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Beware the Tall Grass: A Novel
Beware the Tall Grass weaves the stories of the Sloans, a modern family grappling with their young son Charlie’s troubling memories of a past life as a soldier in Vietnam, and Thomas Boone, a young man caught up in the drama of mid-sixties America who is sent to Vietnam. Eve Sloan is challenged as a mother to make sense of Charlie’s increasing references to war, and her attempts to get to the bottom of Charlie’s past life memories threaten her marriage, while Thomas struggles with loss and first love, before being thrust into combat and learning what matters most. Beware the Tall Grass explores the power of love and mercy with grace and artful sensitivity in a world where circumstances often occur far beyond our control.
- GenresFiction
223 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 15, 2024
88 people are currently reading
491 people want to read
About the author
Ellen Birkett Morris
12 books138 followersEllen Birkett Morris’s novel Beware the Tall Grass is the winner of the Donald L. Jordan Award for Literary Excellence, judged by Lan Samantha Chang, and will be published in 2024 by CSU Press. She is the author of Lost Girls: Short Stories, winner of the Pencraft Award and finalist for the Clara Johnson, IAN and Best Book awards. Her fiction has appeared in Shenandoah, Antioch Review, Notre Dame Review, and South Carolina Review, among other journals. She is a winner of the Bevel Summers Prize for short fiction. Morris is a recipient of an Al Smith Fellowship for her fiction from the Kentucky Arts Council.
Morris is also the author of Abide and Surrender, poetry chapbooks. Her poetry has appeared in The Clackamas Literary Review, Juked, Gastronomica, and Inscape, among other journals, and in eight anthologies. Morris won top prize in the 2008 Binnacle Ultra-Short Edition and was a finalist for the 2019 and 2020 Rita Dove Poetry Prize. Her poem “Abide” was featured on NPR’s A Way with Words. Her essays have appeared in Newsweek, AARP’s The Ethel, Oh Reader magazine, and on National Public Radio.
Morris holds an MFA in creative writing from Queens University-Charlotte.
Morris is also the author of Abide and Surrender, poetry chapbooks. Her poetry has appeared in The Clackamas Literary Review, Juked, Gastronomica, and Inscape, among other journals, and in eight anthologies. Morris won top prize in the 2008 Binnacle Ultra-Short Edition and was a finalist for the 2019 and 2020 Rita Dove Poetry Prize. Her poem “Abide” was featured on NPR’s A Way with Words. Her essays have appeared in Newsweek, AARP’s The Ethel, Oh Reader magazine, and on National Public Radio.
Morris holds an MFA in creative writing from Queens University-Charlotte.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
July 10, 2024
Unforgettable. Genuinely and carefully written, this beautiful novel will keep you invested in turning the pages with its touching dual narrative of a soldier in love who enlists and is sent to Vietnam, and the mother of a young boy struggling with memories simultaneously his and not his. The characters are well wrought and the storytelling sensory and visual—I felt like I was there. This book will move you, break you, and sometimes leave you raw, but also all the more tender for having read it.
June 22, 2024
A lovely novel about a modern-day family trying to right itself after a child begins acting out the life of a soldier in Vietnam. Eve is willing to sacrifice anything, even the love and respect of her husband, to help her son resolve the pain of his experience.
June 8, 2025
The chapters alternate between the two main characters - one current day and the other in the 1960's. The common denominator is little Charlie who lives with the memories of the latter. It would be very frightening to be Charlie's Mom and observing what he is experiencing.
April 2, 2025
Fascinating situation with strong emotional issues, but could have benefitted from some editing for redundancies and typos.
February 23, 2025
The belief in the dead communicating with the living is an ancient and mysterious one found in many cultures and religions. One intriguing phenomenon is the thousands of scientifically documented cases worldwide where young children recall memories from a past life they believe they have lived. These children typically begin speaking earlier than expected, using words never heard before and mentioning places they’ve never seen or been.
Ellen Birkett Morris’ debut novel, Beware the Tall Grass, explores this phenomenon by weaving two first-person protagonist narratives initially separated by over half a century. Slowly, the juxtaposed stories gently brush with each other but gradually lead to more abrasive and eventually heart-wrenching clashes with dramatic and life-threatening consequences.
Morris's novel begins with Eve, a new mother who becomes increasingly concerned that her growing child, Charlie, is displaying more and more traces of a former life. It starts when Charlie’s infant's eyes give the impression that he has an old soul who has already experienced many things in life. Later, he exhibits restlessness, night terrors, and begins verbalizing military terms like "attack" and "napalm,” eventually progressing to recalling firefights in helicopter landing zones in "Ia Drang," Vietnam, the location of the first major engagement between U.S. Army soldiers and North Vietnamese troops that occurred in mid-November of 1965. Whereas Charlie's behavior deeply disturbs Eve, her husband, Dan, initially dismisses his son's behavior as him being smart and repeating things he has seen or heard. Eventually, and with her marriage to Dan threatened, Eve turns to pediatricians, neurologists, and child psychiatrists for explanations and possible cures.
