Thomas is 16, highest GPA in his class, a card-carrying nerd, who never cries. He got The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Space. Ellen, possessor of a considerable artistic gift, got a book on Art History, and Beatrice, 7, received a book on dog breeds. It might be that she is a half-sister to the others.
Libby’s description of her world is rich with woodsy references. Her arboreal lens permeates the novel.
…as I walked toward Sage’s, I listened to the click of crickets at the wood’s edge, the slight whisper of trees, the sounds of the mountain, as if there were another frequency to hear and to be moved by. I wondered if one day I would have the same wrenching longing for this place that my father had for the sounds he’d heard growing up.Pop was out of the picture for too much of her life, divorced from her mother, and then dead way too young, but she remembers him very fondly. He is very reminiscent of Mannion’s Da, in origin and profession.
My father, as an Irish immigrant in America, loved literature. He was a landscaper and we’d be in his truck and he’s start reciting something. He’d recite lines from The Deserted Village from Oliver Goldsmith. The Song of Wandering Aengus was also one he recited a lot. My father would have such awe of these words and the power of words to transform you emotionally but also words to transform a situation. - from the Dodging the Rain interviewLibby has a bff in Sage, who is, unsurprisingly, given her name, wise beyond her years. She is very fond of quoting the literature of her experience, Rolling Stones lyrics to, herself, transform situations, like a religious person who might be able to dredge up the exact right chapter and verse from a different source. Libby and Sage have a special hangout in the woods, The Kingdom, an off-the-path hideout where they can be their truest selves with each other.
I walked down Horseshoe Trail toward the Kingdom, a secret fort Sage and I had made several summers before. Ahead of me was the crooked tree, our marker for leaving the path to circle into the Kingdom from the back, a routine we had so that there would never be a trace of track or footfall for anyone else to find. We imagined that the crooked tree was one of the ones Indians had used as signposts along the trail to signal where there was good hunting or soft ground for shelter. It was an oak that had started to grow upright, but suddenly the trunk made a complete right angle for two or three feet and then grew straight again. Before the Kingdom ever existed, Dad showed me the tree. He said it might have been a marker, but it could also have been caused by a bigger tree falling on the oak when it was young and then over time the bigger tree rotted and fell apart. The young tree survived but was left with this strange shape.So, is Libby the crooked tree of the title? Is Ellen? Are we all bent into odd shapes by our experiences growing up?
Mom has a tough time of it all, working as an ER receptionist, having to cope with her kids, while also wanting to get some satisfaction in a social life. The children are not always supervised and this presents some cause for concern, as, if anything bad were to happen to them while she was unavailable, her parental rights might be jeopardized. While it is clear that Faye loves her kids, she is also willing to be absent maybe more than is ok, an element of the author’s life that she has incorporated into several of her works of fiction.
I often think I write more about being a child and the absence of a mother and wanting a mother. The earth maybe in a way is mothering me. - from the Dodging the Rain interviewAs the family copes with the collateral effects of Ellen’s abandonment, we follow Libby as she goes through ups and downs with her bff, has to contend with the changes in her adolescent world, tries to figure out who she is and where she fits in, gains awareness of some of the hostile actors in the world, learns to identify who to trust, and maybe channels a bit of Harriet the Spy. Pretty classic coming of age material.
It is certainly a world in which secrets, lies, and rumors abound. A nearby house is said to be occupied by a member of the Manson family. There is a very large secret in a family for whom Libby babysits. And she recalls another dark tale from an experience with another family. Many stories have attached themselves to Wilson, a motorcycle-driving young friend of Marie’s who seems too old to be hanging about with the likes of the Gallagher kids. He is the Knight errant here, or is it Knight erroneous? Or is he up to something totally not ok? Libby is highly suspicious of him. (What’s puzzling her is the nature of his game)
In short, this is a moving novel, rich with the experience of adolescence, but elevated by the use of Libby’s sylvan perspective. You will want answers to the questions that are raised, and will care about Libby, an everygirl even us guy readers can relate to. We all had uncertainties at Libby’s age, who we are, who we want to be, what is possible, how to deal with our parents, with other kids’ parents, who to trust. You may not always be able to get what you want in a novel, but in A Crooked Tree, you will definitely get what you need.
Beside us, the shadows of dogwoods blurred in the dark as my mother kept driving, each tree hemmed in a halo of white where the bracts had fallen.
Review posted – 12/18/2020
Publication dates
----------USA - 1/5/2021 - Harper
----------UK – 1/21/2021 – Faber and Faber
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal and Instagram pages
Interviews
-----2020 - The Blue Nib Literary Magazine - Una Mannion in conversation with Dave Kavanagh
-----2017 – Dodging the Rain - Interview with Una Mannion, Award-Winning Author
-----2017 - North West Words - North West Words Interview with Una Mannion - Autumn/Winter Issue 8 - page 39
Songs/Music
-----Rolling Stones - Jumpin Jack Flash
-----Supertramp - The Logical Song Supertramp –plays in Jack’s Datsun as they drive to the towers
-----Xray spex - Oh Bondage, Up Yours - Marie and Wilson talk about Poly Styrene
-----Rolling Stones - Mother’s Little Helper - re Wilson’s mother’s supply
-----Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb - played in a dodgy person’s vehicle
-----Rolling Stones - Wild Horses - when Libby goes to see Sage at Sage’s house after the mall run-in with the creep
-----AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long - at the towers hangout
-----Rolling Stones - She’s a Rainbow - on the car radio after they all get ice cream at Guernsey Cow
-----Rolling Stones - Paint it Black after Libby has let slip a big secret and feels sooooo guilty
Items of Interest
-----Literary Hub - excerpt
-----Oliver Goldsmith - The Deserted Village - Libby recalls her father quoting from this poem
-----William Butler Yeats - The Song of Wandering Aengus - ditto
August 27, 2020
A mother, at her wits end, with four bickering children in the car decides she's had it. She demands that Ellen gets out of the car to walk the next 5 miles home. Ellen is only twelve years old.
What none of this family knows as they drive off leaving a twelve-year-old girl on the side of the road five miles from home with darkness closing in, is what will happen next.
Doesn't that sound intriguing? I was all in wondering what happens to this poor girl.
Libby, the older sister that narrates the story has a voice that just never resonated with me.
I'll be honest and say that this isn't the book that I thought it was going to be and it's my fault. I thought this was going to be a thriller or suspense novel of sorts and it is not that. This is most definitely a slow burn coming of age novel and there is nothing wrong with that but it just wasn't what I was in the mood for at the moment. Again, my fault. 3 stars!
Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper for providing me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
What none of this family knows as they drive off leaving a twelve-year-old girl on the side of the road five miles from home with darkness closing in, is what will happen next.
Doesn't that sound intriguing? I was all in wondering what happens to this poor girl.
