In December 2015, an Irish journalist called Teresa Mannion went viral for an OTT account of Storm Desmond. 
The clip is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzx3MeYonT8 (note, this isn't the original but one of the many skits that followed). I thought she'd written this book so I was expecting something quite different. 
It starts off so well, particularly for a debut. There's a carload of kids, a mother on the brink of a breakdown and the mother snaps and tells one of the kids to get out of the car. 
Except it's dark, snowing, on a mountainside and it's not an idle threat. She drives home. Our narrator Libby beats herself up for not saying anything but this is her trademark personality trait. 
The story sort of falls apart after this strong start and there are numerous plot failures, unnecessary detail and unbelievable actions and reactions, mostly from our narrator. There's a weird issue within the family where they do not mention the dead father under any circumstances although they're all surely thinking about him all the time. This sounds like they neglected to have therapy but there's a whole section on the bit where they did. 
In contrast to Libby's lack of self awareness, inability to construe anything meaningful out of anything is her friend Sage. Sage's emotional intelligence is stellar. Yet Libby time and time again chooses to be enraged by things Sage says or does or doesn't say or do and is usually fighting with Sage. There's a kiss with a boy for no particular reason. There's a crazy neighbour called Wilson who leeches onto the family and they can't seem to get rid of him. No spoilers but the cause and effect here just didn't add up. The only thing that made sense was setting it in a time before mobile phones. Other than that, nothing that followed made sense. If a man tries to abduct a minor, there is no world where that man then moves heaven and earth to abduct her again, to get revenge for the revenge gotten by others to avenge the abduction in the first place. It's not logical. 
Similarly when Libby decides to reveal her knowledge of an affair to a friend, there is no logic in how it unfolds the way it did. This was an ok story, but it lost its way.

Set over one summer in 1980s Philadelphia, A Crooked Tree follows the consequences of a negligent mother leaving one of the children on the side of the road. 

Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish this book. It’s pace was very slow and I found it difficult it concentrate on what I was reading due to this.

It had the makings of a good storyline but very slow and rather uninspiring for me.  There was little challenge or anticipation  All through I was waiting for the plot to move to something more.  At the end I felt disappointed.

A disappointing storyline and a difficult book to follow. I struggled to finish it.  I'm afraid I won't be rushing to read other stories from this author.  Sadly this book wasn't for me.

I just finished this book today and was really sorry to turn the last page.

It is absorbing and has a great story line.  The Fatherless Irish family who live on the mountain are independent, close knit and proud. They have secrets but they take care of each other , or at least the children do as their mother is largely absent and mostly neglectful. She the mother is the least well drawn character and it’s hard to understand her stubborn refusal to care for her children or to help them deal with t heir grief over their fathers absence and death. 

There is an edge to the story with the mysterious Barbie Man who appears and reappears as a kind of nightmare monster who must be beaten in order to make life safe again.

I enjoyed the story, I didn't especially mark passages for remembering but the writing flowed and I was for the most part totally absorbed in the tale, hardly aware I was reading.

The main protagonist, Libby, is fierce and brave while clearly a child in her refusal to disclose what is happening and what she fears. She is a trauma bearer like all the children in the family and she suffers from guilt and rage.  She is also lovable and I think this ability to create such a complex character is a sign of a good writer. 

Recommended as a good read.

This is a strange read insofar as it feels in many places that nothing much is happening and yet you cannot put the book down and have to read compulsively to reach resolution, thus realizing that actually a lot is happening very quietly!
The descriptions of the landscape are particularly evocative and the interactions of the characters wholly believable, engendering real feelings of rage with the mother (who abandons their child half way up a mountain?) and empathy with the children.
The book has a real feeling of a place that hasn't quite caught up with modern living, a backwater existence out of kilter with the rest of the world and you are transported right there on every page.

I requested this book because it looked like the kind of genre I like to read and initially it did have me gripped but the longer I read the book I found the storyline to be less so and quite slow.  I carried on regardless because I wanted to see the outcome which was what I was expecting really so no surprises.

Generally a good story but it was slow at times and I felt a little underwhelmed at the ending. There is still some unanswered bits for me.

