Oh. My. God. This book. Was. Amazing!

If you are any kind of horror fan, this spine-chilling novel is perfect for you! From the graphic murders to the it’s-behind-your-shoulder, spooky writing, you WILL be freightened by what’s to come.

I can honestly say, it’s been A LONG TIME since I was seriously scared by a book. And this one delivered! I read this swaddled in bed one night and I had to actually stop a few times because it was freaking me out. The writing was phenomenal. From the dynamic characters to the mysterious murdering beast, this multiple POV story creates one of the best horror circumstances. Even though it was all in my head, this felt like it combined real-life with a supernatural, creepy, deadly suspense you can’t put down.

If you like small town, forest-y, gruesome, mysteries, you’ll want to read this 5 out of 5 star read with the lights on..

Please note, there is a trigger warning for racism thanks to a VERY ANNOYING character.

Actual Rating: 4.5 Stars

“It’s Mrs. Schneider. She won’t stop screaming. There’s so much blood.”

...

“Help me.”

“Find them. All the girls, girls like us. Find them.”

“We aren’t the only ones.”

Set in the mid 80’s in a small and seemingly perfect town, Smiths Hollow is far from a dreamland. Each year a girl is taken, killed and found dismembered in the woods. What would surely cause most residents and towns to rise up in anger and cry in fury, the people of Smiths Hollow do none of that. Somehow, these yearly horrors slip from their minds. Friends are forgotten. Sisters are no longer thought about. Daughters begin to be erased from existence. But Lauren can’t seem to forget. Not after her father was found with his heart ripped out one year prior, and the police refuse to do anything about it. But when the bodies of two girls are found in an elderly woman’s backyard, Lauren takes it upon herself to find the truth. Because something is happening in Smiths Hollow…and something is happening to Lauren.

“Meet me by the old ghost tree.”

The Ghost Tree is Sleepy Hollow on murdery crack, and there is truly nothing better.

As we all know, Christina Henry is the Queen of bloodbaths.

She is the High Priestess of YA Horror, the Goddess of fairy-tales gone dark, and the Villainous Hero of atmospheric tales of all that is sinister and poetic.

This book was everything my dark little soul has been craving! I felt transported to a town that feels jarring, creepy, strange and off, while also seeming vibrant, homey and alluring. It being set in the 80’s gave it the perfect vintage creepiness that one would find in Halloween, and an innocent yet rough depiction of teenage femininity that mirrors Carrie. It leaves you sweating in shivers and wanting to enter the trees. You can almost smell the iron scent coating dried leaves, or hear the warnings on the wind.

It is truly the perfect Autumn horror.

“There’s something wrong here.”

“There is something wrong with this town…”

Smiths Hollow is almost like any other town. A small town where everyone knows everyone, you shop at the small grocery store in town, gossip with neighbors, and seemingly forget that girls are dying left and right.

You know, normal.

The story is told in many different perspectives of various residents of the town, each giving a different form of insight into what is really happening in the shadows. At first, I was so confused with the memory aspect of this story. Because in some ways the characters seemed to realize girls were being killed and could remember, but in every other situation…it was as if they didn’t. This type of mystery lends a hand to the truly bizarre and disorienting tale that this book is, and allows the reader to feel completely in the dark for most of the book. Just like the MC, Lauren.

“I don’t want to be alone. Please don’t leave me alone.”

Though this is told through many different eyes, Lauren is the main focus and who we find to be the most reliable narrator. Though only fourteen, she is a fairly mature and levelheaded young girl who seems to really know who she is (I give credit to the era she grows up in). Our story starts with Lauren meeting her best friend Miranda by the Ghost Tree in the woods, a place that scares most residents of Smiths Hollow, but also a place the girls have gone to since they were small. Lauren feels comfort and peace when she is in the woods, which is surprising given all that’s…happened…

Lauren is a little more on the quiet side and very methodical. She harbors deep pain from the gruesome and brutal death that her father suffered a year before, and deep confusion as to why so many have brushed it aside. Not only have the police done nothing to investigate his murder, but even her mother seems to harbor ill-will and resentment towards her late husband.

“You’d think they’d remember a man who’d been found with his heart torn out more clearly.”

But as the story goes on, and the murders of two new girls seem to again be brushed under the rug, Lauren can’t help but yearn for answers. Especially when a violent vision of the girls being killed attacks her one day in the woods.

“There was something inside her brain trying to get out, something with a chainsaw howling, but the howling wasn’t pain – it was the kind of howling that meant laughter, and the laughter wasn’t the kind that invited others to laugh but the kind that you ran from while your heart slammed against your ribs and your legs moved of their own volition.”

But let’s really talk about the weirdness of Smiths Hollow.

