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The Space Between Trees
Not your everyday coming-of-age novel. This story was supposed to be about Evie -- how she hasn't made a friend in years, how she tends to stretch the truth (especially about her so-called relationship with college drop-out Jonah Luks), and how she finally comes into her own once she learns to just be herself -- but it isn't. Because when her classmate Elizabeth "Zabet" McCabe's murdered body is found in the woods, everything changes, and Evie's life is never the same again.
274 pages, Hardcover
First published June 2, 2010
51 people are currently reading
1628 people want to read
About the author
Katie Williams
22 books622 followersKatie Williams was born and raised in mid-Michigan. She earned her BA in English from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and her MFA in creative writing from the Michener Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
Katie is the author of The Space Between Trees (2010, Chronicle Books), Absent (2013, Chronicle Books), and Tell the Machine Goodnight (2018, Riverhead Books).
Katie is the author of The Space Between Trees (2010, Chronicle Books), Absent (2013, Chronicle Books), and Tell the Machine Goodnight (2018, Riverhead Books).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 199 reviews
August 7, 2010
To me this book was, in turns, boring and annoying. Nothing much happens. The book opens with a girl's dead body being found and that's about all the excitement there is. The main characters are 1) a weak-willed girl who lies about half the time she is actually speaking and 2) a crazy girl who needs some serious counseling. Unfortunately, this does not make it interesting, just sad and not much fun to read. There is no big moral of the story so at the end I just felt kind of annoyed that I'd continued to read the book waiting for something good or surprising to happen. There were no characters to relate to, no real mystery to solve because in the end you find out the guy who killed Zabet wasn't even a secondary character in the book. No one has a good relationship with anyone. It was just one big drag.
I might not have disliked the book so much if the description on the back cover had not made it sound more exciting and interesting, more sleuthy, than it actually was. I feel misled.
Product Description:
In this haunting tale, quirky loner Evie is in the wrong place at the wrong time when her sometime friend and total crush, Jonah, discovers a body in the woods - a body that turns out to be that of her childhood playmate. At the funeral, a fateful lie leads Evie into a complicated relationship with the dead girl's father and best friend. Before she realizes what is happening, Evie is on the hunt for a killer, spinning more lies along the way and putting herself in serious danger.
I might not have disliked the book so much if the description on the back cover had not made it sound more exciting and interesting, more sleuthy, than it actually was. I feel misled.
Product Description:
In this haunting tale, quirky loner Evie is in the wrong place at the wrong time when her sometime friend and total crush, Jonah, discovers a body in the woods - a body that turns out to be that of her childhood playmate. At the funeral, a fateful lie leads Evie into a complicated relationship with the dead girl's father and best friend. Before she realizes what is happening, Evie is on the hunt for a killer, spinning more lies along the way and putting herself in serious danger.
August 4, 2010
Whodunit? The formula is as old as the hills. But what happens when an author messes up a formula even? You wind up in some space between the trees, it turns out -- a space you want to vacate because the plot is "lost in space."
Our protagonist, Evie, is in love with a young man named Jonah who has a job I've never heard of, picking up dead animals in the woods. Uh. OK. But he's cute and he's college-aged (though not in college), so our high school Plain Jane is in love. But wait. Another high school girl named Elizabeth (called "Zabet" here, due to the ingenious notion of dropping four letters) is murdered in the woods and Jonah finds her body.
Evie's not sure why but she pretends to be Zabet's best friend at the funeral and Zabet's dad is touched. Too bad Zabet already had a best friend named Hadley, a jerk. And there's where this novel comes to a jerking halt. You'd think that clues would accrue, that the plot would advance, but no. Instead author Williams goes on and on with all things Hadley. Unpredictable, wild, eccentric, cruel, messed up, dangerous, naughty Hadley.
Evie, who's lonely, gets pulled into Hadley's warped orbit. Hadley says a lot of dumb things. Hadley has a lot of dumb theories about the murder. Hadley plays fast and loose with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and boys. But the plot goes nowhere.
As for the end? Worse than bizarre. By the time it was over, I needed my space. Some promise early on, but it is frittered away early and thoroughly.
Our protagonist, Evie, is in love with a young man named Jonah who has a job I've never heard of, picking up dead animals in the woods. Uh. OK. But he's cute and he's college-aged (though not in college), so our high school Plain Jane is in love. But wait. Another high school girl named Elizabeth (called "Zabet" here, due to the ingenious notion of dropping four letters) is murdered in the woods and Jonah finds her body.
Evie's not sure why but she pretends to be Zabet's best friend at the funeral and Zabet's dad is touched. Too bad Zabet already had a best friend named Hadley, a jerk. And there's where this novel comes to a jerking halt. You'd think that clues would accrue, that the plot would advance, but no. Instead author Williams goes on and on with all things Hadley. Unpredictable, wild, eccentric, cruel, messed up, dangerous, naughty Hadley.
Evie, who's lonely, gets pulled into Hadley's warped orbit. Hadley says a lot of dumb things. Hadley has a lot of dumb theories about the murder. Hadley plays fast and loose with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and boys. But the plot goes nowhere.
As for the end? Worse than bizarre. By the time it was over, I needed my space. Some promise early on, but it is frittered away early and thoroughly.
January 30, 2011
Original Review HERE
The beauty of a paper route is this: You put a paper on a doormat. Done.
Just like the quote above, The Space Between Trees and its teenage protagonist Evie are deceptively plain.
A girl, Elizabeth “Zabet” McCabe’s, is murdered in the woods that surround Evie’s paper delivery route. Her body is found on a Sunday, and Evie is there to see it being carried away. Later, she discovers that it was Zabet who died, a girl her age, someone she knew a long time ago. At the girl’s funeral, Evie tells a terrible lie to Zabet’s father: she tells him that she was one of Zabet’s closest friends. The poor man, distraught with grief, uses that to try and connect with his dead daughter via (made up) stories that Evie tells and the only person who knows the truth is Hadley, Zabet’s real best friend. But possibly out of compassion, Hadley doesn’t reveal the truth to Zabet’s father, preferring instead to confront Evie in private, after which the two girls strike an uneasy friendship which is charged with not only grief, but fear, regret and the need to come to tears with Zabet’s death.
At the risk of sounding extremely trivial, The Space Between Treesis hauntingly beautiful and the writing is amazing. I was enraptured by it, by lines and paragraphs that were so wonderfully lyrical. The problem with “lyrical” is that sometimes that quality may be hiding emptiness of plot, of character, of story. Not in this case. Everything in this book, including the title and the awesome cover (a laser cut cover with the silhouette of the trees in black against purple background with the title) has a much deeper meaning than it seems at first.