I was intrigued by the description of this book but it didn’t grip me like I thought it would. I felt it was quite slow and rather boring at times and nearly stopped reading it but I persevered and the last third of the book was a lot more exciting and gripping. All in all a good read if you get through the earlier part of the book.

This is the story of Libby, 14 years old, who is narrating a summer with her mum and four siblings - Marie, Thomas, Ellen and Beatrice. Her father - who had left the home a few years prior - has died a few months ago. Their mum is seeing someone - a mysterious Bill they know little about. Something happens to Ellen at the very beginning of the book, which will have consequences for the whole family, unfolding during the summer break. 

This is a gorgeous coming out of age story, beautifully written - Libby sees everything, in a detached way, recalls her childhood and the time she spent with her father - an Irish immigrant - working in other people's gardens, walking through the mountains, listening to stories from Ireland. Her mother is depressed, neglectful, a shadow rather than a parental figure. When the incident with Ellen happens, it is teenagers and very young adults who will try to fix it with tragic consequences. 

The characters are so detailed and feel so personal, it was enjoyable reading their stories - and despite having many characters, it didn't bother me - they all felt different, they all worked. There is a deep melancholy to that story, which is hard to describe without spoiling the book. I really, really enjoyed it.

This is an excellent and gripping read. It is beautifully written, set in 1980s Pennsylvania, a wonderful page-turning coming-of-age novel. The narrator is 15 year old Libby, middle of five siblings. I knew I had to read this book when I heard it was about a mother driving her children home from school who gets pushed beyond her limit and leaves one of them, 12 year old Ellen, by the side of the road. This decision has terrible consequences for the whole family. It’s very easy to relate to the siblings who are all doing their best in difficult circumstances. I loved the raw atmosphere of the book, and the way the author writes about the landscape and Libby’s fascination with trees while weaving a thrilling plot and exploring ideas of friendship, grief, growing up and family dynamics. Brilliant! Five stars.

A decent coming-of-age story. The opening is arresting. There are lovely touches throughout that make the characters feel quite authentic- the brief mention of the IRA hunger strikes in among the hullaballoo of American press attention of Chares and Diana's wedding for instance. It's a quiet, understated tale. The mother doesn't come out well, really, but somehow, perhaps because of her name, I was willing to at least acknowledge a wispiness to her, as though she wasn't actually real. All in all, a wee bit different.

I liked the atmosphere of this book and he interesting, yet dysfunctional, family at the heart of it. There was tension throughout with the Barbie Man, and it was definitely a page turner.

The book did feel a little slow at times, and I wanted a bit more of what motivated the mother of the five children, but overall a good, tense read.

For much of this book I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. It’s not the usual style of story that I enjoy. A world where people go about their every day lives and things happen but it’s sort of...mundane. At times it felt a little boring for me. But I did enjoy that it eventually found its rhythm and the story built until we reached the final section which was full of drama and excitement. Looking back I see I enjoyed much of the story, including the parts that at times felt boring. There is something interesting about seeing peoples lives and interactions and the way their average lives unfold. But sometimes you can’t see that you enjoy it until it’s over and you realise you won’t be able to learn more. I found the characters relatable, the family situation both heartbreaking and in some ways beautiful (the siblings relationships). It was well written and the language used really made me picture the world I was reading about, to feel closer to it, like it was there in my mind waiting for me to explore.

A single parent family struggling to deal with the death of a parent, each child in their own way learning to live in a household where the surviving mother is unable to function or care for them properly. A split second decision puts one of the children in  an incredibly dangerous situation and lack of parental or adult guidance results in an escalation of an already precarious situation. When the oldest and responsible sibling leaves home, Libby, the protagonist narrating the story , struggles to deal with her role as substitute guardian for the siblings, ricocheting between irresponsible teenager, terrified child and pubescent young woman. A dark situation gains momentum when  immaturity and poor decisions  escalate an already dangerous position to which the siblings now find themselves exposed. The main storyline is enhanced by scenery and landscape descriptions adding a richness and understanding to the background and lifestyle of the characters. Many thanks to publisher and NetGalley for ARC.

