Over the course of one summer, two families' lives intersect with devastating results. Told through the viewpoints of several characters, this story explores class, race, and love in a powerful story that will have you turning the pages (and ignoring everything else around you).
Valerie is automatically suspicious of her new neighbors, people who bought an enormous house built on the remains of a teardown and at expense of the removal of many of the large, beautiful trees that their neighborhood is known for. However, her son Xavier, seems to think these new people are friendly enough. Xavier has a good head on his shoulders, and as a serious student with a full scholarship to college awaiting him in the Fall, he's not going to get into trouble. Julia, the new neighbor, thinks Valerie seems a little prickly, but nice enough. And her older daughter, Juniper, has started to make friends with Xavier, who seems like a good kid. What could go wrong? You know the answer: plenty.
What you might not expect is just how wrong things can go. At first, these two families seem fine, with their relationship going pretty well, despite their differences. However, as Xavier and Juniper start to spend more time together, cracks start to widen between the adults. When Valerie realizes her prized oak tree is dying, as a result of her neighbors' ruinous construction, she wants them to pay a price. What she doesn't realize is that this will start all of them down a path from which there is no return.
I know I'm making this story sound ominous, but reading this was like watching a car accident happen. You don't want to know, but you cannot tear your eyes away. You think it's going to be bad, and then something takes a turn and it goes so much more wrong that you thought it would. That was what this book was like. I found it difficult to put down and in fact read much of it in one sitting, letting out an occasional gasp when something was happening. It's a very provocative story, with realistically written, memorable characters, and once I finished it, I had a hard time getting the story out of my mind. Great book.
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