Libby, the older sister that narrates the story has a voice that just never resonated with me.
I'll be honest and say that this isn't the book that I thought it was going to be and it's my fault. I thought this was going to be a thriller or suspense novel of sorts and it is not that. This is most definitely a slow burn coming of age novel and there is nothing wrong with that but it just wasn't what I was in the mood for at the moment. Again, my fault. 3 stars!
Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper for providing me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
January 23, 2023
❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀
3 ¼ stars
The opening of A Crooked Tree is certainly chilling. Libby, our fifteen-year-old narrator, is in the car with her siblings. When their squabbling gets too much their mother dumps twelve-year-old Ellen on the side of the road. Hours pass, and to Libby's increasing concern Ellen has yet to arrive. When Ellen finally makes an appearance, something has clearly happened to her.
Sadly, the suspenseful atmosphere that is so palpable at the start of this novel gives way to a slightly more predictable coming-of-age. The premise made me think that A Crooked Tree would be something in the realms of Winter's Bone (we have the rural setting, the dysfunctional family, the bond between the siblings). But A Crooked Tree tells a far more conventional story: a summer of revelations (from the realizations that the adults around you have their own secrets to having to say goodbye to the innocence of childhood). While what happened to Ellen certainly has an impact on the storyline, A Crooked Tree is not a mystery or thriller. We follow Libby as she fights and makes peace with her best friend and siblings, we learn of her less than stellar home-life, and, most of all, of her dislike of the neighborhoods' bad boy (this last tread was pretty annoying). I did appreciate how vivid the setting was, from the references to 80s culture to Libby's environment (she is particularly attuned to nature). I also really enjoyed the family dynamics and the unease that permeated many of the scenes. The author succeeds particularly in capturing that period of transition, from childhood to adolescence, without being sentimental.
What ultimately did not work for me was Libby herself. She's very bland. Love for trees aside there was little to her character. While her siblings, bff, and adults around her were fully fleshed out, Libby's personality remains largely unexplored. Her obsession with the 'bad boy' was also really grating and her refusal to see him as anything but bad news didn't ring entirely true. A lot of the observations she makes about the people around her seemed to originate from someone far more mature and insightful than she was (as in, they did not really seem to stem from the mind of a particularly naive 15-year old girl). Elle, although younger, would have made for a more convincing and interesting narrator. Libby...is painfully vanilla.
Still, Libby aside, I did find this novel to be engaging, occasionally unsettling, and exceedingly nostalgic.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
3 ¼ stars
“That summer when I so desperately tried to reel us all in, I didn't understand the forces spinning us apart.”
The opening of A Crooked Tree is certainly chilling. Libby, our fifteen-year-old narrator, is in the car with her siblings. When their squabbling gets too much their mother dumps twelve-year-old Ellen on the side of the road. Hours pass, and to Libby's increasing concern Ellen has yet to arrive. When Ellen finally makes an appearance, something has clearly happened to her.
Sadly, the suspenseful atmosphere that is so palpable at the start of this novel gives way to a slightly more predictable coming-of-age. The premise made me think that A Crooked Tree would be something in the realms of Winter's Bone (we have the rural setting, the dysfunctional family, the bond between the siblings). But A Crooked Tree tells a far more conventional story: a summer of revelations (from the realizations that the adults around you have their own secrets to having to say goodbye to the innocence of childhood). While what happened to Ellen certainly has an impact on the storyline, A Crooked Tree is not a mystery or thriller. We follow Libby as she fights and makes peace with her best friend and siblings, we learn of her less than stellar home-life, and, most of all, of her dislike of the neighborhoods' bad boy (this last tread was pretty annoying). I did appreciate how vivid the setting was, from the references to 80s culture to Libby's environment (she is particularly attuned to nature). I also really enjoyed the family dynamics and the unease that permeated many of the scenes. The author succeeds particularly in capturing that period of transition, from childhood to adolescence, without being sentimental.
What ultimately did not work for me was Libby herself. She's very bland. Love for trees aside there was little to her character. While her siblings, bff, and adults around her were fully fleshed out, Libby's personality remains largely unexplored. Her obsession with the 'bad boy' was also really grating and her refusal to see him as anything but bad news didn't ring entirely true. A lot of the observations she makes about the people around her seemed to originate from someone far more mature and insightful than she was (as in, they did not really seem to stem from the mind of a particularly naive 15-year old girl). Elle, although younger, would have made for a more convincing and interesting narrator. Libby...is painfully vanilla.
Still, Libby aside, I did find this novel to be engaging, occasionally unsettling, and exceedingly nostalgic.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
January 18, 2024
Just when I thought I had my top five reads of 2020 well-established, A Crooked Tree came along and foiled all of my plans.
One evening, while driving home, a tired single mother of five makes a rash decision that will have profound consequences: She forces her twelve year old daughter, Ellen, out of the car and tells her to walk home the rest of the way.
I adored this book. The emotions it conjured were powerful and the story had me fully intrigued from start to finish. Libby, who was fifteen when the incident occurred, narrates. Her voice, with all its worry, guilt, and sadness, felt overwhelmingly real. The observations she described grasped my heart and made it ache in raw, familiar ways. This is a deeply reflective novel. It’s haunting honesty examines the mess even the most pristine in appearance can be.
This book’s tone reminded me of Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, another book I loved and struggled to put down. One defining difference between the two for me was that the ending in this didn’t feel rushed or overly explained. That had been my only disappointment with Krueger’s book (though still a favorite) and I was grateful to find A Crooked Tree satisfied all the way through.
Having seen a few misconceptions about this novel noted by other readers, I will warn that this is not a thriller. It is literary fiction with a hint of suspense. Some have also stated that it is a coming-of-age novel. It isn’t that either. We look only at the one summer of Libby’s life. I know how expectations can ruin one’s experience while reading and I want everyone to go in with the right ones. This book deserves no less.
A Crooked Tree is a mesmerizing and heart wrenching look at a broken family. I will be very disappointed if it doesn’t win or, at the very least, get nominated for an award in 2021. I’m sad that it’s a debut, as I’m craving more from Una Mannion and there’s no backlist for me to dive into. At the same time, I know I have so much to look forward to, for if a debut is this exceptional, whatever she brings us in the future will surely be magnificent.
Thank you to the publisher for my review copy. All opinions are my own.
One evening, while driving home, a tired single mother of five makes a rash decision that will have profound consequences: She forces her twelve year old daughter, Ellen, out of the car and tells her to walk home the rest of the way.
I adored this book. The emotions it conjured were powerful and the story had me fully intrigued from start to finish. Libby, who was fifteen when the incident occurred, narrates. Her voice, with all its worry, guilt, and sadness, felt overwhelmingly real. The observations she described grasped my heart and made it ache in raw, familiar ways. This is a deeply reflective novel. It’s haunting honesty examines the mess even the most pristine in appearance can be.
