gomoon's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Great book, the 2038 timeline is the weakest.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Addiction, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, and Drug abuse
Minor: War and Homophobia
hamstringy's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
An absolute treasure of a multi-generational book. Christie does a really good job of sticking to his chosen themes, making us care about complex characters, and keeping track of a lot of details that the characters themselves mix up
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Colonisation
Moderate: Classism, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent
reading_rainbows's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
When I finished this book, I started listening to it again. So many threads to follow through the generations.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Addiction, and Drug abuse
auraroraora's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Addiction
Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, and Infidelity
Minor: Sexual harassment and Physical abuse
zombiewilhelm's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Spoiler
This book follows the Greenwood family stretching through generations, from 1908 with Everett and Harris Greenwood struggling to survive to 2034 with Jake Greenwood, a young woman trying to pay off her student debt in a world that's been ravaged by the Withering.
I found this family saga to be equal parts interesting and horrifying. Everyone in this book has their own trauma that they are working through. PTSD stemming from the war, addiction, crushing student debt, worldwide climate crisis, the Dustbowl, a secret gay relationship during the early 19th century, etc. All of the characters are desperately searching for something in their lives. It was a pleasure to join them on their journeys even if they didn't ultimately find what they were looking for. I think the craziest part of this family saga is that most of the characters aren't actually biologically related.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction and Classism
Minor: War
joshwrose's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I bought this book because of Canada Reads and I'm convinced that Keegan Connor Tracy did it a disservice. She mentioned after Greenwood was eliminated that she knew this book wasn't right for the competition's theme of Shifting Perspective yet defended it because she believed it was a book that all of Canada should read. Even in that regard, she spoiled some of the ending of the book, I think she truly misunderstood the characters and the ending.
Still, this is a very good book worth reading, even if I feel that the author didn't devote enough words to give a voice to indigenous wisdom. He touches a few times about how colonization and capitalism has harmed nature, and how white people stole the land from indigenous tribes, but that was all.
In the end, Greenwood is a "true" story about family and humanity's relationship to trees.
Still, this is a very good book worth reading, even if I feel that the author didn't devote enough words to give a voice to indigenous wisdom. He touches a few times about how colonization and capitalism has harmed nature, and how white people stole the land from indigenous tribes, but that was all.
In the end, Greenwood is a "true" story about family and humanity's relationship to trees.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Addiction, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic
jlye's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I loved Greenwood so much. I was sad when I finished reading it because I wanted it to go on forever.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, War, Drug abuse, and Addiction
Moderate: Child death, Suicide, and Death of parent
Minor: Racism and Homophobia
careinthelibrary's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0
This book is fantastic but MAN where are the Indigenous people? The absense didn't make sense to Canadian history or climate action culture.
"Because there’s nothing like poverty to teach you just how much of a luxury integrity truly is."
"What is nature exactly, Willow?...Is one of my reclaimed wood tables Nature? Am I nature?"
"Whenever she tells the story of the cyclone...she will puzzle over how to properly describe the sound it made as it ate through her library. She'll grapple with how one could possibly capture precisely the sound of ten thousand books drawn up into the air and scattered for hundreds of miles. And it won't be until years later--long after the Depression ends and poor people stop riding the rails...and long after she's able to again venture into that section of her field where they planted the windbreak of maples together, trees that have only thrived ever since. And long after the void he left in her life entirely heals over--only then will she arrive at a suitable answer: they sounded like birds."
"So know this: your father loved you with everything he had. He just didn't have much left."
"Time, Liam has learned, is not an arrow. Neither is it a road. It goes in no particular direction. It simply accumulates—in the body, in the world—like wood does. Layer upon layer. Light, then dark. Each one dependent upon the last. Each year impossible without the one preceding it. Each triumph and each disaster written forever in its structure. His own life, he can admit now, will never be clear, will never be unblemished, will never be reclaimed. Because it is impossible to ungrow what has already grown, to undo what is already done. Still, people trust the things he’s built, and there is something to that. It’s not enough, but it’s what he’ll take with him."
"What if a family isn't a tree at all? What if it's more like a forest? A collection of individuals, pooling their resources by intertwined roots, sheltering each other from wind and weather and drought... what are families other than fictions? Stories told about a particular cluster of people for a particular reason. And like all stories, families are not born, they're invented. Pieced together from love and lies and nothing else."
"Because there’s nothing like poverty to teach you just how much of a luxury integrity truly is."
"What is nature exactly, Willow?...Is one of my reclaimed wood tables Nature? Am I nature?"
"Whenever she tells the story of the cyclone...she will puzzle over how to properly describe the sound it made as it ate through her library. She'll grapple with how one could possibly capture precisely the sound of ten thousand books drawn up into the air and scattered for hundreds of miles. And it won't be until years later--long after the Depression ends and poor people stop riding the rails...and long after she's able to again venture into that section of her field where they planted the windbreak of maples together, trees that have only thrived ever since. And long after the void he left in her life entirely heals over--only then will she arrive at a suitable answer: they sounded like birds."
"So know this: your father loved you with everything he had. He just didn't have much left."
"Time, Liam has learned, is not an arrow. Neither is it a road. It goes in no particular direction. It simply accumulates—in the body, in the world—like wood does. Layer upon layer. Light, then dark. Each one dependent upon the last. Each year impossible without the one preceding it. Each triumph and each disaster written forever in its structure. His own life, he can admit now, will never be clear, will never be unblemished, will never be reclaimed. Because it is impossible to ungrow what has already grown, to undo what is already done. Still, people trust the things he’s built, and there is something to that. It’s not enough, but it’s what he’ll take with him."
"What if a family isn't a tree at all? What if it's more like a forest? A collection of individuals, pooling their resources by intertwined roots, sheltering each other from wind and weather and drought... what are families other than fictions? Stories told about a particular cluster of people for a particular reason. And like all stories, families are not born, they're invented. Pieced together from love and lies and nothing else."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Death of parent, and Drug use
Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Medical content, Infidelity, Colonisation, Suicide, Alcohol, Misogyny, Violence, Outing, Cancer, Grief, Gun violence, Ableism, War, and Sexism
Minor: Abortion
Wrongful imprisonmentarroweee's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I loved reading this book! The way it's setup and unfolds was done excellently and my feelings towards the characters changed over time much like we change in our own lifetimes!
Content Warnings
Moderate: War, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Abandonment
wildsage's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, and Alcoholism