Title: In The Tall TreesAuthor: Angel Van Atta
Series: Little Voices #1
First Published: July 30, 2023
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages: 111
Genre: Horror, Suspense, Thriller
Format: Ebook
Source: Free Promotion
Rating:
Synopsis:
Mella lives in a tiny house in the middle of a dense forest with her mommy and her baby brother, Pete. Sometimes her daddy comes and with him often the bad man comes, as well. Mella knows that she, her mommy and little brother are a secret family living where nobody knows they are, but she can't remember why that is or why her mommy is chained to the floor. In The Tall Trees is a story told through the eyes of our little hero as she must brave what's out there, lurking in the shadows, to save all that she knows and loves in the world.
Review
In The Tall Trees is an emotionally heavy novella with one of the most compelling protagonists I’ve encountered. The heart of the story is Mella, an endearing five year living in an isolated cabin with her mother and baby brother. It is made apparent immediately that Mella and her family are imprisoned in that cabin by her father, a secret family tucked away in the trees.
The way that Mella thinks and speaks reminded me so much of my own children. Mella’s story made me feel both fiercely protective while also crying for my inner child. One of the strengths of the novella is how Van Atta convincingly captures the inner voice of a child so young that is still so new to the world, that doesn’t know how wrong her situation is. The book was compelling and hard to put down. An easy recommendation for folks that enjoyed Emma Donoghue’s Room.
Quote
“Why does Daddy hurt you?”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Angel Van Atta
Angel Van Atta was born to an abusive father and a mother who would soon fall victim to cancer’s ugly fist. After the death of her mother, when Angel was just four years old, she was separated from her half-brother who had shared the same mom, and bounced around from family members to friends of her father. Because of her curious and sometimes terrifying childhood, Angel soon turned to horror as a way to feel safe. She found that horror on the page or on the screen was often worse than what she was going through in real life, and in these stories there was hope as well as redemption and the coming together of the oppressed and terrified. But, most importantly, she found that good could triumph over evil. These were great comforts to the scared and lonely little girl.
Angel is now a mother of two who was lucky enough to find a husband who was everything her father was not. Kind and trustworthy and good. She writes horror as a way to spread the same kind of hope that she so needed as a little girl and outside of the world of fiction only really ever found as an adult. Her stories are vivid and chilling as well as heartwarming and fast paced. She invites you to walk with her in her imagination. A place that can be just as dark as it is light.
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