Eric Smith

Adopted teen Leila discovers that her connection to nature and passion for environmental activism are part of her unique and magical genetic makeup, and a grove of trees that holds a mythical secret.

The Girl and the Grove

Jelke Lenaerts

I received a galley of this book through Netgalley.

This book has an unique and different storyline and I was really enjoying it until about halfway through when it just got really weird and explained well enough.

Erin 

** spoiler alert **
           Teenager Leila’s life is full of challenges. From bouncing around the foster care system to living with seasonal affective disorder, she’s never had an easy road. Leila keeps herself busy with her passion for environmental advocacy, monitoring the Urban Ecovists message board and joining a local environmental club with her best friend Sarika. And now that Leila has finally been adopted, she dares to hope her life will improve.

But the voices in Leila’s head are growing louder by the day. Ignoring them isn’t working anymore. Something calls out to her from the grove at Fairmount Park.

This book starts off pretty strong, but kind of goes downhill a bit and plateaus from there. I felt that it read like an early draft (which, seeing as it's an ARC, it kind of is) and that there are a lot of things I feel could benefit from changing before it's published. The story, however, I absolutely LOVED, for many reasons: 1) that Leila was a foster kid and is dealing with the emotions of being adopted, 2) that she's somehow telepathically connected to trees, or tree-spirits, 3) that she's super into the environment, 4) this takes place in Philadelphia, which provides no specific additive to the story other than I thought it nice to imagine, and 5) the main plot of the story involves saving a park and an old mansion from destruction. The carry-out of the story, however, felt a little forced, as if the author hadn’t quite figured out where he was going or which parts of the story were going to be important. There were quite a few references to modern day obsessions, like Tumblr, which I personally am not a fan of because they immediately date a book. Also, as someone who has since grown out of Tumblr, it immediately made me feel more disconnected with the characters. Most of the dialogue was okay, but there were definitely some times that I was cringing pretty bad. It felt like the author really had no idea how anyone would actually act in certain situations (especially the teenagers) so he just made it up and left it there (kind of like an awkward adult trying to fit in with young people). The plot points were good to move the story along, but felt badly connected. The underlying plot of Leila calling her adopted parents Mom and Dad felt unnecessary. I understand that for a kid like her, it would be a big deal, but had nothing to do with the main plot and was more of a distraction. I detected a little bit of 'special snowflake' syndrome in some of the characters - before we realise how awful of a person Jessica is, there is a pretty obvious passage where it's clear we aren't supposed to like her simply because she's carrying a makeup clutch and Leila isn't about that. I did like the idea of Leila and Sarika joining the environmental club, but that brings up my next point. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out the point of the existence of Shawn, ESPECIALLY because he was introduced as a love interest. His story goes nowhere. It makes it incredibly confusing when we meet Landon, the real love interest, because you can't figure out who is supposed to be who. Not only that, but Shawn is an AWFUL character. He is the one who suffers from being a special snowflake most of all. That scene where he threatens to not give credit to the kids who are just in the club to get credit? Where the hell does that authority come from? He's immensely inconsiderate to Leila and does not suit her at all, so the concept of them having “tension” (when believe me, they did not) is baffling. Landon, while definitely not perfect either, makes WAY more sense as Leila's love interest, so I cannot understand why Shawn cannot be ditched and Landon introduced earlier in the story. I definitely called Landon being Toothless (I have the Kindle notes to prove it), but it felt awkward a bit just because it didn't feel like it was him when you considered how he and Leila interacted IRL and online. The characters of Jon and Lisabeth were pretty poorly created, and given way too much influence on Leila considering how poorly they were written. I was so upset with Jon when he tried to convince Leila to not protest against the amphitheatre just because it would be awkward for him at board meetings. For crying out loud, isn't he an environmentalist? Isn't he supposed to care about endangered species?! The owl was cute and clearly brought Leila and Landon together, but there's this whole idea that he would hate being called Milly because his name is Milford and “all owls must have old man names”. No, he wouldn't. He is an owl. The reveal that Jessica was the source of the decay was sooooo obvious I can't believe I didn't see it coming, but I think that's because I simply expected more. She's such a poor antagonist anyways, and the hallway scene where she admits to poisoning the grove is so cheesy it feels like she's a super villain who is like "I'll get you next time children!"

I haven't mentioned the whole dryad thing yet because I really wanted to get all that out of the way first. This part of the plotline was the bit that I was most disappointed in. First of all, the voices in Leila's head just don't seem right. I know that in the summary they are described as the grove calling to her, so it really should be no surprise, but they were written as if they were a mental health thing, which made me believe that they were going to tackle that topic, which I am on board for because it still isn't talked about enough. But nope, it's the trees. The reveal that the tree is Leila's mother is approached so poorly. It comes as a surprise not because she's a tree, but because there was really no build-up that Leila's birth parents were something she was hugely concerned about. It would have been better if there was no parental connection at all, or maybe just that Leila had an affinity for nature and that's why she could hear the voices. Not only that but the fact that Leila started fading away when the grove did was also kind of awkward and didn't serve too much of a point other than to illustrate that she's connected to it. The part about the grove being responsible for all life in Philadelphia wasn't really explained that well either, it was explained more like a fact that we were simply supposed to accept, with no concern that it might be weird at all. I just cannot believe that there is this super cool story line about dryads and tree spirits that has so much potential, but the majority of the second half of the book focuses on them finding a freaking mouse in order to save the grove. The dryad plot is super cool, but simply was not given the attention it deserved.

Despite all of these points I have laid out, I still think this book deserves three stars, and probably closer to three and a half. Even though I was disappointed in the way the plot went, I still think it was pretty good. It was definitely unique (in terms of what I have read, anyway) in many many ways and I think that deserves some brownie points. That being said, the interactions between the characters sometimes did not reflect how people interact in real life at all, and at times felt like the author was trying too hard to emulate teenagers and their thoughts and mannerisms. It also felt like the book introduced way too many subplots that didn't have that much of an overall effect on the main plot. That being said, I really did like the addition of the chatboards that Leila and her friends interacted on and felt that was a unique addition. A lot of the things I have pointed out can be fixed pretty simply, and I wish this book was longer because I think that would really benefit the story and round it out more, and would especially give the characters some room to breathe and develop. Still, after ALL THAT (and I really am sorry for picking it apart like I did), I did like this book, and I would still recommend it to others because it does some pretty cool things. 

Still. The world needs more dryads.

I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Kate

3.75* A lovely exploration of identity and mental health with a touch of magic wrapped in a brilliantly unique story. 

This wasn’t at all what I was expecting but it was such a pleasant surprise. I was very much here for having a cast of characters so passionate about the environment and absolutely loved seeing SAD represented, as it’s something I’ve not seen discussed in fiction before. 

I instantly warmed to the characters and the multiple relationships explored but I’m not sure I totally got on with the writing style. There were a few spelling mistakes and oddly structured sentences here and there, which did pull me out of the story at times but overall, this was a heartwarming, original, easy and thoroughly enjoyable read.

The Girl and the Grove

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