This book’s tone reminded me of Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, another book I loved and struggled to put down. One defining difference between the two for me was that the ending in this didn’t feel rushed or overly explained. That had been my only disappointment with Krueger’s book (though still a favorite) and I was grateful to find A Crooked Tree satisfied all the way through.
Having seen a few misconceptions about this novel noted by other readers, I will warn that this is not a thriller. It is literary fiction with a hint of suspense. Some have also stated that it is a coming-of-age novel. It isn’t that either. We look only at the one summer of Libby’s life. I know how expectations can ruin one’s experience while reading and I want everyone to go in with the right ones. This book deserves no less.
A Crooked Tree is a mesmerizing and heart wrenching look at a broken family. I will be very disappointed if it doesn’t win or, at the very least, get nominated for an award in 2021. I’m sad that it’s a debut, as I’m craving more from Una Mannion and there’s no backlist for me to dive into. At the same time, I know I have so much to look forward to, for if a debut is this exceptional, whatever she brings us in the future will surely be magnificent.
Thank you to the publisher for my review copy. All opinions are my own.
January 21, 2021
3.5 Stars: What drew me to this novel is the premise that a mother kicks out of the car her 12 year-old daughter after the girl was being a bit cheeky. I think we all know of someone who was kicked out of their car as a child. My mother kicked out my 2 brothers on a rural road in South Dakota. I was horrified. But what my brothers did was go through a barbed-wire fence and start walking in the corn fields. The corn was so high that they were disappearing. I screamed at my mother, who did stop, honk the horn and drive in reverse to get the boys. I’m not sure where they thought they were going, but we were a resilient bunch, and it was in full daylight.
In “A Crooked Tree”, 15 year-old Libby narrates the story which begins with Ellen being kicked out of the car, 5 miles from home at dusk. And the mother goes home! She leaves a 12 year-old to fend for herself in her Catholic School uniform in the dark! We learn that her mother isn’t the most stable mother. She frequently leaves her five children alone.
What broke my heart is that the children were too afraid to seek adult help. They feared their mother. They also wanted to protect their mother. Ellen does get picked up, after hitch-hiking, and needs to throw herself out of a moving car because that was the safest option given the driver was creepy. Plus, she didn’t want her mother to know because her mother would be angry that she hitch-hiked. So basically, when the mother was errant in her maternal duties and something went wrong, she blamed the children.
Thus, we have a story of uncertainty. While Libby is a mature 15 year-old, she is confused about what she should tell adults and who she can trust. She fears authority, as many 15 year-olds do, especially while being a teenager. Author Una Mannion does a fabulous job narrating from a 15 year-old’s conflicted and confused mind. Libby is attempting to navigate high school. She’s noticing boys. She’s trying to figure out what is right and wrong. Ellen’s event is traumatic, but Libby soldier’s on through her summer, babysitting and on the cusp of adulthood.
The story is really about Libby’s summer during 1981 when no one had cell phones or computers (or few did). It’s a time, pre-technology, in which children did have a few more freedoms. This is a coming-of-age story which will bring you back to those years when you were uneasy, lacking confidence, frustrated, and confused. Libby starts noticing adults, and parents. She compares her life with others, trying to figure out what is “normal” and what is a happy family.
I listened to audible production, performed by Sophie Amoss. It was an enjoyable listen. Libby’s narration will take you back to those awkward years.
In “A Crooked Tree”, 15 year-old Libby narrates the story which begins with Ellen being kicked out of the car, 5 miles from home at dusk. And the mother goes home! She leaves a 12 year-old to fend for herself in her Catholic School uniform in the dark! We learn that her mother isn’t the most stable mother. She frequently leaves her five children alone.
What broke my heart is that the children were too afraid to seek adult help. They feared their mother. They also wanted to protect their mother. Ellen does get picked up, after hitch-hiking, and needs to throw herself out of a moving car because that was the safest option given the driver was creepy. Plus, she didn’t want her mother to know because her mother would be angry that she hitch-hiked. So basically, when the mother was errant in her maternal duties and something went wrong, she blamed the children.
Thus, we have a story of uncertainty. While Libby is a mature 15 year-old, she is confused about what she should tell adults and who she can trust. She fears authority, as many 15 year-olds do, especially while being a teenager. Author Una Mannion does a fabulous job narrating from a 15 year-old’s conflicted and confused mind. Libby is attempting to navigate high school. She’s noticing boys. She’s trying to figure out what is right and wrong. Ellen’s event is traumatic, but Libby soldier’s on through her summer, babysitting and on the cusp of adulthood.
The story is really about Libby’s summer during 1981 when no one had cell phones or computers (or few did). It’s a time, pre-technology, in which children did have a few more freedoms. This is a coming-of-age story which will bring you back to those years when you were uneasy, lacking confidence, frustrated, and confused. Libby starts noticing adults, and parents. She compares her life with others, trying to figure out what is “normal” and what is a happy family.
I listened to audible production, performed by Sophie Amoss. It was an enjoyable listen. Libby’s narration will take you back to those awkward years.
December 10, 2020
I genuinely cannot believe this is a debut. Mannion’s writing is so beautiful and atmospheric, not to mention the amazing ability to ground this story in such a vivid reality.
A Crooked Tree is a character driven contemporary that felt so raw and real. This is a story of family, belonging, friendship and resilience narrated through the mind of fifteen-year-old, middle child, Libby as her and her single parent family manage a tumultuous period in their lives. The character growth in this is so well handled. Libby’s interactions with those around her, from her siblings to her best friend to the single mum she babysits for are so fascinating and truthful. The unsettling moments felt even more riveting and haunting due to this.
I absolutely adored the 80s setting and it really helped ground the characters, especially with the references to popular music of the time. I found this most compelling because in our formative years music really is how we relate to the world and it is such a core part of our identities.
I’ll be looking out for the next book from Mannion and trusting that I’ll be taken on a magical, dark journey.
ARC provided through Edelweiss for an honest review
A Crooked Tree is a character driven contemporary that felt so raw and real. This is a story of family, belonging, friendship and resilience narrated through the mind of fifteen-year-old, middle child, Libby as her and her single parent family manage a tumultuous period in their lives. The character growth in this is so well handled. Libby’s interactions with those around her, from her siblings to her best friend to the single mum she babysits for are so fascinating and truthful. The unsettling moments felt even more riveting and haunting due to this.
I absolutely adored the 80s setting and it really helped ground the characters, especially with the references to popular music of the time. I found this most compelling because in our formative years music really is how we relate to the world and it is such a core part of our identities.
I’ll be looking out for the next book from Mannion and trusting that I’ll be taken on a magical, dark journey.
