tbr

A 500 page novel about trees? Yes, please! But what is lovely here is that Powers has a fantastic ability to split the stage between both the trees, and also a vast cast of human characters. I was enthralled with most of the characters' life story in only twenty or so pages. An excellent introduction to the characters that was neither too much or too little. That might be Powers best trick here, and also my favorite part of the book. The chapters in the beginning that each character has on their own, but also shows the impact trees had on their life. But the overall layout of the book is genius: with sections of the book called 'roots', 'trunk', 'crown', and 'seeds', the characters beginnings start in the 'roots' section, the characters start to come together in the 'trunk', mainly to fight for the trees. The characters separate again in 'crown' like the branches of a tree, and what will come next, for the characters and humans in general in 'seeds'. Absolutely brilliant. With the setup chapters in the beginning, I was completely enthralled, especially with the amazing job of making me cry about some of these characters within twenty pages. Some characters might fall into a tree and be saved in Vietnam, others might fall out of a tree and be permanently damaged. But the larger chunk of the book seemed to take too much space for what plot there was. And the end definitely could have been bigger with what comes later. The book hints at something after humans, and I would have liked to see that explored more. So much could be done there! However, the always surprising notes about trees are there on every page, worth reading the book alone, and Powers probably could have filled another book with these tree facts. I think part of what Powers wanted to do was show each reader how little they actually know about trees, especially to get them to care more about trees than they probably already do. I have always thought trees are amazing and essential. They create oxygen, if there needs to be any other reason! This is the first book I've read by Powers and I can't help but think that this one is different from the others. Maybe more of an urgent message than the others? But it certainly won't stop me from being eager to read more from him.