The Killing Tree: Book Review

Appalachia folk just aren't like the rest of us. I learned this very quickly when I moved to the NC Mountains at the age of seventeen. Although some of the nicest people you'll ever meet, they're secretive. They're fiercely protective of what and who is theirs. And they have little use for anyone "off the mountain". There are pockets of Appalachia that time seems to have forgotten. My Grama volunteered with Meals on Wheels when we first moved up there, and she recalled visiting shacks with dirt floors and no indoor plumbing. This was the mid-90s, folks. It's just a different world in those mountains...a different, beautiful world.

That's why I love reading novels written by true Appalachian people. Nobody understands that culture, that way of life, except someone who's lived it. Rachel Keener is one such author. She grew up in the mountains of SW Virginia, and resides today just over the mountains in NC. The Hachette Book Group sent me her first novel, The Killing Tree, to review.

It's the summer after Mercy Heron graduates from high school, and she's living in the household of her domineering grandfather and a grandmother whose behavior has always been erratic--some folks even call it crazy. They've raised Mercy since her mother died giving birth to her under the June apple tree, after Father Heron locked her out and ignored her pleas for help.
Mercy's days are spent working at the local diner, and hanging out with her wild best friend Della. Unlike Della, she's never seriously considered leaving the insulated community on Crooked Top mountain. Not until that summer when she meets Trout, a man who opens Mercy's eyes to a world beyond what she's known--both physically and emotionally. Their relationship must be kept secret, because Father Heron won't approve of his granddaughter being involved with a migrant worker. But when Mercy tries to escape, she'll learn just how powerful, and ruthless, her grandfather can be. And the truth of her past will threaten to forever bind her to the mountain.

This novel is very difficult to describe. Looking back, it seems like a such a dark book. It's mysterious and secretive....elusive....just like the mountain people inside its pages. This isn't a "feel good" book by any means. There's sadness, rage, confusion......things aren't always fair. Rachel Keener doesn't tie up the loose ends with a bow either. The reader is left hanging at the end, which normally would frustrate me and make me regret reading the book. Yet I understood why she did it. It wouldn't have done the book justice to tie those loose ends. Some things are uncertain in this life, and The Killing Tree capitalizes on that promise.

If you have any interest in Appalachian culture, pick up this book. Or if you just want to lose yourself for a bit in a world so very different from your own.....you'll find it in The Killing Tree.