ARC provided through Edelweiss for an honest review
January 4, 2022
How did I never get around to reviewing this quiet little novel, a favorite of 2021? And what could I possibly say to convince anyone to read it amidst the relentless onslaught of new 2022 releases, book after book and many of them fantastically heralded!
I guess one of the aspects of the book that I can speak to is that I still recall it so very well, nearly a year and about 70 books/21,000+ pages later - and despite its quietness and lack of a flashy plotline. There is something about this atmospheric coming-of-age snapshot in time that just stuck with me.
This book is set in the early 1980s in the isolated winding rural forest neighborhoods of the historic Valley Forge area of Pennsylvania. It’s very 1980s indeed in that children, including the main characters of 14 year-old protagonist and narrator Libby and her older and younger siblings, are largely left to fend for and raise themselves in what seems like the classic manner of the 1980s or at least its pop cultural depictions.
There is a very early-season “Stranger Things” vibe, but without the supernatural features. It’s more like kids trying to make their own fun, largely in the forest, and figure out life - pre-Internet and iPhone - while also trying to survive the general haze of confusion and potential menace that hovers around the bend of any adolescence, especially one in which would-be caregiving adults are beset and preoccupied and distracted by their own worries and survival concerns.
There are best friendships, secret tree hideouts with hidden packs of cigarettes, bonfires, public bus trips to the mall, babysitting gigs, record albums and stores, t-shirts, and ominous boys with motorcycles and ominous men with low-riding sports cars. It’s not really a thriller beyond these elements. But isn’t adolescence always a thriller? And adolescence is also most certainly a woods, and these particular woods provide the perfect metaphor.
This is largely a novel of beautifully wrought setting and characterization, especially that of Libby. The plot, such as it is, hinges on a few events that again mean more for their suggestion of what could have happened or might yet happen. Yet all this was enough for me. Again, it’s a quiet book with gentle sustained narrative tension, not a full-bore thriller by any means: this is definitely coming of age lit fic above all else.
I think I originally read this for a reading challenge goal about books that are rural in setting or take place mostly outside, so those might be ideas for you. It would also be a good candidate for a book about sister relationships, which are central to the book if not its entire focus.
I guess one of the aspects of the book that I can speak to is that I still recall it so very well, nearly a year and about 70 books/21,000+ pages later - and despite its quietness and lack of a flashy plotline. There is something about this atmospheric coming-of-age snapshot in time that just stuck with me.
This book is set in the early 1980s in the isolated winding rural forest neighborhoods of the historic Valley Forge area of Pennsylvania. It’s very 1980s indeed in that children, including the main characters of 14 year-old protagonist and narrator Libby and her older and younger siblings, are largely left to fend for and raise themselves in what seems like the classic manner of the 1980s or at least its pop cultural depictions.
There is a very early-season “Stranger Things” vibe, but without the supernatural features. It’s more like kids trying to make their own fun, largely in the forest, and figure out life - pre-Internet and iPhone - while also trying to survive the general haze of confusion and potential menace that hovers around the bend of any adolescence, especially one in which would-be caregiving adults are beset and preoccupied and distracted by their own worries and survival concerns.
There are best friendships, secret tree hideouts with hidden packs of cigarettes, bonfires, public bus trips to the mall, babysitting gigs, record albums and stores, t-shirts, and ominous boys with motorcycles and ominous men with low-riding sports cars. It’s not really a thriller beyond these elements. But isn’t adolescence always a thriller? And adolescence is also most certainly a woods, and these particular woods provide the perfect metaphor.
This is largely a novel of beautifully wrought setting and characterization, especially that of Libby. The plot, such as it is, hinges on a few events that again mean more for their suggestion of what could have happened or might yet happen. Yet all this was enough for me. Again, it’s a quiet book with gentle sustained narrative tension, not a full-bore thriller by any means: this is definitely coming of age lit fic above all else.
I think I originally read this for a reading challenge goal about books that are rural in setting or take place mostly outside, so those might be ideas for you. It would also be a good candidate for a book about sister relationships, which are central to the book if not its entire focus.
December 18, 2020
A mother is in the car driving home with her four bickering children, she stops the car and demands that 12 year old Ellen gets out of the car. She drives away leaving her on a dark road 5 miles from home.
What happens next when Ellen hitches a lift, sets of a disastrous chain of events that will change this family forever.
A great story about family and friendship. I loved how the characters came to life, seeing the connection between the siblings and how they look after each other.
An author I will be looking out for. I can’t wait to read her next book.
Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.
What happens next when Ellen hitches a lift, sets of a disastrous chain of events that will change this family forever.
A great story about family and friendship. I loved how the characters came to life, seeing the connection between the siblings and how they look after each other.
An author I will be looking out for. I can’t wait to read her next book.
Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.
June 28, 2021
Rating: Very Good
Genre: Literary Fiction
The story is set in the 1980s about a family consisting of a mother, her four daughters, and her son. One night while driving home and due to a fight between the siblings the mother pulls over the car and orders one of the sisters (12-year-old Ellen) to walk home in that darkness. Once the family reached their house, hours pass, and Ellen still doesn’t show up. This triggers the consequent events that disturb this family’s life.
There are trigger warnings in this story so be cautious getting into it. The first thing that really impressed me about the story is the 1980s atmosphere. Una Mannion has created a wonderful atmosphere and set up with all its nostalgia. I think the 1980s’ generation will appreciate the world that the author has created here. The plot itself sometimes got repetitive specifically when it was about the present. However, the author tried to break this repetitiveness by bringing up some of the past events mainly those that involved the deceased father.
The story is narrated from Libby’s point of view. This gave the author more space to change the narrator’s way of looking at things and life. I think it was quite interesting the way Libby looked at some of the other characters and changed her opinion about them. Overall, I liked most of the characters especially Wilson! Every one of them added something colorful to the story. This coming-of-age literary fiction has the needed elements making it a very good atmospheric reading experience.
Genre: Literary Fiction
The story is set in the 1980s about a family consisting of a mother, her four daughters, and her son. One night while driving home and due to a fight between the siblings the mother pulls over the car and orders one of the sisters (12-year-old Ellen) to walk home in that darkness. Once the family reached their house, hours pass, and Ellen still doesn’t show up. This triggers the consequent events that disturb this family’s life.
There are trigger warnings in this story so be cautious getting into it. The first thing that really impressed me about the story is the 1980s atmosphere. Una Mannion has created a wonderful atmosphere and set up with all its nostalgia. I think the 1980s’ generation will appreciate the world that the author has created here. The plot itself sometimes got repetitive specifically when it was about the present. However, the author tried to break this repetitiveness by bringing up some of the past events mainly those that involved the deceased father.