Chapter by chapter, the book weaves with Eve's and Charlie's account a decades-old story of a heartbroken teen, Thomas, seeking to move on from a tragic loss and start afresh by joining the military in the mid-1960s. Thomas' story begins with him as an eight-year-old boy leading an idyllic life with his horse Beau on a Montana ranch. Thomas' childhood is wrecked when a snake in the tall grass spooks Beau, causing the horse to fall and break a leg, requiring Thomas to put his horse out of misery. Thomas is never the same, and despite finding teen love and companionship with his girlfriend, Carrie, he can never get his love and loss of Beau off his mind. Like many young men seeking a change, Thomas is s mesmerized by the pitch of a visiting U.S. Army recruiter and enlists in his senior year. Despite the change to military life, Thomas is still haunted by Beau. Even the sound of gunfire on the target range, and later, the terror expressed in the eyes of his dying and fallen brethren in Vietnam, remind him of his last minutes with Beau.
As their stories unfold and arc closer together by a common gravitational pull of undying love and limitless mercy, both protagonists are battle-tested as they confront new challenges and grapple with fear, further loss and death, keeping readers spellbound. Charlie's and Thomas' stories climax with both fearing what awaits them in the tall grass.
Whereas Morris's intimate writing style makes the reader feel and think about the book's fictional characters, her attention to scientific and historical detail provides an aura of authenticity to her storytelling. Sparing her prose by keeping sentences, paragraphs, and chapters short and alternating between protagonists makes the reading easy and her readers eager to know what comes next. Her supporting, well-crafted subplots create backstories that not only deepen her characters, exposing their motivations and making their later actions more plausible, but also further the plot and theme. Her lyrical arrangement of words often reads like poetry, keeping the reader entrenched and wondering throughout the book’s chapters whether the memories and experiences of the deceased can live on in the lives of others. “Could these echo long beyond a person’s life, like the light that we see from stars that are long dead (229)?”
Beware the Tall Grass reads like poetic, creative nonfiction, creating a beautiful and believable story that leaves the reader satisfied yet in wonder about what we know and don't know about the mysteries of life and death. This novel is a compelling read.
Ellen Birkett Morris’ debut novel, Beware the Tall Grass, explores this phenomenon by weaving two first-person protagonist narratives initially separated by over half a century. Slowly, the juxtaposed stories gently brush with each other but gradually lead to more abrasive and eventually heart-wrenching clashes with dramatic and life-threatening consequences.
Morris's novel begins with Eve, a new mother who becomes increasingly concerned that her growing child, Charlie, is displaying more and more traces of a former life. It starts when Charlie’s infant's eyes give the impression that he has an old soul who has already experienced many things in life. Later, he exhibits restlessness, night terrors, and begins verbalizing military terms like "attack" and "napalm,” eventually progressing to recalling firefights in helicopter landing zones in "Ia Drang," Vietnam, the location of the first major engagement between U.S. Army soldiers and North Vietnamese troops that occurred in mid-November of 1965. Whereas Charlie's behavior deeply disturbs Eve, her husband, Dan, initially dismisses his son's behavior as him being smart and repeating things he has seen or heard. Eventually, and with her marriage to Dan threatened, Eve turns to pediatricians, neurologists, and child psychiatrists for explanations and possible cures.
Chapter by chapter, the book weaves with Eve's and Charlie's account a decades-old story of a heartbroken teen, Thomas, seeking to move on from a tragic loss and start afresh by joining the military in the mid-1960s. Thomas' story begins with him as an eight-year-old boy leading an idyllic life with his horse Beau on a Montana ranch. Thomas' childhood is wrecked when a snake in the tall grass spooks Beau, causing the horse to fall and break a leg, requiring Thomas to put his horse out of misery. Thomas is never the same, and despite finding teen love and companionship with his girlfriend, Carrie, he can never get his love and loss of Beau off his mind. Like many young men seeking a change, Thomas is s mesmerized by the pitch of a visiting U.S. Army recruiter and enlists in his senior year. Despite the change to military life, Thomas is still haunted by Beau. Even the sound of gunfire on the target range, and later, the terror expressed in the eyes of his dying and fallen brethren in Vietnam, remind him of his last minutes with Beau.
As their stories unfold and arc closer together by a common gravitational pull of undying love and limitless mercy, both protagonists are battle-tested as they confront new challenges and grapple with fear, further loss and death, keeping readers spellbound. Charlie's and Thomas' stories climax with both fearing what awaits them in the tall grass.
