THE POISON TREE by ERIN KELLY

 THE POISON TREE

BY ERIN KELLY

THE BLURB:-

I have given up so much and done so many terrible things already for the sake of my family that I can only keep going.

I do not know what us going to happen to us. I am frightened, but I feel strong.

I have the strength of a woman who has everything to lose.

In the sweltering summer of 1997, strait-laced, straight-A student Karen met Biba- a bohemian and impossibly glamorous aspiring actress.

She was quickly drawn into Biba's world, and for a while life was one long summer of love.

But every summer must end. By the end of theirs, two people were dead- and now Karen's past has come back to haunt her...

THE REALITY:-

I'd seen the television adaptation of this- which differs slightly- so therefore it was never going to come as much of a surprise. The author has been criticized for her use of long words and “purple prose,” but I quite like that- I managed to pick up a couple of new words on the way, which I am always pleased to do.

It's been commented by reviewers that none of the characters seem to be nice people. They have a point, but I do believe that these non-whiter-than-white characters are true to real life (in my opinion, everyone has the propensity to be horrible, selfish and disdainful, given the right circumstances) and make for a better story. In particular, Biba is one irresponsible character who is impossible to warm to, and I think she deserves the (spoiler alert!) sticky end Karen conjures up for her. I totally understand Karen's need to protect the family she has (another spoiler alert!) perhaps wrongly (but also did she have that much of a choice? Yes, she could have been honest, but isn't Alice perhaps better off having her as a mother than her natural mother, Biba, or ending up in the social services system?)  I can relate to Biba- she's someone who was abandoned too early on by her parents, and people like that always seem to expect the world to parent them, in absentia parentis.

I can also easily relate to the 1997 summer time frame, as I too was completing my finals (the first time around- at fashion college) then, and worked not far from the area in which Biba and Rex's house is situated. I also totally get Biba's bohemian dress sense, being a fellow boho babe, kitted out in vintage and charity shop finds rather than (often) sub-standard and boring chain store offerings.

With a beginning, middle and an end, this story was well plotted, and it was interesting to see Karen's awakening turn into a slippery slope into tragic disaster, and what the consequences of that were. I would recommend this author, and in a way wish I hadn't seen the TV adaption beforehand.