For there is a space between trees. And that space is everything. It is the now empty space where the body was found, and that empty space haunts most, if not all characters in this novel. The teenage girls who are now faced with the truth that even young people can find tragic deaths; college dropout and Evie’s crush Jonah Lucks, the person who found the body; Zabet’s father who wishes to make up for time lost and who is aware that that emptiness is reflected in his own life; troubled Hadley who lost a friend and who might know more than she is saying and there is trauma there that do not go well with her messed up personality at all.
Above all, the space between trees may well be Evie herself:
At school that Monday after, (…) somehow my name was never whispered, as if I were a ghost, an escapee, the space between the trees, the page on which a story is written.
And Evie in undoubtedly my favourite thing about the book. Evie, who is a 16 year old still running a paper delivery route because it is simple. Evie, who is emotionally distant to everybody including her mother. Evie, who has no friends and who is possibly the most socially inept, awkward, downright weird protagonist of a contemporary YA book I have ever had the pleasure of reading. For a myriad of reasons, Evie is a character that made me uncomfortable at the same time that it made me care.
I think the best representation of a weird teenager is this: Evie sits everyday at lunch with a group of girls. But she never truly reaches out to make real conversations because she doesn’t seem to know how. Instead, after learning that the girls also have a crush on Jonah, she tries to make conversation with him for the strict purpose of relaying whatever it is that they talked about, as puerile as it was, to the girls. She collects the ensuing conversations and reactions from the girls as someone would scientifically collect insects, with a clinical, almost cold eye:
I’d weigh a phrase or spit out a particular word like I couldn’t hold it in my mouth any longer, how I’d say a sentence quietly to make them lean in, how I’d collect their wide eyes and sucks of breath like beads I could string on a bracelet.
As much as she is capable of such chillingly reserved actions, the fact is that perhaps she has no grounds for a different behaviour. It partly scary, partly pitiful. At the same time she can be extremely naïve, almost unbelievably so, who just follows Hadley into whatever scrapes the girl would take them. Almost, because for someone who is just so alone and emotionally distant, it is realistically that she would not know how to behave at parties or with guys.
But after Zabet’s death it is as though she is moved by a sense of urgency perhaps affected by the understanding that time is passing, that she should do something, be more than a space between trees; and that mixture of earnestness, naivety that leads to a string of painfully idiotic decision and the keen observations that she is capable of, was almost painful to read. But there is growing up to do until she is no longer…just a space between trees.
The beauty of a paper route is this: You put a paper on a doormat. Done.
Just like the quote above, The Space Between Trees and its teenage protagonist Evie are deceptively plain.
A girl, Elizabeth “Zabet” McCabe’s, is murdered in the woods that surround Evie’s paper delivery route. Her body is found on a Sunday, and Evie is there to see it being carried away. Later, she discovers that it was Zabet who died, a girl her age, someone she knew a long time ago. At the girl’s funeral, Evie tells a terrible lie to Zabet’s father: she tells him that she was one of Zabet’s closest friends. The poor man, distraught with grief, uses that to try and connect with his dead daughter via (made up) stories that Evie tells and the only person who knows the truth is Hadley, Zabet’s real best friend. But possibly out of compassion, Hadley doesn’t reveal the truth to Zabet’s father, preferring instead to confront Evie in private, after which the two girls strike an uneasy friendship which is charged with not only grief, but fear, regret and the need to come to tears with Zabet’s death.
At the risk of sounding extremely trivial, The Space Between Treesis hauntingly beautiful and the writing is amazing. I was enraptured by it, by lines and paragraphs that were so wonderfully lyrical. The problem with “lyrical” is that sometimes that quality may be hiding emptiness of plot, of character, of story. Not in this case. Everything in this book, including the title and the awesome cover (a laser cut cover with the silhouette of the trees in black against purple background with the title) has a much deeper meaning than it seems at first.
For there is a space between trees. And that space is everything. It is the now empty space where the body was found, and that empty space haunts most, if not all characters in this novel. The teenage girls who are now faced with the truth that even young people can find tragic deaths; college dropout and Evie’s crush Jonah Lucks, the person who found the body; Zabet’s father who wishes to make up for time lost and who is aware that that emptiness is reflected in his own life; troubled Hadley who lost a friend and who might know more than she is saying and there is trauma there that do not go well with her messed up personality at all.
Above all, the space between trees may well be Evie herself:
At school that Monday after, (…) somehow my name was never whispered, as if I were a ghost, an escapee, the space between the trees, the page on which a story is written.
And Evie in undoubtedly my favourite thing about the book. Evie, who is a 16 year old still running a paper delivery route because it is simple. Evie, who is emotionally distant to everybody including her mother. Evie, who has no friends and who is possibly the most socially inept, awkward, downright weird protagonist of a contemporary YA book I have ever had the pleasure of reading. For a myriad of reasons, Evie is a character that made me uncomfortable at the same time that it made me care.
I think the best representation of a weird teenager is this: Evie sits everyday at lunch with a group of girls. But she never truly reaches out to make real conversations because she doesn’t seem to know how. Instead, after learning that the girls also have a crush on Jonah, she tries to make conversation with him for the strict purpose of relaying whatever it is that they talked about, as puerile as it was, to the girls. She collects the ensuing conversations and reactions from the girls as someone would scientifically collect insects, with a clinical, almost cold eye:
I’d weigh a phrase or spit out a particular word like I couldn’t hold it in my mouth any longer, how I’d say a sentence quietly to make them lean in, how I’d collect their wide eyes and sucks of breath like beads I could string on a bracelet.
As much as she is capable of such chillingly reserved actions, the fact is that perhaps she has no grounds for a different behaviour. It partly scary, partly pitiful. At the same time she can be extremely naïve, almost unbelievably so, who just follows Hadley into whatever scrapes the girl would take them. Almost, because for someone who is just so alone and emotionally distant, it is realistically that she would not know how to behave at parties or with guys.
But after Zabet’s death it is as though she is moved by a sense of urgency perhaps affected by the understanding that time is passing, that she should do something, be more than a space between trees; and that mixture of earnestness, naivety that leads to a string of painfully idiotic decision and the keen observations that she is capable of, was almost painful to read. But there is growing up to do until she is no longer…just a space between trees.
January 21, 2011
A beautifully written story about Evie, a high school loner who has a paper route by the edge of the woods. Looking at that sentence, it's hard to imagine that situation described lyrically, and yet it was done. Then there's the perfectly captured mixture of wistfulness and inexperienced minx behind the way she talks everyday to the groundskeeper Jonah, who clears dead animals out of the woods.
I probably should have gotten a clue at that point. I mean, who has a job that consists solely of hauling naturally caused animal carcasses? Why are there so many dead beasts in a small patch of woods? Why can't they just be taken care of by nature?
But it's a little too poetic for Evie to witness him one day discover a human corpse instead. And that body is that of Evie's childhood friend Elizabeth. They've long since drifted apart, but one day the lie slips from Evie's mouth, that she was Elizabeth's best friend.
