Oct 16

Oct 16 The Trees

Author: Percival Everett
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

Percival Everett’s The Trees is a page-turner that opens with a series of brutal murders in the rural town of Money, Mississippi. When a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive, they meet expected resistance from the local sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and a string of racist White townsfolk. The murders present a puzzle, for at each crime scene there is a second dead body: that of a man who resembles Emmett Till.

The detectives suspect that these are killings of retribution, but soon discover that eerily similar murders are taking place all over the country. Something truly strange is afoot. As the bodies pile up, the MBI detectives seek answers from a local root doctor who has been documenting every lynching in the country for years, uncovering a history that refuses to be buried. In this bold, provocative book, Everett takes direct aim at racism and police violence, and does so in fast-paced style that ensures the reader can’t look away. The Trees is an enormously powerful novel of lasting importance from an author with his finger on America’s pulse.

TL;DR Review

The Trees is a super-smart, darkly satirical novel about racial lynching in the US. Very few writers could have pulled this off — I liked it a lot and respected it even more.

For you if: You liked Hell of a Book.

Full Review

Before The Trees was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize (will it win? we will know by the end of the day today!), it wasn’t even on my radar. I’m glad the prize put it there, because wow, what a book.

This is a super-smart, darkly satire novel about racial lynching in the US, both historical and present-day. At the beginning, we meet the (now old) woman who accused Emmett Till and her family living in Money, Mississippi. One, then two, then three people turn up brutally murdered alongside a corpse that looks a lot like Emmett Till — and then it quickly spreads across the country. Two Black men police officers from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and one Black woman from the FBI are sent in to help solve the case.

When I say it like that, you’d think “of course this is a heavy book.” But this is satire, and Everett’s dark humor, levity, and wit make the heaviness feel a bit sneaky, like it comes at you sideways. For example, the lack of tone shift when he depicts white nationalists discussing a race war means it doesn’t really hit you right away (until it DOES). I don’t think just anyone could have pulled this off — because yes, it WORKS. Everett’s talent is next level.

One thing I just want to mention quickly is the US cover. At first glance, it seems pretty boring. One might not even notice the wall of text in the background behind the giant yellow letters of the title. But now having read it, I can’t imagine a different cover — this is absolutely the right one.

Last thing I’ll say: This book is extremely readable, with ~100 or so short (sometimes super-short) chapters and an excellent audiobook narrator. I think you should read it. (Especially, perhaps, if you liked Hell of a Book by Jason Mott — they’re admittedly quite different but feel sort of linked in my mind in tone and impact.)