The story is narrated from Libby’s point of view. This gave the author more space to change the narrator’s way of looking at things and life. I think it was quite interesting the way Libby looked at some of the other characters and changed her opinion about them. Overall, I liked most of the characters especially Wilson! Every one of them added something colorful to the story. This coming-of-age literary fiction has the needed elements making it a very good atmospheric reading experience.
June 9, 2023
A somber coming of age which highlights the small and large ways that families come apart, and how perception of the world is formed. Through a dark and atmospheric reflection, we see the effects of grief and secrets when they break the surface, the ripples of hurt that can echo for years afterwards. This novel is also a highlight of friendships and sibling bonds against the backdrop of hardship; how our peers and siblings are often the most compelling force of our understanding of the world, of adulthood. A moody debut that is filled with wistful nostalgia.
January 28, 2021
There's a bitter-sweet vein of nostalgia running throughout Una Mannion's novel “A Crooked Tree”. It's told from from the point of view of Libby who is looking back at a period of her teenage years at the beginning of the 1980s in a rural Pennsylvanian community. She recounts a dramatic incident where her younger sister Ellen is abruptly left on the side of the road when their single mother is driving the family home and gets fed up with Ellen's backtalk. A series of dramatic and frightening events follow on from this. But the story is also suffused with a feeling of yearning for the idle days of her early life and the certainty of being part of a family unit though she realises they were troubled and imperfect times. I felt a kinship with Libby because (though I grew up much later than her) I had a similarly agrestic American childhood filled with long summer afternoons spent in the forest, roasting marshmallows over a fire or sneaking into places I wasn't supposed to with friends. This novel also gives the feeling that we're all lucky to have survived our childhood because it's only in retrospect that we truly understand how precarious life was and how vulnerable we often were in those early years.
Read my full review of A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion on LonesomeReader
Read my full review of A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion on LonesomeReader
Read
February 21, 2021This coming-of-age story is set in the early 80s, in a rural part of Pennsylvania. 15-year-old Libby Gallagher is on a car journey home from school with her mother and four siblings, when an argument breaks out. Younger sister Ellen brings up their dead father, causing their mother to snap and leave Ellen to walk the rest of the way in the dark by herself. Libby is terrified that something dreadful will happen and her worst fears come true when Ellen is picked up by a strange, long-haired creep they dub Barbie Man. She manages to escape his clutches but not without sustaining some injuries. The whole episode scares the life out of the girls and they fear that Barbie Man will reattempt to harm Ellen. It's not like Libby hasn't enough to deal with already - she's had some disagreements with her best friend Sage, she's trying to figure out boys, and she's still mourning the death of her Dad. It's going to be an eventful summer, to say the least.
I've seen a few reviews describe this story as suspenseful, but I'm not sure I agree with that. The villain never felt that real to me, and as he only shows up in a couple of scenes it was difficult to understand what made him tick. His threat seemed exaggerated for the majority of the story, but maybe that's the point, as we are seeing everything through Libby's eyes. What interested me more was the Gallagher family dynamic: how the children coped with the loss of one parent and the failings of another. Her father's passing clearly weighs heavily on Libby, and the longing and regret she feels is quite moving. It's also a very evocative and lyrical account of a summer in an American teenager's life, before mobile phones and internet. A simpler time maybe, but not without its own complications. A Crooked Tree is an impressive debut in lots of ways, and I look forward to reading more from Una Mannion.
I've seen a few reviews describe this story as suspenseful, but I'm not sure I agree with that. The villain never felt that real to me, and as he only shows up in a couple of scenes it was difficult to understand what made him tick. His threat seemed exaggerated for the majority of the story, but maybe that's the point, as we are seeing everything through Libby's eyes. What interested me more was the Gallagher family dynamic: how the children coped with the loss of one parent and the failings of another. Her father's passing clearly weighs heavily on Libby, and the longing and regret she feels is quite moving. It's also a very evocative and lyrical account of a summer in an American teenager's life, before mobile phones and internet. A simpler time maybe, but not without its own complications. A Crooked Tree is an impressive debut in lots of ways, and I look forward to reading more from Una Mannion.
Shelved as 'will-probably-not-finish'
June 28, 2021This book sat on my currently reading shelf for half a year without me picking it back up - I am now officially calling it quits. This is not a bad book by any means but I found it unfocussed and for me at least the mix between coming-of-age and thriller did not work. I thought the coming-of-age elements, even if they followed expected story beats (the skinny dipping scene, the awkward first kiss, the falling out with friends, the fights with sisters), worked beautifully due to how expertly the main character is drawn. The thriller-y elements on the other hand did neither work for me nor kept me interested enough to keep reading. I skipped to the end to know how it all works out and am now happy to just put the book down.
I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
February 25, 2021
A Crooked Tree focuses on one summer in the early 1980s in a rural town in Pennsylvania.
The narrator is Libby, fifteen years old. Her three sisters and one brother live with their mother, who works as a receptionist in a hospital. The father is deceased.
One evening driving home, the mother kicks out the squabbling twelve-year-old Ellen and tells her to find her own way home.
This triggers a series of unfortunate events, amplified by the fact that it was kept secret from the adults in charge, something that was made easy by the fact that the mother was either at work or sneaking out to meet with her lover, a mystery man that none but the youngest child knew who he was.
This is a coming of age novel that deals with family, growing up, grief, friendship in a very realistic way. The writing is straight forward as you'd expect from a fifteen-year-old.
I've received this eARC in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to Faber and Faber for the opportunity to read and review this novel.
The narrator is Libby, fifteen years old. Her three sisters and one brother live with their mother, who works as a receptionist in a hospital. The father is deceased.
One evening driving home, the mother kicks out the squabbling twelve-year-old Ellen and tells her to find her own way home.
This triggers a series of unfortunate events, amplified by the fact that it was kept secret from the adults in charge, something that was made easy by the fact that the mother was either at work or sneaking out to meet with her lover, a mystery man that none but the youngest child knew who he was.
This is a coming of age novel that deals with family, growing up, grief, friendship in a very realistic way. The writing is straight forward as you'd expect from a fifteen-year-old.
I've received this eARC in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to Faber and Faber for the opportunity to read and review this novel.
August 30, 2022
"Im Wald verändern sich die Geräusche, alles verklingt vor dem Summen des Untergrunds und dem leisen Rascheln des Laubs oben im Blätterdach, das Licht bündelt sich zu einzelnen Wolken, alles ist nur noch Grün und Licht und Schatten." - Una Mannion, "Licht zwischen den Bäumen"
Der Beginn der Sommerferien hat immer etwas Magisches - zumindest, wenn man nicht gerade Libby Gallagher heißt und in zerrütteten Familienverhältnissen mit vier Geschwistern und einer alleinerziehenden Mutter lebt. Die Ferien fangen schon absolut katastrophal an, als Libbys jüngere Schwester Ellen ihre Mutter so sehr zur Weißglut bringt, dass diese sie kurzerhand aus dem Auto wirft, mitten im Nirgendwo, bei Einbruch der Dunkelheit. Eine absolut fatale Entscheidung mit weitreichenden Folgen, wie sich herausstellen wird...
