maggiefan
Written on Apr 29, 2022
The characters annoyed me at timese but in the end I was satisfied with how everything turned out. ☺️
WINNER OF THE U.S. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2017 FOR YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE!
'Sometimes, family hurts each other. But after that’s done you bandage each other up, and you move on. Together. So you can go and think that you’re some lone wolf, but you’re not. You’ve got us now, like it or not, and we’ve got you.'
When 16 year-old Grace gives up her baby for adoption, she decides that the time has come to find out more about her own biological mother. Although her biological mum proves elusive, her search leads her to two half-siblings she never knew existed.
Maya, 15, has been adopted by wealthy parents and seems to have the picture-perfect family – that is, if you look past her alcoholic mother and the fact that Maya stands out like a sore thumb.
Older brother Joaquin hasn’t been so lucky. At 18, he’s shuffled between foster home after foster home, always careful never to get attached to anyone or anything, because it always gets taken away.
When these three siblings come together, they find in themselves the place they can belong, while the secrets they guard threaten to explode...
For fans of John Green, Rainbow Rowell and Nicola Yoon, Far From the Tree is a raw, compelling, and ultimately uplifting story of what it means to be family.
'Benway’s unforgettable novel explores the paradoxes and entanglements of unconventional families … It’s a melodrama, to be sure, but with as much brain as heart. Benway writes with remarkable control and has the rare talent of almost vanishing as an author as she inhabits each character’s perspective.' The New York Times
'Family issues are neither airbrushed nor oversimplified... From the first page to the last, this compassionate, funny, moving, compulsively readable novel about what makes a family gets it right.' Kirkus Reviews
'Equally heartwarming and heart-wrenching... Benway delves into the souls of these characters as they wrestle to overcome feelings of inadequacy, abandonment, and betrayal, gradually coming to understand themselves and each other.' Publishers Weekly
'Far from the Tree is the kind of book that strikes close to a reader’s heart. I had to know what happened to Grace, Maya, and Joaquin, and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Beautiful.' Ally Condie, author of The Matched Trilogy
'Far From the Tree is a touching story about the strength and love of unconventional families, and the unbreakable bond of siblings near and far. Robin Benway’s characters are authentically crafted, full of heart, hurt, and hope.' Brandy Colbert, author of Pointe and Little & Lion
‘In the eloquent confidence of its life-embracing argument, the book really is something special’ The Wall Street Journal
Praise for Emmy & Oliver:
'Robin Benway writes with her full heart. Emmy & Oliver is a genuinely sweet and funny novel bursting with the inextinguishable forces of love-between parents and children, distant and inseparable friends, new and reunited lovers.' Stephanie Perkins, New York Times bestselling author of Isla and the Happily Ever After
'Emmy & Oliver is wonderful. Funny, heartbreaking, and true. Robin Benway has written characters I felt like I'd known forever, and was so sad to see go. A must-read.' Morgan Matson, author of Since You've Been Gone
- ISBN10 1471164330
- ISBN13 9781471164330
- Publish Date 8 February 2018 (first published 3 October 2017)
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Simon & Schuster Ltd
- Imprint Simon & Schuster Childrens Books
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 384
- Language English
Reviews
The characters annoyed me at timese but in the end I was satisfied with how everything turned out. ☺️
Sam@WLABB
Written on Jan 23, 2018
This is one of the books for my #2017Throwback reading challenge, and I am kicking myself for missing the opportunity to read it last year. When I first saw this book for request, I read the blurb, and it sounded too emotional. I thought it would overwhelm me with sadness, but it had the exact opposite effect. This was an absolutely gorgeous and inspiring story of love, family, and healing, and I am so happy I read it.
Five things I love about this book
•This book incorporates so. Many. Issues. However, I never felt overwhelmed by any of them, because of the way Benway approached them. These issues were part of the story, but they were not the focus of the story. She also made sure that our protagonists had a support system in place, which alleviated my worry and woe, because I knew they would be ok.
•This look inside three different families and then a blended family was very honest, but also, very heartwarming. Each family had a hurdle they needed to climb. They were flawed and imperfect, but they were working together to overcome the obstacles, and they never stopped loving each other.
