Brett Seybert

Impressive depth and world building for a novella. Really fun conclusion.

Loved this! Had it ended about 15 pages sooner, it would have kept that last half star.

What most others have said: this would have been better as an article. Really valuable, interesting core idea is buried in about 250 pages of stuff I didn't care about that, in at least some cases, undermined the core philosophy. Best skimmed for the nuggets of wisdom.

It took about 250 pages — and about two years — for me to finally sync up with this book, but about a week ago something clicked and I blazed through the rest. I am an absolute sucker for this “new weird” genre and this is a paragon of the form.

Beautiful but tedious.

Loved the scope of this and its overall kind of aura. But, man, the back third really dragged ass. Satisfying conclusion and it's the kind of book that has forever changed my brain in good ways. Really wish I could read The Secret Forest— but maybe The Hidden Life of Trees will suffice.

It could be the eternal project of mankind, to learn what forests have figured out.

Read this with my six-year-old son; he absolutely loved it.

The final hundred pages or so were as intense as anything I can remember reading. Thrilling. A fitting sequel to the excellent film.

Loved this book. So much hit so close to home (both figuratively and geographically) and it felt authentic in a way that I didn’t quite expect. I don’t know why, but I had not categorized Kingsolver as an “Appalachian” writer previously, despite knowing of her bonafides in terms of being from Kentucky, but this book is clearly written with a love and intimate knowledge for the region and its people. There’s more going on here, too. The social justice angle. The David Copperfield retelling. The language itself. All of it just got me thinking in all of the best ways, even if those ways are also painful.

For anyone who also loved this book who finds themselves interested in learning more about Appalachia or reading more Appalachian literature, Kingsolver put together a really nice reading list for The New York Times.

The speculative climate science of it all was an interesting thought experiment, but I had a really hard time with the characters. Took me forever to read because it was propelling me forward. Found one of the storylines (Laks) far more interesting than the others, but this was relegated to short chapters interspersed throughout. Also did not care for what I would call the "dirty old man" humor and tone that kept popping up.