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The April Tree
Reach out, hold tight, stand up, move forward.
Learning that life goes on is the hardest lesson of all.
One life destroyed. Four others irrevocably shattered. Overcoming the shock and grief of death is an all-too-familiar rite of young adulthood.
Walking home from a tennis game on a bright spring day, April Walden's three closest friends watch in horror as she is struck by a car and killed. The senseless accident plunges all three young women-and the car's driver-into a devastating and often misguided search for comfort, purpose, and inspiration.
Becky wraps herself in a protective cloak of obsessions, performing anxious rituals at the base of the red maple tree under which April died. Elyse dives into a high-risk party life, trying to honor April by experiencing everything April missed but mistaking self-destructive indulgence for courage. Florie turns to fundamentalist Christianity, not as spiritual guidance, but as a wall that might shield her from reality. Mark, the driver, spirals downward into substance abuse and self-loathing, until April's three friends reach out to save him.
How do you make it through the night when you've stopped believing that tomorrow always comes?
Learning that life goes on is the hardest lesson of all.
One life destroyed. Four others irrevocably shattered. Overcoming the shock and grief of death is an all-too-familiar rite of young adulthood.
Walking home from a tennis game on a bright spring day, April Walden's three closest friends watch in horror as she is struck by a car and killed. The senseless accident plunges all three young women-and the car's driver-into a devastating and often misguided search for comfort, purpose, and inspiration.
Becky wraps herself in a protective cloak of obsessions, performing anxious rituals at the base of the red maple tree under which April died. Elyse dives into a high-risk party life, trying to honor April by experiencing everything April missed but mistaking self-destructive indulgence for courage. Florie turns to fundamentalist Christianity, not as spiritual guidance, but as a wall that might shield her from reality. Mark, the driver, spirals downward into substance abuse and self-loathing, until April's three friends reach out to save him.
How do you make it through the night when you've stopped believing that tomorrow always comes?
258 pages, Paperback
First published May 29, 2013
5 people are currently reading
215 people want to read
About the author
Judith Arnold
183 books173 followersBarbara Keiler
aka Ariel Berk, Thea Frederick, Judith Arnold
Barbara Keiler was born on April 7th. She started telling stories before shecould write. She was four when her sister, Carolyn, stuffed a crayon intoher hand and taught her the alphabet, and she's been writing ever since.
Barbara is a graduate of Smith College, where she learned to aim for thestars, and she received a master's degree in creative writing from BrownUniversity, where she took aim at a good-looking graduate student in thechemistry department and wound up marrying him. She says: "Before myhusband and I were married, I had a job in California and he was working onhis Ph.D. in Rhode Island. I became ill, and he hopped on a plane and flewacross the country to be with me. Neither of us had any money, but he saidhe simply couldn't concentrate on his research, knowing I was three thousandmiles away and facing a serious health problem all by myself. He stayed fortwo weeks, until I was pretty well recovered. That he would just drop whathe was doing, put his life on hold and race to my side told me how much heloved me. After that, I knew this was the man I wanted to marry."
Barbara has received writing fellowships from the Shubert Foundation and theNational Endowment for the Arts, and has taught at colleges and universitiesaround the country. She has also written several plays that have beenprofessionally staged at regional theaters in San Francisco, Washington, D.C.,Connecticut and off-off-Broadway.
Since her first romance novel's publication in 1983 as Ariel Berk. Shewrote one novel as Thea Frederick, and since 1985 she writes asJudith Arnold. Barbara has sold more than 70 novels, with eight millioncopies in print worldwide. She has recently signed a contract with MIRABooks. Her first MIRA novel will appear in 2001. She has received severalawards from Romantic Times Magazine, including awards for the Best HarlequinAmerican Romance of the Year, Best Harlequin Superromance of the Year, BestSeries Romantic Novel of the Year and a Lifetime Achievement Certificate ofMerit for Innovative Series Romance. She has also been a finalist for theGolden Medallion Award and the RITA Award for Romance Writer of America. Hernovel Barefoot in the Grass has appeared on the recommended reading listsdistributed by cancer support services at several hospitals.
Barbara lives in a small town not far from Boston, Massachusetts, New England with her husband, two teenage sons, and a guinea pig named Wilbur. Her sister Carolyn died of breast cancer in 1998.
aka Ariel Berk, Thea Frederick, Judith Arnold
Barbara Keiler was born on April 7th. She started telling stories before shecould write. She was four when her sister, Carolyn, stuffed a crayon intoher hand and taught her the alphabet, and she's been writing ever since.
Barbara is a graduate of Smith College, where she learned to aim for thestars, and she received a master's degree in creative writing from BrownUniversity, where she took aim at a good-looking graduate student in thechemistry department and wound up marrying him. She says: "Before myhusband and I were married, I had a job in California and he was working onhis Ph.D. in Rhode Island. I became ill, and he hopped on a plane and flewacross the country to be with me. Neither of us had any money, but he saidhe simply couldn't concentrate on his research, knowing I was three thousandmiles away and facing a serious health problem all by myself. He stayed fortwo weeks, until I was pretty well recovered. That he would just drop whathe was doing, put his life on hold and race to my side told me how much heloved me. After that, I knew this was the man I wanted to marry."
Barbara has received writing fellowships from the Shubert Foundation and theNational Endowment for the Arts, and has taught at colleges and universitiesaround the country. She has also written several plays that have beenprofessionally staged at regional theaters in San Francisco, Washington, D.C.,Connecticut and off-off-Broadway.