The real best friend, Hadley, uncovers this lie, then somehow pulls Evie into a search for Elizabeth's undiscovered killer.
But this is not a mystery, although it may have the window treatments of one. I think there may be a couple possible reactions at this point:
1. A coming-of-age story with the ugliness and chaos of teenagehood wrapped in something bitter and haunting, or
2. A tedious tale of girls with little character and some disturbing emotional issues.
I ended up in the latter camp. Evie had some fanciful twists of imagination that I guiltily recognized from my own adolescence, but which escalated into some rather stupid and cowardly behavior, while Hadley was reckless and unburdened by conscience. Maybe others will find the twisted relationships here meaningful and illuminating, but this is not a book ruled by plot or a strong character arc or even balance; subplots and characters jag in and out disjointedly.
Strong writing, but I closed this book feeling unsettled and confused, more along the lines of "What was the point?" than in an effective atmospheric way.
I probably should have gotten a clue at that point. I mean, who has a job that consists solely of hauling naturally caused animal carcasses? Why are there so many dead beasts in a small patch of woods? Why can't they just be taken care of by nature?
But it's a little too poetic for Evie to witness him one day discover a human corpse instead. And that body is that of Evie's childhood friend Elizabeth. They've long since drifted apart, but one day the lie slips from Evie's mouth, that she was Elizabeth's best friend.
The real best friend, Hadley, uncovers this lie, then somehow pulls Evie into a search for Elizabeth's undiscovered killer.
But this is not a mystery, although it may have the window treatments of one. I think there may be a couple possible reactions at this point:
1. A coming-of-age story with the ugliness and chaos of teenagehood wrapped in something bitter and haunting, or
2. A tedious tale of girls with little character and some disturbing emotional issues.
I ended up in the latter camp. Evie had some fanciful twists of imagination that I guiltily recognized from my own adolescence, but which escalated into some rather stupid and cowardly behavior, while Hadley was reckless and unburdened by conscience. Maybe others will find the twisted relationships here meaningful and illuminating, but this is not a book ruled by plot or a strong character arc or even balance; subplots and characters jag in and out disjointedly.
Strong writing, but I closed this book feeling unsettled and confused, more along the lines of "What was the point?" than in an effective atmospheric way.
November 11, 2010
I have this habit of saving books that catch my eye or are recommended to a "to read" list online associated with my library card and request them much later, often having no memory of where the recommendation came from. I really wish I remembered for this book, because I would totally purge any other recommendations from the same source. This was just lousy, and I only finished it because I was mildly curious to find out which cliched "surprise" the murderer would turn out to be. And amazingly, I *was* surprised, because it was so much worse than I'd even imagined.
Was there a likable character in this novel? Or, rather, an interesting character? Because I've read plenty of novels with unlikable characters, but often that makes them all the more interesting, either because you find a reason to understand their flaws or because they're just so extremely over the top, you enjoy hating them. Alas, neither Evie, Hadley, their messed up parents, and so on and so on were this interesting. Evie doesn't really do any self analysis (written in the first person, the book would rely on that to give her more depth) and is just... blandly annoying. She's probably a realistic character, but that doesn't make someone I want to read about in fiction. Hadley's behavior is so erratic that even while you may occasionally start to sympathize with her, she then will do something idiotic enough that you just don't care anymore. Again, realistic, but who wants to read about that?
I had to laugh at the synopsis of the book displayed on Goodreads, presumably from the back of the book (I don't think that was it) publisher (that's where most of them seem to be at least)... "This was meant to be..." which goes on to describe a book I would have enjoyed. What it ended up being was a royal mess.
Was there a likable character in this novel? Or, rather, an interesting character? Because I've read plenty of novels with unlikable characters, but often that makes them all the more interesting, either because you find a reason to understand their flaws or because they're just so extremely over the top, you enjoy hating them. Alas, neither Evie, Hadley, their messed up parents, and so on and so on were this interesting. Evie doesn't really do any self analysis (written in the first person, the book would rely on that to give her more depth) and is just... blandly annoying. She's probably a realistic character, but that doesn't make someone I want to read about in fiction. Hadley's behavior is so erratic that even while you may occasionally start to sympathize with her, she then will do something idiotic enough that you just don't care anymore. Again, realistic, but who wants to read about that?
I had to laugh at the synopsis of the book displayed on Goodreads, presumably from the back of the book (I don't think that was it) publisher (that's where most of them seem to be at least)... "This was meant to be..." which goes on to describe a book I would have enjoyed. What it ended up being was a royal mess.
July 31, 2011
Parts of this were beautifully written. Most was disjointed. Aspects of the relationships between the characters made sense. Much simply did not. All of the relationships were complicated.
Also, there was some serious girl homoerotism going on. Which, lord knows, I'm ok with.
But.
I got the feeling that Williams was going for one of those "open" endings, oh my how confusing the world is, sometimes bad things just happen, where oh where to turn, what to do, I am left so very unsettled, how postmodern of me. EXCEPT that she all but said, "sometimes things just happen and sometimes endings are unsettling". You can't say it. Saying it makes it settled. Saying it gives closure. Jeesh.
It wasn't the disjointed-ness or the unsettled character relationships that bothered me. It was the flat, one-dimensional characters. You can be a wacky teenage who alternately kisses and slaps (metaphorically and literally) and still be one-dimensional. Hadley proves that much.
April 10, 2024
The cover is cool......other than that....eh.
July 25, 2010
In all honesty, I like where this book started much more than where it ended. In the beginning, Evie was such an awkward character. Like awkward to the point of me actually cringing at some of the things she did. And the thing is, everyone knows at least one person just like this. They're alone. They crave contact, any contact, with someone and sometimes they act like they're 6 to get it. Not to mention they're oblivious to the obvious body language they're being projected from their target. It's uncomfortable to watch and just as uncomfortable to read about. That's what really drew me in.
Evie stayed her awkward self until the body was found and she started hanging out with Hadley, the dead girl's current friend (as opposed to Evie herself, being the dead girl's former friend). Her personality, from what I saw, visibly shifted. I still read about Evie as she normally was in her head. The awkwardness was still there. But outwardly that seemed to have gone away and, I think, rather abruptly. I just had a hard time trying to figure out why she was still awkward on the inside and not anymore on the outside. Did she get better at hiding it because of Hadley? I'm not sure.
Hadley was actually my favorite character, though. I wanted to help her so bad. She was so utterly wrecked after her best friend was killed and the sad thing was, no one was really there to help her. Her parents basically stuck her on drugs and left her to her own devises. Personally I think that's an excellent portrayal of parenting today. Drugs cure all, right? The thing is, Hadley isn't the type of character that would actually let you help her. She's one of those people with the tough exterior that's constantly putting on a front and constantly on the offensive. But those moments of weakness, when the hurt and the pain broke through, rounded her character out so thoroughly I could see her standing up from the page and telling the story herself.
