The Girl in the Tree is one of the strangest books I have read this year, but it is also intriguing and beautifully written. Set in Turkey, it tells the story of a young woman who decides to live out her life hidden in a stork's nest high in the branches of a tree in Gulhane Park. As she narrates her story, a complex blend of humorous anecdotes about her family and hints of the tragedy that has driven her to seek refuge away from them , it is difficult not to find yourself beguiled by her , or by the author's skill in crafting her voice. Once I got into the flow of the almost stream of conscience narrative I found myself caught up in the unfolding story, but I will admit that I was unsure about the book at first, I am glad I persevered however, and I look forward to reading more of this author's work once translated. I admired the single mindedness and determination of the narrator , and how impassioned she was about the social issues that were tearing her country apart.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

When I first started The Girl in the Tree, I quite enjoyed knowing exactly what our protagonist was thinking. She reminded me of some teenagers I knew when I was young, however after a while the stream of conscious style started to get on my nerves. The author does a really good job portraying what it would feel like to be young and living during a tumultuous time, but I found myself really struggling with the jumpy style after a bit. It started to give me headaches after awhile so I had to put it on a one chapter a day diet.

I did manage to push through to the end. It's very unique and I think for some it will be very moving. I found the ending to be a little dissatisfying, but I think this surreal tale will be excellent for some readers. I'm curious if the slightly erratic styling holds true in the Turkish version or if this is a by product of the translation. If I happen to see another Şebnem İşigüzel book in English, I would be more than willing to give this author another try.

Thank you to both Netgalley and Amazon Crossings for providing me with an e-ARC of this novel. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The premise of the story sounded good, I liked the synopsis hence why I requested it via Net Galley. However, I did find the story line hard to follow and became disinterested.
I did not finish this one. I appreciate the opportunity to review though. It was a combination of the writing style was not for me, and as a result the story line faltered to keep my interest.

I struggled with this book for a long time. To the point that took me ages o finish it.

The premise was interesting, the plot was promising, however, I simply couldn't connect with the story.
I'm saddened by that, because I found this author's writing so beautiful, so poetic and some passages, I must admit, made be a bit teary. But those times, compared to other times when I was so confused with the protagonist being all over the place and so many people popping all over, that those emotional moments ended up not being enough to keep my attention and interest in the story.

I might give another chance to Şebnem İşigüzel because I really want to expand my readings regarding stories outside the USA and England, which are usually what I go for. This one though, still was a miss for me.

I was very excited about starting this book, but I quickly discovered that I just could not get into it. I read quite a bit of it because I wanted to like it.. It just couldn't keep my attention enough to stick with it.. I generally like books set in Turkey.. I find many of the authors who live there or have lived there have a unique style of writing that I enjoy. This author did have that unique style of writing so I'm giving it two stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon for this advanced reader's copy in return for my honest review. Both a tear jerker and a pick me up, I absolutely loved this book. Descriptive and breathtaking.

It's not often that I won't push through and finish a book, but unfortunately, I had to with this one. Gave up at 10%.

I was actually really looking forward to reading this - I loved the idea of a girl deciding to live out her life in a tree and trying to make sense of the world below, BUT... the idea was better than the actual story. It's definitely not the sort of book to read if you're after something easy.

I got lost at times with the amount of characters the narrator would talk of. I did enjoy aspects, but overall I just couldn't carry on. This DOES NOT take away from how well written the book is. Honestly, the writing is amazing and so is the translation, it just really wasn't for me and I couldn't stay engaged. The narrator's mind was just all over the place and unfortunately I couldn't keep up.

A couple of really, amazing memorable quotes throughout though, including: 'Why are people born into this world? That's easy. So they'll have a story to tell. Some of us die before the story ends, some of us die long after the story has ended, and some of us die right at the very start.'

This was totally unlike anything else I've ever read and I enjoyed it a lot. I loved the Girl in the Tree. I championed her throughout. She was a truly likeable character. I found the politics and various social dimensions of Turkey interwoven into this storyline to be very interesting and they with the lead protagonist's personal struggles combined very well to give us this end product. It was engaging and held me engrossed for the most part. I dif find it to lack fluidity at times. It occasionally was somewhat disjointed. As a result of this I award 4 stars to this novel. It was an enjoyable, and very interesting read nevertheless.

Thank you to AmazonCrossing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am really not sure what to say about this book. Parts of it appealed to me, for example the raw retelling of the main protagonist's heartbreak and hopelessness, and some of the amazingly descriptive prose. At the same time, I found this book extremely difficult to read due to the circuitousness of the narrative - the jumps were hard to follow, and the story was all over the place. I realize this was meant as a depiction of the thoughts tumbling through the protagonist's mind, but I could not cope with the confusion this engendered.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this. I will be posting a full review to Goodreads, Amazon, and Instagram.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. Appreciate the author’s creativity but I couldn’t connect with the storyline or characters

This book was not for me, but could be great for others. At times very confussing to read and I could not see where I was in the story.