•Maya, Grace, and Joaquin were all so fully realized. They were multidimensional and layered, but most of all, they were so real. I found myself connecting on a different level with Grace, because I am a mother, who was once in her position, and I know her choice was very difficult. I think I shed the most tears for Joaquin though. *Crying right now* I was so grateful for the little things Benway did for his character. Each good thing she gifted him made my heart grow, and if that's not a testament to a phenomenally crafted character, I don't know what is.
•Watching the bond grow from strangers to full-fledged siblings made my heart soar. Each little step they took and any progress they made caused the smile on my face to get bigger and bigger.
•Benway knows how to wrap things up. I think I have a reputation for complaining about endings, but in all fairness, I will wield praise freely, when it is done properly, like with this book. Jump-aheads are one of my favorite things when it comes to endings, and we got a little bit of one here. I loved that she gave them some time to process everything that had happened, and also time to heal. She gave me closure and I could not stop the flow of happy tears.
Now that I have read this wonderful book, I must say that I agree with all my blogger friends out there. This was an absolutely exquisite experience while delivered all the feels. I have already purchased two of Benway's other books and cannot wait to make my way through her backlist, because, as Nick has stated, she can do no wrong.
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Bianca
Written on Dec 24, 2017
Words could shatter harder than a glass breaking against a wall, hurt more than a fist plowing through teeth.
— A heartwarming read about the families we’re born into and the families we find.
girlinthepages
Written on Nov 21, 2017
The novel begins with a brilliant parallel foundation of protagonist Grace following the fate of her family pattern and giving birth to her daughter as a teenager. As Grace struggles with the cascade of emotions following the adoption, it sets into motion her desire to discover her own biological family and sets up the story in a cyclical and masterful way. Though Grace's story becomes very interwoven with her siblings in this character driven novel, Grace was by far my favorite character. Calm and quiet on the surface yet containing an intensity of strength and resilience when tested, it made my heart ache to read Grace's story of both loss (giving her baby, whom she dubs Peach in her mind, up for adoption) and gain (finding her siblings and learning their love isn't conditional or judgemental). It was also heart breaking to read about the repercussions and bullying she faced after returning to school after her pregnancy, and without becoming an issue book, the story underscored the biases of how teenage pregnancy is viewed an handled for girls vs. boys.
Grace thought bitterly, boys who get girls pregnant are heroes and girls who get pregnant are sluts.
Grace's story was so important to the overall structure of the novel and really tied the experience the family had together, and her narrative begins and ends the story on extremely profound notes.
Next is Maya, arguably the most annoying sibling but the one who is the fiercest and most explosive in the way she loves and views the world. While at times I wanted to smack her for being so bratty, Maya's story is integral in showing that dysfunction can grow and fester in even the most privileged of families or loving of homes. Maya also has the unique experience of having a sister who is her parents' biological child, conceived after she was adopted, and the tensions and comparisons of Maya and her sister were handled realistically without feeling over the top.
Finally Joaquin rounds out the trio, the sibling with the most tragic backstory- never adopted, lived with his bio mother his first year of life, constantly having to wonder why his mother would give him away and never opt to see him again. Joaquin's story broke my heart into a million pieces and stitched it back together again. To know you once had a home, a parent, a relationship, and to be given up despite all of that- it makes your chest crack open with the thought of the imagined grief, let alone what it would be like to ACTUALLY experience those things. There's a vulnerability with Joaquin that I've never seen in a male YA character and Benway gets his narrative just right- the perfect mix of grief and suspicion and apathy at being in the foster care system so long.
Benway truly shines in this novel in her ability to create three very distinct narrative voices, yet thread them together in ways that make it believable that Grace, Maya and Joaquin are all related, with their likeness being echoed in their anxieties, the way they handle conflict, and their impulses. I could believe they were family without their narratives sounding the same, and their stories felt so searingly real, personalities fleshed out and laid bare in a way that's so intimate and hard to do in a stand alone novel where there are less than 400 pages to get to know, bond with, and really care about one protagonist, let alone three.
Benway also manages to give equal weight and importance to the biological families and adoptive families in this book. Both are hugely important to each character's growth, and there's acknowledgement from the characters that their adoptive family ties are not diminished or weakened by the knowledge of their biological siblings- they strengthen and adapt to expand their definition of family to integrate both their newly found biological history and the families they've called home their entire life. There's also an honest portrayal of how both biological and adoptive families can be fantastic and terrible in their own way- no one is exempt from human error. There's also a very strong coming-of-age theme in this book, as each character has to face the reality of their parents (or foster parents) losing the illusion of childhood and becoming real people with mistakes and pasts not that different than their own:
The older she got, the more human her parents seemed, and that was one of the scariest things in the world.
