No doubt a haunting first novel, The Woman Who Climbed Trees suffers from a case of too much, when it comes to plot lines, and too less when it comes to clarity of (and sticking to) a vision.

The author has gone to great lengths to recreate a social and cultural world from the recent past, but a world that is alien to many in the West, where borders mean so less and yet nationalities mean so much, where names language is so alike and yet words mean so different, and where families are as complex and as simple as - literally anywhere else!

We hear the story from different perspectives, and while the start is really impressive looking, the first section doesn't seem to be able to sustain the momentum it claims to have. The story moves at a slow pace, with numerous twists and diversions and some red herrings too, or some other parts that one struggles to place in the context of the main characters we're reading about, and before long the narrative shifts, again.

In my opinion, the strongest narrative was in the words of the daughter, who is able to express her mother's angst and her father's disillusion, and yet tries really hard to make their two worlds meet. She sees them together, and she sees them so far apart they may well have been on different planets, but she is able to hold our attention, in a way the other sections don't quite cut it.

Even so, towards the end the story rather meanders off, and quite nearly goes off a cliff (!). There are political inundations, sexual allusions, and emotional clashes - that should and seem to matter, but don't quite fit in the narrative of this storyline. One wonders, thinking back to the beginning of the story, where is the author going with this. There are no clear answers, and - yes, life doesn't have to have answers, and this being a slice-of-life story need not have a ribbon-and-a-bow, and all that... but in all fairness, the story would have benefitted from a little sterner editing.

Many thanks to NetGalley, HarperVia and the author for providing an eARC, in exchange for a honest review.

I have to agree with others that the characters were hard to keep up with. Otherwise it was an engaging, interesting story. I think if it was wrote out in better form, it would have been easier to read and follow. I will read books by this author in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperVia for the eARC of this book, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have to admit, the star rating that is going to show up with his is more objective and less subjective. I think that the right reader is going to pick this up and champion it every chance that they get. I'm not going to be that reader, but I don't want to discourage people from reading. I liked it well enough, but it didn't really blow me away at any point like I was expecting it to.

I know that it was mentioned by a few other reviewers, but this does talk a bit about sexuality and sexual discovery, both with Meena, her sisters, and later her daughter. It explores the bonds between these women through their experiences and their lack of choices to either better their lives or the lives around them because of the societal structures are built around them. There is also a bond between the women in regards to the children they have lost. If you are not comfortable reading about miscarriages and the loss of a child, please be aware that it is a relatively prominent theme in this book.

For me, the far more interesting thing was not the bonds between women, but watching the changes in Meena's life as Nepal changed around her over the time leading up to the Nepalese Civil War. As far as I can tell, because dates are mentioned few and far between in this book, this ends at about 1990 when the groundwork for the Civil War was being laid. I could be completely wrong, this is just what I have gathered from the book and some side research on the internet. However, Meena discussing the changes in her life and the lives of her children as the march of progress continued was really fascinating.

Another strong element of this book was the interwoven mythological stories. They were well written and really interesting. It made me want to see if I can dig up a book of Nepalese mythology from somewhere. I had heard one of them before when I visited Nepal in 2017 from one of the guides on my trip, but seeing it again here reminded me that I was suppose to have found the mythology book a few years ago.

The biggest complaint for me was the length. For me, it could have been about 50 pages shorter. Some readers will definitely disagree with this, but I felt that some of the themes were explore in a somewhat repetitious way. I found myself loosing focus at those times and it slowed my reading down and hindered my enjoyment a bit. However, I can already see the argument that every sentence was necessary to fully weave together this tale for the reader.

Overall, I would recommend this for readers who are interested in multi-generational family sagas that explore the bonds between the female family members, seeing conflict between women under extreme societal pressure and the men who put them there, and learning more about Nepal (and by extension relations between Nepal and India pre-1990). I think that there are a lot of great things to explore in this novel, I just wish that it had been a tad shorter.

This story was beautiful and heart wrenching. Sometimes it was difficult to keep up with all the different characters but if you enjoy stories with a lot of characters, then this is the story for you! I really enjoyed learning more about Nepal. I think many women - whether in India or elsewhere - will be able to relate to the issues that the characters face in this novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

The narrations are individually great but I have struggled to keep track of all of the different voices. They are not clearly divided. I feel that the content overall seemed to focus more on sexuality and sexual discovery which may not be for everyone. I loved learning about Nepal.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.