I really wanted to like this book more and connect with the characters, but it just didn't happen. Unfortunately, it felt a litte too bland for my taste, although the writing was good. I just struggled to connect.

Sorry this book just wasn't for me and I did not finish it. Thank you for the opportunity :)

This book took me so long to read, I just didn't care about the characters or the story enough.
There was nothing glaringly wrong with the book it just felt bland. The story, the characters, the setting, none of them connected with me. I think a lot of the issue was that it all felt like 'wishful thinking', everything that happened in this book was never really explained, it simply happens and almost all ends up happening nicely. I'm all for a pleasant story but I need an explanation of how we've come to this nice conclusion, not just that it happened, hooray!
Either way, I'm glad to have finally been done with this book and can now push it out of my mind, probably to never be thoughts of again.

I have to admit that I struggled with this book. Not because of the writing itself, which was lovely but it was really tough to read about Eddy, who has down syndrome, yet that isn't mentioned in the book.
Eddy not only sees himself as stupid, and weird but others do too and I don't feel as if that is shedding the best light on those with down syndrome.
To hear that Eddy's grandmother basically shut him in a room for the majority of his life and emotionally abused him is tough to deal with as emotional abuse is something that I have dealt with in the past. It was hard to imagine her skating by and completing these actions without any consequence whatsoever. Emotional abuse is one that needs some light shed on it, as a serious form of abuse that should not be tolerated.
I don't think i'd read this one again as it was difficult to get through the first time around.

Not a very easy to dig in to book for me, I think it's just not my kind of book

Mild spoilers ahead.
I liked, and kind of enjoyed this book. The story flowed nicely, so I managed it in two sittings, and I was sad through some parts, so I can say it touched me on some level, but there were too many inconsistencies and some quite illogical events for me to enjoy it completely. I'm conflicted really, because I did enjoy this, but I just couldn't get over some things, like:

-child abuse (abuse of a mentally challenged child to be exact), which goes unnoticed for 12 years
-no repercussions for the abuse, quite the opposite, the person is magically changed and then completely forgiven
-the implication that the above mentioned child is made "smarter" or "normal" by a magical tree. Not cured, just "not dumb". It's offensive, really
- Plus many, many things the boy couldn't have possibly known, living in such conditions (Being locked in a room for 12 years and not knowing how to read)
-The ending itself

If you can disregard such things, this is a quick, light, and emotional coming of age/magical realism novel.

Thank you for this book. I didn't like it, but I won't post a negative review.

The plot was okay. I'll tolerate a little bit of magical realism if it has a purpose other than getting the author out of a tough corner. And I'm not sure this one meets that requirement. And the ending was a mess. Plus the characters are not particularly believable. In the early chapters the characters skew quite young.

Some books are meant to be read slowly and T is for Tree is definitely one of them. This book is really something special and more that you think about it more and more special little things you discover. This is a story that will spread your viewpoint. It's about friendship in its most wonderful and purest form.

I enjoyed this book a lot, and I have to say I did not find myself focusing on Eddy's disability as I read. For me it was the story of friendship that was the focus of the story, not just between Eddy and Reagan, but also the friendships Eddy made with other people in his street, most notably the old lady from across the road.

Unfortunately wasn't able to finish this title. The story itself didn't really grab me that much, and wasn't that enthralling by the first 100 pages, which is my general rule of thumb with books.
Maybe that this style of contemporary fiction isn't for me personally, may be enjoyed by those who do enjoy this genre.

THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS AND DISCUSS EVERYTHING LISTED IN THE TW/CW ABOVE.

It takes a lot to truly horrify me when it comes to books. This book horrified me and a day later, I am still raging mad that anyone would think this book was a good idea.

While this book never openly says what Eddy’s disability is, I received an email that this book was originally self-published as JAM SANDWICHES and the blurb for that book stated Eddy has Down Syndrome. I’m not sure why this was omitted from this version of the book. The only thing mentioned about Eddy’s disability is that his face “doesn’t look normal”, he stutters, and has supposedly has a learning disability.

The book starts with Eddy as a newborn. His mother, Hailey, is running away from the hospital because she says couldn’t “bear the thought of a lifetime of disapproving glances. All of those ‘I told you so’s’ “. She approaches Eddy’s crib and thinks “I can’t love this thing.” When I first read this, I thought that maybe Hailey was extremely young and the disapproving looks would come from her being a young, unwed mother. But when the first chapter starts and we’re introduced to Eddy as a 12 year old, it become apparent that his mother fled because he has some kind of disability (again, it’s never said in this version what Eddy’s diagnosis was). Right away, that put me on the defense. Not only does this girl abandon her child because of his disability, she even says she can’t love this thing.

Hailey takes away Eddy’s personhood before he’s even a few hours old. She doesn’t see him as her child, she sees him as some disposable thing- a mistake she can simply walk away from.

