Book Review: The Insatiable Hunger of Trees by Samantha Eaton

Title: The Insatiable Hunger of Trees

Author: Samantha Eaton

Release date: February 21st, 2023

Huge thanks to Samantha for sending me a digital ARC of this one!

I gotta tell you – I was super pumped to check this one out when the cover and title were announced. I’d not read anything from Samantha previously, but you tack together woods, monsters and a bloody cover and I’m pretty much your target audience.

I’ve also been a responsible reviewer lately and doing my best to try and get well ahead of release dates. So, I was keen to dive in as the snow began to hit Edmonton and the temperatures dropped.

What I liked: I mean, you read what I said up top there yeah? Woods, monsters, blood? Ok, in all seriousness – the story follows a teenage girl, Cara, struggling to adjust to life after her older sister, Shelby, disappears. Her sister has been gone for almost a year. Some say she ran away while others say a monster took her into the woods.

One morning, the older sister simply walks back into their home and from there things ratchet up and chaos ensues.

Eaton does a great job when creeping us out. We get unflinchingly scary moments where things creep in the trees and eyes are spotted. We also get to see some really dark moments with the older sister. She keeps saying things that are horribly brutal and frightening to hear. Things like she shouldn’t have come home because she’s going to die anyways etc.

The story really takes off after a car accident occurs and something attacks the driver. It works well to set up the chain of events that take place after that and leads us to a horrifying conclusion.

What I didn’t like: Ok, mild spoilers in this section so stay clear if you wanna stay completely free of story plot points.

Firstly, the constant reactions that occur throughout towards Shelby, when she returns drove me batty. Over and over we hear her younger sister say a variation of ‘why are you acting like this?’ as though she expected her sister, who has been missing in the woods for a year, to just waltz back in and return to normal.

Secondly, there’s a frequent ‘convenience’ effect that occurs. The loner, odd boy just happens to be a monster hunter and there’s a contract to sign. Cara just happens to come across the car accident. She just happens to find things in the woods. Even when others are searching, she’s the one that finds it. It took away a lot of the potential of fear.

Lastly, I found the way the story unfolded to feel more like a short story that was expanded upon with an almost ‘and then’ effect, where just as it should naturally end something else is thrown our way. I really diminished some of the flow.

Why you should buy this: This one ultimately feel in the middle of the road for me. Frequent moments that pulled me along, only to be undone by odd interactions and frustration repetition. Eaton does do creepy really well and I think the flow that annoyed me at times is more a personal thing and many readers will absolutely love how it occurs. The closest I can relate it too, is I went in expecting a movie and it turned out to be a mini-series, if that makes sense.

Eaton has created an intriguing folklore type story here, one I think many folks will really dig.

3/5