I enjoyed the idea of this book. I'm interested in psychology and psychological horror and otherwise weird things and this book seemed to cover a fair bit of territory in the strange and unusual department. I was curious about the stories behind the characters, in particular Dr. Denny and Michael. Unfortunately, I did find the narrative disjointed at times. The writing was good, but the structure in between parts felt detached to the point that I wasn't sure how certain parts were related to others and I found myself feeling like I had missed something when going from A to B.

That said, I would read more by this author if the occasion arises.

Why Did God Make the Tree?

This is quite a strange book – which I mean as a compliment. Told from many perspectives the story takes on almost kaleidoscopic proportions, after all the blurb promises: “Three patients. Three stories. One psychiatrist unable tell where their nightmares end and his begin.”
I was surprised though that this is apparently intended to be an ongoing series, again not a critique but it’s a strange juxtaposition to have a “question reality” type plotline promising further stories – I’m not even 100% sure what happened in this one!!
As to the content I found this book surprisingly graphic and unpredictable, ambiguity around whether the supernatural happenings are real or hallucinations is a bit of a trite trope, but Gregg pulls it of very successfully by basically just never letting on fully what is going on (or maybe I’m just too daft to understand it all!). There is a good mix of creeping dread, scary and immediate threats, and supernatural conspiracy representing “real life”. Some of the scenes are actually pretty graphic which I will say threw me a little because I assumed this was going to be a more philosophically paced work based on the title (well you know what they say about assumptions).
All in all really glad I picked up this book – I know it wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea but if you’re into horror with a bit of a twist this is definitely worth a look.
(thnx Netgalley for an advance copy)

I‘m sorry but this was not for me.
I have been slowly trying to finish this book for weeks now and even having managed to get 70% into it, i can’t bring myself to finish it.
For a full list of everything that didn’t work for me about this book, I’m going to link my Goodreads review, but I’ll try to do a quick summary of my general feelings on this here.
Writing: It’s passable. I liked some of the scene transitions (Samantha’s dream; Patrick’s perspective into recount of his novel by Michael), but it’s nothing outstanding.
Characters: Honestly i thought they were very flat and uninteresting.
Plot: It sadly didn’t grip me and I also found it pretty uninteresting.
Other: Again, I had a few very specific issues with this and I‘m going over those in my Goodreads review.

Enjoyment: 3.5
Characters: 3.25
Setting: 4.5
Plot: 3.5
Style: 2.75
Rating 3.5

I wasn't expecting the story to turn out to be what it was. One thing I really enjoyed about the book was all the stories connecting together, It was nice seeing how some characters were able to live after being helped by Patrick. I would have liked to see what had happened to one character in particular instead of his monster, but the story still has a clear resolution and I was not upset with it. While I don't normally read horror this book pulled me in almost immediately and the atmosphere kept me there. I hope to see more as time goes with this author.

Thank you Cemetery Hill Productions for providing this book for review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The premise and writing style kept me reading and wanting more.
I hope there are more books to follow.

Did not finish. I could not get into this one unfortunately.
It didn’t seem to make much sense to me and there was nothing about the story that made me want to keep reading .

This was a very interesting read. As a horror enthusiast, I am always in for a good scare. While I would not say it was particularly jump-out-of-your-skin scary, it had many ominous elements that have the penchant to make the readers' skin crawl. It's a bit of a winding novel. Not everything is clear, cut, and dry. One has to work their way through the narrative to get a full picture. For many readers, that's quite a bit of fun.

One of the most chilling facets of this book is "The Monster." While we hear references to it throughout, it remains a mysterious component until we meet it in fantastically gory detail. I found that particularly chilling.

Alas, this is a book that begins with a bite but then kind of settles down before it eats at you again. If one stays long enough, they may find just what they came for.

Twists and turns are the way with this book, you are never quite sure whether you are reading truth or a patient's wild imagination, are the horrors real or not? but the psychology and truths behind each patient are dark and the way the entire book wraps up at the end is absolutely perfect.

4/5 stars

Why Did God Make The Tree? is Tammy Gregg's debut novel and it is a really good one. Through three different stories, we follow Patrick Denny, an ex-writer and psychiatrist, and the lives of his patients who happen to be going through horrific dementia bouts, some more than others.

It has a bunch of horror tropes: (evil) witches, occultism, body horror, and more touchy, realistic topics such as degenerating mental health, sexual abuse, PTSD, infidelity. This book could use a list of warnings, because while it is not gory and torture porn, it does tackle some heavy stuff.