The ending turned into a bit of a Lifetime movie for me. I wish there were more consequences to Evie's lies and the things Hadley did aside from merely growing as characters. There didn't seem to be any of that. I kept getting a real Wonder Years monologue going at the very end where all the loose ends were being tied up and wrapped in a pretty box. I'm not a fan of these types of endings. I like them messier. Here, though, everyone seemed to turn out okay and they all moved on with their lives. Pretty boring, if I had to be honest. And I usually do.
So while the plot is relatively stagnant, the characters carry the story in The Space Between Trees. I don't think you'll be reading it to figure out who Zabet's killer is because even within the story itself, it's not the main focus. You'll read it for the characters who are compelling and awkward and nasty and broken. I would change the ending if I could, but I can't. But some people like the kind of neat closure this story will offer and that's fine. I'm sure if it were told from Hadley's point of view, I would have gotten an ending as sloppy as her house.
Check out the first chapter of The Space Between Trees. This is the one that completely sucked me in if only for Evie's heinous awkwardness.
Evie stayed her awkward self until the body was found and she started hanging out with Hadley, the dead girl's current friend (as opposed to Evie herself, being the dead girl's former friend). Her personality, from what I saw, visibly shifted. I still read about Evie as she normally was in her head. The awkwardness was still there. But outwardly that seemed to have gone away and, I think, rather abruptly. I just had a hard time trying to figure out why she was still awkward on the inside and not anymore on the outside. Did she get better at hiding it because of Hadley? I'm not sure.
Hadley was actually my favorite character, though. I wanted to help her so bad. She was so utterly wrecked after her best friend was killed and the sad thing was, no one was really there to help her. Her parents basically stuck her on drugs and left her to her own devises. Personally I think that's an excellent portrayal of parenting today. Drugs cure all, right? The thing is, Hadley isn't the type of character that would actually let you help her. She's one of those people with the tough exterior that's constantly putting on a front and constantly on the offensive. But those moments of weakness, when the hurt and the pain broke through, rounded her character out so thoroughly I could see her standing up from the page and telling the story herself.
The ending turned into a bit of a Lifetime movie for me. I wish there were more consequences to Evie's lies and the things Hadley did aside from merely growing as characters. There didn't seem to be any of that. I kept getting a real Wonder Years monologue going at the very end where all the loose ends were being tied up and wrapped in a pretty box. I'm not a fan of these types of endings. I like them messier. Here, though, everyone seemed to turn out okay and they all moved on with their lives. Pretty boring, if I had to be honest. And I usually do.
So while the plot is relatively stagnant, the characters carry the story in The Space Between Trees. I don't think you'll be reading it to figure out who Zabet's killer is because even within the story itself, it's not the main focus. You'll read it for the characters who are compelling and awkward and nasty and broken. I would change the ending if I could, but I can't. But some people like the kind of neat closure this story will offer and that's fine. I'm sure if it were told from Hadley's point of view, I would have gotten an ending as sloppy as her house.
Check out the first chapter of The Space Between Trees. This is the one that completely sucked me in if only for Evie's heinous awkwardness.
June 24, 2022
0 Stars... (if only I could)
I ended up despising this book so much. Every last character was either strange or disgusting in their own way. I couldn't stand Evie and Hadley. All Evie did from start to finish was lie about EVERYTHING. She also had this subtle creepy psycho-ness about herself. For example, when she hears that her longtime friend has died, she begins to grin/smirk at the news like she is thrilled and amused and goes on to ask excitedly, "was she raped"! Also, she kisses the guy she likes (that is older and CLEARLY doesn't like her AT ALL) when she sees that he is drunk and half-way passed out. She thought because he was in a vulnerable state that it was ok to FORCE herself on him. Hmm... you know had it been the other way around there would be an uproar and marches everywhere, but because this is a guy that is being violated by a girl----ehhh it's not that serious cause that poor young girl didn't really understand what she was doing---boohoo. Yet had it been the guy who did it instead---his age would never matter---he would be called a predator anyway. Just disgusting--let's be consistent no matter who is taking advantage and being taken advantage of.
There was absolutely NOTHING that I liked about Evie and Hadley needs to be institutionalized---she is clearly not right in the head. It was just such a toxic and sick "friendship" to me, and I hated it and I hated the story. This book just really rubbed me very wrong. The only reason I even finished it was because I don't like dnf-ing books, and I thought "it might get better keep going". So, I did and by the time I was halfway in and realized it wasn't going to, I was too far in to just quit (reading challenge and all--plus it's a quick read).
Also, the story didn't go anywhere! This by the way is NOT a thriller at all. The story is about 2 girls that became friends due to the death of a girl they were both once friends with at some point. The two of them end up in a toxic friendship and pointlessly make a list of people they suspect killed the girl. However, their list and suspicions end up leading to nowhere and turns out to be nonsense and nothing meaningful every really happens. It is NOT about a girl "telling a group of girls about a crush and that the only thing she can trust is her own lies". No no no, Evie lying to the girls about her crush is less than a chapter long and really has absolutely no significance to the story whatsoever. I don't even know why it is mentioned in the synopsis!
Bottomline this book was infuriating and pointless. The only good part was when I realized I had read the last word of the book and was finished. I would not recommend this to anyone. Unlike me, please spare yourself.
Content: Hadley ends up having sex with a college guy, but he only mentioned it, nothing is described.
Language: f-words and others scattered throughout.
I ended up despising this book so much. Every last character was either strange or disgusting in their own way. I couldn't stand Evie and Hadley. All Evie did from start to finish was lie about EVERYTHING. She also had this subtle creepy psycho-ness about herself. For example, when she hears that her longtime friend has died, she begins to grin/smirk at the news like she is thrilled and amused and goes on to ask excitedly, "was she raped"! Also, she kisses the guy she likes (that is older and CLEARLY doesn't like her AT ALL) when she sees that he is drunk and half-way passed out. She thought because he was in a vulnerable state that it was ok to FORCE herself on him. Hmm... you know had it been the other way around there would be an uproar and marches everywhere, but because this is a guy that is being violated by a girl----ehhh it's not that serious cause that poor young girl didn't really understand what she was doing---boohoo. Yet had it been the guy who did it instead---his age would never matter---he would be called a predator anyway. Just disgusting--let's be consistent no matter who is taking advantage and being taken advantage of.
There was absolutely NOTHING that I liked about Evie and Hadley needs to be institutionalized---she is clearly not right in the head. It was just such a toxic and sick "friendship" to me, and I hated it and I hated the story. This book just really rubbed me very wrong. The only reason I even finished it was because I don't like dnf-ing books, and I thought "it might get better keep going". So, I did and by the time I was halfway in and realized it wasn't going to, I was too far in to just quit (reading challenge and all--plus it's a quick read).
