Looking for your next great book to read? Check out this book review of Robin Benway's Far From the Tree, written by our teen reviewer Sarah B.!
Far From The Tree by Robin Benway
Family can be questionable and complicated. Sometimes one may find a relative later in their years causing curiosity and wonder. Robin Benway portrays the struggles and hardships three siblings face when meeting each other after more than fifteen years of their lives in Far From The Tree. Follow the journey of finding their long lost mother as Grace and Maya are happily adopted and Joaquin, their brother, has been fostered for all of his life and being able to understand two different stories of growing up. Each sibling has to learn trust with each other and understand the importance of family, even if their deepest and most humiliating secrets are revealed, when they just met.
Grace and Maya seem to have perfect families, but obviously that is just not the case. Grace has to come back after dealing with a teen pregnancy, Maya’s parents are fighting constantly on top of her mother’s “covered up” alcohol addiction and Joaquin has troubles with accepting that he has a chance of getting adopted. With all the struggles each has to face at home, they soon become transparent to the importance of needing each other. As some more than others are more apprehensive and frustrated with the idea of searching for their mother, their bond becomes everlasting and their protection over each other shines brightly. As they meet more often, they see similarities in each other that make them feel closer and bring more comfort to their crazy lives.
Although this summary is quite short, it truly was an uplifting and affectionate book. Benway emphasizes the crucial understanding of sincerity and embracing of one’s flaws. All three siblings struggled with hiding their most regretted secrets about their life to each other, paranoid that judgement or conflict would occur as their situation with meeting was fragile enough. Instead of feeling ashamed about them, it should be something to acknowledge and a way to prosper growth. She creates so much tension but at the same time comfortability between the characters. Joaquin, in my opinion, was one of the most interesting characters to read about. His past can overwhelm him in negative ways and his journey to overcome that part of his life is fascinating. He deals with trust and allowing people to love him as he has dealt with rejection from other families and tries to avoid the pain for himself and the people around him. Each character learns and grows from each other accepting their flaws and embracing their truth. According to GoodReads, readers who read this book also enjoyed With The Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo. This book follows the journey of a girl’s love for the kitchen and how her talent distracts her from the reality of her family and home situation. Overall this book brought much joy to my heart and I would definitely recommend it!
-Review by Sarah B.
This book is available to borrow through the library, as a downloadable audiobook using the Libby app or through owwl.overdrive.com here: Far From the Tree audiobook. You can also pick it up in print at the library or place a hold it on it here: Far From the Tree at owwl.org
Have you read Far From the Tree? What did you think? If you haven't read it, are you interested? Please leave any book recommendations in the comments!