This book has a lot of great ideas: recurring characters with a varying degree of importance throughout the three different stories, the medical lens we get from Denny and his colleagues on the patients' struggles, the subtle hints dropped here and here, never obvious, always very matter of fact-ly, and when the reveals happen, it finally clicks. I liked the different inspirations for the different demons that plague Denny's patients; there's a little bit of everything and it's very refreshing, never knowing what to expect next.

My only gripe with it is that it feels like we should know Patrick Denny. He appears in the story as an already well-established character, and following his life gets difficult at times, almost as if we're reading book two of his series. I suppose it does add to the fever dream feeling the book dives in, so it was not a breaking point for me, just something I personally struggled with.

I look forward to read more books from Tammy Gregg as she hones her skills, because Why Did God Make the Tree was extremely promising!

This book wasnt bad but it was a bit all over the place for me. Despite all the jumping around it was also a little slow in places that I struggled to get through. Still a decent psychological/mental health story but not so much horror/thriller. I would probably read more in the series.

For her first book, I feel Tammy Gregg did a great job. It feels like several short stories in one book. You have Dr. Denny as the main character and several side characters that some you really like or really hate. It’s a great story line with a bit of humor, suspense and creepiness. We definitely need more Dr. Dennys in the world with how much he cares for his patients. I do think the cover of this book should have been like what Dr. Denny said his book would be like.

I'm having a hard time reviewing this novel and had to sit with my feelings for a while. I enjoyed reading it; the story is interesting, and Tammy Gregg is a talented writer. This book had great potential, but the execution is lacking, and the publication felt rushed.

We follow Dr Patrick Denny as he tries to help three patients to "overcome" their mental illness. The issue is that the time jumping was disorienting and often too rapid. We don't get a lot of time with each patient, and their story felt incomplete. The book présents intriguing ideas, but I feel like it could have been three different novels. I would have loved more depth to each story. Also, as a psychiatrist, Patrick sometimes has very questionable behaviours toward his patients.

Overall, I enjoyed my reading. It is a good mix of mystery, thriller, and supernatural. I liked the setting, though it could have been better exploited. My main criticism is that the characters sometimes lacked consistency and felt a little caricatural. The finale was messy and felt rushed, unfortunately.

I DNFed this book 20% in.
Unfortunately I could not get into it and I was not enjoying the way the multiple points of view were written.
I think if it had just been from Sam’s point of view I would have been fine but the writing style did not work for me.
I liked Sam but not enough to stick around and find out what happened to her.

This was totally miss-genred. It is not horror, but rather literary fiction. And that was really disappointing for me. I read the blurb and was excited to read about a psychiatrist in a mental hospital as things spiralled and darkened, but that's not what this is.

Give me a psychiatrist and a hospital for the mentally unstable and I knew right away I was going to love this book. I was intrigued from the first chapter. I would say my only issue is that there were characters and stories that I felt ere left dangling. I am hopeful though that this will be some what rectified with the next book in this series. I loved our main character who I felt was a man deeply wanting to do what is right for his patients and yet we see the messiness of his own mind and life. Great cast of characters and the story was mysterious enough to hold my attention the entire time. I will definitely read the next book!

'Why Did God Make the Tree?' blurs the boundaries between reality and nightmare. Following Dr. Patrick Denny, a psychiatrist and former horror novelist, the story unfolds in a gloomy New England town where the lines between patients’ fractured minds and his own tormented past intertwine. Think: madness, trauma, and identity.

While not my favourite style of writing, the phrasing is atmospheric and creates a Gothic mood a la Shirley Jackson. Gregg doesn't gift her readers neat resolutions, but this psychological horror makes you want to read on.

3.5 out of 5 stars, rounded down.

This is a unique book by its own and I really think the premise is fresh and catchy. The mini plots are so intriguing until I couldn’t put the book down. I love how the author ‘asked’ me (as the reader) to “fill in the blanks” by making small holes in the story, and so I concentrated to make the connection and was satisfied when I finally did.
However, the big plot is weak. I am reading this as if I was reading a book similar to the Labors of Hercules (Agatha Christie’s), where one story doesn’t necessarily connect to the other - the big string joining them all was Poirot (in Christie’s), and in this book it was Patrick Denny.
I love him - I love how he also has “mortal problems” and not at all a perfect-psychiatrist like in some other book that I read earlier this year (hint: same theme, but leaning more on the thriller side). But I would like to know more about this mysterious Patrick Denny. I wanted to know how he became the dark hero in all of this stories. I want to know how he began … and the author is not giving me enough info for this. This is honestly too bad if this were meant to be a standalone book - but probably great if the author is willing to expand Patrick Denny just like John Connolly expanded Charlie Parker.