Also, the story didn't go anywhere! This by the way is NOT a thriller at all. The story is about 2 girls that became friends due to the death of a girl they were both once friends with at some point. The two of them end up in a toxic friendship and pointlessly make a list of people they suspect killed the girl. However, their list and suspicions end up leading to nowhere and turns out to be nonsense and nothing meaningful every really happens. It is NOT about a girl "telling a group of girls about a crush and that the only thing she can trust is her own lies". No no no, Evie lying to the girls about her crush is less than a chapter long and really has absolutely no significance to the story whatsoever. I don't even know why it is mentioned in the synopsis!
Bottomline this book was infuriating and pointless. The only good part was when I realized I had read the last word of the book and was finished. I would not recommend this to anyone. Unlike me, please spare yourself.
Content: Hadley ends up having sex with a college guy, but he only mentioned it, nothing is described.
Language: f-words and others scattered throughout.
August 10, 2011
This was a pretty great book. I've read a lot of books in my life so far, and i love most of them, but only a few books rank in my view as absolutely amazing(like "the book theif" "the giver" "milkweed" "eggs"). This was not one of those books, but it was definately above average in it's subtle depth and detail. What really got me was the way the author described.....life. Even an action such as picking up a fork, a mother hugging her daughter, or the thought of how a killer would look at their victim as they lay dead in a silent bed of leaves. All of these actions or thoughts were written beautifully, really showing how a writer should observe the world. I am a writer, and now I am inspired to take my notebook with me and document simple things, such as how a mother looks at her rebeling daughter either with concern or misunderstanding, or even just simple actions such as an expression of a stranger sitting in a park. Not to be creepy or anything, it's just that this book has really made me look at how to write down an expression on someones face, the reasoning behind it, the pause in someones voice, what it could mean. All are important for writing, and even though it may not seem deep at first glance, this author really got it down. The protagonist's mother didn't just have beauty, she had beauty that she kept at the ready like a squad of soldiers, making sure her face was always held elegantly. That her legs were crossed in just he right way to make her look like a queen.
Stuff like this is what i'm talking about, and if u read the book you'll know. The only thing that really bugged me was the ENDING. HADLEySHOULD HAVE BEENT HE MURDERER! it would have given it a dramatic and clever twist. since the moment hadley siad "the killer could be anyone" and evie said "even me?" and hadley then said "even me". i was certain hadley was the killer. all the signs pointed to it. the risky behavior, the paranioa, and it would have added a haunting and interesting twist tot he plot. i hate when the killer in a murder mystery turns out to be some random nobody.
Stuff like this is what i'm talking about, and if u read the book you'll know. The only thing that really bugged me was the ENDING. HADLEySHOULD HAVE BEENT HE MURDERER! it would have given it a dramatic and clever twist. since the moment hadley siad "the killer could be anyone" and evie said "even me?" and hadley then said "even me". i was certain hadley was the killer. all the signs pointed to it. the risky behavior, the paranioa, and it would have added a haunting and interesting twist tot he plot. i hate when the killer in a murder mystery turns out to be some random nobody.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 12, 2011
Let me start by saying my official star rating is a 2.5.
This story just jumps right in. Evie is lonely and socially inept. She delivers newspapers in a well to do neighborhood every Sunday morning where she encounters Jonah Luks, a college drop out who now removes dead animals from the woods. One Sunday morning both of their lives change when Jonah finds a body in the woods. The body turns out to be Elizabeth McCabe, one time friend of Evie and now known as Zabet and best friend to Hadley.
The story goes on to follow Evie in her attempts to deal with Zabet’s death. I rather like Evie. She is the insecure 16-year-old girl in all of us although she is also quite a liar. Hadley is troubled in a way that is both sad and scary. She takes advantage of Evie and no doubt took advantage of Zabet as well. Hadley manipulates all situations involving Evie and regularly fails to be a friend. Then there is poor Jonah Luks who was only doing his job. Many of the other characters in this story fall victim to Hadley and Evie's misguided actions. This story comes to an end in a way that is both disturbing and somewhat expected given the patterns of the characters involved.
I think I am not over the moon about this book simply because the characters were real in a way that makes it impossible to love their story, which makes this book better than the rating I have given because it could elicit such a response.
This story just jumps right in. Evie is lonely and socially inept. She delivers newspapers in a well to do neighborhood every Sunday morning where she encounters Jonah Luks, a college drop out who now removes dead animals from the woods. One Sunday morning both of their lives change when Jonah finds a body in the woods. The body turns out to be Elizabeth McCabe, one time friend of Evie and now known as Zabet and best friend to Hadley.
The story goes on to follow Evie in her attempts to deal with Zabet’s death. I rather like Evie. She is the insecure 16-year-old girl in all of us although she is also quite a liar. Hadley is troubled in a way that is both sad and scary. She takes advantage of Evie and no doubt took advantage of Zabet as well. Hadley manipulates all situations involving Evie and regularly fails to be a friend. Then there is poor Jonah Luks who was only doing his job. Many of the other characters in this story fall victim to Hadley and Evie's misguided actions. This story comes to an end in a way that is both disturbing and somewhat expected given the patterns of the characters involved.
I think I am not over the moon about this book simply because the characters were real in a way that makes it impossible to love their story, which makes this book better than the rating I have given because it could elicit such a response.
July 27, 2010
Okay, so I got this as a First Reads Book... and free books are the best, so I was already looking forward to a great book. After finishing the book, I have to say that I was both disappointed and surprised. First of all, I felt that the story idea was really interesting but that the actual plot could have been more exciting. The love side of the story seems out of place. AND, worst of all, the protagonist, Evie, is annoying. I mean, as the story progresses she becomes more interesting and somewhat likable, but for a long time, she is annoying. She looks down on the only people who are nice to her (being the superior yet friendless person that she is) and she is obsessed with an older guy... like, Edward from Twilight obsessed. Never a good thing. HOWEVER, the character Hadley (although her being their brought more frustration than anything else) was a great character. She added depth to a somewhat flat plot, and, with her being the antagonist, Evie was forced to react to new situations. The underlying questions of whether or not Hadley liked Evie and whether or not it was okay for Evie to pretend to have been Zabet's friend are great motivators for the reader to keep reading. Overall, the book was really fun to read and a new storyline, but some of the details were sort of annoying. Thus.... THREE OUT OF FIVE STARS.
August 8, 2010
When I finish a book one of the first questions I ask myself is "who else would like to read this book, or who could/would I recommend this book to"
Sorry, but the answer with this book...no one.
I'm sorry Katie Williams.
