The Cicada Tree

The Cicada Tree is a wonderful Southern Gothic magical realism mash-up leavened with humor and illuminating reflections on the human condition told in voices that drip with authentic Southernisms. Analeise Newell, this novel’s protagonist, is a complex, not-as-kind-as-she-knows-she-should-be eleven-year-old who drinks whiskey and is a piano prodigy. Her close friendship with Etta Mae, a budding coloratura soprano, sheds light on accepted racial inequities in the Deep South of the 1950s, building to (in the author’s words) a “chain of cataclysmic events with life-altering consequences-all of it unfolding to the maddening whir of a cicada song.” 

Let’s start with the gorgeous cover…combined with the title, it reeled me right in. What is it about this book? It’s the language: the author’s use of language is so mesmerizing and even astonishing. It makes the reader just fall right into the story and not want to leave. It’s the characterization. One example: the author has created exactly what it feels like to be in a little girl’s head as she faces down mean girls. It’s the intricate play of different themes and plotlines. The book ends up being a mash-up of mystery, fantasy, and historical fiction with a… show more.

Finally, a recently-written novel that checks all the boxes for Southern Gothic.

Beautiful prose, memorable and believable characters, excellent plot line, fascinating ending—what more could a reader ask for? The Southern Gothic elements of course: spirituality, mystery, racial tensions, eccentric/mad characters, death, and decay. The South's heat and humidity almost drip from the page. And there are ghosts!

“Some things in this world are meant to burn,” is the tagline for this book, and trust me, this read is on fire.

Southern Gothic at its most redolent, creepy fineness. The book follows eleven-year-old best friends Etta Mae, whose preternatural voice entrances those who listen and can change and curse the rhythms of nature, and Annaliese, who falls under the spell of the rich and dazzling Mayfields. All the characters in this small 1950’s town are bound together by secrets and long pasts, and every one of them is drawn in exquisitely weird detail. Every turn of events surprised me; every page sung. This book packs a wallop of gothic goodness.