There's a lot of directions this book could have taken for its ending, and without mentioning any spoilers, I will admit that I loved the way Benway wrapped things up. It's bittersweet and both painful and inspiring, and Maya, Grace and Joaquin ultimately did obtain closure, even if it was in a way that was unexpected.
Overall: Far From the Tree is a beautifully written story that defines families in many different ways, and delivers both triumph and heartbreak to its readers. I held back tears as I read the last 10% and I'm reeling after finishing it in the best way possible- it's truly the embodiment of why the YA genre is so important, the themes of coming of age and self exploration navigated in such a complex yet simple way at the same time. Robin Benway has solidified herself as one of the top YA contemporary authors in my mind with this one.This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages
shannonmiz
Written on Aug 16, 2017
I have yet to meet a Robin Benway book I haven't liked, friends. Far From the Tree will give you so, so many feels. This is a lovely story about adopted siblings finding each other at some pivotal moments in their lives. This book is quite character driven, beautifully written, and not one to miss. I really have nothing negative to say even, so let's talk about what I liked, yes?
- The characters were incredibly well-developed and I basically loved each of them. Talk about a group of kids pulling at heartstrings. They didn't have terrible lives or anything (well, for the most part), but they were all going through some rough, rocky times. And who among us can't relate to that?
- Oh, the family focus! I don't even know where to begin with this. This was the heart of the book, which is so incredibly rare to find. First, can I just say how much I wanted to scoop up Joaquin's foster parents, Mark and Linda, into a giant group hug? Holy crap, I loved them. And Joaquin so desperately deserved to have them in his life and the three of them gave me so many feels. And absolutely none of the families were perfect, by any means. But they did all care, and they were just trying to do their best- even if they didn't always manage to. (Except Mark and Linda, who always managed epic levels of awesomeness.)
- Building the sibling bond was incredible. We get to watch these relationships form from nervous meeting right on up to family bonds. It's sweet, and it isn't without hardship, but their devotion is clear.
- All. The. Feels. Oh, yes, you will have many of the feelings. Grace giving up her baby, who she referred to as "Peach", gutted me. I cannot even imagine Grace having the love and bravery for her daughter to go through that. And it is emotional, and definitely not portrayed as anything but immensely difficult. Maya struggles with her family breaking apart. Joaquin struggles with his sheer identity, in a world where his sisters were adopted and he wasn't. It's amazing to watch them tackle these things, and heartbreaking, and heartwarming all at the same time.
- There is romance, but it isn't the focus. The romances develop in the book seemingly like real life- it's part of their lives, not their whole identity. Maya struggles with being too closed off to her girlfriend. Joaquin pushes his away in an effort to protect her. The father of Grace's baby is the actual worst, but a nice guy comes along, but is Grace even ready for such a thing? It just seemed like a nice addition to the story, and didn't overwhelm it.
Bottom Line: Oh look, Robin Benway just earned auto-buy status!
*Copy provided for review
Amber
Written on Jul 9, 2017
Having never read anything by Benway before, I had no expectations before I started Far From the Tree. To be honest, I only clicked on it because I liked the cover, and then after reading that the book is about adopted siblings, I thought it had potential. I’m really glad that I requested this one for review, because otherwise I don’t think I would have read it. And it’s a really good story, so I would have been missing out.
Far From The Tree is hella emotional. There were tears. If you’re an emotional person, you’ll probably cry. I love that Benway’s writing was able to evoke such emotion in me, and because of this I now want to read all of her books.
The relationship between the siblings was really well done. I loved that they were hesitant to meet and get to know one another to begin with, because finding out you have two siblings is a massive deal. But then their relationships grew, and they became really protective of one another.
I did feel that the book and the relationships in it were a bit rushed. It’s a very short book, so I feel like it could have been fleshed out a bit more to make the relationships and character growth feel more organic.
Also, also! One of the siblings, Maya, is gay, and Joaquin is a POC. Yay for representation!
Far From the Tree has made me really want to read Benway’s other books. I’d highly recommend this one if you’re looking for an emotional read about some great sibling relationships. I can see why it has been nominated for a couple of awards!