This is the story of a 16 year old girl, Evie, who is a loner. Is she sad and lonely, I don't know. I wonder about her emotional detachment, her reaction to her mother when her mother tells her about the death of a classmate (friend?) First she grins, then she asks her mom for the details of how Zabet was killed. She stumbles into Zabet's father at the funeral, she lies to him about being his daughters friend. She tries to talk to and befriend Zabet's real best friend Hadley, who wants nothing to do with her at first then after they're both invited to dinner with Zabet's father they slowly become "friends?", I don't know if that's the right word. If it was what kind of friend is Hadley, talk about emotionally damaged. Sorry this book might have an audience, the sad lonely girl sitting by herself in the cafeteria, contemplating violence of one sort or another, but...who would tell her to read this book.
Sorry, but the answer with this book...no one.
I'm sorry Katie Williams.
This is the story of a 16 year old girl, Evie, who is a loner. Is she sad and lonely, I don't know. I wonder about her emotional detachment, her reaction to her mother when her mother tells her about the death of a classmate (friend?) First she grins, then she asks her mom for the details of how Zabet was killed. She stumbles into Zabet's father at the funeral, she lies to him about being his daughters friend. She tries to talk to and befriend Zabet's real best friend Hadley, who wants nothing to do with her at first then after they're both invited to dinner with Zabet's father they slowly become "friends?", I don't know if that's the right word. If it was what kind of friend is Hadley, talk about emotionally damaged. Sorry this book might have an audience, the sad lonely girl sitting by herself in the cafeteria, contemplating violence of one sort or another, but...who would tell her to read this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 12, 2015
What?
so, our protagonist is a pathological liar with some resentment towards her mother. She's a loner, and obsesses over a college drop out with like ONE OF THE WORST JOBS EVER with a bunch on girls she doesn't really like- whom she refers to as "Whisperers".
Long story short, when a girl she used to know gets murdered, she just does several twisted things for absolutely no reason. I faced-palmed several times while reading this book.
blah blah blah
makes friends with a girl who actually knew the victim. They try to find the killer.
blah blah blah. Many metaphors later the book ends.
I was surprised I didn't like this book. Maybe I was let down because I started it with high hopes. I had previously read "Absent" by the same author, and I thought it was incredible.
Maybe I'm simply just not deep enough to understand this book. sigh.
so, our protagonist is a pathological liar with some resentment towards her mother. She's a loner, and obsesses over a college drop out with like ONE OF THE WORST JOBS EVER with a bunch on girls she doesn't really like- whom she refers to as "Whisperers".
Long story short, when a girl she used to know gets murdered, she just does several twisted things for absolutely no reason. I faced-palmed several times while reading this book.
blah blah blah
makes friends with a girl who actually knew the victim. They try to find the killer.
blah blah blah. Many metaphors later the book ends.
I was surprised I didn't like this book. Maybe I was let down because I started it with high hopes. I had previously read "Absent" by the same author, and I thought it was incredible.
Maybe I'm simply just not deep enough to understand this book. sigh.
March 25, 2010
I was invited to read an advance copy of this book, and found it, in a word, delightful. The main character (Evie) drew me in in an almost flirtatious way right from the start, and then took me for a bit of a ride. I was continually seduced by her smarts and her wit and as often, I found myself cringing at the choices she made and the predicaments she got into. I think a true YA reader (i.e., someone who's a YA; I'm not) will find they can really get into this book; Evie presents some tricky age-appropriate dilemmas to muddle through. That said, it was a gripping and smart read for an adult, too. This isn't an easy book--there's an awful lot at stake here, and the friendship between Hadley and Evie will remind a lot of readers of complicated relationships they've had, too.
April 6, 2010
I was fortunate enough to get an advanced copy of this book, and I'm very glad I read it. Had I read this book when I was a teenager, I might have felt like the universe (or someone in it, at least) understood me. It's not that I've gone through what the characters here have, but the mood and the inner dilemmas seem very real and very finely evoked -- the loneliness of the friendless adolescent; the still-blurry line between fantasy and reality and its consequences. Reading it as an adult, I still felt the need to sit up and listen very closely to the narrator, who might be able to tell me something about my past and even present self, although I also felt the need to protect the characters.
December 15, 2009
I love edgy YA, and this gave me everything I want - flawed parents and teens, dangerous 'friends', sexual innuendo, and creepy atmospheric writing. Evie is 16, lonely, and not quite recovered from her father walking out on her and her mom. When one of her schoolmates who used to be her friend long away is found dead in the local woods, she is thrown together by her own lies with the dead girls BFF, the strange and sexually charged Hadley. Bad things get worse as Hadley begins to play mind games with Evie and starts to unravel herself. Dangerous, illicit activities seem to be the only thing Hadley is interested in - and Evie is not sure she can save herself and Hadley, too.
December 7, 2011
HA.
One of my favorite parts of reading a book is when I comment about something peculiar and I think oh no, that's not really going to happen, and then it does happen. I feel smart, whether I should or not.
Loved the writing in this book, and I thought the revelations played out very smartly. I was worried more than once it'd take a track that would make me angry but it did not! Everything clamps into place as it should.
The story itself is deceptively simple but the pay off is worth it. It's a literary read, and some of the ways the language ties right into the story line are brilliant.
One of my favorite parts of reading a book is when I comment about something peculiar and I think oh no, that's not really going to happen, and then it does happen. I feel smart, whether I should or not.
Loved the writing in this book, and I thought the revelations played out very smartly. I was worried more than once it'd take a track that would make me angry but it did not! Everything clamps into place as it should.
The story itself is deceptively simple but the pay off is worth it. It's a literary read, and some of the ways the language ties right into the story line are brilliant.
January 15, 2013
At the end of this book.... I feel cranky. Like the story wronged me in some way. There were so many good little parts, observations, and phrases, and yet, the story just felt pointless. Maybe that was the point. The character's certainly are desperately trying to claim something or achieve something that they can't seem to reach. I'm not even sure what that thing is, I'll have to do some more thinking on it. But the character's are struggling with the death of their friend, and I was struggling to understand them. I definitely won't read it again, but it has given me some interesting brain food.
Read
March 24, 2010It's tacky to rate one's own book, right?
April 7, 2017
I really can't get behind Evie as a main character. The book is interesting, but for some reason, Evie really annoys me for some reason.
July 1, 2013
Blah. That's literally what I said when I finished the book. I was so excited to read this, and not just for it's epic cover, but the blurb on the back seemed to promise a fast-paced, scary, dangerous mystery. I don't think I got any of those out of this book.
First, it was because of the characters. Evie, the MC, was just a weirdo. Basically by the second page I suspected that I would never like her. Seriously, it starts with her stalking some older boy that obviously doesn't care about her at all. And how she literally forces other people to talk to her, or how she lied just so she could be involved with Zabet's death, simply because it was the hot topic of the week.