Lauren’s best friend Miranda is less of a best friend and more of a bully who puts Lauren down, all while attempting to seduce boys so she can lose her virginity. An elderly woman, Mrs. Schneider, has a very unwarranted hatred for her Hispanic neighbors and thinks that they’re killing people. The mayor of the town has an oddly obsessive fascination with bringing a fair to the town, the police force seems fine with not investigating any crimes, an eighteen-year-old boy stares at Lauren a lot, and her four-year-old brother acts like more of an adult than I do.

And better yet, he seems to see and hear things no one else can.

“Everyone knows, but they don’t know they do.”

From the very beginning, the story grabs you into a feverish hunger to know what is causing these people to act so flippant and why girls are getting killed. It is a slow-burn mystery that I binged in a day, and one I was just wishing I could transport into. But the best aspect of all, is that I had zero idea where this story would lead. Even at the 75% mark, I had no idea who or what was behind these killings. Sure, we get a little morsel here and a crumb there to keep us feeling satisfied, but just enough to make us crave more.

My favorite part, by far, is when the “legend” is told. I LOVE that the story went into a fantastical direction, even if I wasn’t expecting it or seeing it as a plausible trope that could work with this plot. But alas, it made it SO much better! I love a legend and a dark fairy-tale even more, so naturally I was drooling at the mouth over the secrets and history that it revealed. And though I can’t give anything away without ruining the story, I will say that this trope being woven into the story was done flawlessly and didn’t take away from any of the eerie horror.

“And all the while, the hill and the house upon it watched.

And all the while, the tree waited for the signal from the hill.”

By far my favorite book that I have read in a while. It is PERFECT for those Autumn TBRs that so many of you readers have been crafting since January, and one that I HIGHLY recommend. For those who are afraid of Horror, don’t worry. It really isn’t as scary as my gifs and mood boards would lead you to believe. Christina Henry has a knack for setting a scene of foggy depths and bloody secrets, and that is exactly what The Ghost Tree is.

“And in time we’ll forget.”

Set in idyllic small-town Illinois, Ghost Tree is a delightfully whimsical horror novel that captures both the imagination as well as the mid-1980s North American teen zeitgeist. Henry has managed to craft a tale that is equally gruesome as it is whimsically tender.

Lauren DiMucci, not quite 15, is set to start high school in the fall. On the cusp of womanhood, Lauren still clings to childhood and the ghost tree, her favourite secluded location in the woods. Lauren and best friend Miranda have spent their younger years adventuring in a wood that keeps their childish secrets. But when Miranda becomes more interested in boys with Camaros than traipsing through the woods, Lauren is confronted with forging her own identity apart from, and even in spite of, Miranda. Lauren is also increasingly estranged from her single mother Karen, and so when gruesome happenings occur in the small town – happenings Lauren feels strangely connected to – she’s left floundering.

I adored this book from start to finish. As a child of the 80s, it transported me to a time that was simultaneously more simplistic and trying. I enjoyed watching Lauren’s transformation and the hints of strength that start as a whisper and end with a roar. Henry has an adept ability to embed contemporary sentiment and controversy in all her novels, regardless of setting. For example when Lauren wonders, “How come boys can bang all the girls they can find and they’re practically given a trophy for it, but girls are called sluts and everyone talks about them?” So while the countless tropes and pop culture references cement the story as an 80’s coming of age horror, there’s no mistaking this is a tale with contemporary appeal. This is an imaginative story involving curses, secrets, and murder, but also bigotry and misogyny.

The Ghost Tree is the perfect summer read. The fantastic story and colourful characters kept me entranced throughout. It is terrifying at times, however, Henry’s descriptions, of gore even, are beautifully crafted. I could find nothing indicating this is part of a series, but am hopeful there’s a sequel planned for Lauren.

Last year I read and loved Alice by this author, and was excited to see that she had a new release! And this was much different. Where Alice was a gruesome horror retelling of Alice in Wonderland, The Ghost Tree was a creeping, lurking story with some graphic moments. The book is set in a 1980s small town (a classic horror setting) where young girls go missing and are found mutilated. It follows Lauren, who is a young teenage girl, as she tries to figure out who is doing the killing. It’s about coming-of-age, mother/daughter relationships, witches, monsters, and grief. There was a lot to enjoy about it, and I found myself flying through the pages. There’s a great cast of characters, the setting was a perfect contained space for chaos to ensue, and the story was compelling. I just wanted to know what was happening with the ghost tree! If you’re a horror fan or looking for an October read, this may be for you.