Whereas Morris's intimate writing style makes the reader feel and think about the book's fictional characters, her attention to scientific and historical detail provides an aura of authenticity to her storytelling. Sparing her prose by keeping sentences, paragraphs, and chapters short and alternating between protagonists makes the reading easy and her readers eager to know what comes next. Her supporting, well-crafted subplots create backstories that not only deepen her characters, exposing their motivations and making their later actions more plausible, but also further the plot and theme. Her lyrical arrangement of words often reads like poetry, keeping the reader entrenched and wondering throughout the book’s chapters whether the memories and experiences of the deceased can live on in the lives of others. “Could these echo long beyond a person’s life, like the light that we see from stars that are long dead (229)?”
Beware the Tall Grass reads like poetic, creative nonfiction, creating a beautiful and believable story that leaves the reader satisfied yet in wonder about what we know and don't know about the mysteries of life and death. This novel is a compelling read.
September 21, 2025
Clear prose, compelling characters, and an intriguing premise. I admire Birkett Morris’s skill in alternating character points of view and timelines. She captures the conflicts of mid 1960s America and the challenges of motherhood and marriage. Bravo!
September 12, 2025
A different read
I wasn't sure about the set up of the book. it was not like others. However it grabbed my interest and I stayed up all night reading it. I gave it five stars because it is definitely worth reading!
I wasn't sure about the set up of the book. it was not like others. However it grabbed my interest and I stayed up all night reading it. I gave it five stars because it is definitely worth reading!
May 13, 2024
Writer Ellen Birkett Morris' powerful short story collection, Lost Girls, left me breathless. She has a way of creating compelling characters and putting them in unique situations with simple sentences strung together that deliver deep impact.
In her wonderful debut novel, Beware the Tall Grass, Morris tackles a subject that, in less-skilled hands, might not have worked so well: past lives. A loving, worried mother watches her child fighting demons that do not exist. In desperation, she searches for answers, realizing that the issues might not come from this lifetime, and the treatment will be unconventional. This idea creates conflict in her marriage and in her community. The story seamlessly toggles between the present and the past and is told through the eyes of the mother and the young man who goes to Vietnam.
Ultimately, in this thoughtful, well-tended book, Ellen Birkett Morris isn't making a case for, or against, past lives. She's asking the reader to explore with her a bigger idea of how to live, and love, in the present.
In her wonderful debut novel, Beware the Tall Grass, Morris tackles a subject that, in less-skilled hands, might not have worked so well: past lives. A loving, worried mother watches her child fighting demons that do not exist. In desperation, she searches for answers, realizing that the issues might not come from this lifetime, and the treatment will be unconventional. This idea creates conflict in her marriage and in her community. The story seamlessly toggles between the present and the past and is told through the eyes of the mother and the young man who goes to Vietnam.
Ultimately, in this thoughtful, well-tended book, Ellen Birkett Morris isn't making a case for, or against, past lives. She's asking the reader to explore with her a bigger idea of how to live, and love, in the present.
August 23, 2024
The concept of this book (a little boy having memories of a Vietnam soldier) is so interesting and then it being written in dual POVs really made it.
As a mother, I also heavily related to Eve. She knew something was going on with her child and she was going to do what she had to do to advocate for her child (even when the majority told her to not worry about it).
Thomas grew so much in this novel and while I don't have experience with it, I feel like it was a very good representation of how quickly a boy turns into a man when becoming a solider and going to war.
I would definitely recommend this book!
As a mother, I also heavily related to Eve. She knew something was going on with her child and she was going to do what she had to do to advocate for her child (even when the majority told her to not worry about it).
Thomas grew so much in this novel and while I don't have experience with it, I feel like it was a very good representation of how quickly a boy turns into a man when becoming a solider and going to war.
I would definitely recommend this book!
January 17, 2025
Author Ellen Birkett Morris writes with eloquence and grace while exploring that elusive thing we call memory. Beware the Tall Grass explores the interesting concept of childhood memories of a past life. She cleverly navigates her dual timeline, young love and new motherhood, both fraught with angst and uncertainty—the frail human condition—while touching upon the complexities of the Vietnam War. She draws no conclusions; that's up to the reader, but this is a recommended read, thought-provoking and satisfying in a subtle way.
July 1, 2025
I probably never would have picked this book up on my own, but after talking with the author at the KY Book Festival in Louisville I was intrigued. She mentioned the research at the University of Virginia on children with memories from past lives, something I’d never heard of before! Who knew this happened, let alone enough to conduct a study. This novel tackles the idea in a way that gives both the modern and the past perspective. I became emotionally attached to the characters and found myself researching the children who speak about the details of past lives. Fascinating!
April 6, 2025
Worth reading !!
I really liked this book, as I often thought about the subject . It kept my interest throughout. The characters were real and not so perfect! It was real ! I saw this woman on Kelly and Mark show. She was playing Stump Mark ! And used this trying to stump.Mark.!! Then explained the truth ! I knew I had to read this book because the subject has come up many times in our family.!
