The Space Between the Trees: Review

Title: The Space Between the Trees
Author: Katie Williams
Release Date: June 16th, 2010
Published By: Chronicle Books
Goodreads Rating: 3.14 stars

Synopsis: 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.


Review: People often ask me what kinds of books I like to read, and I usually give the same answer - that I read pretty much everything although I tend not to like high fantasy and chick lit. But if I had to narrow everything down to just one kind of book, one type of tone and genre and story that would be the only thing I could read for the rest of my life... it would be a book like The Space Between the Trees.

I can't come up with adequate words for how much this book affected me. It was deep and dark and confusing, yes, but confusing in a good way, a way that really makes you think and feel. This wasn't really the sort of book I found myself tearing through the pages to get to the end, but rather something I read slowly over the course of a couple days, something I savored.

Evie is a strange girl - not in a bad way, but just very different from any other character I've read about. She's introverted and quiet and doesn't know herself very well, but her thoughts and emotions are complex. Hadley, too, was a very complicated character who seemed so different on the outside from Evie, and even though her actions were different as well (particularly towards the end, which I won't give away), I wonder how similar they are.

Not too many reviews I read were particularly impressed with this one, and the ones who did liked the suspense and the mystery. Those were important components of this story, but I feel like there was more to this story. The Space Between the Trees reminded me quite a bit of The Replacement, not so much in storyline - they were very different that way - but in tone and how I felt afterwards. If you liked The Replacement, then you'll probably love this one.

Grade: A+