However, one aspect that didn’t really sit right with me was the use of racism towards Latinx characters, including the use of slurs. It was a minor plot point and if it had been removed it wouldn’t have affected the main plot. So I’m not sure what the exact reason was for including it, especially because I don’t think Christina Henry is Latinx herself. The only thing I could think of is that the bigoted character was meant to be a metaphor for the town? I don’t know and I need to think on it more. But I wanted to mention it, so people weren’t caught off guard.

*SPOILERS* (For those who don’t like to know a lot about books before going in)

I found myself wondering about the choice to sacrifice a girl every year to maintain the town’s prosperity. It spoke of a disregard for life and the devaluing of what girls and women have to offer. And when the girls bodies are discovered, they quickly fade from their collective memory. And I think that might link to the reasoning behind having a heavily racist character. This is a seemingly “perfect” town that’s isolated and no one can move away from. They turn away from all their problems, and make excuses for what they don’t understand. But when you start to question things, you see there’s a lot wrong with perfection and maintaining the status quo.

First let me get to the content warnings: Racism, violence, blood and gore, death, grief.

This fantasy horror novel is set in a small, sleepy little town in the 1980s, and let me tell you, it is very, very ’80s. Smith’s Hollow is set up to resemble small-town America in 1985, but as soon as the book opens you can feel the creepy undercurrent and that all is not quite right.

Then the bodies of two girls are discovered in the backyard of the town’s most bigoted resident and readers will slowly start to realize this isn’t the only body to be found torn apart in Smith’s Hollow over the years. But for some reason, the locals don’t remember, not even when it’s their own family member.

Menacing local folklore, curses, creepy children, strange happenings, and enough blood and gore to make readers wince, this horror novel kept me on my toes and turning pages. I couldn’t stop reading until I found out just who the bad guy was and how he was going to be stopped. The POV jumps between several protagonists, with shorter chapters, which kept the story moving along quite nicely.

This is a good read if you are in the mood for a suspenseful mystery but be prepared for the dark, menacing vibe.

I need to restrain myself from gushing about this book.

But seriously - it was so freaking good. Perhaps it was the time and area it was set - 80's Chicago- land area (to simplify) but yeah this book hit so many high notes.

The characters were all well written and as not to spoil things - I adored and rooted for most of them. I thought Ms Henry also was thoughtful in two themes she wrote about concerning serious issues that are sadly still around in today's day and age.

My only complaint and it's a minor one, was that I wished for more answers at the end. But otherwise I loved this book and fair warning - once you start you won't want to put it down.

I was a huge fan of the Dark Wing series by this author, and I haven’t read a book by her since. I saw this one, and I was ready for a nice horror story. Starting it, I was immediately drawn into the drama unfolding with Lauren and Miranda, and then the murders happened. Now we were getting to the good stuff. Then, the book veered off into more of a coming-of-age story mixed with a little witchcraft and a little bit of horror. I wasn’t exactly disappointed with this turn, but I was expecting more chills. The characters were great, the plot mostly interesting, and with these the book kept my attention. This book is well-written and interesting, but I would not consider it a horror story. Despite this not being a horror story, I do recommend it. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.

I have loved every single Christina Henry book that I've read (that's six books thus far, a pretty good track record!), so I was thrilled when I saw news of The Ghost Tree's existence, and I was even more excited to receive an ARC. The Ghost Tree ended up not being quite what I expected, but I still readily enjoyed it and the themes that Henry explored.

The Ghost Tree takes place in Smiths Hollow, a small town where everyone seems to know one another and no one ever really seems to move away. Things start to go a bit awry when two girls who are not from Smiths Hollow are found dead in Smiths Hollow and others in the town, such as Lauren, her brother, and a new police officer, begin to suspect something a little abnormal might be going on when it becomes apparent that no one else in town seems to really care...or remember what happened.

If there's one thing that Christina Henry can do well (although to be frank, Henry does a lot well!), it's build a strong atmosphere and compelling cast of character. From the beginning of this story and descriptions of Smiths Hollow and its inhabitants, you can immediately tell that there's something just a little bit off about it. Things seem to move too smoothly, yet also with an undercurrent of tension that makes things in the town seem just a little off kilter--or at least it seemed that way to me.

Similarly, the characters are all developed extremely well and have very distinct roles and personalities to set them apart, as well as create interest in their roles. We also get POVs from quite a wide array of characters, from Lauren as one of our main POVs, to Miranda (Lauren's friend), David (Lauren's brother), police officer Alex Hernandez, (Lauren's mother), the racist neighbor, and quite a few others thrown in at various points when it fit the narrative. I loved getting to see all of the happenings of this town from so many different perspectives, but I also felt that sometimes switching to all these POVs and introducing new characters or digressing on some point about them occasionally slowed the pacing down and made me impatient to continue on with the plot and find out what was going to happen next.

