The Suffering Tree

May 1, 2017
A teenage girl gets caught up in a centuries-old family feud with a magical twist in a grim story of grief, recovery, and witchcraft. After the death of her adoptive father, 17-year-old Tori Burns—an ex-swimmer who’s adept with a razor blade when it comes to self-harm—moves from Washington, D.C., to a dilapidated Maryland farmhouse with her mother and brother. No one in the town of Chaptico is pleased to see the Burnses, especially not the sprawling Slaughter clan, who once owned the house. Then Tori sees a young man rise up from the grave one night. He’s Nathaniel Bishop, an indentured servant for the Slaughters in the 18th century who was hanged, and he and Tori attempt to figure out why he has returned. The shifts between the present-day narrative and Nathaniel’s time on the Slaughter farm can be jarring, though Cosimano’s (Holding Smoke) story is rich in historical detail and eerie atmosphere, and the cross-centuries friendship that develops between these two outsiders is touching. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sarah Davies, Greenhouse Literary.

April 15, 2017
Blood and water prove equally strong for a troubled teen dealing with small-town secrets.In the year since her adoptive father died, high school junior Tori Burns stopped swimming and started cutting. Evicted from their D.C. apartment but unexpectedly gifted an old house, Tori, her brother, Kyle, and their beleaguered mother relocate to rural Chaptico, Maryland. Fulfilling the magical-mental-illness trope, Tori's self-harm triggers a paranormal adventure, resurrecting Nathaniel Bishop, an 18th-century indentured servant, and transferring the memories of alleged witch--and Nathaniel's unrequited love--Emmeline to Tori. United by scars and a grudge against the sinister Slaughter family, Tori and Nathaniel race to solve a modern murder and prove Tori's heritage. While protagonists Tori, Nathaniel, and Emmeline are all white, Emmeline's interracial, same-sex relationship is admirably (if perhaps anachronistically) progressive, yet her black romantic partner receives cursory attention, as do Tori's token fellow outsiders--a Jewish girl and a gay guy friend. Cosimano addresses big issues--self-harm, adoption, grief, racism, rape--but also attempts to meld these matters with a supernatural thriller about the Colonial South, making Tori's genealogical research as riveting as Emmeline's witchcraft. A dark mixture of mystery, history, romance, and fantasy. (Paranormal romance. 14-adult)

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May 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Tori Burns and her family have inherited a house from a complete stranger on the eve of being evicted from their own home. Without question, they pack their things and move from Washington, DC, to Chaptica, MD. However, Chaptica is not the promised land the Burnses thought it would be. Tori starts having nightmares about a past she does not understand. The house in which they now live once belonged to the Slaughter family. For this reason, the Burnses are treated as interlopers. They also inherit 20 acres of land and a mysterious graveyard with a gigantic tree standing guard. A body crawls out of an ancient grave and introduces himself to Tori as Nathaniel Bishop, an indentured servant who lived on her land more than 300 years ago. Tori and Nathaniel uncover the truth about the Slaughter family, Tori's nightmares, Nathaniel's origin, and the land the Burnses have inherited. Cosimano tells this story by switching among Nathaniel's first-person flashbacks, Tori's nightmares, and details about what is currently happening to both of them. The pacing seems rough at first. Once the plot unfolds, however, the purpose of the flashbacks becomes apparent, as they reflect the tension between Tori and Nathaniel. The characters are well developed, and the plot is fresh. Overall, this book is enjoyable and will keep readers riveted. VERDICT Recommended for YA suspense collections.-Jeni Tahaney, Duncanville High School Library, TX

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2017
Grades 9-12 Cosimano whips up an enticing witch's brew involving a feudlike grudge, a local legend, and teenage resilience in her newest novel. No one knows why Alistair Slaughter bequeathed the Burns family a house on his estate, but Tori's cash-strapped mother had no choice but to accept. Uprooted to Chaptico, Maryland, Tori struggles to settle in and cope with her father's recent death. It's only after she meets the mysterious Nathaniel Bishop that she starts to heal, yet his arrival unlocks a slew of secrets related to the Slaughters and herself. As a series of tragedies strike the town, amplifying the Slaughters' hostility toward the Burnses, Tori links events to the Chaptico Witch. Tori's narrative is intercut with dream sequences and Nathaniel's flashbacks, which all point toward a unifying truth. While this storytelling technique generally builds suspense, it sometimes leads to anticlimactic reveals that beat Tori's deductive skills to the punch. Nevertheless, it is an eerie, often pulse-pounding tale in the vein of Lindsey Barraclough's Long Lankin (2012) that will please supernatural mystery devotees.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2018
When Tori Burns's family mysteriously inherits a house on land the antagonistic Slaughter family has farmed for generations, Tori relapses into her old self-harming behaviors. Visions of an ancestor's life and the mysterious arrival of Nathaniel Bishop, who was indentured to the colonial-era Slaughters, compels Tori to uncover long-buried secrets. A suspenseful, atmospheric paranormal thriller alternating between flashback and present-day narratives.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)