The Red Tree

July 1, 2009
Dark-fantasy specialist Kiernan (Daughter of Hounds, 2007, etc.) delivers a creepy and engaging tale.

Portrayed as the posthumously published memoir of a suicide, the narrative is introduced and commented upon by a fictional editor. In the story proper, that suicide, novelist Sarah Crowe, tells of moving into a rural Rhode Island house. There she finds a rather spooky manuscript, written by the house's former tenant, a professor who was driven mad by his obsession with a 130-foot-tall red oak on the property. The tree is apparently full of dark magic and is somehow connected to various deaths throughout the town's history. Before long, Sarah becomes preoccupied with the red oak herself. Horror fans will recognize the familiar Lovecraftian gothic-horror elements—indeed, Lovecraft, Poe and other writers are explicitly referenced in the text—but Kiernan's prose is thoroughly modern, even colloquial, with none of the gothic genre's tendency toward archaic phrasings. She ably keeps the proceedings from devolving into formula, and her portrayals of Sarah's growing obsession, and the violence surrounding the tree, are evocative and chilling.

A multileveled novel that will appeal to fans of classic and modern horror.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 15, 2009
Author Sarah Crowe leaves Atlanta after her girlfriend commits suicide, settling at a homestead in rural Rhode Island in order to finish her latest book, which is well past deadline. There's something sinister about the house, and Sarah quickly learns that the previous tenant, a professor and folklorist named Charles Harvey, killed himself while researching a book about the supernatural folklore of New England. Exploring the basement, Sarah discovers Harvey's manuscript, and she quickly finds herself in the middle of a living nightmare centered on a mysterious red oak tree in the house's yard. VERDICT With its intelligent blend of folklore, horror, and dark fantasy, Kiernan's latest appeal well beyond urban fantasy fans; readers who enjoy Neal Gaiman, Poppy Z. Brite, and Keith Donohue may want to check "Lost" fans mourning the lack of new episodes will appreciate the similar themes and intricate puzzles here.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2009
In the wake of a tumultuous relationship, novelist Sarah Crowe has moved to Rhode Island to live alone in an old house and write. Then she finds out that the previous resident committed suicide and that he was writing a book about the legends surrounding the red oak visible from the kitchen window. She finds his unfinished manuscript in the basement and reads most of it. The tree and its terrible history begin to obsess her. Her landlord rents out the attic to Constance Hopkins, a painter, and it is Constances presence and curiosity that bring out the trees sinister aspect. Presented in the form of Sarahs journal, ostensibly sent to her editor after her death and published in lieu of her never-written but contracted novel, Kiernans chiller provides a strange and vastly compelling take on a New England haunting, and captures its spirit unnervingly well. Kiernans still-developing talent makes this gloriously atmospheric tale a fabulous piece of work.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)