Some of my favorite things about The Ghost Tree were the ways in which Henry incorporated so many different relevant themes, from her mother's struggle to connect with her daughter while also making money stretch as a single mother to Lauren's friendship struggles and Miranda's difficulty with her own development into a young woman and the expectation of men, as well as social issues such as the racism that the Hernandez family experiences and so many more compelling and important topics.

Despite all the positives, there was something about this book that just didn't grab me as much as other books I've read from Henry. It's actually hard for me to put into words exactly why The Ghost Tree didn't work for me as much as I'd hoped. It reads very much like an homage to classic 80s horror with a modern twist and Sleepy Hollow vibes. Although I liked the 80s horror influence, I also think that this is possibly where I found myself not connecting with the story as much as I usually do with Henry's books. I felt that a lot of the plot points seemed a bit too predictable and as a result a lot of the slower moments that build up to the big plot twists ended up making the overall pace of the book drag a bit.

I don't want this review to come off as negative because I did really enjoy this book and would absolutely recommend it, but I wouldn't necessarily go into it expecting something fast-paced or overly fresh. There are certainly a variety of fresh elements added to this narrative, but the basic bones of the story didn't stand out as something new to experience.

Overall, I'm giving The Ghost Tree four stars! I found the overall story very compelling, but I did think that the pacing was a little off and slow at times and this story just lacked a little something that I'm used to with Christina Henry's books. Still, I can't wait for her next release already!

The nitty-gritty: Small town secrets and teenagers coming of age meet head-on in Christina Henry's latest horror story, a book that worked for me on some levels but not on others.

To be honest, until about the halfway point, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book much. It’s quite different from what I was expecting, and it’s also very different from Christina Henry’s other books. However, it did start to come together in the second half, as the pacing really improves and the story finally starts to make sense. I also want to mention that the title is a little misleading, because this is not a ghost story at all (in fact, it’s about witches). What Henry does really well, though, is capture the angst and uncertainty of growing up, which is a good thing because this is a coming-of-age story at its heart.

Lauren diMucci is fourteen and lives in the small town of Smiths Hollow. She and her friend Miranda have been besties forever, but lately they seem to be growing apart. Miranda is obsessed with boys and clothes and losing her virginity, but Lauren is still waiting for her period to start and feels more comfortable hanging out with Miranda in the nearby woods under “their” special tree, an old, lightning-struck oak which they fondly call the “ghost tree.”

The idyllic life in Smiths Hollow is shattered one day when crotchety old Mrs. Schneider finds the mutilated bodies of two young girls in her yard. Nothing like this has ever happened in Smiths Hollow before—or has it? Surely everyone remembers when Lauren’s dad was found dead in the woods a year ago, his heart ripped out of his chest, or at least Lauren does. Newcomer cop Alejandro “Alex” Lopez is called to the scene of the crime to investigate, but oddly, soon after the details of the murders are recorded and processed, Alex discovers that the residents of Smiths Hollow are already starting to forget the murders even happened.

Faced with a mystery that is too tempting to ignore, Alex starts to delve into the town’s past and uncovers a horrifying secret—Smiths Hollow seems to be under a curse that’s been in place for years. But something has disrupted the curse, and the townspeople are starting to remember things long forgotten. Something evil lies in the woods and it’s about to break free.

I think the best thing about The Ghost Tree is the way Henry captures the feeling of coming of age in the 1980s. She throws in lots of 80s pop culture references—popular movies, TV shows, clothing brands, etc—which made the time period feel authentic. I also loved a lot of the teen angst that Lauren and Miranda are feeling, the awkwardness of needing to fit in as a teenager but not really knowing how to do it. Henry really nails the bittersweet realities of how childhood friends grow apart, as Lauren struggles to keep her special friendship with Miranda alive, while Miranda simply leaves Lauren in the dust because she’s just not ready to grow up.

I also loved the way Henry sets up the mystery of Smiths Hollow and tells her story through the eyes of the various characters. The perspective shifts from Lauren to Miranda to Mrs. Schneider to Alex Lopez and even to Mayor Touhy, who is holding on to a very unsettling secret. I love this method of storytelling, and I thought it worked really well in this book. This is a big cast of characters who each bring something important to the table, and even though I didn’t necessarily like all the characters, I did like the way we get to see the story from so many different points of view.

But as for the story itself, it felt at times like it was trying too hard. I really liked the witch story line, although I thought it was overshadowed by everything else that was going on. You’ve got a monster who is killing young girls, a scary tree in the woods, an evil Mayor who knows much more than he lets on, a coming of age story, predatory males, lost memories, racism, conflicts between parents and children. Oh and I didn’t even mention a psychic four-year-old boy who draws creepy crayon pictures of things that might come true. It’s a lot, and I’m not sure how successful Henry was in bringing all these elements together. 

