Review: How to Grow a Family Tree
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Author: Eliza Henry-Jones (visit her website here) / Published by Harper Collins (2020)
Genre: Contemporary fiction (for a YA readership)
“Stella may only be seventeen, but having read every self-help book she can find means she knows a thing or two about helping people. She sure wasn’t expecting to be the one in need of help, though.
Thanks to her father’s gambling addiction, Stella and her family now find themselves living at Fairyland caravan park. And hiding this truth from her friends is hard enough without dealing with another secret: Stella’s birth mother has sent her a letter.
As Stella deals with the chaos of her family, she must also confront the secrets and past of her ‘other’ family. But Stella is stronger than she realises.”
How to Grow a Family Tree was my most anticipated release of this year. I ordered it online and since I’ve been staying inside for the past few weeks, its arrival was even more exciting than it would have been otherwise. Before I delve into everything I enjoyed about the plot, I have to say that the cover is gorgeous. Anyway, on with the review!
Stella’s dad’s gambling problem (and depression) impacted each member of the family in different, undeniable ways. I liked the irony of their surname being “Price.” I was also fascinated by the way that it seemed as though one issue had masked another, in that Stella hadn’t been conscious of her dad having depression, because she’d always been so focused on his gambling. It was a focus that she and her sister Taylor shared (one that they share with many of other children of parents with a mental illness), which pushed them into parenting their dad by following him around and monitoring him closely. They decided, with maturity beyond their years, that “if dad can’t sort himself out, we’ll just have to sort him out ourselves.” Stella’s inability to understand what drove her dad to gamble, though understandable, made me want to jump into the pages and educate her. Stella initially blamed her dad for his behaviour, comparing his addiction to her giving up gluten: “I’d done it. I’d managed. And I knew dad could too if he just tried. Pokies couldn’t be harder to give up than doughnuts.”
I was surprised there wasn’t more about the genetic component of mental illness. There was the scene where Taylor told Stella, “The bottom line is that it’s genetic. The gambling or whatever it is that’s wrong with him…It’s in me, the same as it’s in him.” But I suppose because Stella wasn’t at risk of inheriting those challenges in a biological sense, there was no need for her narrative to focus on it again.
Family was obviously a big theme and I liked the varied ways it appeared in the novel. Stella had her newly discovered biological family, the family with whom she’d grown up, and the family that evolved through her life at Fairyland.
Finally, character development took place, without being unrealistic. Stella learned to let go of her incessant attempts to help and “fix” other people. As a reader, her clear lack of insight into her own behaviour, despite her preaching about being emotionally evolved was frustrating. She came to realise her feelings for Clem – although I must admit also feeling frustrated as she repeatedly denied to herself and everyone else that he had feelings for her. It would have been inauthentic for her dad to have started counselling and kicked his problem completely. The ending – although it meant a new family unit – was likely a reality for many people in Stella’s situation.
My favourite line was: “We can’t control his every move. If he changes, it’s gotta come from him, not us.”
Not only is that a true statement about behaviour change, it also marked a change in Stella’s understanding of her dad.
How to Grow a Family Tree is an important story and a wonderful new addition to the #LoveOzYA landscape. You can purchase it from Readings at their website.
This review was written by Laura Pettenuzzo. Laura is a young woman living on the stolen land of the Wurundjeri people. You can find her at her blog and on Twitter.