A mother is in the car driving home with her four bickering children, she stops the car and demands that 12 year old Ellen gets out of the car. She drives away leaving her on a dark road 5 miles from home.

What happens next when Ellen hitches a lift, sets of a disastrous chain of events that will change this family forever. 

A great story about family and friendship. I loved how the characters came to life, seeing the connection between the siblings and how they look after each other.

An author I will be looking out for. I can’t wait to read her next book.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

Ellen's mum has had enough. she has picked the kids up from school for the holidays and already they are arguing ad Ellen is pushing to go on an art class and won't give up moaning .
Then the unthinkable happens - her mother pulls over and orders her out of the car. She is left at the side of the highway in her school uniform.
The other children watch her fading into the distance but what can they do?  Will she get home and what will happen to her on the way?.
This is the summer that will change everything for Ellen and her brothers and sisters

Good lord, the first 50 pages of this novel are among the most gripping I have ever read. The scene is so familiar: carload of kids with mum in the front. One of them gets bit big for their boots and mum brings out the old "get out and walk" bit. Only in this often shocking book, mum follows through and 12 year old Ellen is booted from the car and left to make her own way home. What happens next is tragic but not all that surprising. The ramifications, however, are shattering. I was glued to this much of the way through. The author is deeply skilled at creating believable (if deeply flawed) characters, and recreating just what to was like to grow up in the 1980s. The landscape, the music, the cars, the recklessness, the invincibility, the secrets and the fear -- it's all here in hyper-colour. I'll admit I expected a very different finale, but what happens here keeps the reader turning pages. Our protagonist, Libby, is a steely narrator, and the reader cheers for her frankness while squirming at the adult lessons she's forced to learn before her time, and at her struggle to offer protections to her little sister. All the characters here are complex, and their story is a good one. Looking forward to the author's next book.

A Crooked Tree - Una Mannion


A wonderful book!  I couldn’t stop reading it.  The characters were so well thought out and the story was a dream.  The story is told from the perspective of Libby, the middle child of a family of five children, and the book revolves around her and her siblings growing up on a mountain in Pennsylvania.  An incident in the car returning home from school on the last day of term before the summer break starts a series of events that Libby has to deal with.  Brilliant storyline, and the writing is superb.  In the author’s own words “I could see the world described”.  More like this please! Would definitely recommend.
Thank you NetGalley and Faber and Faber.

Date reviewed/posted: December 15, 2020
Publication date: January 28, 2021

When life for the entire universe and planet has turned on its end, you are continuing to #maskup to be in #COVID19 #socialisolation as the #secondwave is upon us, AND the worst sciatica attack in your life means you MIGHT sleep 3 hours a night,  superspeed readers like me can read 300+ pages/hour, so yes, I have read the book … and many more today.

I requested and received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley, the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review.  

From the publisher, as I do not repeat the contents or story of books in reviews, I let them do it as they do it better than I do 😸.

Rage. That's the feeling engulfing the car as Ellen's mother swerves over to the hard-shoulder and orders her daughter out onto the roadside. Ignoring the protests of her other children, she accelerates away, leaving Ellen standing on the gravel verge in her school pinafore and knee socks as the light fades.

What would you do as you watch your little sister getting smaller in the rearview window? How far would you be willing to go to help her? The Gallagher children are going to find out. This moment is the beginning of a summer that will change everything.

FIRST OFF I HATE THIS COVER!! it borders on perverse...that is a LITTLE SISTER!!! That aside, not a bad book, not a great book - I guess that maybe I expected "more"? That will not stop me from recommending this book, though ... if they change the cover (I have seen a different one online so maybe use that? I know that I am "judging the book by its cover" but it just skeeved me out and skewed my view of this book.

As always, I try to find a reason to not rate with stars as I simply adore emojis (outside of their incessant use by "🙏-ed Social Influencer Millennials/#BachelorNation survivors/Tik-Tok and YouTube  Millionaires/snowflakes / literally-like-overusers etc. " on Instagram and Twitter... Get a real job, people!) so let's give it 😷😷😷(Stay inside, stay safe and wear a mask!)