With such a big cast of characters, I was surprised to find that I didn’t really like anyone in this story except for a couple of them.  Nana, who is Lauren’s grandmother, lives in the big, old house on the hill, and it turns out she’s descended from a line of witches who figure into the town’s curse. Nana’s part is rather small—she’s really only used as a device to relate the history of the town and how the curse came to be. But I loved the “story within a story” as she tells Lauren the tale in a section called “Among the Witches,” which adds a nice bit of folklore to an otherwise contemporary story. I also really enjoyed Alex’s character. He’s part of a huge, multi-generational Hispanic family who all live in the same house, a house that unfortunately sits next to the horrid Mrs. Schneider. As someone who just recently came to Smiths Hollow, Alex has a more objective view of what’s happening, and I liked his practical nature and problem solving attitude. He’s also one of the few men in the story who isn’t obsessed with getting into the pants of all the young girls in town (more on that later).

But the rest of the characters just didn’t work that well for me. Miranda is a caricature of a horny, sex obsessed teen who wears all the hip clothes (Jordache jeans and Adidas sneakers) and cares more about her appearance than her best friend. She also seems to have an unhealthy eating disorder and refuses to eat in front of boys—she’s constantly telling herself not to eat like a pig—and I found this both ridiculous and sad. I’m pretty sure Miranda is damaged in some way but we never really find out why. She basically dumps Lauren because she won’t go on a double date with her, and she lets the disgusting Tad feel her up just so he’ll take her to school in his Camaro. 

Then there’s old Mrs. Schneider, a racist who is horrified that the “Mexicans” next door have invaded her town. She also blames them for the bad things that are happening in Smiths Hollow. Her blatant racism felt almost clichéd at times and of course made me very uncomfortable, but as far as story elements that made me say “ick,” I have to mention the odd age disparity between Miranda and Lauren and two of the “boys” who have caught their eye. Miranda is fifteen and obsessed with a much older man (we don’t find out the identity of “Him,” as she calls him, until almost the end). And Lauren has her eye on an eighteen year old boy who seems to be attracted to her as well. If this were more of a romance focused story, I could see throwing in this age difference to add drama and conflict, but here it wasn't really necessary.

But despite my issues, there are moments of both chilling horror and poignant emotion in this story. Even though I hated Mrs. Schneider, Henry reveals a terrible event in her past that made me feel sorry for her. Likewise, I mourned the fragile friendship between Lauren and Miranda and thought about some of my own friendships that went through similar changes. And the ending? The last few lines gave me chills! When Christina Henry is good, she’s really good. And even though The Ghost Tree isn’t my favorite book of hers, I’m still excited to see what she does next.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

Have you ever seen that episode of Eerie, Indiana where Marshall’s name is drawn to be the town’s Harvest King (due to the meddling of the mysterious Dash X, who should have been the one drawn)? This book kind of reminds me of that (but with less John Astin, corn, and werewolves that mysteriously only need to feed once every 13 years). It’s even set in the 80s (yes, I know that Eerie was in the early 90s, but it’s closer to that than it is to modern day, so…ha!)

You all might know by now that I have a very real weakness for folk horror – and The Ghost Tree presents a very solid folk horror story that involves revenge curses, monsters, and human sacrifice. So- all the good stuff.

It does use some tried-and-true tropes of the sub-genre (which I won’t go into detail about because I would hate to ruin the story for you), but it uses them well. And I appreciate that although this is also a coming-of-age story, it’s different than the (unfortunate) norm in that it’s about a girl coming of age! OMG WHAT A CONCEPT! I’m not bitter, I swear. I’ve actually read quite a few female-centered coming-of-age horror stories in the last few years, but it bugs me that they are so few and far between outside of indie horror, so, when I see it from a big publisher, I want to shout about it.

I have never read any of Christina Henry’s work before this one, but she’s got quite a few to choose from, so this probably isn’t going to be the last I read of hers. Her writing style really worked for me, and I found her dialogue refreshing. It wasn’t overly wordy, the tones matched up to speakers, and it was never clunky.

This book is really good, and even though it’s a fairly hefty page count (at least in comparison to all of the novellas I’ve been reading lately), it absolutely flies by!

Christina Henry entices readers to travel back in time to a small town called Smith’s Hollow. It’s the 1980s. We follow best friends Lauren and Miranda, their longtime friendship seemingly in transition. Miranda is looking to make friends with older boys who drive while Lauren resents being dragged along as a third wheel.

Wrapped in this compelling coming-of-age story is something more insidious than teenage boys. Two girls Lauren’s age are found murdered, their bodies mutilated, in the backyard of one of her neighbors.