The first chapter starts with Grandma Daisy, Hailey’s mother and Eddy’s grandmother, waking Eddy up for “shower day”. Eddy undresses and waits naked by the door of his attic room for Grandma Daisy to escort him to the shower. Eddy says that he doesn’t mind shower days because it gives him a chance to ‘see new stuff’. It’s then that we are told that Eddy is not allowed to leave his room. Grandma Daisy escorts him to the shower which is already running with lukewarm water. Eddy says that she makes him shower on days that she does laundry, so he doesn’t get but a few seconds of warm water and then it turns icy cold. He is not allowed to leave the shower until she comes back to get him which means he would have to squeeze into the corner of the shower to try and avoid the spray when the water became to unbearably cold. During this time, Eddy looks at himself in the mirror (something he says he has to hide from Grandma Daisy) and explains that he looks different “in the eyes… but the rest of the face, too.” He says when he asked Grandma Daisy about why he looks different she simply said, “That’s what dumb looks like.”

Grandma Daisy’s abuse doesn’t end there. Throughout the book, she withholds meals from him when he does something she doesn’t like or when she just doesn’t feel like bringing his dinner up (Eddy, again, is not allowed to leave his room even for meals). When she does bring him food, it seems very sparse. Cornflakes and water seems to be most of his meals.

When Eddy’s caseworker comes out, Grandma Daisy tells him that he has to be on his best behavior because if he doesn’t, she’ll take him to a “special school” where they beat children like him. She puts this fear into Eddy so that he doesn’t say anything about the conditions or his treatment because if Eddy was taken away from her, she would lose the money the government gives her to care for him. When the caseworker comes, it’s apparent that Grandma Daisy also neglects Eddy’s intellectual needs. At 12, he doesn’t know his alphabet and when she asks him to name something that starts with a T, he says ‘bed’.

Eddy is also subjected to cruelty by the neighborhood kids. Eddy’s only interaction with the outside world is what he can see from his window. Early in the book, two of the neighborhood boys approach the window and while they call Eddy a freak, they offer him friendship if he will stand up on a chair, wet his pants, and then throw his clothes down to them and stand naked in front of the window. Eddy tells them he’ll get in trouble but they promise they will wash his clothes and bring them right back ‘in five minutes’. Eddy, starved for friendship, does what they ask. After he throws the clothes out of his window, they openly mock him before running away, leaving him naked in front of the window and his soiled clothes on the lawn. Grandma Daisy comes in and instead of trying to figure out what happened, flies into a rage, and makes Eddy wear nothing but a diaper for a week. Even when she starts realizing what happened when the boys come back to taunt Eddy, she still treats him badly. Eddy says, “… from that point on she hadn’t been so angry. In fact, he’d even had some sugar on his cereal this morning.” So instead of apologizing to Eddy, she throws some sugar on his cornflakes and water and seems to think that makes up for making a 12 year old wear nothing but a diaper. He mentions that she catches the boys jeering at Eddy and “really lets them have it” but later in the book she says that she will not be made fun of because of Eddy. It wasn’t Eddy she was trying to protect by running those boys off, it was her own feelings.

During this time, the tree outside Eddy’s window starts growing inside of his bedroom. The tree is apparently magical and becomes Eddy’s friend. It’s around this time that the caseworker threatens to take Eddy away if he doesn’t start improving. She tells Grandma Daisy that many kids “like him” are able to learn and she was troubled that Eddy didn’t know the basics. Instead of trying to teach Eddy, Grandma Daisy tells him “he better learn” or he’d have to go to the place where “they beat boys”. This is what bothers me about his story as far as Eddy’s “learning disability” goes. The book wants us to believe that the tree helps Eddy learn. But it’s clear that Eddy had taught himself how to read a little before the tree even started to invade his room. Does Eddy actually have a learning disability? I lean towards no. If a child is stuck in the attic with no one to teach them, no social interaction, and no knowledge of the world outside of their room… but still manages to teach themselves ANYTHING, that’s not a disability. That’s pretty damn smart.

Reagan moves in next door when Eddy is 12. I don’t want to talk about their friendship too much because, honestly, the whole thing was kind of boring. They had a pretty regular friendship, sharing their days and stories. The book skips 3 years and Eddy and Reagan are still friends and end up sharing a kiss. Reagan’s family dissolves after her dad loses his job, becomes an alcoholic, and gives Reagan a black eye.

Two years later (when they are both 17), this story reaches it’s absolute worst point.

Grandma Daisy has “realized the error of her ways”. The whole thing was really strange (the tree told Eddy to remind her who planted the tree) and while she sort of apologizes and lets Eddy leave his room, that doesn’t make up for the years of abuse and neglect. It doesn’t and I hate that she is never held accountable for what she did. In fact, no one is ever punished for how they treated Eddy. He just forgives them and their half-assed apologies. How CPS never intervened is beyond me.

Reagan is now a troubled teenager. She’s dating an older boy, sneaks out of the house, and becomes enraged when Eddy refuses to accept an expensive gift that he knows she stole. One night the tree “tells” Eddy that the other boy is trying to rape Reagan outside of their house and Eddy rescues her.