"Licht zwischen den Bäumen" ist der Debütroman von Una Mannion, übersetzt von Tanja Handels, und lässt sich wohl am besten als Mischung aus literarischem Thriller und Coming-Of-Age Roman beschreiben. Einerseits präsentiert die Autorin den Lesenden eine Geschichte über das Aufwachsen der fünf Geschwister in sehr schwierigen Verhältnissen - vor Kurzem verstorbener Vater, alleinerziehende, sichtlich überforderte Mutter -, andererseits entpuppt sich das Buch durch Ellens traumatische Erlebnisse an diesem verhängnisvollen ersten Ferientag auch zu einem wahren Pageturner.
Der Roman ist dabei sehr angenehm geschrieben, jede Figur wird mit vielen Details versehen und vor allem auch die Landschaft, in der die Familie lebt, bekommt im Buch ihren großen Auftritt. Das alles hat es mir leicht gemacht, in die Story einzutauchen. Was mir beim Lesen jedoch einen sehr bitteren Beigeschmack beschert hat, waren die Fettfeindlichkeit, die die Autorin leider immer wieder durchblitzen lässt, die permanente Verwendung des I-Worts in der Übersetzung und dieses krampfhaft Amerikanisch-Patriotische.
Ich würde das Buch vor allem Fans von Romanen, in denen es um das Erwachsenwerden geht, empfehlen, gleichzeitig kommen hier aber auch Liebhaber*innen von Spannungsromanen voll auf ihre Kosten. Mich hat "Licht zwischen den Bäumen" mit einigen Abstrichen jedenfalls gut unterhalten.
Der Beginn der Sommerferien hat immer etwas Magisches - zumindest, wenn man nicht gerade Libby Gallagher heißt und in zerrütteten Familienverhältnissen mit vier Geschwistern und einer alleinerziehenden Mutter lebt. Die Ferien fangen schon absolut katastrophal an, als Libbys jüngere Schwester Ellen ihre Mutter so sehr zur Weißglut bringt, dass diese sie kurzerhand aus dem Auto wirft, mitten im Nirgendwo, bei Einbruch der Dunkelheit. Eine absolut fatale Entscheidung mit weitreichenden Folgen, wie sich herausstellen wird...
"Licht zwischen den Bäumen" ist der Debütroman von Una Mannion, übersetzt von Tanja Handels, und lässt sich wohl am besten als Mischung aus literarischem Thriller und Coming-Of-Age Roman beschreiben. Einerseits präsentiert die Autorin den Lesenden eine Geschichte über das Aufwachsen der fünf Geschwister in sehr schwierigen Verhältnissen - vor Kurzem verstorbener Vater, alleinerziehende, sichtlich überforderte Mutter -, andererseits entpuppt sich das Buch durch Ellens traumatische Erlebnisse an diesem verhängnisvollen ersten Ferientag auch zu einem wahren Pageturner.
Der Roman ist dabei sehr angenehm geschrieben, jede Figur wird mit vielen Details versehen und vor allem auch die Landschaft, in der die Familie lebt, bekommt im Buch ihren großen Auftritt. Das alles hat es mir leicht gemacht, in die Story einzutauchen. Was mir beim Lesen jedoch einen sehr bitteren Beigeschmack beschert hat, waren die Fettfeindlichkeit, die die Autorin leider immer wieder durchblitzen lässt, die permanente Verwendung des I-Worts in der Übersetzung und dieses krampfhaft Amerikanisch-Patriotische.
Ich würde das Buch vor allem Fans von Romanen, in denen es um das Erwachsenwerden geht, empfehlen, gleichzeitig kommen hier aber auch Liebhaber*innen von Spannungsromanen voll auf ihre Kosten. Mich hat "Licht zwischen den Bäumen" mit einigen Abstrichen jedenfalls gut unterhalten.
February 7, 2022
This is the story of a mother who, overwhelmed by loss and stress, mistreats her children. She leaves her 12-year-old daughter on the side of the road, miles away from home, with darkness falling. That's how the book starts, and in the pages that follow, I became engrossed in the teenage narrator's life. It's impossible not to be moved by struggles this family experiences, but the bond between the siblings as well as the unity of a small-town community help balance the dysfunction.
Read
March 18, 2021No rating. I don’t feel any interest in or connection to this story. I’ve had it for weeks. DNF
November 8, 2022
This unassuming novel is quite a gem. Less a mystery more a coming of age story.
March 1, 2021
Thoughts soon.
November 3, 2020
"Everything was beautiful, and for a moment we were held together by our longing to be what we once had been."
Gawdddd, this book is gorgeous. I honestly didn't know what I was getting into when I started this one. I thought I was going to be reading a mystery about a missing girl and what I got was an amazingly well-written, beautiful book about a family in the 70s. Libby is the protagonist of the story, which starts with a fateful car ride. It is the last day of school and Libby's mom is driving Libby and her four siblings home. Twelve year old Ellen is being a pain in the ass (as twelve year olds tend to do) and her mother finally pulls over on the side of the highway and tells her to walk home. Ellen gets out of the car, and her siblings watch in astonishment as their mother drives away. Ellen does make it home, but the events of that night leave the family forever changed.
I'm not sure what to say about A Crooked Tree except that is touching and intense and made me nostalgic, even though I didn't grow up in the 70s. The writing is beautiful and it is hard to believe this is a debut novel. If you enjoy coming-of-age novels you MUST add this to your list. This is my first five star read in awhile and I will be keeping an eye on Mannion as I would love to read anything she writes--grocery lists included.
*Please note that the quoted material is from an uncorrected proof and is subject to change.
Gawdddd, this book is gorgeous. I honestly didn't know what I was getting into when I started this one. I thought I was going to be reading a mystery about a missing girl and what I got was an amazingly well-written, beautiful book about a family in the 70s. Libby is the protagonist of the story, which starts with a fateful car ride. It is the last day of school and Libby's mom is driving Libby and her four siblings home. Twelve year old Ellen is being a pain in the ass (as twelve year olds tend to do) and her mother finally pulls over on the side of the highway and tells her to walk home. Ellen gets out of the car, and her siblings watch in astonishment as their mother drives away. Ellen does make it home, but the events of that night leave the family forever changed.
I'm not sure what to say about A Crooked Tree except that is touching and intense and made me nostalgic, even though I didn't grow up in the 70s. The writing is beautiful and it is hard to believe this is a debut novel. If you enjoy coming-of-age novels you MUST add this to your list. This is my first five star read in awhile and I will be keeping an eye on Mannion as I would love to read anything she writes--grocery lists included.