Miranda couldn’t care less and is more interested in finally losing her virginity, but Lauren is plagued by visions that seem related to the murders. She is determined to solve the mystery of the dead girls, especially since she lost her own father to violence just two years prior.

I read this book on my Kindle over a weekend and when I finished, I was shocked to learn that it was over four hundred pages long. This book flew by. The chapters are short and sweet, unraveling bits of mystery or diving headlong into Lauren’s teenage drama with a juicy hook at the end of every break, practically begging for readers to keep going.

Even though there is a lot going on in this story—Lauren’s troubled family history, the strained friendship between Miranda and Lauren, the murders, a small town secret and even a vengeful witch’s ancient curse—Henry is able to keep all the strands of her spiderweb woven together in a neat and concise way without losing the reader along the way.

The end result is a complex, interesting story that maintains suspense and intrigue page after page after page.

Part of the joy in reading this book, for me, was because it was like revisiting one of my favorite TV shows, My So Called Life. Claire is more introverted than her thrill-seeking friend Rayanne. And even though Rayanne is the one playing fast and loose with the boys-it’s Claire that is sneaking out of class to kiss Jordan Catalano in the school’s boiler room. This book had a very similar, Girl’s coming-of-age vibe but with the added bonus of having a dark and sinister subplot. I burned through this one. It’s my recommendation that if you’re looking for something you can devour over a few days, something scandalously entertaining with teeth. This is the perfect book for your Fall reading list.

The Ghost Tree is located in Smiths Hollow, a small town in the 1980s with a very heavy secret: girls get murdered every year and no one seems to care. People just go on with their lives. Why is this happening? Lauren is a cool teenager who is going to get to the bottom of this creepy ritual, along with baby brother David's help. And he is just 4. The newly arrived cop, Alex, living on that same cul-de-sac, might be able to help since he is not a long-time resident and not bound to that "secret"..

This was a perfect horror/mystery/coming of age story from favorite author Chirstina Henry whom I discovered earlier this year with her then-latest, Looking Glass, which I loved. The story is fast paced, suspenseful, exciting, includes many characters yet they are clearly drafted and so I never had a moment of 'who-is-this-character-again?.'

I highly recommend it to anyone looking for the perfect fall read.

Now THAT’s how you write horror.

The Ghost Tree is chilling and disturbing, fascinating and unforgettable. I could not put this book down.

Set in a small idyllic Midwestern town, The Ghost Tree reveals the darkness that lies underneath the town’s peaceful, prosperous surface.

14-year-old Lauren is our main character. It’s the summer of 1985, and Lauren is looking forward to starting high school, even though she and her best friend Miranda have been growing apart. Lauren wants to keep playing in the woods and riding bikes, but Miranda is more interested in reading Cosmo and flirting with the older boys who drive cool cars.

Lauren is also dealing with her father’s death during the previous year, and her ongoing battles with her critical mother. Fortunately, her 4-year-old brother David is the bright spot in her life.

As the story starts, the awful, racist woman down the street discovers the dismembered bodies of two girls in her back yard. The girls are clearly outsiders, perhaps runaways passing through. But after the initial shock, these gruesome deaths don’t seem to make much of an impact on the town or its small police force, and it’s only through great effort that newcomer Officer Lopez can remember that there’s something odd that he should look into.

Told through multiple points of view, we get to see how the various townspeople have strange perceptions and faulty memories of the events that happen in Smith’s Hollow, and nothing seems to alter the pleasant lives of the town’s residents.

When Lauren’s grandmother shares a disturbing tale with her, Lauren is shocked and angry that her Nana would say such terrible things and expect her to believe them… but little by little, she comes to realize that there’s a dark truth lurking in the town’s memories, and that she and David might be the keys to preventing further bloodshed.

The Ghost Tree is so creepy and SO GOOD. The author does such a great job of letting us into Lauren’s mind, showing the uncertainties that a girl her age feels about all the changes in her life, but also showing her taking a stand and starting to own her opinions and take a stand.

The more we get to know about the town history and the secrets that everyone seems to have forgotten, the creepier and more disturbing the story becomes. And yes, there’s gore and bloodshed, but for me anyway, the scariest parts have to do with the mind control that the town seems to be under, and how inescapable its dark secrets seem to be.

I’ve read other books by Christina Henry, and already knew how talented she is. The Ghost Tree proves that she’s just as amazing at horror as she is at more fantasy-heavy stories.

I think I’m going to be thinking about this story for days. This is a story that sticks with you. Check it out!

