It’s really hard to talk about The Eve Tree without talking about Journey Mama – even though they are not the same thing.
The book is not the blog. Molly is not Rae. The Eve Tree is not the albino tree, though I have to say when The Eve Tree first appeared in the book, I was confused – I remembered an albino tree from Rae’s blog – an albino redwood, not a black oak and I had to stop what I was doing and go look on the blog to make sure I hadn’t just misremembered. And then I got distracted by reading some of the old posts on Journey Mama, which is really just what I needed right then because Molly had stressed me out. That wasn’t a bad thing. I think it was a good thing.
I want to read a book where the characters get under my skin – and Molly did. Oh boy, Molly did.
And then there was the fire.
I have fire issues.
I often smell fire just before I fall asleep – which means I have to get up and make sure there is no fire. (There isn’t.)
And I wake in the middle of the night from a dream where the bed is on fire. (It isn’t.)
Even with all of that anxiety, caused by Molly and the fire, underneath it all was that thing that has caused me to read Journey Mama – life, and peace, and spirit and love.
The Eve Tree is exactly the kind of novel you would expect Rae to write. Her characters are exactly right – honest and real but not perfect. They’re struggling with that imperfection and struggling with love and faith.
I breathed a sigh at the end – one of those sighs of relief and happiness and sadness all rolled up into one. You know the kind I mean, right – something like this?