The Burning Tree by Helen Dent
YA Rural Fantasy. 256 Pages. 4 Stars
Synopsis:
There’s a secret growing in the woods.
In Ellie Caster’s town of Bishop’s Gap, the Casters and the powerful Levy family have been feuding for generations. The families share just one thing in common—they both dread the mark, a scorch that appears at random on their doors, bringing a curse from the Burning Tree.
When the mark hits Ellie’s door, her sister Jean falls into a coma. Ellie knows the Burning Tree is to blame, and desperate to save her sister, she braves the forbidden woods to confront it. But this choice ignites a chain of unintended consequences, forcing her to work with her nemesis, Charlotte Levy.
Together, they must complete an impossible task, uncover the ancient secret of Bishop’s Gap, and end the curse before time runs out for their entire town.
My Review:
I love this cover! It’s such epic cover art. And the story is a pretty good read, too.
I’m not quite sure what I expected when I read this, but it wasn’t what I got. However, once I let go of my expectations and just went with it, the story had a real cozy, homey kind of feel to it.
I’ve lived in smaller towns most of my life and the setting really hit this one on the head for me. It has barefoot, walking in the woods, simple life meshed with a small vein of mysterious folk tale darkness. It’s not quite creepy per say, but there’s a haunting, nostalgic quality to the tone that is rather interesting.
The story kind of gave me backwoods Romeo and Juliet vibes XD These two families warring against one another, but also there’s this third clan that wants nothing to do with the war. All wrapped in a generational curse, a funky oracle woman, and three MCs who really aren’t equipped for the quest they’re thrust into. I particularly felt intrigued by the dynamics of these three kids who were so hostile to one another.
There were hints of the neutral clan feeling ignored or not valuable because of the raging hostility between the two main warring families, but we didn’t dig as far into that as I had hoped. But, the story did focus on things and people having a depth beyond what we first assume. I liked the layers we pulled back in both the characters and the plot.
Content: no foul language, only some mild fantasy violence (more focus on a sickness than anything else), and clean romance. The story deals with motivations in our hearts, prejudice, truth, and forgiveness. Suitable for probably 13/14+
As a note: I did have the honor of proofreading this manuscript 🙂 But the thoughts above are my honest, freely given thoughts <3