Hi! I hope you haven't gotten tired of all the book reviews I've been posting lately. To be honest though, I've really been enjoying it. I was looking for a book to fulfill one of the items on my Reading Challenge when I came across The Secrets of Tree Taylor by Dandi Daley Mackall. The books I post here are usually ones I was asked to review so it was kind of cool to be able to choose the book myself and read it without the requirement of reviewing it afterward. But here I am, reviewing it anyway. LOL So let me tell you about the book.
What's it about?
It's the summer of 1963, and life seems to be moving along per usual for the small town of Hamilton, Missouri. Thirteen-year-old Tree Taylor has her eyes on the future, namely, the freshman position on the high school's local journalism staff, and having to beat out a rival in order to do so. This same rival has her eyes on the boy Tree likes as well, so there's that. She wants to experience her first real kiss by a boy and she wants to write an article worth taking notice of, which parlays into her primary goal of getting on the high school's paper staff. Out of nowhere on a quiet weekend morning, however, a gunshot goes off, throwing off Tree's entire plan. But the events of that morning are a mystery, with certain people (and one Tree didn't expect) seemingly keeping important secrets. Tree initially makes it her goal to find out by writing an investigative article on the shooting, but she soon realizes that there is a lot of gray area when it comes to being honest about something and being right.
What I liked:
--I liked the flow of the book. It wasn't this fast-paced, drama-filled whodunnit with a bunch of red herrings. It was a sleepy (and I mean that in terms of the energy in small towns, not as a knock on the book), slow-paced book that allowed for all of the other stories to develop. It seemed to be written as a peek into what life was like that summer for Tree and others she interacted with, so while the events may have sounded like they were going to progress quickly, it actually had a more sleepy, relaxed feel. I think for me, the flow of the book mirrored the feel of the town and I liked that a lot.
--I loved that the author didn't feel the need to keep reminding us that Tree was only thirteen or write as though the age difference between the reader and Tree was obvious. Tree wasn't a stupid girl and I appreciate that the author didn't think the reader was either. Some books that focus on coming-of-age with younger characters create an entirely different conversational style that further drives home the point that the main character is younger, and it ends up coming off as sort of condescending to the characters, if that makes any sense.
--I liked the author's writing style. It was direct, without a bunch of complicated speech and conversations between characters. It was simple human dialogue, the way many of us talk in our everyday lives. The accents weren't comically exaggerated to illustrate the status of certain people vs others; those too were realistic.
--I liked that Tree's growth was gradual. She didn't all of a sudden have the answers she needed, and it wasn't a straight, easy route to getting to those answers either. It was a realistic sort of growth that was both gradual and confusing for her and I enjoyed both trying to figure it out for myself and watching reading about her doing the same.
--I enjoyed that the thought patterns and mentalities of that time were employed in an accurate and not campy way. Sometimes when reading dated books, the dialogue and settings seem like cliches and those can come off as rather campy. This one didn't come off that way at all and I liked that.
What I didn't like:
--I wish we'd had a little more backstory on Wanda and Ray, and why he let her cling on to him the way she did.
--Without mentioning spoilers, one of the plot elements that drives the book isn't completely resolved at the end. While I think it was good to illustrate that this particular element wasn't the primary point of the book,it also doesn't feel completely explained.
--This isn't a complaint about the book, but I hated that one of my favorite characters in the book had such a sad resolution. I apologize for the vagueness but I'm trying not to include spoilers. I was hoping that something would develop at a later point with this and another of the main characters because the chemistry seemed to be there for it, but no such luck.
Overall:
Overall, I thought this book was great. If I had to sum up what I thought about it in one word, I'd pick 'honest.' I say honest because nothing felt like a caricature or parody of events. Like I said above, the entire book felt like a peek into what life was like that summer for a number of people Tree interacted with rather than being solely about her. You would think that the gunshot going off would drive the book in a particular direction and consume the book but it actually goes in another direction entirely, taking the reader on quite the ride by the end. I liked that the story involved a number of people in the town and what they were experiencing; the manner in which the townspeople were introduced didn't clash with who I felt the main characters were. It painted a very full picture of Hamilton that I liked. Tree had to learn some important lessons about a few things--herself, her idea of honesty and justice, and the often gray area between those two things. The events of that summer likely changed Tree's mentality by exposing her to the truth outside of the idyllic childhood that she probably hadn't yet realized she'd had. Some people didn't quite have it as good as she did, and anyone, even those we trust, can keep secrets. Sometimes doing the right thing isn't always easy, and life can change at the drop of a hat, and not always favorably. Tree needed to make those observations for herself and I think that was the true coming-of-age part of the story, as it planted the seeds for her to become a true journalist later. Historically, the book was accurate and while I first wondered, "Why 1963?" by the end of the book I was glad that was the year chosen. Secrets feels like the quiet before the storm for America in so many ways, and a teenage girl having her eyes opened to the ugly truths of life shortly beforehand I'm sure helped to usher in the painful years following it. I'd never thought of what life must have been like in the early days of the Vietnam war and this gave me a really good look into how war shapes a country, down to the smallest, quietest towns. The Secrets of Tree Taylor goes much more in-depth than it initially sounds, through the eyes of a girl taking her first steps into womanhood during what becomes a very conflicted, scary period of time. I loved it and recommend it to you if you like the mysteries in a small town, or you're into coming-of-age stories that go against what the synopsis suggests they'll be about. If you're looking for a fast-paced whodunnit, however, this isn't the book for you.
Where can I buy a copy?
I picked this up at my local Dollar Tree for $1.00, but if you'd rather have an e-version of the book, it's available on Kindle for $6.99.
Contact the author here!
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