*Please note that the quoted material is from an uncorrected proof and is subject to change.
August 19, 2022
Dysfunctional, grieving, large family with single mom saga set in the mountains told from a first person present point of view via the middle sibling/teenage daughter’s perspective— compelling and interesting community dynamics portrayed, with writing that hedged the beginning of every chapter with remembrances and observations. I found this story frustrating in the way teenagers are frustrating, which is understandable. The lies and secrecy and rural American small town politics of working class vs. more well off families was interesting but not as deeply explored, with kind of random allusions to indigenous ways of knowing and being in regards to the nature and our main character’s relationship to the deceased father. The time period setting of the 1980s and the importance of the Irish immigrant narrative feel present and relevant at some points and unnecessary at others. I enjoyed the sibling dynamics but found the writing somewhat in engaging, with the themes not as well explored or emotionally impactful as I wanted them to be. A solid debut novel, but not mind blowing. I think I’ll read whatever this author comes out with next, though, just to check it out. I think the strongest part of this book was the setting of the community.
January 23, 2021
What an absolutely stunning, suspenseful and engaging debut book by Una Mannion, and it is hard to believe this is her first publication! I can only hope that my review can truly honor such a masterfully written story.
A Crooked Tree is a character driven driven story that takes you into a family of tightknit siblings and friends. The story is told through the eyes of 15 year old Libby over the summer going into her Junior year in High School. Mannion did an phenomenal job of writing from the view point of a teenager dealing with a neglectful parent while she navigates not only the angst of being a teenager, but a teenager dealing with the fateful consequences of her own mother’s haunting action of leaving her little sister Ellen on the side of the road to walk home one night and all that spiraled out of control from there. Watching Libby and her siblings deal with the reality of the life they live was compelling and heartbreaking, as they were forced to find their own way through a difficult summer with not parental help or guidance.
Moreover, Mannion’s writing is taught, intense, and expressive. The characters are genuine, sympathetic, vulnerable, courageous and lovable. And, the plot is a beautifully written, poignant tale about coming of age, family dynamics, loyalty, life, and strength. I was fully invested, and engaged from the very beginning as it immediately transported back to the mountains in suburban 1980s Pennsylvania through the fashion and music of the time period.
Overall, A Crooked Tree is an epic, emotional, haunting, masterfully woven debut book by Mannion that immerses you so thoroughly into the lives, feelings, and personalities of the characters and you never want it to end. It is without a doubt going to be one of my new favorite character driven novels of the year and it really shouldn’t be missed. I cannot wait to see what Mannion will write in the future!
A Crooked Tree is a character driven driven story that takes you into a family of tightknit siblings and friends. The story is told through the eyes of 15 year old Libby over the summer going into her Junior year in High School. Mannion did an phenomenal job of writing from the view point of a teenager dealing with a neglectful parent while she navigates not only the angst of being a teenager, but a teenager dealing with the fateful consequences of her own mother’s haunting action of leaving her little sister Ellen on the side of the road to walk home one night and all that spiraled out of control from there. Watching Libby and her siblings deal with the reality of the life they live was compelling and heartbreaking, as they were forced to find their own way through a difficult summer with not parental help or guidance.
Moreover, Mannion’s writing is taught, intense, and expressive. The characters are genuine, sympathetic, vulnerable, courageous and lovable. And, the plot is a beautifully written, poignant tale about coming of age, family dynamics, loyalty, life, and strength. I was fully invested, and engaged from the very beginning as it immediately transported back to the mountains in suburban 1980s Pennsylvania through the fashion and music of the time period.
Overall, A Crooked Tree is an epic, emotional, haunting, masterfully woven debut book by Mannion that immerses you so thoroughly into the lives, feelings, and personalities of the characters and you never want it to end. It is without a doubt going to be one of my new favorite character driven novels of the year and it really shouldn’t be missed. I cannot wait to see what Mannion will write in the future!
January 15, 2021
I couldn't put this one down. Beautifully written with a great sense of setting including 80s song lyrics, this coming of age/thriller portrays a summer in 15 year old Libby's life. Like the adults in a Peanuts cartoon, her mother is barely seen, an obstacle to get around. Her best friend may have betrayed her and the adults are not what they seem. Can't wait to read what Mannion writes next.
April 19, 2021
3.5. Otro "coming of age" que leí porque creí que iba a ser una historia de suspenso. Ambientado a finales de los 70, principios de los 80, esta historia nos cuenta sobre una familia de clase media/baja en Estados Unidos. Los cinco hijos intentan hacer sentido de la muerte de su padre y tienen una relación poco funcional con la mamá. Una noche, tras una discusión, la mamá pierde los estribos y le dice a Ellen (su hija de 12 años) que se baje del auto y que va a tener que caminar sola hasta su casa. La deja en un tramo muy oscuro de la carretera y la pobre Ellen tiene un encuentro desafortunado con un hombre que intenta abusar de ella. Este hecho desata una serie de eventos en las vidas de los hermanos que van a complicar mucho el verano. Narrado desde la perspectiva de Libby, la hija de en medio, vemos como los secretos en una familia pueden llegar a hacer tanto daño. Libby se aferra a la memoria (totalmente idealizada) de su papá y a intentar que nada a su alrededor cambie. Sin embargo, sus hermanos y ella están creciendo por lo que cada quien tiene que hacer su propia vida y dejar atrás el pasado.
Lo que más me gustó fue como Libby recuerda las historias y supersticiones que su padre irlandés le contaba, y, por supuesto, las historias de fantasmas que los chicos cuentan alrededor de la fogata en el verano.
Puntos extra por los ecos a Rebeca de Daphne du Maurier: no sólo la mención del libro, sino también los rododendros y la vegetación. Estas claves conectan al fantasma del ausente papá de Libby con esa presencia espectral de Rebeca.
Lo que más me gustó fue como Libby recuerda las historias y supersticiones que su padre irlandés le contaba, y, por supuesto, las historias de fantasmas que los chicos cuentan alrededor de la fogata en el verano.
Puntos extra por los ecos a Rebeca de Daphne du Maurier: no sólo la mención del libro, sino también los rododendros y la vegetación. Estas claves conectan al fantasma del ausente papá de Libby con esa presencia espectral de Rebeca.
August 18, 2021
Per tutti quelli che hanno nostalgia di casa e della loro infanzia, facile o difficile che fosse.
