tanya_raeds's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Don't stop him.
evanfieldhouse31's review
dark
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
5.0
"It's a racial allegory grounded in history, shrouded in mystery, and dripping with blood" NPR
It is a true privilege to have read this book so early on into my long overdue exposure to reading. I was immediately struck by the playfulness of writing Everett displays in this novel, his character introductions early are a fantastic partnership of depicting backward-thinking racists in the American South and some Dickens-esque names... Herberta (daughter of Barry and Bertha), Pick L Dill, Hickory Spit, and Chester Hobnobber to name a few.
Beyond Everett's immaculate descriptions of places and people unfolds a truly gripping story fuelled by deep-rooted racism. The use of extremely short chapters keeps the narrative and the read extremely fast-paced, almost making the reader oblivious to the relevance or importance of certain characters. As the mystery deepens, I was left feeling exhilarated as the characters' separate narratives would intertwine and form connections for the book. It raised questions such as... Why did the book lead us to blindly trust Gertrude and take her warm character in a sea of racists at face value? It's not until Herbert Hind raises the question of Gertrude's trustworthiness to which Ed and Jim say "She didn't give us a reason not to" and later Mama Z's coldness and (probably warranted) obsession with lynchings do these characters' trust gets questioned.
The Trees is rooted in a moral dilemma, as the obvious historic racial injustices are the cause for acts of brutal revenge. At times I both felt pleasure in the deaths of these horrible racists and partly wanted the mystery to remain so that those responsible could continue in their vengeance. It really added another dynamic to a classic murder mystery novel as the question of what is right and wrong keeps coming up. This is only fuelled further by Everett's hilarious depiction of Donald Trump's perspective of these killings, where Trump's Secretary is brutally killed and Percival Everett uses this opportunity to show how much of a nieve idiot Trump is.... brilliant. The complete attack on Trump is warranted but very much bordered on being too comical and dragging away from the flow of the story, I think that would be potentially my only qualm with the book. I understand completely what it is depicting and think it was necessary to depict these people as the racist idiots they are (a major understatement). It is this social commentary that brings even more realism to an incredibly provoking book. It uses similar techniques to Jordan Peele's films... notably Us and Nope which depicts the reality for black Americans as something supernatural. In this case through a storm, tornado, wave constantly rising, and rising until it is unstoppable. Chapter 105 is truly poetic in its connotation between the killings from the waves of those saying "Rise" and a cloud/tornado/storm.... something that had been foreshadowed earlier in the book when Jim and Ed were at Beale St.
Final thoughts...
Incredibly powerful, tapping into something that doesn't even sound a million miles away. A gripping murder mystery that opens up to become a social commentary of pent-up warranted rage on the state of American civil rights. Deeply unsettling, and I'm almost left in shock. One of the most powerful things I've ever witnessed/read. Transcends beyond a case-by-case who done it. Incredibly bold, unapologetic in its stance, and incredibly provoking, can only imagine more so for an American audience but also for my own perception of history. People power is both beautiful and scary in its outreach! The importance of true history, in which lynchings of countless black deaths are told and for people and society to be held accountable. A truly amazing read crafted and puppeteered by a ridiculously talented author. I plan to read more of Percival Everett!
It is a true privilege to have read this book so early on into my long overdue exposure to reading. I was immediately struck by the playfulness of writing Everett displays in this novel, his character introductions early are a fantastic partnership of depicting backward-thinking racists in the American South and some Dickens-esque names... Herberta (daughter of Barry and Bertha), Pick L Dill, Hickory Spit, and Chester Hobnobber to name a few.
Beyond Everett's immaculate descriptions of places and people unfolds a truly gripping story fuelled by deep-rooted racism. The use of extremely short chapters keeps the narrative and the read extremely fast-paced, almost making the reader oblivious to the relevance or importance of certain characters. As the mystery deepens, I was left feeling exhilarated as the characters' separate narratives would intertwine and form connections for the book. It raised questions such as... Why did the book lead us to blindly trust Gertrude and take her warm character in a sea of racists at face value? It's not until Herbert Hind raises the question of Gertrude's trustworthiness to which Ed and Jim say "She didn't give us a reason not to" and later Mama Z's coldness and (probably warranted) obsession with lynchings do these characters' trust gets questioned.
