DNF: The Hanging Tree by Michael Phillip Cash (Melissa’s review)

The Hanging Tree
written by Michael Phillip Cash
published by Red Feather Publishing

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Book Depository, Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange  for an honest review.

Where I stopped reading: Page two.

Why I stopped reading: I have grammatical standards.

“Disenchanted with her father, she is testing the boundaries of his trust by dating someone he does not approve.”  (Back Cover.  Not completely horrifying, but wrong enough to make me wary)

“Crickets chirped nearby, and they watched traffic pick up on the road to the left of them.”  ( Page 2. Really?  Crickets are paying attention to traffic these days?)

“The silence stretched before them, anxiety building in her tight chest.”  (Page 2.  So, grammatically speaking, The Silence is a stretchy sort of gal with a tight chest?)  

Three strikes and you’re out, Mr. Cash.  You rushed this one . . . you need to spend more time editing.  Please.

 

 

What others have rated this book: According to Goodreads, the average rating for The Hanging Tree is 4.36 stars. It looks like a majority of readers gave this book 5 stars. There were 59 5-star reviews on Amazon. At Barnes & Noble, there were 3 5-star and 3 4-star reviews. Just because I didn’t finish this book doesn’t mean you won’t.

About the book – from Goodreads: Enter a world where spirits roam the earth in Michael Phillip Cash’s haunting new novella, The Hanging Tree. Set amid the eerie backdrop of Long Island, an area famously steeped in old legend, two young would-be lovers contemplate their future while visits from those who have come before them reveal the lure of fate…and the power of free will. At seventeen years old, Arielle’s relationship with her parents is slowly deteriorating. Angry and defiant, she is at a loss on how to cope with the tumultuous situation in which she finds herself. Arielle’s only comfort is Chad, an eighteen-year-old young man who seems to truly understand her struggles. Arielle and Chad meet beneath the low-hanging branches of what the local community has nick-named the “Hanging Tree”. An ancient and majestic landmark, it has long been rumored that the tree is haunted by ghosts. These ghosts span various centuries and vary wildly in age, but each one of them has one thing in common: their deaths are all somehow connected to the tree itself. As Arielle and Chad commiserate over their current situation and their precarious nature of their future, the spectral inhabitants of the Hanging Tree witness their conversation. One by one,the ghosts begin reminiscing about their own lives-and deaths- as they examine the inner demons with which their human forms long struggled. An eerie meditation on the oft-overlooked power of choice, Cash’s The Hanging Tree will stay with readers long after they turn out the light.(