Review | The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan

I remember reading a lot of buzz and positive reviews of this book with its initial print release several months ago. Although atmospheric horror isn’t usually my genre of choice, my interest was piqued by the promise of strong character development, unusual narrative structure, and multiple interpretations. When Audible Frontiers released an audio version, I eagerly snapped it up and read, or listened to, the novel in the space of a day. While I was certainly impressed by the ambitious scope of The Red Tree, Kiernan’s vision falls short in its execution.

The Red Tree
By Caitlin R. Kiernan; Read by Eileen Stevens, Katherine Kellgren, and Christian Rummel
Audible Download – 10 hours 24 mins [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: 27 April 2010
Print: Trade Paperback, Roc, 400 pp., 2009

The Red Tree purports to be the diary, published posthumously, of novelist Sarah Crowe, a Southern transplant who spends her final months in a storied farmhouse in rural Rhode Island. As such, the novel opens with an introductory note from Sarah’s editor, establishing a frame narrative that carries through the entire novel to good effect. The novel reveals Sarah Crowe’s eventual suicide away at the outset; the incentive to read the novel thus becomes the discovery of what drives this talented but flawed author to bring about her own demise.

Not long after moving into the old farmhouse for the summer, Sarah begins to notice strange occurrences in the area, mostly centering around the gigantic red oak visible from her kitchen window. Along with another lodger, Constance, who moves in shortly thereafter, Sarah begins to investigate and explore the strange events surrounding the house’s history. Many tropes from the “haunted house” genre make an appearance, including spooky basements, revelatory manuscripts, and shifting landscapes. As one would expect, the intensity of these hauntings ratchets up as the book progresses, but they never quite reach a climax suitable for a true horror novel.

Sarah’s past plays an integral part in the novel, since she spends much of the novel processing the grief from the suicide of her lover Amanda. She frequently reverts to flashbacks of the high, or low, points in her relationship with the spunky graphic designer. In the present, Sarah also suffers from fits of epilepsy, and quite possibly other ailments, both physical and mental. The construction and development of the complex and very human Sarah Crowe is possibly Caitlin R. Kiernan’s crowning achievement in The Red Tree.

Sarah’s host of problems, both real and imagined, qualifies her as an unreliable narrator, leading the reader to question the veracity of events, large and small, that she reports in the diary of her last days. In this respect, The Red Tree begins to show its seams. We are at once presented with too much information, and yet not quite enough information, to arrive at a satisfying answer. That, of course, may be the whole point. But in either case, the book’s abrupt ending lacks the power, both as a character piece and as a horror novel, to encourage further investigation.

Caitlin R. Kiernan’s unique voice and strong writing style are perhaps the saving graces of The Red Tree. Sarah Crowe’s autobiographical writing pops with Southern witicisms and yet can lapse into brooding introspection at the drop of a hat. The atmosphere of Sarah’s summer home also pervades the story with its still, eerie, omnipresence, with the eponymous red tree always looming ominously in the background. The frame portions of the book–the notes from the editor and excerpts from the discovered manuscript–also fit both mood and character.

A journalistic novel lends itself easily to an audio treatment, and Audible Frontiers has crafted another fine production here. The bulk of the novel, Sarah Crowe’s own diary entries, are read by Katherine Kellgren, who performed a stellar rendition of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Kellgren captures perfectly the persona of a well-spoken Southern belle who is nonetheless fragile and full of rough edges. Going beyond the call of duty, Audible Frontiers also found great narrators to read the notes from Sarah’s editor and the excerpts from the manuscript which Sarah discovers in the house’s cavernous basement.

Despite its ambitions, a Stephen King novel The Red Tree certainly isn’t. The horror elements aren’t quite powerful enough to carry the book, and the characterization, though excellent, doesn’t quite come to term. For readers, like me, who enjoy good writing for its own sake, though, you can’t go wrong with losing yourself in Caitlin R. Kiernan’s words for a weekend. I’m looking forward to reading her next work.