And then Hadley I was so conflicted about. One minute she's a manipulative bitch, and the next she's some awesome, tough badass girl. But then in the end when I see how psycho she is, I just lost all liking of her.
Then there's Jonah, who I couldn't even begin to like, no matter how beautiful Evie said he was. It's one thing to be all whatever about life, it's another to be so outright rude when someone's trying to talk to you. I mean, Evie was really annoying and everything when she was yapping away to him, but for him to just go about as if she wasn't there at all, blatantly ignoring her even, was just rude. Even if he had to give fake smiles, it's not okay to be so uncaring when someone's talking to you, no matter who they are.
I also felt as if this story was too slow-paced. Yes, all these surprising things did happen, but they just weren't surprising enough. In fact, it was all predictable. I think the moment Hadley came into the story, I didn't trust her. And I knew Jonah would have some part in the end. But even then, the end was so anti-climatic. The murderer wasn't the one you totally knew it was gonna be, it wasn't the one person that you never thought it would be so it's like an explosion in your face, it wasn't even anyone any of them knew. All's we get is a name, and that is that. And then Evie herself said that nothing changed, and she admits that she only had a part in the story because she put herself in it. She even lied again so that no one got in trouble, and Evie gets away with causing someone to lose their leg!
When I finished I just shook my head in disappointment. I just wanted non-creepy characters and a whole lot of fast-paced danger, but there was none.
First, it was because of the characters. Evie, the MC, was just a weirdo. Basically by the second page I suspected that I would never like her. Seriously, it starts with her stalking some older boy that obviously doesn't care about her at all. And how she literally forces other people to talk to her, or how she lied just so she could be involved with Zabet's death, simply because it was the hot topic of the week.
And then Hadley I was so conflicted about. One minute she's a manipulative bitch, and the next she's some awesome, tough badass girl. But then in the end when I see how psycho she is, I just lost all liking of her.
Then there's Jonah, who I couldn't even begin to like, no matter how beautiful Evie said he was. It's one thing to be all whatever about life, it's another to be so outright rude when someone's trying to talk to you. I mean, Evie was really annoying and everything when she was yapping away to him, but for him to just go about as if she wasn't there at all, blatantly ignoring her even, was just rude. Even if he had to give fake smiles, it's not okay to be so uncaring when someone's talking to you, no matter who they are.
I also felt as if this story was too slow-paced. Yes, all these surprising things did happen, but they just weren't surprising enough. In fact, it was all predictable. I think the moment Hadley came into the story, I didn't trust her. And I knew Jonah would have some part in the end. But even then, the end was so anti-climatic. The murderer wasn't the one you totally knew it was gonna be, it wasn't the one person that you never thought it would be so it's like an explosion in your face, it wasn't even anyone any of them knew. All's we get is a name, and that is that. And then Evie herself said that nothing changed, and she admits that she only had a part in the story because she put herself in it. She even lied again so that no one got in trouble, and Evie gets away with causing someone to lose their leg!
When I finished I just shook my head in disappointment. I just wanted non-creepy characters and a whole lot of fast-paced danger, but there was none.
August 9, 2010
Evie mostly keeps to herself. She doesn’t have any real friends and can’t find it in herself to find some. There are mainly two things that Evie likes: her newspaper route and Jonah Luks. That’s why every Sunday, Evie takes her time on her route so that she can run into Jonah. But one Sunday is different from all the others because Jonah finds something in the woods—a body. It turns out to be Elizabeth McCabe, Evie’s childhood friend; she’s been brutally murdered. Evie is just as stunned as the next person, but that doesn’t explain why she lies and tells Zabet’s father that they were friends. This is the start of a strange relationship with Mr. McCabe and Hadley, Zabet’s best friend. Evie finds herself on a wild goose chase with Hadley after Zabet’s killer. Evie doesn’t really know what she’s doing anymore, but she does know Hadley’s erratic and paranoid behavior is sure to land the two in serious trouble.
The Space Between Trees is a murder mystery, but from a new angle. Evie isn’t closely connected to the person who was murdered but still finds herself involved with people who are. Her partnership with Hadley to find Zabet’s killer seemed to me a halfhearted one; Evie craves the companionship more than a desire for justice. This makes the actual investigation rather lackluster and story sometimes boring to read. I found it difficult to like Evie; she cares about very little and seems to not understand the meaning of friendship, and her awkwardness is not endearing at all. In the end, all I could really take away from this story was the futility of it all. Evie goes after Jonah, but gives up pretty easily when things go wrong; Hadley wants to find Zabet’s killer but fails miserably; and during all of this, Evie doesn’t change one bit. I was disappointed with The Space Between Trees because I really wanted to like this story, but unfortunately, I found this hard to accomplish.
The Space Between Trees may be enjoyed by readers who also liked Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin, Wish You Were Dead by Todd Strasser, and Death at Deacon Pond by E.M. Alexander.
reposted from http://thebookmuncher.blogspot.com
The Space Between Trees is a murder mystery, but from a new angle. Evie isn’t closely connected to the person who was murdered but still finds herself involved with people who are. Her partnership with Hadley to find Zabet’s killer seemed to me a halfhearted one; Evie craves the companionship more than a desire for justice. This makes the actual investigation rather lackluster and story sometimes boring to read. I found it difficult to like Evie; she cares about very little and seems to not understand the meaning of friendship, and her awkwardness is not endearing at all. In the end, all I could really take away from this story was the futility of it all. Evie goes after Jonah, but gives up pretty easily when things go wrong; Hadley wants to find Zabet’s killer but fails miserably; and during all of this, Evie doesn’t change one bit. I was disappointed with The Space Between Trees because I really wanted to like this story, but unfortunately, I found this hard to accomplish.
The Space Between Trees may be enjoyed by readers who also liked Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin, Wish You Were Dead by Todd Strasser, and Death at Deacon Pond by E.M. Alexander.
reposted from http://thebookmuncher.blogspot.com
February 6, 2021
So the little summary on the back of the book makes it seem like this book revolves solely around the main character and her mysterious “relationship” with an older guy around the neighborhood. The premise on the back of the book really made this sound like it was going to be some kind of twisted thriller where you’re looking over your shoulder and maybe even paranoid about each character.
‘The Space Between Trees’ is not this type of “thriller.” I can tolerate an unlikeable narrator if the story grabs my attention enough but Evie almost made me DNF this and I very rarely DNF a book (just because I try to finish a book/movie, whatever to see if it somehow redeems itself). She’s sixteen so you expect some immaturity but her way of logic seems like she’s missing a few marbles. She’s quite weak-willed as well and I REALLY get annoyed with pushover characters. Especially if they’re in common-sense situations.
