
A Crooked Tree
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Sophie Amoss
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By:
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Una Mannion
A haunting, suspenseful literary debut that combines a classic coming of age story with a portrait of a fractured American family dealing with the fallout of one summer evening gone terribly wrong.
“The night we left Ellen on the road, we drove up the mountain in silence.”
It is the early 1980s and fifteen-year-old Libby is obsessed with The Field Guide to the Trees of North America, a gift her Irish immigrant father gave her before he died. She finds solace in “The Kingdom,” a stand of red oak and thick mountain laurel near her home in suburban Pennsylvania, where she can escape from her large and unruly family and share menthol cigarettes and lukewarm beers with her best friend.
One night, while driving home, Libby’s mother, exhausted and overwhelmed with the fighting in the backseat, pulls over and orders Libby’s little sister Ellen to walk home. What none of this family knows as they drive off, leaving a twelve-year-old girl on the side of the road five miles from home with darkness closing in, is what will happen next.
A Crooked Tree is a surprising, indelible novel, both a poignant portrayal of an unmoored childhood giving way to adolescence, and a gripping tale about the unexpected reverberations of one rash act.
©2021 Una Mannion (P)2021 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...




















Loved everything about this book
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In “A Crooked Tree”, 15 year-old Libby narrates the story which begins with Ellen being kicked out of the car, 5 miles from home at dusk. And the mother goes home! She leaves a 12 year-old to fend for herself in her Catholic School uniform in the dark! We learn that her mother isn’t the most stable mother. She frequently leaves her five children alone.
What broke my heart is that the children were too afraid to seek adult help. They feared their mother. They also wanted to protect their mother. Ellen does get picked up, after hitch-hiking, and needs to throw herself out of a moving car because that was the safest option given the driver was creepy. Plus, she didn’t want her mother to know because her mother would be angry that she hitch-hiked. So basically, when the mother was errant in her maternal duties and something went wrong, she blamed the children.
Thus, we have a story of uncertainty. While Libby is a mature 15 year-old, she is confused about what she should tell adults and who she can trust. She fears authority, as many 15 year-olds do, especially while being a teenager. Author Una Mannion does a fabulous job narrating from a 15 year-old’s conflicted and confused mind. Libby is attempting to navigate high school. She’s noticing boys. She’s trying to figure out what is right and wrong. Ellen’s event is traumatic, but Libby soldier’s on through her summer, babysitting and on the cusp of adulthood.
The story is really about Libby’s summer during 1981 when no one had cell phones or computers (or few did). It’s a time, pre-technology, in which children did have a few more freedoms. This is a coming-of-age story which will bring you back to those years when you were uneasy, lacking confidence, frustrated, and confused. Libby starts noticing adults, and parents. She compares her life with others, trying to figure out what is “normal” and what is a happy family.
I listened to audible production, performed by Sophie Amoss. It was an enjoyable listen. Libby’s narration will take you back to those awkward years.
enjoyable listen
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The one thing I didn’t like was the climax to something I expected to be big, some sort of twist or something but it kinda left me disappointed in the end. The narrators voice is what really hooked me, though. It felt like the main character was speaking directly to me. I could hear emotion in her voice when I know the book didn’t describe what emotion the characters were feeling. Just all around breathtaking.
Overall, amazing
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Una’s writing allowed me to fall back into that time and remember those teenage formative years.
I look forward to reading more of Una’s novels in the future! I LOVED A Crooked Tree
Una Mannion brought me home
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Enjoyable - super music references
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So perfect
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A Few Plot Crutches
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The story matches the cover. It's just random winding into nothingness. There really feels like something is lacking. Also there are a few crunchy parts and the lack luster story made it not worth sitting through.
Meh
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I wish the author had stepped up the pace of the story.
Nostalgic coming of age
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Started slow
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