Bookverdict.com

Gr 9 Up—A family feud lasting 12 generations is at the heart of this introspective novel. Eight years ago, Sorrow Lovegood's 16-year-old sister was killed in a fire, her mother suffered a nervous breakdown, and Sorrow was taken away to live with her father in Florida. Now Sorrow, at 16, returns to the Vermont apple orchard where she grew up in order to fill in the hazy parts of her memory. She is immediately reminded of the fierce animosity between her historically matriarchal clan an...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

It's been eight years since Sorrow Lovegood set foot on her family's ancestral land: a Vermont apple orchard planted in the 1700s and maintained by a succession of tenacious but troubled women. Sorrow left after her teenage sister, Patience, died in a fire and their mother was taken into psychiatric care. Now, at sixteen, Sorrow anguishes over the "shadows in her memory" that blur her past; seeking answers, she returns to the orchard for the summer. Wallace paints Vermont in lush and occasionally eeri...Log In or Sign Up to Read More