Review: Too Much Description, Not Enough Info
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 6, 2012
Taken from my blog:  [...]Recently, I joined a book review club on Facebook (Brutally Honest Book Club).  Our first book to read and review was Steve Vernon's The Devil Tree.  I really wished we'd picked another book now that I've read this one.  I'm not good at writing bad reviews, but I really could not connect with this story at all.First, let me start off with some positive aspects of The Devil Tree.  The author has a very good grasp of descriptive words and phrases.  I loved his use of similes and metaphors.  The problem is that there were too many of them.  After a while, the florid diction became repetitive and lost its appeal.  Not every sentence needs a comparison.  Sometimes, simple and to-the-point make a better impact in reading.My first major turn-off in this book happened within the first few pages.  I don't mind bad grammar in dialogue, but when the author uses the phrase "more badly" while describing a scene or a person in the book, I have to cringe.  There is a time and place for altered grammar, and an author needs to learn when to use it.This book was complicated to read.  There were only six major characters (if you count the tree), but yet, more characters kept popping up and we never learn their story or who they really were to the major characters in the book.  There wasn't enough information about any of the characters, really, and the tree remained a mystery.  What was its purpose?  How did it come to be at all?  Why was it evil?  How did Jonah become so attached to it? We never learn why the tree needed babies and dead animals, either.  If that purpose had been explained, it would have made the grisly killings of these innocent beings more understandable.  As it was, I just found the murdering horrendous and unnecessary.  There were too many unanswered question that left me feeling lost.All in all, I didn't "get" this book.  It made absolutely no sense to me.  There was no plot and a lot of the book seemed to just be filler-pages of flowery descriptions that led nowhere.  If I hadn't paid for this book, AND promised to review it for my book club, I would have stopped reading after the first few pages.  This is the first negative review I have ever written and I hope the author (and fans of the author) do not take offense.  Not every one likes the same types of books.  With more information and less symbolism, this book could have been much better, in my opinion.