The Memory Trees

Kali Wallace

Oct 2017 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

A darkly magical novel about a mysterious family legacy, the bonds of sisterhood, and the strange and powerful ways we are shaped by the places we call home, from the critically acclaimed author of Shallow Graves.

For the first eight years of her life, an unusual apple orchard in Vermont is Sorrow Lovegood's whole world. The land has been passed down through generations of brave, resilient women, and while their offbeat habits may be ridiculed by other townspeople—especially their neighbors, the Abrams family—Sorrow and her family take pride in its odd history.

Then one winter night, an unthinkable tragedy changes everything. In the aftermath, Sorrow is sent to Miami to live with her father, away from the only home she’s ever known.

Now sixteen, Sorrow's memories of her life in Vermont are maddeningly hazy. She returns to the orchard for the summer, determined to learn more about her troubled childhood and the family she left eight years ago. But it soon becomes clear that some of her questions have difficult—even dangerous—answers. And there may be a price to pay for asking.

Ratings and reviews

Because I had loved the author's Shallow Graves which debuted last year, I was pretty optimistic about this one. The Memory Trees is written like a mystery with a few supernatural elements. Basically, the story is about two very old families that were present at the first white settlements in the town, and their complicated history throughout that has manifested in a tragedy with Sorrow's generation. The build-up in the book is very slow, and it took me days to just get into it - most of it was about day to day in the town when Sorrow comes back, and her fragile relationship with her maternal family which she is working to restore while trying to remember the events of the night of her sister's death. There are also some flashbacks with some other ancestors to emphasize the life of this family in their town, especially because they are matrilineal and have been since their first ancestor, Rejoice came to live in it. The problem with The Memory Trees is that it gets too lost in the atmosphere and only occasionally returns to the plot to progress it. It is not even about character development - it just feels like it is trying to establish the setting of the book. And for a person like me, who prefers the setting work towards the plot instead of the reverse, I was, in a word, bored. The actual exciting elements did not arrive until, like, the last third of the book, so until then you are just hanging around wondering what happened that night. The story is pretty good, and I loved the details that went into constructing the characters of each era, but it is mostly drifting in the book. Each of the women in the flashbacks faced challenges, primarily because they were women and tied to their family. That is their shared legacy - that they would always be considered witches by the townspeople, and they would always feel a part of their lands. The supernatural element is very subtle and I think it hardly matters to the plot. Eventually, superfluous writing kept me from fully enjoying the story. Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from Katherine Tegen Books, via Edelweiss.

About the author

Kali Wallace is the author of two novels for teens and many short stories. She studied geology for years but now devotes her time to writing. She lives in Southern California. You can find her at www.kaliwallace.com.