This story was not for me and while I will not be sharing my reviews online since I don't like to share reviews of lower than 3 stars, I wanted to give you the feedback.

I found the writing style to jump around a lot so it was a bit hard to follow. Possibly the problem was with the translation from Turkish to English.

Poetic and complex storyline.
This book tells the tale of a Turkish girl who goes to live in the trees to escape life.
Throughout the story that she tells you hear tales of loss, love and devastation caused by the political scene at the time and also her families doing.
The storyline is complex and takes a lot of attention to follow.
This book, however, is poetically written and a masterpiece in its storytelling. The language used adds to the description of things.
Tank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read in return for a review.

“Sometimes we talk about the most trivial things in order to avoid speaking about the most important. We ramble on like we’ve got diarrhea of the mouth. All so those critical things will get mixed in, and then drown.”

What I liked:

The story being written around the political climate of Instanbul shortly after the Gezi Park Protests in parallel with the tragedies being experienced by the main character gave the reader some background on the turmoil in the country at the time and how people were affected. I did a lit bit of research as I like to do with books that have some historical content and learned about the Gezi Park Protests in which people rose up against plans to tear down their park and build a shopping mall. It resulted in many people getting hurt.

Love and heartbreak as themes were not tethered to only one couple and the generational trauma of heartbreak was an interesting sub plot explored.

What I didn’t care for:

The narrator in this story is unreliable. She speaks in one moment of serious events that took place in her family’s history of three generations and in the next saying she was not truthful in her account or repeats seemingly unimportant points.
Aside from the days of the calendar the story was not propelled forward in any meaningful way. It felt a little discombobulated and the conversational tone lacked the romanticism that I expected from the book.

While the chapter titles were clearly a nod to technology, I found them hastily added and quite honestly a poor decision for this novel.

Overall:

This book was just okay for me but I have seen many highly-rated reviews for this book so please don’t let my comments hold you back from reading it. I also wonder if the book just isn’t the same story when translated in this case.

Thank you to @amazoncrossing and @netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a portion of my review on my blog https://trails-of-tales.com/
To begin with, ‘The Girl in the Tree‘ makes use of some extremely potent visual imagery that could stick with you for a long time after you have stopped reading the book. In fact, one of these imagery was particularly impactful to me. I was moved to convert it into an illustration. (Scroll down to the end of this review to see my bookish illustration)

Profusely employing traditional idioms, twitter tweets and the stark difference between the two, the author puts together a story that defies all things conventional.
The author Şebnem İşigüzel has opted for an intentionally haphazard narrative. The reason I say intentional is because the reader will find that the haphazardness ( which might throw you off at first, to be honest) achieves some key purposes.

First, the haphazardness comes through how the protagonist recounts her memories to us. She completely chucks the concept of sequentiality and admits that she doesn’t put a lot of store by order and sequence. This makes her account seem like ramblings which is actually an allusion to the Girl’s rambling state of mind. It is also a sign that whatever put her in that state of mind is going to be disturbing.

Secondly, the haphazard narrative is symbolic of the protagonist’s unconscious reluctance to face the memories that literally drove her up a tree.

Third and maybe the most important purpose of this disordered story-telling is that while the readers try to follow the protagonist’s jumbled up thread of thoughts, they often forget the intense darkness that is strewn throughout the ‘Girl in the Tree‘.
.........
There are more that a few disturbances in this story including description of sexual assault. That’s your trigger warning. Indeed, just one trigger warning is not enough. On the surface, ‘The Girl in the Tree’ would be perceived as a story of the political unrest in the Turkish democracy but it goes further. After all, the Girl chose to climb a tree because she wanted to remain a human. And to save her humanity she had to escape humanity. Doesn’t that irony tell you all?

I found myself struggling with the writing style of the book more than I found myself enjoying the story.
At first, it was almost charming but then it became a task. And to me, reading should not become a chore.
The story was heart wrenching and I’m happy I stayed with it until the end, I just wish it wasn’t so difficult to read.

I did not finish this book. The writing style is not my taste, and the narrator keeps repeating the same thing. I don't care for the Amy Whinehouse angle, and although I get it that the repetition has a point, I don't care for that either. I was really looking forward to this one, but with that many books out there, I'll leave it unfinished.

An incredible story of a girl whom has grown tired of her society, her school and the tyranny that surrounds her. After an act of violence takes the lives of her fellow pupils she decided to go to a local park, climb a tree and stay there until the end... whatever end that may be.
An heartfelt and moving work this should be on everyone’s must read list. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC.

I really wanted to love this book but unfortunately I just couldn't get into it fully for some reason. I loved the setting as Istanbul is one of my favourite cities and I find it's history fascinating and intriguing so I appreciated the many references to real spots in the city and the references to the politics and unrest as well. The writing itself felt skilled and the narrative voice was strong and powerful but I still felt disconnected from the story and characters arcs. Perhaps another of İşigüzel's will be more enjoyable for me.