My Thoughts on the Novel, The Trees…

When reading a novel like The Trees, I am always reminded of reader perspective: your past and experiences fuel your perception of the characters, events, places, and themes of what you read.

Back in college, I took an African-American Literature class. When reading the first book on the syllabus, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, my reader perspective was challenged outright. I at first thought that all of the characters depicted in the novel were White; that is, until I met the first actual White character, who was labeled as such. Obviously, most of the characters were Black, but not described as such by the author. Now, when I read a new book, I have pre-existing knowledge that prepares my reader perspective.

The Trees is a mystery novel with a supernatural bent. Urban Fantasy? Check? Elements of Magic Realism? Also check. But its analysis of racial tensions in America is what’s most gripping.

A mutilated corpse of a White Man is found in his house by his wife. Next to it is the corpse of a Black man, who has the White victim’s testicles in his hand. But there is something off about this second corpse. First of all, after it is placed in the drawer of the coroner’s office, it then disappears, as if it gets up and walks right out of the building. Then it shows up again at another murder scene, with a similarly mutilated White male corpse.

But these are the first of many murders to come, all starting in Money, Mississippi, where, sixty years before, Emmet Till was lynched. Is there a connection?

These gruesome murders multiply—and I mean multiply—all across the United States. As the number of white male victims proliferates, so do the mysterious colored corpses.

Where will this end? When? How? Two Mississippi State Detectives, accompanied by a federal agent—all Black—follow leads but are stymied again and again. These murders trigger a response from the President, whose speech is wholly indicative of our current commander-in-chief, but from his previous term.

What Elliot has to say about racial violence in this novel is to equate it with holocausts of old, and how the U.S. Government has systematically swept such violent acts under the rug, case by case. Said revelation is quite shocking.

I recommend it to readers of mystery, magic realism, and multi-layered social commentary within a complex narrative.