BONUS STORY STUDY - MEDIUM: NOVEL - "And the Trees Crept In"
Time for another bonus Story Study featuring another advance reader copy novel from my San Diego Comic Con 2016 trip.
And the Trees Crept In is a young adult novel written by Dawn Kurtagich. It tells the story of two sisters, Presilla "Silla" Daniels and her mute little sister, Eleanor, or "Nori." They arrive at La Baume, a mansion with the color of blood, occupied by their Aunt Cathy, in an attempt to run away from their father. The book is written in first-person narrative through Silla's point of view.
However, not is all that is seems. Aunt Cathy is slowly going crazier, the woods surrounding La Baume is creeping closer to the mansion, with a boy named Gowan appearing from said woods, and Nori is playing with an imaginary friend.
The story definitely captures the eerie, gothic feeling of a haunted house story. There are mysteries to solve, but Silla is too paranoid (rightly so) to trust anyone, especially strangers.
Kurtagich even writes her novel to fit this, as the book breaks traditional prose format. Sometimes certain words are written in a larger or smaller font size to emphasize what Silla is feeling. There are "pages" of notes written by Silla to show a particular thought or fear she's having.
Even passages are written in a completely different font to showcase the thoughts of another character.
The novel does atmosphere building so well that when it does the young adult part is where it falters into something I've seen before, in any kind of medium. The moment Gowan appears in the story, and Silla showing distrust towards him, I think it's very clear what will happen with their connection.
Something I want to point out is that while the imagery conjured by the reader is very chilling, there is no presence of blood or gore, so anyone worried about such a thing doesn't have to worry.
And the Trees Crept In is ultimately a mystery, and it presents and executes the story perfectly, down to the payoff.
The book comes out on September 6th, 2016.
Give it a read, and keep track of those trees.