So I don’t know if my loving Lost Boy was just a fluke and this author is just not for me but I really wasn’t a fan of this one. I am really sad to cause I keep trying her books as they sound super cool but then I am let down. 🙁

So this is pretty much just a coming of age story centered around a little bit of supernatural happenings within the strange town of Smiths Hollow. Lauren and Miranda have always been friends but lately Lauren feels as if Miranda is slowing slipping away. Miranda is more into boys than hanging out like they use to and Lauren would rather hang out at the Ghost Tree like they use too.

When Lauren has a vision about two girls being killed by a monster that looks human but has claw like hands it changes things for her. She wants to know what happened. She is also concerned about how things are going with her friend Miranda or if they are still friends at all.

Officer Lopez and his family are new to town and it doesn’t go over well with some of his neighbors, especially the old lady that lives next door. Alex responds to a call from his wife when this same lady finds two dead girls in her yard. It’s really strange to him because it seems that nobody seems to be all that concerned about the dead girls. This prompts him to look into things further.

It had a cool premise but it was just super slow and boring for me even though it didn’t take that long to finish for a book over 400 so it read fast, just I felt like not much happens. I was also not a huge fan of Lauren who seemed super wrapped up in the fact that she had off brand shoes. I know that is probably typical teen things, but I can’t really relate to that as it never bothered me to have off brand things growing up. (I still buy off brand and I am never one to be in style)

I really liked Officer Lopez and his family though and felt bad for them because of that one old lady. Which brings me to something else that bothered me. I am from a small town and I kind of feel like the author portrayal of small towns are that they are racist. Now this is set in 1985 but still I wanted to smack that old lady and often felt like the author tries a bit to much with the racist old lady, like that was her only purpose in the book was to be racist. These are just my feelings.

I also figured out who the bad guy/monster was before I was even halfway through the book so that took a bit of the shock value out of the ending.

I really liked the cursed town aspect and how everyone forgot that girls were being murder not long after it happened, but just not a lot more which I am really sad about. 🙁 I do think I am in the minority according to reviews on goodreads so if it sounds good check it out for yourself, but I can’t really recommend it.

Horror and thriller books aren't normally my t thing but there was something about the cover and his book and its synopsis that made me really want to read it, and I'm so glad that I did. The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry was a fantastic read that I could not stop reading once I picked it up. One of the reasons I don't usually like this types of books or movies is that I'm usually pretty good about predicting the endings, but The Ghost Tree kept me on the edge of my seat all night long as I tried to figure out what was going on and what was going to happen next.

The Ghost Tree was a great book with many things to enjoy about it, but the thing I think I loved the most is that I did not see the ending coming until I was pretty much at the last chapter. I absolutely loved the fact that every time I thought I had the mystery of what was going on figured out the story would take a turn that I just didn't see coming at all. After I had finished the book everything seemed so logical and obvious but I can assure you that that definitely wasn't the case while I was reading the book!

One of the things I was a bit worried about when I started reading The Ghost Tree was that as a man in his 30's I wasn't going to be able to connect with or understand a protagonist who was a teenage girl, but surprisingly that was not an issue at all.  Lauren was a great character who was questioning and going through things that I think anyone who remembers being a teenager could understand and empathize with. Her character was easily one of the best things about this book.

It may not be a science fiction or fantasy book like I would normally read and review here but The Ghost Tree was an amazing book that I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone looking for something to read.  I think there's something in it for just about everyone and it's well worth the read!

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The latest Christina Henry book brings us a coming-of-age story set in a 1980's small town. This is different from her usual retellings, but it is masterfully done. The town, Smith's Hollow, has an annual problem of murdered girls, but no one in the town seems to think it's a problem. Lauren remembers, because last year her dad ended up murdered, and now the mangled bodies of two girls show up on a neighbor's yard. I loved the way this story tackled current events without being too on-the-nose. The story also read very fast for the page count which was great! And finally, someone is doing a coming-of-age story about a girl dealing with her period!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Ghost Tree was overall a really enjoyable ( can I say that about a book with gruesome murders??) and quick read. As with everything of Christina Henry’s that I’ve read, I found that once I started it, I didn’t want to put it down. I read this in two takes, and I only spilt it up because I needed to wake up early and had to actually sleep the night I started reading it.

This was a horror story, which I don’t normally read. Since it was Christina Henry though, I had to. I’m glad I didn’t pass this one up. The atmosphere in this slightly too perfect town was creepy, and it made it so you didn’t really trust anyone. The story starts out with two bodies being found in someone’s backyard. No one seems that bothered about it except for a new to town cop, and a 15 year old girl named Lauren. We mainly follow Lauren as she tries to figure out what is happening, but we also get viewpoints from the cop, and a lot of the other side characters.

