Ratings8
Average rating3.8
Sarah Crowe left Atlanta, and the remnants of a tumultuous relationship, to live alone in an old house in rural Rhode Island. Within its walls she discovers an unfinished manuscript written by the house's former tenant—a parapsychologist obsessed with the ancient oak growing on a desolate corner of the property. And as the gnarled tree takes root in her imagination, Sarah risks her health and her sanity to unearth a revelation planted centuries ago…
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This never really got off the ground for me. I don't require being dazzled every five seconds; I can appreciate a moody-and-atmospheric psychological tale. But this wasn't it. Things never got any weirder than say, Lewis Carroll's [b:Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There 83346 Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #2) Lewis Carroll https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1359299332l/83346.SY75.jpg 45962572]. The author seemed to avoid taking any risks, anything actually happening that would have to be worked out.I did like the “unreliable” main character, she had a brain and a sense of humor. I was interested in knowing more about her relationship with her girlfriend. As presented, the emotional climax of that storyline wasn't earned. There was a jarring bunch of typos. This isn't why I gave the book two stars, I'm strictly going on content here. But there was a noticeable page with glaring mistakes, like using “they're” when they meant “their” etc., that any proofreader would have caught. Since it was the character's journal we were reading, maybe this was supposed to be a clever way of showing her mental disintegration? If so, it was way too subtle and was only distracting and annoying.
Reading this in too close proximity to The Drowning Girl by the same author may have been a mistake, but that's fine. Its crypticness is the point, and makes it transcendent.