Eddy is studying hard for his GCSE exams. When he gets his grades back, he has apparently gotten nearly perfect scores and is offered a scholarship to the best sixth-form college in their area. Reagan failed but decided to redo the year over with Eddy’s help.

While she’s studying, Reagan becomes weaker and weaker. After several months of being sick, they discover she has cancer and she isn’t going to make it. Eddy figures out he can use the magical tree to give his life for Reagan. So he does. Eddy commits suicide so that Reagan can live.

And that is fucked up.

Eddy admits that he loves Reagan several times. People know Eddy loves Reagan, knows that he has gone above and beyond to help her out, but no one expects Reagan to think of Eddy as anything more than her buddy because he’s “different”. And in the end, Eddy gives up his life, his chance to go to college, to save the “normal” girl. I can’t put into words how angry that makes me. Eddy’s life isn’t worth less than Reagan’s. Eddy is a boy who worked hard to learn, to grow… and he lets that all go because Reagan “deserves” life because she isn’t “different”.

The book ends with Eddy’s mother coming back… with her two “perfect” children in tow.

The finally lines of the book are a note Eddy sent Hailey. It says: “I’m not a stupid boy anymore. I’m a beautiful boy now, Mum.”

My hatred for this book is overwhelming. Not only is Eddy treated like shit, abused, and kept locked away for most of his life, the author pounds it in that Eddy’s life is only worthy, only beautiful because he GAVE IT UP FOR A ‘NORMAL’ PERSON. Who thought this book was a good idea? Who read this and thought it was a great story? I am disgusted beyond belief that this book is seeing the light of day.

Disabled people are not here to make nondisabled people look good. Disabled people aren’t here to lift nondisabled people’s lives. Eddy should have gotten his chance to go to college, to live outside his bubble. Eddy should not have had to die in order to feel like he was good.

I don’t recommend this book. If I could go back and unread this, I would.

This is a book which in places has an engaging way of describing the emotions attached to the events occuring over a 5 year period in 12 year old Eddy's life, however it has too many points of confusion for me. From some of the wording within it, you would think it is set in England yet other parts of it led me to believe that it was originally based elsewhere and has been slightly clumsily, in the way of a badly dubbed advert, adjusted to reflect the country it is being marketed in. More careful research of exams, medical details and the use of more commonly used terms for gurney and intersection would have helped me to rate this higher. Nonetheless, T is for Tree has a beautiful underlying message and a slightly unexpected ending.

An incredibly moving book that I loved very much. Although designated YA I think it belongs with adult fiction too. Eddy knows he's different than others around him. He lives with his unfeeling grandmother who keeps him in his room and tells him he's stupid. Shown no love, never allowed outside, with no friends, what he knows of the world is gleaned from viewing life from his two windows. This is his world until two events change his life from ordinary to extraordinary. The tree outside his window starts growing a branch in his room, and a new girl moves next door who wants to be his friend. From there Eddy's life changes completely and his journey over the next five years is amazing.

Once upon a a time, there was a mentally disabled young boy, who through a process beyond his kin, grained knowledge and became smarter than most people around him. That book is <em><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18373.Flowers_for_Algernon?ac=1&from_search=true">Flowers for Algernon</a></em> and I suggest you read that great book before you read this one.

Yes, like the book of Algernon, Eddy in this book goes from not being able to read, to being able to pass all his university entrance level tests, and get a scholarship to go to university. But unlike Flowers, he does so with a "magic tree" called Mr. Tree, which was planted by his grandfather. He feels the spirit of the tree, which gives him confidence, and helps him learn. He is also able to see things, sometimes, when he holds onto to the tree.

Yes, both books show someone who has mental deficiencies gaining smarts, but in T is for Tree, he does it totally without help from his unloving grandmother.

So, if I am so disgusted with this book, why do I give it three stars? Because it did engage me enough to find out where it was going.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

T is for Tree is a special book. I didn't love it but I didn't hate it. It would fall into my read again pile.
This book contained beautiful, beautiful moments both symbolic and realistic. I feel as thought, whilst it wasn't the greatest book, I will carry it in my thoughts for some time.

The book's message, sometimes unclear, is that life is too short, life is too precious and makes you think of all the stories that lie within one street. I'm very interested to know what Greg Fowler's aims/ideas/thought processes when writing this book as I feel it would help me understand it a lot more.

Whilst this was a magically symbolical book, you have to think about it symbolically in order to look past some of the far fetched moments that did almost make me want to put the book down in despair (but I couldn't and finished this in one sitting so that's a good sign).

Overall I gave this book 3 stars as it has the potential to be an amazing book but some of plot twists and turns and the time gaps didn't sit well with me whilst reading. I would recommend people to read this book however as I believe that this is a one of those books where it affects each individual differently and that is perhaps the most magical thing about it.