I found all of the views interesting since everyone’s thoughts made me doubt my own ideas and theories about what was actually going on. Some of the viewpoints gave me extreme Shirley Jackson “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” vibes, but from the townspeople’s perspectives. There was admittedly one viewpoint that I wasn’t the biggest fan of, but it wasn’t so bad as to ruin the story for me.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Ghost Tree, and for anyone who loves the horror genre, or wants to dip their toes into it, this would be a great choice! Thank you again to both Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book.

The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry is the ultimate ode to 1980’s paranormal horror. Stranger Things meets The Brothers Grimm, this nostalgia filled, small town murder mystery has just the right amount of eeriness to keep the reader on their toes. Henry builds upon her early successes with twisted tales and takes it one step further in her latest novel, creating her own killer fairy tale with its own dark consequences.

In sleepy Smiths Hollow, the bodies of two girls are found torn apart in someone’s backyard. Lauren isn’t so sure that local police will catch the killer, especially since no one was charged with the murder of her own father just one year earlier. When Lauren starts to have visions of the two murdered girls, the countdown begins to the next killing, and the corruption that lays beneath the surface of the town threatens to break her world wide open. With a good dose of suspense and a dash of magic, The Ghost Tree is set to be a big hit, especially for fans of Practical Magic and The Wicked Deep.

One of the key strengths of this book is its use of tone. Henry masterfully crafts a wholesome narrative through the use of multiple perspectives, clearly capturing the essence of the character in the first few lines of their chapters. The reader is introduced to new information through a variety of different perspectives, with each chapter adding something new to the story. We see important themes addressed in this way, from coming-of-age storylines, to racism in the 80’s, to the internal struggle between what is right and what is ‘justified’. Through this use of tone, the story quickly gains momentum, building towards the ultimate climactic point in such a way that makes it hard to put down. And while you may be forgiven for thinking this novel is middle grade from the initial first chapter, beware: the intended audience is adult. The coming chapters will prove this, as the author switches from Lauren’s perspective to the killer’s, and to a handful of others, as the mystery of Smiths Hollow is slowly pieced together.

Henry also does an amazing job of discussing prejudices present both within her 1980’s setting, and within society today. We see one character who is trying to manage an eating disorder, alongside overcoming slut shaming. Another character represents old, harsh prejudices towards her American-born Mexican neighbours—the comparative nature of having this woman’s chapters followed by said neighbour’s chapters showcases just how bigotry and deep-set her views are. There is also a terrific moment when the novel highlights the supposed threat of independent women, stating:

‘Spinsters are witches, and old women are witches, and single women are witches because they simple must be. Women without men must be up to no good.’ – Christina Henry.

And speaking of witches, another noteworthy aspect of The Ghost Tree is the fairy tale element intertwined throughout. Smiths Hollow is no ordinary town, and the hidden folklore at its centre definitely adds to the atmospheric setting of the story. When the town’s secrets begin to unfold, Henry’s strength in storytelling really begins to show.

So, if you’re looking for an eery, atmospheric, fast-paced novel, try The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry. Combining real-world issues with well-written folklore, Henry is bound to capture the hearts of fantasy readers as she explores what it is to be human in a town that has made a deal with the devil.

This was such a well done spooky novel. The writing and the way that Henry built up the chilling atmosphere reminded me a lot of Shirley Jackson’s works. I loved how we saw the various points of views from multiple characters that kept us wondering until the very end how things would turn out. I’d recommend this book in a heartbeat to anyone who loves a chilling tale or who wants something that reminds them of Stranger Things but in a more realistic setting with a curse that seems very plausible.

I am obviously in the minority here, but I just did not like this book.
I was expecting more horror and the parts that I could get behind and enjoy were not until the last 10% of the book and so it did not redeem itself early enough.

The whole premise behind this book is that two girls are killed and found torn apart, but right away it appears that the town is starting to pretend it never happened. Just like they didn't seem to care that Lauren's father was killed similarly last year.

I was truly expecting more horror or mystery from this book, and while there are some potentially paranormal/magical elements, they were not the focus. The everyday lives of the people living in this small town were.

This book was full of different POVs from different people in the town and most of them were insufferable. We had:
Lauren, a grieving 14-year-old who, let's face it, is annoying and sort of a brat but is one of the better POVs in the book.
A mom who constantly compared her kids to each other and hated on her teenage daughter constantly.
A 15-year-old girl who is obsessed with losing her virginity going so far as to say that she "saw her hymen as a burden that she wanted to be rid of as soon as possible," and "He would be able to tell that she was a virgin because her virginity would be in the way."
And an old woman who finds the girls' bodies who is the BIGGEST racist ever and I hated being in her mind.

I really wanted to DNF, but the book read pretty quickly. I thought that the 1985 time period as the setting made the book a bit better, but I just could not stand the characters in it.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.