Reviewed by Alle Wells for Readers' Favorite


The Willow Tree 

By Elan Carson

In “The Willow Tree,” Elan Carson spins a picturesque tale filled with torn emotion. We meet our young protagonist at the impressionable age of fourteen when life is anything but tender. Recurring abuse from the hands of her step-father are mingled with the image of his perfect, lost love. This sets the stage for Emma’s feelings of self-loathing and confusion. She is academically gifted and artistic, yet unable to shake the guilt and hatred she carries within her soul. Then he is gone. Emma’s naive mother steps in to sort out what remains of her child’s silent screams for help. Emma makes it through high school without the support and love she desperately needs. During her college years, she sets out on a perpetual social wanderlust. Amid an array of aspiring artists and off-beat characters, she cries out for acceptance and validation in a world where she feels invisible.

Ms. Carson’s lyrical prose weaves a lovely, haunting tale in “The Willow Tree”. Emma’s intimidation and fear of her step-father saddened me. I identified with the loneliness of an outsider walking the crowded halls of her high school years. As a young woman, her yearning for fulfillment splattered the pages with longing. I wish I could say that Emma finds true love and fulfillment, or that this story ends like a fairy tale. Nonetheless, as in real life, the tale ends where it begins with memories that can’t be packed away. I leave "The Willow Tree" haunted by its memories, desires and unspoken dreams.