I really liked this book, as I often thought about the subject . It kept my interest throughout. The characters were real and not so perfect! It was real ! I saw this woman on Kelly and Mark show. She was playing Stump Mark ! And used this trying to stump.Mark.!! Then explained the truth ! I knew I had to read this book because the subject has come up many times in our family.!
April 8, 2025
an outstanding story
The story had me on the edge of my seat as I read through it looking to see if there was a connection between Thomas Boone and any of the characters in the current time of the story. I wasn’t able to find any.
The one issue I had with the story was missing words in sentences, even with missing words it didn’t detract from the story.
This is a story I believe everyone will enjoy.
The story had me on the edge of my seat as I read through it looking to see if there was a connection between Thomas Boone and any of the characters in the current time of the story. I wasn’t able to find any.
The one issue I had with the story was missing words in sentences, even with missing words it didn’t detract from the story.
This is a story I believe everyone will enjoy.
June 26, 2025
Liked this for a couple of different reasons. Descriptions of what it was like being in the Vietnam Nam war that were horrific. Horrible but insightful. I also enjoyed the characters, Tom, the honest, morale soldier and Charlie the outwardly normal child.
Interesting interplay between their stories and lives.
I did not like the dissonance of Charlie’s parents which lasts too long and becomes more and more tiresome.
All in all, a very good read.
Interesting interplay between their stories and lives.
I did not like the dissonance of Charlie’s parents which lasts too long and becomes more and more tiresome.
All in all, a very good read.
June 6, 2024
I wasn't familiar with past life memory syndrome prior to reading this book. Birkett Morris has achieved a level of storytelling beyond my expectations. Two first-person narratives, interwoven with so much emotional conflict kept me reading far into the night. An unforgettable read. My next book club choice!
March 30, 2025
spellbinding
Had a hard time putting the book down at night. I lived Eve’s terror over Charlie, and Thomas’s emotional journey. You get so caught up in their stories, and what a ride it is.
As someone who had family members on the ground in Vietnam, it brought home so much of their pain and angst.
I highly recommend this book
Had a hard time putting the book down at night. I lived Eve’s terror over Charlie, and Thomas’s emotional journey. You get so caught up in their stories, and what a ride it is.
As someone who had family members on the ground in Vietnam, it brought home so much of their pain and angst.
I highly recommend this book
July 15, 2025
I didn’t know how the two POVs would connect in the beginning (didn’t read the synopsis) and I found both stories/timelines engaging separately, but also how they come together. I cared about what happened to all the characters and really enjoyed reading this, although there are some very sad points.
June 15, 2024
I loved how the author was really able to develop all the characters. The way the stories were woven together was seamless. It made me keep turning the pages quickly and the characters stayed in my head when I wasn’t even reading!
March 30, 2025
Interesting
I enjoyed reading this book. The author weaves a tale between two lives, one her child and one someone who died in Vietnam. It held my attention and made me think, all good when reading a story.
I enjoyed reading this book. The author weaves a tale between two lives, one her child and one someone who died in Vietnam. It held my attention and made me think, all good when reading a story.
May 1, 2025
childhood memories from past lives.
I enjoyed the authors writing. She goes back and forth between two lives, one of a four year old son who is remembering the life of a soldier in the Vietnamese War. Wonderful character presentations and a good story.
I enjoyed the authors writing. She goes back and forth between two lives, one of a four year old son who is remembering the life of a soldier in the Vietnamese War. Wonderful character presentations and a good story.
May 6, 2025
Was impossible to put down
I never knew that stuff like this was real. Made me question so much in life. The best book I have ever read. So thought provoking. Doesn't leave your mind.
I never knew that stuff like this was real. Made me question so much in life. The best book I have ever read. So thought provoking. Doesn't leave your mind.
May 25, 2025
Beware the Tall Grass is excellent. Morris writes with such wonderful prose, creating engaging characters that leave you missing them once you finish the book. I can only wait until enough time passes that I can read this one again.
June 8, 2024
I'm always fascinated by stories about past life memories in children and this is a particularly touching one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 9, 2025
It was a fast read. I book you didn’t want to put down made you wonder about past lives!
April 17, 2025
Wow. This was a novel unlike anything I've ever read, and I was roped in from the first chapter. Loved it.
April 18, 2025
This is such a unique way of storytelling. Charlie is a young boy with the memories of a man from the past. Thomas is that man, a soldier in Vietnam.
May 23, 2025
Very good and thought provoking. I would have liked to read more on what happened to Thomas's family.
July 20, 2025
4.5 ⭐️ alternating POV chapters is not always my jam, but this was very well done. Heartbreaking, but well written and interesting
August 15, 2025
Please read this book! It is an absolute wonder!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews