The town’s connection to witches is explained in the second part of the book and I felt that it justified the annual events quite well, giving the town a much older feel too. I learned a lot about the town and the key players in this through the characters. The reader should feel like they know the community. I felt like I got to know so many people in the town and that is part of what a small town book should do, in my mind. We rotate through the character’s perspectives one by one and I really liked how they were connected. While something shows up in one character’s side, we learn more about the timing and significance of the event when the next chapter begins. Here’s one of the best things about The Ghost Tree – with the multiple points of views, it’s like watching a movie. This sounds like a lot of characters, right?

The mayor of the town and Lauren’s mom and brother, David (sweetest person in the book!!!), are an integral part of the story. We also meet Miranda, Lauren’s best friend who has an evolving interest in boys. Her father passed away in the winter and in the summer of 1985, she is struggling at home and with friendships – the classic life of a teenager! On The Small Town SettingĪpart from Lauren, there are a number of other characters in the book – a police officer and his family, an old lady who lives across from them and holds some very serious racist views. In The Ghost Tree, our protagonist is a 15 year old girl, Lauren. And that if nobody else stands for the missing, she will.Ĭontent Notes: Depictions of racism, death, murder, gore, and body image issues. But as she draws closer to answers, she realizes that the foundation of her seemingly normal town might be rotten at the center. So when Lauren has a vision of a monster dragging the remains of the girls through the woods, she knows she can’t just do nothing. Even her best friend, Miranda, has become more interested in boys than in spending time at the old ghost tree, the way they used to when they were kids.

After all, the year before her father’s body was found with his heart missing, and since then everyone has moved on. When the bodies of two girls are found torn apart in the town of Smiths Hollow, Lauren is surprised, but she also expects that the police won’t find the killer. When people go missing in the sleepy town of Smith’s Hollow, the only clue to their fate comes when a teenager starts having terrifying visions, in a chilling horror novel from national bestselling author Christina Henry.

The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry