THE BURNING TREE

Something is rotten in the town of Bishop’s Gap, and the tree burning at the heart of its woods is to blame.

Two of the town’s founding families, the Casters and the Levys, have been feuding for generations. The only thing they share is fear and hate—of each other and of the curse-bearing marks that appear on their doors at random. The third founding family, the Finches, are caught in the middle. Loner Ellie Caster is determined to get to the bottom of things, especially when her 8-year-old sister succumbs to the curse. But when she makes an impulsive decision that unleashes the evil upon the whole town, she must work together with Charlotte Levy, whom she loathes, as well as close friend Drew Finch (who’s fallen for Charlotte) to right this generational wrong—before they and the town tear themselves apart. First-person narrator Ellie is both fallible and unreliable; her emotional myopia makes it difficult to become deeply invested in her story and unfortunately does the development of other characters a disservice (a shame, since most of them display hidden depths that would have been interesting to explore further). Although the plot moves on apace to an exciting conclusion, the ending feels detached and abrupt: The narrative jumps from one plot-mandated point of convenience to the next without pausing to let characters’ emotions or the story itself breathe. Main characters are cued white.

An interesting premise clumsily executed.