November 17, 2020
Una, you got me with the first sentence: "The night we left Ellen on the road, we were driving north up 252 near where it meets 2020 and then crosses the Pennsylvania Turnpike." I knew instantly this was going to be a page turner and would be about either a dog or a girl. Either way, I was ready. Oh, and it probably would be taking place in the mountains, and it would take place outdoors. Una Mannion, how can this be your debut novel? It's got so much depth to it, yet it's like an old familiar story. Suspenseful, yes. Empathetic, yes that too. Admiration for nature, totally. Spending time with this small community of young people who are witness to family dysfunctions based on fears and deep needs for privacy is like reading about any neighborhood, USA. The bonds and the bitterness, the grief and anger, the secrets . . . all these emotions are so tenderly expressed — in the voice of coming-of-age teenagers who could have been me or my brothers or my friends. Well done Una.
March 2, 2021
A Crooked Tree lives in the vein of Stranger Things or It, where children are terrorized by some enemy (in this case, a human one) and the story is as much about that as it is about nostalgia, about American childhood at a certain time and place. Like It, A Crooked Tree is also about the failure of adults to protect their children from the enemy, leaving the children to fend for themselves. If this sounds like something you'd enjoy, then this book is very much for you.
I liked this one almost very much but not quite. This is a first novel, and I found that that shows - for instance, in a scene in the book where our narrator Libby, the middle child of a large family, happens to spot family photos of her parents pre-split and siblings and those take her on a trip down memory lane about the type of individuals they are. It kind of felt like we needed a way to get this observation in, and the photo was the way to do that. Similarly, the youngest daughter Beatrice's camp trip out of state read to me like a convenient .
That being said, I grew up a couple of decades after these kids did about an hour from Valley Forge, in a geographically & demographically similar place in PA. The feeling of home in this book was pretty strong for me. 70's-80's rock/punk/metal nostalgia ran strong in my high school in the early 2000's, and the Wilson McVay character especially brought back to mind both the boys I wanted to know and the boys I was told to stay away from. We went to the mall, went for ice cream at Friendly's, romanticized forts in the woods. I felt sometimes while reading this that I could smell the trees and remember what it was like to have the emotional equivalent of wobbly baby deer legs, struggling to right myself.
So, even though all of the detail and memory in A Crooked Tree sometimes dampened the suspense of the narrative, it brought me right back to a place that feels so far away now. I can't help but appreciate that.
I liked this one almost very much but not quite. This is a first novel, and I found that that shows - for instance, in a scene in the book where our narrator Libby, the middle child of a large family, happens to spot family photos of her parents pre-split and siblings and those take her on a trip down memory lane about the type of individuals they are. It kind of felt like we needed a way to get this observation in, and the photo was the way to do that. Similarly, the youngest daughter Beatrice's camp trip out of state read to me like a convenient .
That being said, I grew up a couple of decades after these kids did about an hour from Valley Forge, in a geographically & demographically similar place in PA. The feeling of home in this book was pretty strong for me. 70's-80's rock/punk/metal nostalgia ran strong in my high school in the early 2000's, and the Wilson McVay character especially brought back to mind both the boys I wanted to know and the boys I was told to stay away from. We went to the mall, went for ice cream at Friendly's, romanticized forts in the woods. I felt sometimes while reading this that I could smell the trees and remember what it was like to have the emotional equivalent of wobbly baby deer legs, struggling to right myself.
So, even though all of the detail and memory in A Crooked Tree sometimes dampened the suspense of the narrative, it brought me right back to a place that feels so far away now. I can't help but appreciate that.
October 16, 2020
A Crooked Tree is going to be a best seller! Libby is an awesome narrator and really provides the insights child narrators often provide. The 80s setting was so real! I kept wanting to make my kids read passages so they knew what it was like growing up in the 80s. The family dynamics created such a forward flowing plot. The bond between the siblings is gripping. Seeing how Ellen and the others treat Beatrice due to her being a half sister is interesting. The lives of the divorced women in book make the point of financial status so apparent. Ms. Boucher is a great juxtaposition character to Libby’s Mom. The twists and turns are as crooked as the tree in the book. I read this in two days (and I have three kids) because I couldn’t wait to see what happened next for the teenagers who were in over their heads.
I hardly ever give out 5 stars, but I would have given A Crooked Tree 10 stars. This book will make a great limited series or movie! I would like to see the cover redesigned. The winding road on the cover does fit well with the scenery of their neighborhood, but I feel a picture of the neighborhood in the distance with their overgrown grass as Wilson is mowing the lawn might be better. Another option would be a picture of the “Kingdom” with the crooked tree.
The other development in the book might be to use more of the comparisons of trees to characters like how Wilson being an allelopathic black walnut tree. Libby would be a blue spruce, etc.
I hardly ever give out 5 stars, but I would have given A Crooked Tree 10 stars. This book will make a great limited series or movie! I would like to see the cover redesigned. The winding road on the cover does fit well with the scenery of their neighborhood, but I feel a picture of the neighborhood in the distance with their overgrown grass as Wilson is mowing the lawn might be better. Another option would be a picture of the “Kingdom” with the crooked tree.
The other development in the book might be to use more of the comparisons of trees to characters like how Wilson being an allelopathic black walnut tree. Libby would be a blue spruce, etc.
March 23, 2023
* March 2023 re-read, remains a fantastic, thrilling story that is enjoyable from start to finish.
Original review: Man oh man oh Mannion! (do you see what I did there?!! 😂😉)
What a ride this was!
This story grabs you from the start and put you through the wringer along with Libby the protagonist. I like how the story starts with the completely irresponsible act of an adult and then escalates as children unsuccessfully attempt to mop up the damage.
I felt immediately locked in and invested in all the characters. It is easy so see something of your younger self in one of the family siblings so it's easy to identify with their individual trials and problems.
Una Mannion does a terrific job of getting inside the head of the children/teens in the story, and the various flawed adults.
This story just works really well and it is definitely a fast paced and thrilling read. Highly recommended.
Original review: Man oh man oh Mannion! (do you see what I did there?!! 😂😉)
What a ride this was!
This story grabs you from the start and put you through the wringer along with Libby the protagonist. I like how the story starts with the completely irresponsible act of an adult and then escalates as children unsuccessfully attempt to mop up the damage.
I felt immediately locked in and invested in all the characters. It is easy so see something of your younger self in one of the family siblings so it's easy to identify with their individual trials and problems.
Una Mannion does a terrific job of getting inside the head of the children/teens in the story, and the various flawed adults.
This story just works really well and it is definitely a fast paced and thrilling read. Highly recommended.
March 24, 2021
Underwhelming. The opening incident is rushed and unconvincing, presented out of context and with no build up. Then virtually nothing happens for two hundred pages before a suddenly eventful climax.
It wants to be one of those rites of passage stories about a memorable summer at the end of childhood before everything changes, but for me it just wasn't vivid, memorable or well-written enough. Meh.
It wants to be one of those rites of passage stories about a memorable summer at the end of childhood before everything changes, but for me it just wasn't vivid, memorable or well-written enough. Meh.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 712 reviews