Thank you so much to the publisher, Berkley Publishing, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review.Before reading The Ghost Tree my only experience of Christina Henry was her work on Looking Glass, which was a collection of novellas set in her Alice in Wonderland inspired fantasy world, so I had no idea what to expect from her writing horror. I would recommend it to readers who enjoy a dark atmosphere with some gruesome deaths steeped in mystery. I think I could have enjoyed it a lot more if those had been shaved back a bit, including the racist neighbor. I was hoping she would be the first victim, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.Īlso, there were some subplots I wasn’t as interested in and I found those portions dragging for me. Lauren’s best friend, Miranda, drove me batty. I love how Christina Henry’s mind works, but this isn’t my favorite of her books. I felt Sawkill Girls, Strange Grace, The Devouring Gray and The Wicked Deep all rolled into one. Throughout this story I was reminded of other stories. Along with a friendly policeman, a cute next-door neighbor and a roving reporter, Smith’s Hollow had better watch its back. Lauren sees it as her job to put an end to the madness. There’s witches, there’s curses, there are sacrifices that need to be made. What is going on in Smith’s Hollow and what is her connection to it? Her first stop is her Grandmother’s house and boy, does she have a tale to tell!
When Lauren begins to have visions as well, of a horrible monster and the murdered girls, she starts to investigate. He seems to know things he shouldn’t and he says the oddest things. Then there is Lauren’s little brother, Danny, who she loves dearly, but he’s a strange kid. Nothing she ever does is right, her mom is always nagging at her. Since her father passed, her mother has been struggling and seems to take a lot of her frustrations out on Lauren. The setting of Smith’s Hollow, that eerie small town vibe where you can instantly tell something is off.Īdditionally, I found Lauren to be a likable character and the relationships within her family were interesting. The thing I loved the most about this story was the atmosphere. They never solved her Dad’s murder.Įveryone just seemed to move on, but Lauren remembers and she wants to get to the bottom of it. When she hears about the murdered girls, she doesn’t hold much hope for the police finding the culprit. Lauren has grown up in Smith’s Hollow and now, just shy of her Freshman year in high school, she begins to sense something is severely wrong with their quiet town.įor one thing, her father was murdered in the woods just last year. When two girls from out of town are found slayed in a backyard, literally cut to pieces, it does grab everyone’s attention. The eerie part is, no one seems to remember. The town of Smith’s Hollow has suffered quite a few tragedies over the years.
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