Since her first romance novel's publication in 1983 as Ariel Berk. Shewrote one novel as Thea Frederick, and since 1985 she writes asJudith Arnold. Barbara has sold more than 70 novels, with eight millioncopies in print worldwide. She has recently signed a contract with MIRABooks. Her first MIRA novel will appear in 2001. She has received severalawards from Romantic Times Magazine, including awards for the Best HarlequinAmerican Romance of the Year, Best Harlequin Superromance of the Year, BestSeries Romantic Novel of the Year and a Lifetime Achievement Certificate ofMerit for Innovative Series Romance. She has also been a finalist for theGolden Medallion Award and the RITA Award for Romance Writer of America. Hernovel Barefoot in the Grass has appeared on the recommended reading listsdistributed by cancer support services at several hospitals.
Barbara lives in a small town not far from Boston, Massachusetts, New England with her husband, two teenage sons, and a guinea pig named Wilbur. Her sister Carolyn died of breast cancer in 1998.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 19, 2020
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3.75 from me.
This was a devastating story of a group of young people having had a great time when tragedy strikes.
When one of their friends die each of them deal with the death differently.
A very well thought out book. The excessive swearing I thought was OTT in MHO
June 23, 2013
4.5
While this book is not the happiest story to be told, the reader can guess this by reading the premise. What it is, however, is interesting. Reading the different stories of how the three girls dealt with the guilt of April's death, as well as how the driver of the car that killed April dealt with it, was interesting.
Half the book is devoted to the girls' stories as fifteen-year-olds, then the other half occurred 5 years later. Little is mentioned of Mark, the driver, in the beginning sections - just enough that we get a glimpse of how unhappy and terribly guilty he feels - but in the second half of the book, he plays a much larger role. He has become an alcoholic and Elyse meets him randomly, then - upon discovering that he was the driver that accidentally killed April years ago - decides that she and the other two girls, Becky and Florie, need to "save" him.
The April Tree has many unexpected twists and turns, and that is one of the things I enjoyed about it. The reason that it didn't get a full 5 star rating from me was its depiction of Christianity. It was a fundamentalist, cult-like "Christian" sect to be sure, but it was very frustrating for me to read about. However, it was believable since sadly organizations like that do exist out there, and it did have its place in the storyline. Overall, a good read, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a story with a fascinating set of protagonists and a storyline that does the unexpected.
Many thanks to BellBridgeBooks via NetGalley for an opportunity to read and review this book.
While this book is not the happiest story to be told, the reader can guess this by reading the premise. What it is, however, is interesting. Reading the different stories of how the three girls dealt with the guilt of April's death, as well as how the driver of the car that killed April dealt with it, was interesting.
Half the book is devoted to the girls' stories as fifteen-year-olds, then the other half occurred 5 years later. Little is mentioned of Mark, the driver, in the beginning sections - just enough that we get a glimpse of how unhappy and terribly guilty he feels - but in the second half of the book, he plays a much larger role. He has become an alcoholic and Elyse meets him randomly, then - upon discovering that he was the driver that accidentally killed April years ago - decides that she and the other two girls, Becky and Florie, need to "save" him.
The April Tree has many unexpected twists and turns, and that is one of the things I enjoyed about it. The reason that it didn't get a full 5 star rating from me was its depiction of Christianity. It was a fundamentalist, cult-like "Christian" sect to be sure, but it was very frustrating for me to read about. However, it was believable since sadly organizations like that do exist out there, and it did have its place in the storyline. Overall, a good read, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a story with a fascinating set of protagonists and a storyline that does the unexpected.
Many thanks to BellBridgeBooks via NetGalley for an opportunity to read and review this book.
September 3, 2013
Judith Arnold’s The April Tree is an insightful exploration of the many, often self-destructive ways we mourn. Each of the four young people present at April Walden’s horrific death in an automobile accident struggle in its aftermath. They experience guilt, grief and anger, and seek out comfort in the solace of ritual, the numbing of alcohol or the safety of fundamentalist religion that seals one off from painful questioning. Arnold depicts loss and despair with a sensitive and deft hand. Her characters are multidimensional, not simple stereotypes, with rich family backgrounds that inform who they are and why they react as they do to their friend’s inexplicable death. As she has in her previous books, Arnold understands the messiness and ambivalence and contradictions of our humanity and creates in lyrical language a story that readers will care about and remember.
September 15, 2013
Not what I expected, although I am not sure what I expected. An intriguing and compelling story of friends, loss, life and moving on.
Fabulous. Moving. Different.
I felt like I knew the girls and you could feel the pain, and confusion. One for my classroom.
Fabulous. Moving. Different.
I felt like I knew the girls and you could feel the pain, and confusion. One for my classroom.
August 6, 2013
How devastating to see your best friend hit by a car and die. Moments ago the four friends were laughing and having fun. Now paramedics are working over April, two are hopeful but Becky knows she's gone, she died right there under the red maple tree.
The effect of this tragic accident changes the lives of the girls and the boy that was driving, suddenly they're in a downward spiral. Though an accident, Mark can't stop blaming himself and turns to drugs and alcohol. Becky blames her mother, she was supposed to pick them up after the tennis game but forgot...again. Elyse goes into a self destructive life of partying. Florie looks for something to shield her from the pain and finds a false religion.
A terribly sad story of teens dealing with the aftermath of this horror. Well written, real characters though I think the story could've been told without the excessive bad language.
I received a copy of this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The effect of this tragic accident changes the lives of the girls and the boy that was driving, suddenly they're in a downward spiral. Though an accident, Mark can't stop blaming himself and turns to drugs and alcohol. Becky blames her mother, she was supposed to pick them up after the tennis game but forgot...again. Elyse goes into a self destructive life of partying. Florie looks for something to shield her from the pain and finds a false religion.
A terribly sad story of teens dealing with the aftermath of this horror. Well written, real characters though I think the story could've been told without the excessive bad language.
I received a copy of this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews