The Red Grove

A Novel

De: Tessa Fontaine

Narrado por: Erin Moon

When her mother goes missing, a young woman uncovers the secrets beneath her protected community.

What kind of world might we have, who might we become, if everyone were truly safe? What price would we pay for that kind of freedom?

There are secrets beneath every community—even those founded with the purest of intentions—secrets as strong and reaching as the roots that keep us connected to one another and anchored to home.

The Red Grove is a special place, protected. Some say a spell was cast by its founder, Tamsen Nightingale. Some say the mountain lions stalking the nearby hills guard its mysteries and its boundaries. Some say the mighty redwoods keep its people safe.

Yet a man has died on the Red Grove’s sacred ground. And Luce’s mother, Gloria, has vanished. The Red Grove is Luce’s whole world. She is utterly devoted to its mission, its rituals and history. Still, she knows that her mother, frustrated free spirit though she might be, wouldn’t just leave without a word, wouldn’t leave Luce’s little brother, Roo, and their aunt, Gem, whose life and care in a suspended state they call everdream depend on Gloria in every way. But strange things begin to happen as Luce tries to figure out where her mother has gone. Clicks echo out from the trees, flies pound against the windows, and a strange man keeps calling on the phone. The deeper Luce digs, the more she must ask if her beloved home, the women she admires, and the stories they tell might be built on a devastating lie.

The debut novel by the acclaimed author of The Electric Woman, Tessa Fontaine’s The Red Grove is a story about mothers, daughters, and sisters, about the dangers of being a woman in this world, and about the flawed, fierce choices we make to protect what we love.

©2024 Tessa Fontaine (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Erin Moon performs this debut novel set in the 1990s among the California redwoods.… Moon's performance embodies Luce's teenage naïveté and inherent stubbornness. Her narration of the description of the redwood forest makes listeners feel as if they are right there beneath their endless canopy. Moon maintains the tension in her voice throughout the audiobook, adding to the suspense of this twisty novel.” —AudioFile Magazine

“By turns chilling and stirringly beautiful, [The Red Grove] inventively imagines the freedom of women living without fear?and at what cost.” —Bridget Thoreson, Booklist

“Rich…Propulsive… A thoughtful coming-of-age story enfolded inside a cleverly crafted double mystery.” —Kirkus Reviews

Earthy, Poetic, Beauty

Explores with compelling storytelling and myth-making the old world feminine divine, weaving a connection between it and our own lives—our need for safety and our fears for our daughters, our sisters, and ourselves.

I loved this book!

Magic, mystery, spirit, compassion, community. This book lives in the world of nuance, neither shying away from real world horrors, nor letting them eclipse the abundant beauty and joy that surrounds us all. Masterpiece that made me think about my own life in new positive and life giving ways. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Couldn’t get in to it

I was bored with the story, couldn’t fit the life of me get in to it.