But Charlie Parker has a beginning and Patrick Denny doesn’t. The 5 pages of Patrick Denny’s history just served as an informative plot device and not the actual “beginning”. And 5 pages are certainly not enough, not with the excellent slow-burn that I have been reading throughout the first 2 acts.

The third act was a bit messy. A whole lot of the story belongs to another (new) part, and honestly some parts are better off omitted. It is unclear on this part whether or not this story belongs to third act. Such a shame! Both are equally good mini plots but I failed to make the connection. I forced myself to believe that the two was not interconnected after I finished reading, which leads to a gaping plot hole on the third act. Can that kind of event lead to the conclusion? I have no idea - even though I may read something about this particular issue, the author has the ‘written obligation’ (no pun intended) to explain or hint this to me. But there were no such thing.

I think this should be expanded to a 500, even 600 pages book. The ending felt rushed and the author did not take the time to build their world. I would like to know more about Patrick Denny and the characters surrounding him, their developments are unequal when actually there were a lot of potentials involved here. Yes please, I would like to know more about them.

The cover is not really supportive for this book, I like it but objectively speaking, it doesn’t reflect the book at all. The “Tree” that was mentioned in the title will not come up until the third act, so this is kind of misleading.I don’t actually know how the “tree” connects all three stories (probably it is a faint reference to the axis mundi?) however if this book were titled in the similar spirit of Christie’s “Labor of Hercules”, I think it would be more informative for the readers.

All in all, the publication feels rushed while the author got so many good cards in hand. She is a very talented writer and I honestly questioned the editor at this point. This book can be very coherent and very strong if developed in a systematic manner.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange of my honest review.

Thank you Cemetery Hill Publications for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

A story within a story within a story! Gregg's novel lives up to its gothic and literary vibe and reminded me of the works of Flannery O'Connor, Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury, and Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. Horror fans who enjoy mind bending novels with beautiful prose will appreciate the atmospheric horror and the macabre scenes in this book. And even though the book jumps from dreams into reality and weaves into different streams of consciousness, I never felt lost, just intrigued to find out what happens next.

As a content warning, the topic of sexual abuse is here but the novel presents it with sensitivity and there are no graphic scenes for it.

For me, the heightened sense of empathy for those struggling with mental health is the true gem of this book.

What on earth was this book trying to achieve? It had multiple main and side stories, making it feel like I was wandering down different paths and getting completely lost. I believe this book had a lot of potential if it had focused solely on the monster portion. However, the tree and the tower were present for what reasons? I feel like we could have simply titled the book “The Monster” and continued Sam’s story, as the end of her story as a patient was not particularly clear in the first place.

The time jumping was incredibly fast and disorienting. Suddenly, it’s a year here, three there. I feel like this book put me in a whirlwind.

I really believe that the title of the book is not an accurate representation of what the reader can expect.

I read this book as an ARC via NetGalley.

After seeing a shout out for this book in Booklist, I was interested in reading this debut novel categorized as horror. At the same time, I'm cautious about reading horror that focuses on mental health as it often perpetuates negative stereotypes. To my extreme disappointment, Why Did God Make the Tree, the first in what will be an ongoing series about psychiatrist Dr. Patrick Denny, is ableist in its portrayal of mental health professionals and patients. There are only two perspectives offered from the two psychiatrists in the book: patients should be either heavily medicated or not medicated at all. In addition, there's a particularly troubling scene in which one of Denny's patients attends a concert with him, strikes up a conversation with a stranger, and is asking Denny to offer up diagnoses in front of this random person ("would you say I'm clinically depressed or suffering from generalized anxiety disorder? ... Would you say I'm a suicide risk?"). This novel is homophobic as well as ableist since the author uses the word "sodomitical" to refer to a child molester in the last chapter of the book. (The context doesn't make any amount of sense, since this character's "final sodomitical act" is writing a letter to the doctor and "unleashing these venomous aspersions on the world." Did the author mean sadistic? Apparently not!) I did not expect to see this outdated and offensive word in a novel that takes place contemporaneously and will be published in January 2026, and I sincerely hope the author and publisher consider revising this description. Needless to say, I will not be reading any further entries in this series. What a waste of my fucking time.