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You are here: Home / Favorites / Editor's Pick / Editor’s Pick: The Suffering Tree by Ellie Cosimano

Editor’s Pick: The Suffering Tree by Ellie Cosimano

November 16, 2017 by Cassie Leave a Comment

Editor’s Pick: The Suffering Tree by Ellie CosimanoThe Suffering Tree by Elle Cosimano
Published by Disney-Hyperion on June 13th 2017
Pages: 368
Amazon|IndieBound|B&N
Goodreads
four-stars

“It’s dark magic brings him back.”
Tori Burns and her family left D.C. for claustrophobic Chaptico, Maryland, after suddenly inheriting a house under mysterious circumstances. That inheritance puts her at odds with the entire town, especially Jesse Slaughter and his family—it’s their generations-old land the Burns have “stolen.” But none of that seems to matter after Tori witnesses a young man claw his way out of a grave under the gnarled oak in her new backyard.
Nathaniel Bishop may not understand what brought him back, but it’s clear to Tori that he hates the Slaughters for what they did to him centuries ago. Wary yet drawn to him by a shared sense of loss, she gives him shelter. But in the wake of his arrival comes a string of troubling events—including the disappearance of Jesse Slaughter’s cousin—that seem to point back to Nathaniel.
As Tori digs for the truth—and slowly begins to fall for Nathaniel—she uncovers something much darker in the tangled branches of the Slaughter family tree. In order to break the centuries-old curse that binds Nathaniel there and discover the true nature of her inheritance, Tori must unravel the Slaughter family’s oldest and most guarded secrets. But the Slaughters want to keep them buried… at any cost.
From award-winning author Elle Cosimano comes a haunting, atmospheric thriller perfect to hand to readers of the Mara Dyer trilogy and Bone Gap.

The Suffering Tree by Elle Cosimano

Victoria Burns doesn’t want to be part of her new community any more than the residents want her there. She and her mother and brother were given the house by the town patriarch, Aloysius Slaughter, after his death, despite never having met him and having seemingly no connection to him. The rest of the Slaughters see Tori and her family as interlopers and will do anything to get them to leave. Tori is determined to uncover her family history and discern the real reason Al Slaughter left them the property.
Oh, and one night when she cuts herself in a graveyard, Tori accidentally brings a dead boy back to life.
Witches and curses and 300-year-old hangings made this the perfect book for a Halloween read. I hesitated to pick this up, because I don’t like scary books, but this one never got past spooky, so I was able to fully enjoy it. The narrative takes us back and forth between past and present, showing us Tori as she tries to solve the mystery of her home, and then flashing back to the horrors that indentured servants Emmeline and Nathaniel Bishop suffered at the hands of the Slaughter family 300 years ago. The balance is handled well, through flashback scenes from Nathaniel (the boy brought back to life) and dreams of Emmeline that come to Tori.
Tori is a delightful character, complex and hurting wanting so badly to know where and how she belongs. Her family, though less present in the story, feel like people I’d like to get to know. The present-day Slaughters can be a bit one-note as antagonists at times, but you do see where they’re coming from and why they’re angry. At the same time, I appreciate that Cosimano takes the opportunity to show that it is our responsibility to address atrocities committed by those who came before us, even if we ourselves did not commit those atrocities. The modern-day Slaughters are a family who don’t want to dig too deep into the past because they’d rather not know the kind of person their ancestor was. That representation of those issues makes the book timely.
And the supernatural element ties it all together. Nathaniel, connected by desperate dark magic to the life of the tree from which he was hung, is now desperate to see justice served for what he and Emmeline suffered. And he wants to know what happened to her as surely as Tori does.
This is a story told richly and deftly. If you like witches and curses and family intrigue, The Suffering Tree is a story for you.
four-stars
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