The Space Between Trees

Starred review from May 31, 2010
A loner, 16-year-old Evie seeks companionship where she can find it, whether it's with the group of girls who tolerate her company at lunch or with her crush, Jonah, a college dropout whose job entails clearing dead animals from the woods by a wealthy suburb. Evie often sees Jonah on her paper route and is there right after he discovers the body of Zabet (short for Elizabeth), a girl Evie was friends with years ago. Evie gradually befriends Hadley, Zabet's destructive best friend, who wants Evie's help tracking Zabet's killer. Evie's palpable loneliness is excruciating, and debut novelist Williams's prose brings readers deep inside Evie's psyche. Her first-person narration is full of the kind of thoughtful descriptions one might expect from someone who's much better at observation than interaction (of her mother: "She orders her beauty into shape like a squad of soldiers.... So when she finally decides to look up at me, her face is all set, her beauty ready to salute"). Evie's raw honesty and the choices she makes make for difficult reading, but also a darkly beautiful, emotionally honest story of personal growth. Ages 14–up.

May 1, 2010
Gr 8 Up-Sixteen-year-old Evie is an outsider with a vivid imagination. She makes up stories for herself and others to make life in her small Midwestern town tolerable. When a childhood friend, Zabet McCabe, is murdered, Evie is thrust into a story beyond her wildest imaginings. Her little habitual deceptions, usually so harmless, get her entangled with grieving Mr. McCabe and Zabet's emotionally unstable and reckless best friend, Hadley Smith. Hadley is obsessed with finding Zabet's killer, and Evie lets herself get dragged into her increasingly paranoid and dangerous investigation. This dark and suspenseful coming-of-age story builds steadily to a violent climax. Evie is a skillful storyteller, perceptive and thoughtful, with a dry sense of humor. She is especially sensitive to disingenuousness in others, particularly in her mother, with whom she has an emotionally distant relationship. As a result, she fixates on the only genuine person in her life: taciturn Jonah Luks, on whom she has an unrequited crush. Evie adds beauty and excitement to the mundane with her fantasies, but only grows as a person when she faces reality and reaches out to the people around her. Readers who have ever felt like they don't fit in will find it easy to empathize with the teen's struggle to connect to others, and anyone can relate to the disillusionment that comes with growing up."Erin Carrillo, formerly at Alachua County Library District, Gainesville, FL"

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