Don't you hate when a book starts as a 5 star read, and then somewhere along the way it breaks down and ends up at a 3 or less? Unfortunately, that was my reading experience with this book.

REST OF THE REVIEW HAS SPOILERS SO I CAN VENT!

I was so excited to read this one when I chose it from Book of the Month club. I'm a big fan of dark fantasy, magical realism, and mystery thrillers - as well as cults and strange hidden communities - so this sounded right up my alley. But...not so much this time.

I understand why we didn't get to stay with Travis the whole time, but dang if he wasn't the most compelling character. I was so on board for his cool ghost-memory tracking abilities, as well as his jaded past and cynical outlook. I wanted him as my protagonist, but instead I got one-track mind "Theo," fearful "Clara," and blind-but-not-really Bee. Meh.

I just couldn't really connect with these characters. They had relatable motivations, but somehow they still fell flat for me. They didn't feel fleshed out enough or something. I didn't mind our antagonist being the very human Levi, and I actually appreciated there was a bit of moral complexity to his character. But it was faint, and the whole hypnotism angle was a huge turnoff for me. It actually made me angry when I realized that's what had been happening all along haha. I felt tricked, and not in a good. I think it would have been a much better story if we'd had chapters from Levi's perspective and been clued into the hypnotism stuff no later than halfway through the book. Much more to work with then.

I was on board for about the first half of the book. I thought the whole "trees splitting open" and "rot" parts were pretty creepy at first, and I was intrigued by the mystery of the missing outsiders. I also really enjoyed the writing style, with its beautiful, evocative language, vivid imagery, and poetic phrasing. It would have taken some big changes, but there's definitely a fantastic story here.

But then the writing and story began to get pretty repetitive around the halfway point. People kept wanting to leave, trees kept splitting, the rot was still a big deal, and not much more seemed to be happening. I felt like the same thoughts/phrases were being repeated over and over, and it tuned me out of any excitement I'd felt previously. And like I said, once all was revealed by the end I just didn't really care much anymore (oh and the last-minute twists involving Maggie's mother also made me angry).