Lark Benobi's Reviews > A Crooked Tree

This is such a perplexing read to me. It has such an assured sense of place. Really great scenes. Vivid characters. Great evocation of an era. But the plot is very hard to buy. There is so much reliance on 1) coincidence, and 2) secrets that didn't need to be kept. A near-kidnapping in the beginning fades to the background and re-emerges with unexpected violent unbelievable melodrama near the end. Plot points trail off and disappear. It feels very episodic and some episodes feel unnecessary. The most important characters in the beginning are barely followed through on later. BUT the coda is beautiful and human and just right, and made me cry. So this is a grudging four stars. If it had been marketed as a YA novel it would be five stars. I can't believe this novel isn't a limited streaming series yet, because it has depth, and it has exactly the right level of lurch-y plot twists that would make it work well in the midst of other small-town shows like "Mare of Easttown" and "I Am Not Okay with This" and "Firefly Lane."