Hadley is one of the most erratic and emotionally exhausting characters I’ve ever seen in a story. At first, I thought well it’s because she just went through something traumatic, but as the story progressed, she just became a nuisance of a character who needed a straitjacket. She’s a character who I guess was supposed to be “edgy” but ended up just being selfish, irrational, and even sociopathic.
Overall...Christ I guess this is the year of terrible literary characters for me. To end on somewhat of a positive, the writing was efficient enough to make me want to finish the story. Everything else? Hard pass. Wouldn’t recommend this one.
Rating: 2/5 stars.
‘The Space Between Trees’ is not this type of “thriller.” I can tolerate an unlikeable narrator if the story grabs my attention enough but Evie almost made me DNF this and I very rarely DNF a book (just because I try to finish a book/movie, whatever to see if it somehow redeems itself). She’s sixteen so you expect some immaturity but her way of logic seems like she’s missing a few marbles. She’s quite weak-willed as well and I REALLY get annoyed with pushover characters. Especially if they’re in common-sense situations.
Hadley is one of the most erratic and emotionally exhausting characters I’ve ever seen in a story. At first, I thought well it’s because she just went through something traumatic, but as the story progressed, she just became a nuisance of a character who needed a straitjacket. She’s a character who I guess was supposed to be “edgy” but ended up just being selfish, irrational, and even sociopathic.
Overall...Christ I guess this is the year of terrible literary characters for me. To end on somewhat of a positive, the writing was efficient enough to make me want to finish the story. Everything else? Hard pass. Wouldn’t recommend this one.
Rating: 2/5 stars.
May 4, 2010
This book is an engaging examination of how people "in need" bond--or fail to truly bond--with one another. The murder of a girl in a suburban community propels key characters to find ways to deal with their own lives. The protagonist, Evie, for once goes out on a limb and tries to form relationships, the victim's father tries to fill his sense of absence and loneliness with teens who knew his daughter in ways he never did, and the victim's best friend acts out her fears and frustrations with destructive behaviors. As a teacher I was fascinated to meet these characters--kids and parents who seemed to come straight out of my classroom experiences. The characters maneuver themselves into tricky situations, and I read voraciously as the end approached, longing to find out how each of these characters would ultimately fair in the face of this awful murder.
June 26, 2010
This book should get more stars- I rate by enjoyment-and murder just isn't fun for me. Others like it more....
So
Realistic contemporary fiction=
Evie is lonely and perhaps an introvert. She has no friends, it is just her and her mom- Dad has split, she doesn't know or see him.
She has a paper route - each day she delivers papers in a pretty little town near where she lives. Part way through her route she gets a daily glimpse of Jonah, a college age man who clears dead animals daily from the woods around the township. She embellishes her meetings with Jonah at school to get attention in the lunch room at school. When Jonah discovers the body of a classmate in the woods the game changes completely.
Evie and a new friend (acquaintance>) Hadley launch a murder investigation that ends badly.
So
Realistic contemporary fiction=
Evie is lonely and perhaps an introvert. She has no friends, it is just her and her mom- Dad has split, she doesn't know or see him.
She has a paper route - each day she delivers papers in a pretty little town near where she lives. Part way through her route she gets a daily glimpse of Jonah, a college age man who clears dead animals daily from the woods around the township. She embellishes her meetings with Jonah at school to get attention in the lunch room at school. When Jonah discovers the body of a classmate in the woods the game changes completely.
Evie and a new friend (acquaintance>) Hadley launch a murder investigation that ends badly.
October 24, 2010
Evie, 16, is one of the unseen, the space between trees, the blank paper one writes stories on and she call make up stories about her life. When a girl,Zabat, is found dead in the woods, she lies and attaches herself to Hadley, Zabat's best friend, in a search for the killer. It's about people who manipulate and those who will let themselves be manipulated. And it's about stories - the ones we make up and the ones we end up living.
As much as I liked parts of it and what it was trying to do, it didn't seem to quite pull it off. I started and stopped reading several times over a couple weeks. But like this:
"I didn't understand that having a story changes you. You have to have gone through something, after all, to have something to say. Now I have my story. But I can't bear to speak a word of it."
As much as I liked parts of it and what it was trying to do, it didn't seem to quite pull it off. I started and stopped reading several times over a couple weeks. But like this:
"I didn't understand that having a story changes you. You have to have gone through something, after all, to have something to say. Now I have my story. But I can't bear to speak a word of it."
August 30, 2016
**Spoilers**
Several flaws. Evie is a character I couldn't wrap my mind around-- she wasn't solid, she was more of a mish-mash of several people and I couldn't even picture her. Issues aren't really explored, like why Evie doesn’t have friends, why she is so obsessed with Zabet's death (kind of-- sometimes it doesn't seem like she is, but then why did she go out on a limb to find Hadley?), or what she will do now that she knows Jonah doesn't like her. No hint of her moving on, really. Melodramatic without the relevant background to back it up. This was an ARC, but there was still a major typo at the end, when the wrong character's death was listed. I wouldn't have finished it if I hadn't felt obligated to. There was some fine writing, but it didn't gel as a story. Not enough suspense to be a thriller, not enough emotional exploration to make it anything else.
Several flaws. Evie is a character I couldn't wrap my mind around-- she wasn't solid, she was more of a mish-mash of several people and I couldn't even picture her. Issues aren't really explored, like why Evie doesn’t have friends, why she is so obsessed with Zabet's death (kind of-- sometimes it doesn't seem like she is, but then why did she go out on a limb to find Hadley?), or what she will do now that she knows Jonah doesn't like her. No hint of her moving on, really. Melodramatic without the relevant background to back it up. This was an ARC, but there was still a major typo at the end, when the wrong character's death was listed. I wouldn't have finished it if I hadn't felt obligated to. There was some fine writing, but it didn't gel as a story. Not enough suspense to be a thriller, not enough emotional exploration to make it anything else.
April 5, 2016
Evie is infatuated with an older guy - Jonah - who picks up dead animals in the woods near the houses where Evie delivers papers. When Jonah comes across the dead body of someone Evie knew, Evie does a lot of really strange things including befriending Hadley the dead girl's best friend and trying to find the killer.
A lot of characters in this book were irritating, including Evie. And they seemed to do a lot of things out of character. I didn't like it much. It seemed to be trying too hard.
A lot of characters in this book were irritating, including Evie. And they seemed to do a lot of things out of character. I didn't like it much. It seemed to be trying too hard.
June 23, 2018
Boring and dragged out. There friendship was unrealistic; why would Hadley become friends with someone who pretended to have known Hadleys dead best friend? There was no real mystery and was just anticlimactic, Evie lied for no reason and her obsession with Jonah was overdone and annoying. The characters were all basic and had no real connection with each-other. Her interactions with Jonah were unnecessary and boring and the plot was lost. The killer was some random guy who had nothing to do with anyone the girls were suspicious of, the ending was just overall anticlimactic and basic.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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