The Trees is rooted in a moral dilemma, as the obvious historic racial injustices are the cause for acts of brutal revenge. At times I both felt pleasure in the deaths of these horrible racists and partly wanted the mystery to remain so that those responsible could continue in their vengeance. It really added another dynamic to a classic murder mystery novel as the question of what is right and wrong keeps coming up. This is only fuelled further by Everett's hilarious depiction of Donald Trump's perspective of these killings, where Trump's Secretary is brutally killed and Percival Everett uses this opportunity to show how much of a nieve idiot Trump is.... brilliant. The complete attack on Trump is warranted but very much bordered on being too comical and dragging away from the flow of the story, I think that would be potentially my only qualm with the book. I understand completely what it is depicting and think it was necessary to depict these people as the racist idiots they are (a major understatement). It is this social commentary that brings even more realism to an incredibly provoking book. It uses similar techniques to Jordan Peele's films... notably Us and Nope which depicts the reality for black Americans as something supernatural. In this case through a storm, tornado, wave constantly rising, and rising until it is unstoppable. Chapter 105 is truly poetic in its connotation between the killings from the waves of those saying "Rise" and a cloud/tornado/storm.... something that had been foreshadowed earlier in the book when Jim and Ed were at Beale St.
Final thoughts...
Incredibly powerful, tapping into something that doesn't even sound a million miles away. A gripping murder mystery that opens up to become a social commentary of pent-up warranted rage on the state of American civil rights. Deeply unsettling, and I'm almost left in shock. One of the most powerful things I've ever witnessed/read. Transcends beyond a case-by-case who done it. Incredibly bold, unapologetic in its stance, and incredibly provoking, can only imagine more so for an American audience but also for my own perception of history. People power is both beautiful and scary in its outreach! The importance of true history, in which lynchings of countless black deaths are told and for people and society to be held accountable. A truly amazing read crafted and puppeteered by a ridiculously talented author. I plan to read more of Percival Everett!
tscott907's review against another edition
3.75
A strange, sprawling story that winds itself into knots that are fascinating to untie. Beautifully written and instills a sense of dread in the reader that you don't quite want to avoid. Not the kind of book that I normally enjoy and it took me awhile to feel immersed in it, but I found this wonderful in the end.
lcisspoet's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
melissafirman's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
rvlgonzalez's review
Gosh, there was so much that was fascinating and so compelling about this book. At the same time, I feel ambivalent about its construction, esp. in regards to the way the characters speak (I'm not sure where it gets us to have everyone explicitly operating in the 20-teens and speaking like the 1950s), and the use of real people as fictional characters, for example the sort of odd inclusion of an oddly non-specific caricature of Donald Trump. In a similar way as I felt about The Sellout, some aspects are very clearly hyperbolized as satire or to provide shock value and I'm just not sure the form resonates for me. For example, the white characters say the n word at a remarkable clip. I'm sure there are people alive who do such a thing and I've never been to Money, MS, so who knows it maybe more prevalent there. It just felt so outsized and it was tough to read the word that frequently. I know that's the point, but it's a point with such a precise utility. The white characters are such caricatures that we never start to feel for them. They are exclusively displayed as gross, incompetent white supremacists. So, their virulent racism feels like it punishes the reader more than informs or enforces any point about the characters. The story concept was so interesting to me, it just got clouded by the clowning of it all, for me personally.
bohavi's review against another edition
4.0
Although I was slightly disappointed with the ending, the overall plot was phenomenal! The author brought across their point in a way that made me stop and wonder — when is violence justified? Also: The longer a crime remains unpunished — does it make it better or worse?
holljmck's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
thick_scoob's review
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Enjoyed the plot and the pacing, thought that the character writing was silly. Didn’t like the ending
bobbieshiann's review
funny
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
“I wronged that little pickaninny. Like it say in the good book, what goes around comes around”.
The shift in power. The bully becomes the prey as fear slithers down their bodies and yet murder is murder. The Trees by Percival Everett is the definition of an uproar. The power of a name. The power in remembering someone who is no longer physically on this earth but can never be forgotten as the murders relate to America’s continuous history of lynching people of color, and as Mama Z says, police shootings are considered lynching’s too. Everett brings some humor to the storyline where in this case, the Black man is not the punchline.
What started out as the brutal killing of three men whose father’s killed Emmett Till (balls in hand), turned into the killing of numerous white men who have brutally mutilated and killed people of color all of America. Granny C, who wrongly accused Emmett Till and later recanted her accusation knew that the evil she constructed would never be forgotten. The problem was, at every crime scene, the body of a Black or Asian man was at the scene and later disappeared. As detectives Jim and Ed along with Hind try to piece together what happened, in comes Mama Z and Gertrude. Mama Z, a 105-year-old “witch” living in Money, Mississippi keeping record of every lynching that took place since her birth.
Every character in this story is important. What unravels shows that the Black body is never safe as racism has been present in every state in the past and present but what was a plan to make the men and woman pay for Emmett Till turned into Professor Damon Thruff opening the files in Mama Z’s house and writing down the name of every Black and Brown victim of a lynching until they rose from the ground seeking revenge. Seek to make the line of evil pay for their family’s sins. To seek fear in white people so they now see how it feels to be in a Black body.
“Shall I stop him?” Mama Z asked. Rise Rise. “Shall I stop him?”