I found this one a bit challenging, starting with it's use of COVID for an inciting incident.. That fact alone cements it pretty strongly in a specific period of time and may make it's audience limited. Now, the pandemic is only a lead in, an introduction to grief and a new place and we're quickly thrown into an environmental/economical dilemma with a hint of magic. It's frankly a bit weird and didn't really land for me.

This is only the second or third book I have read so far, that is set during the pandemic. And this one had the pandemic as part of the plot, since Nicky and Josie’s mother, who was a doctor, dies from it.

The family moves in with their father’s sister who is living on an island in Alaska. The island has three ways to make money. Tourism, Timber and Fishing. Because the tourism has dried up, the mill decides that it will have to clearcut the old growth trees on the island, to make up for the shortfall.

Josie and Nicky are against it, for slightly different reasons. Josie, just because it is bad to clearcut in general. And Nicky because she has talked to the trees, and knows that they have feelings and thoughts, and doesn’t want them to all die.

Although clues were dropped as to what the solution to the situation is, it still slightly surprised me with the ending.

Jones lives in Alaska, and said he played a little fast and loose with the geography of the town depicted int he book. But, it felt real to me, and I could see the ancient forest, and the path that Nicky took to get there.


<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

This is a really love look at the Alaska wilderness and how important the trees are to the environment. It also is a hard book because it visits a COVID world and how this family was affected by it. It's very fresh in many minds and it might be hard to read because it is still so fresh. I loved how we saw the twins grow and adapt in their own ways to this new home.
A beautiful look at Alaska!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!