dawnoftheread's review against another edition
3.0
I get where this was coming from and what it was trying to achieve, but it gave me no joy...aside from looking like a lit nerd on the bus.
jannyslibrary's review against another edition
4.0
Continuing to read what I have & this lil book I picked up at the book barn earlier this summer, purely on judge a book by its cover merit & a Shirley Jackson comparison on the back.
Turns out I got an advanced copy - there was a handwritten note from the author inside of it. I love finding little notes out in the wild… if I see a grocery list in a cart I’ll always read it.
Anywho - this book is good, it’s a mystery in a weird long sort of poem-adjacent format. It’s lyrical and dreamy and interesting.
Turns out I got an advanced copy - there was a handwritten note from the author inside of it. I love finding little notes out in the wild… if I see a grocery list in a cart I’ll always read it.
Anywho - this book is good, it’s a mystery in a weird long sort of poem-adjacent format. It’s lyrical and dreamy and interesting.
gremily's review
2.0
"As haunting as Shirley Jackson or Thomas Bernhard, as enthralling as Nabokov or Joyce." Blurbs are blurbs of course, and maybe I was a fool to believe this one (a fool aided and abetted by a bookseller I had heretofore trusted, but no more) but I thought this book would at least be interesting, if flawed.
Instead, it's an impenetrable 170 pages of non-character, non-plot, cliché, poor writing, dodgy morals and blandly beautiful women (the kind who are all freckles and sun-kissed legs). It's biggest problem, though, was a complete and total lack of specificity, not just of time, place and character names, but also of what happened. There is a "scene" describing what happens to Hannah, but it is so vague that I needed clarification some pages later that she had, in fact, been raped.
De la Durantaye has apparently not read Checkov, because the early pages pepper the narrative with pistols that resolutely fail to go off. Nor does he adhere much to "show don't tell." There are other, more minor irritants: a truly tedious description of Hannah's drug dealing venture and a peculiar plug for investing in bitcoin. Occasionally the narrative tries to establish its characters as class warriors, despite the fact that they seem to live the lives of moneyed elites and show no interest in injustice until the midway point.
The cover design sure is beautiful though.
Instead, it's an impenetrable 170 pages of non-character, non-plot, cliché, poor writing, dodgy morals and blandly beautiful women (the kind who are all freckles and sun-kissed legs). It's biggest problem, though, was a complete and total lack of specificity, not just of time, place and character names, but also of what happened. There is a "scene" describing what happens to Hannah, but it is so vague that I needed clarification some pages later that she had, in fact, been raped.
De la Durantaye has apparently not read Checkov, because the early pages pepper the narrative with pistols that resolutely fail to go off. Nor does he adhere much to "show don't tell." There are other, more minor irritants: a truly tedious description of Hannah's drug dealing venture and a peculiar plug for investing in bitcoin. Occasionally the narrative tries to establish its characters as class warriors, despite the fact that they seem to live the lives of moneyed elites and show no interest in injustice until the midway point.
The cover design sure is beautiful though.
leda's review
5.0
I didn’t know what to expect of this book. I was intrigued by the description and I liked the cover. I’ve never heard of the author before, but his name sounded strange and lyrical.
As soon as I started reading Leland de la Durantaye’s debut novel Hannah versus the Tree, I felt excited. The story describes a great act of vengeance. Hannah, a brilliant, young woman with a very unusual nature and very unusual capacities, was wronged by a member of her wealthy and imperialist family. Her fight against them, is not only for personal reasons but also for ideological reasons. Hannah is fighting a power structure; in a way she represents all of those who fight an unjustifiable power.
This is a short, lyrical and impressive book. Sentence-by-sentence, it is beautiful and poetic. It might sound like an exaggeration, but to me this is a perfect book.
As soon as I started reading Leland de la Durantaye’s debut novel Hannah versus the Tree, I felt excited. The story describes a great act of vengeance. Hannah, a brilliant, young woman with a very unusual nature and very unusual capacities, was wronged by a member of her wealthy and imperialist family. Her fight against them, is not only for personal reasons but also for ideological reasons. Hannah is fighting a power structure; in a way she represents all of those who fight an unjustifiable power.
This is a short, lyrical and impressive book. Sentence-by-sentence, it is beautiful and poetic. It might sound like an exaggeration, but to me this is a perfect book.
saussierr's review
5.0
This was such an epic read. Very pithy and to the point but riddled with elegant figurative language. I love the structure of this story. It’s bolstered with Roman and Carthaginian history and is simply put an invigorating experience.
rachel_from_avid_bookshop's review
4.0
Weirdly captivating, HANNAH VERSUS THE TREE is a love story, an interrogation, a thriller, an epic poem.
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