Review: Intricately woven
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 23, 2011
Treespeaker is an intricately woven book that reads like an old oral history. It flows beautifully; with the story so deeply rooted in nature, the writing seemed to take on a life of its own and bloom in its own right. A 4.5.The beginning of the book is intriguing, and introduces the reader to Jakan and the ritual of treespeaking. The author is great at establishing relationships/emotional connections between the characters however I would have liked a little more background as to how exactly this world functioned sooner. I recognize this may have influenced how well the author established the characters emotions at the beginning.About 30 pages in, I became really invested in the book and it lasted until Treespeaker's very last line. Once I knew Beldror was nothing but trouble, I needed to know what he would do.I liked how other characters, like Jakan's son Dovan, slowly gained importance in the novel. The constant growth and introduction of characters kept the story from getting stagnant.I especially loved how the author made Treespeaker relatable, and in parallel, to our own world: wiping out their neighbor's forest because they had destroyed their own before realizing the trees were important. I'm not sure if the author was trying to address environmental and religious issues with her book--but if so, it was the perfect way to do so. It was subtle and not at all preachy, I could just see similarities between her fictional world and our world embedded throughout the book.Treespeaker is solidly written, flows smoothly, with good grammar and amazing descriptions. The author spread lore and religion very well throughout and brought it together with some surprises in the end. The book ended superbly--I wondered for a long time how exactly she would convincingly tie it all together--and she did.After reading treespeaker, all I want to do is lose myself in a forest - and hopefully meet some enchanted creatures along the way.Review by: Erica of Sift Book ReviewsSift Book Reviews received a free copy for review from the author. This has, in no way, affected the reviewer's opinion.