REVIEW: The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan

Source: Bought

I don't remember where I heard about this book, but I forgot I had bought it used until it came in the mail, and I read the back and decided it sounded really cool. I'd never really read a modern ghost story (or is it…?), so I was really excited to try something new.

Sarah Crowe, a writer struggling for inspiration and motivation, has moved up to an old house in Rhode Island, leaving behind Atlanta and the baggage of her now-dead girlfriend. What seems like a decent situation (solitude and affordable rent) turns into something spookier, after she uncovers an old typewriter and an incomplete manuscript. This brings to life all this back-story about the huge red oak located a few hundred yards from the house, including stories of human sacrifice, murder, demons, and werewolves. As Sarah progresses through the manuscript, she starts her own journal on the typewriter, cataloguing the events concerning the tree.

The story is told in a combination of Sarah's journal entries, Harvey's manuscript, and even a short story by Sarah. I really liked Sarah's voice: she's sarcastic, smart, and direct. There were, however, a few moments where I wasn't quite sure where the story was going (as Sarah herself says more than a few times, she has a problem with digressing). At first, the story seemed like it was just her working through her health problems, issues with writing, and the grief she feels from her girlfriend Amanda's suicide. Not that it wasn't interesting, I just sometimes like to get hints; at times, I wasn't even 100% of what genre we were in. But as it was confusing, it was also refreshing, and I kept with it. A cool, albeit strange, way to forward the story was Sarah's tendency to narrate her dreams, to the point where reality and dream became incredibly blurred. This later led to some absolutely bizarre and freakin' creepy events.

Sorry if this is a tad rambling, but I'm having some trouble organizing my thoughts about the book. It makes since, as the book itself was a tad unfocused at points. Whether she's being truly haunted or is just seeing things (she's epileptic, after all) is never fully explained. Plus, the entire thing is in first person, so if Sarah was never sure about something, it won't ever be cleared up for us. On the same thread, there was one really key moment (which I can't reveal details of, I don't want to spoil the spookiness) involving the basement, where she sees something, but we never figure out what it was, because it freaked her out so much, she decides to leave it (she stopped when she has a seizure while writing). Which bugged the crap out of me!

Another element that sometimes made the story drag when it could have been exciting was the fact that Sarah was the narrator, writing in her journal. Where a sense of immediacy would have made the story really exciting, her writing about the event the next day takes it away. There are even times when she adds that she has a fallible memory and, since the habit dies hard, fills in gaps in the story with fictitious details. So she's telling us everything after it happened, and it's not even necessarily true. At the same time, though, her voice really drew me in. It made for a very interesting reading experience, following such an unreliable, yet fascinating, narrator. That, plus the mildly unresolved ending (no grand explanation, to me, although you could very well take it as a complete ending; it depends on how reliable you think Sarah is), left me baffled.

What I found super, super cool about this book was the way traditional Gothic elements were used. Finding a manuscript in the basement, bones near the tree, leaves in the house that didn't blow in, etc. Then, there was the way the book was presented: a manuscript discovered by an editor and printed, without someone changing the story, and the editor giving the back-story and details seemingly verifying the authenticity of the document. It reminded me so much of what is considered the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, who first presented his novel like an authentic manuscript found in a decaying Italian castle.

Overall, I found this book a very interesting, albeit spooky, experience, and I really enjoyed it. I'm currently studying lots of Gothic novels and their successors in my British literature classes, and seeing how those elements are still being used was very cool. I loved that the classic elements are still out there, 200 years after they were first used. I also liked Sarah, even though she's a very unreliable narrator, which made the novel both confusing (even rambling at points), but incredibly personal. It was very rich in details, and I was able to picture many of the scenes. Ms. Kiernan is a phenomenal writer, and even though the plot sometimes bugged me, I really enjoyed the novel. I definitely plan to check out her other novels.

Also, check out her website for some very cool evidence here.

Grade: 4/5