The Maple Effect, by Madeleine N. Cull

[Ulysses]

The Maple Effect
By Madeleine N. Cull
Published by the author, 2019
Four stars

Long and leisurely, this gentle, tender book is both a coming-of-age novel and a romance, but it’s typical of neither genre. I distinctly remember buying it after reading a friend’s recommendation, but also remember keeping it in abeyance on my e-reader because of comments about the “darkness” of the story in that recommendation.

Our protagonists are June Crow, a raven-haired 18-year-old from North Carolina who we discover (eventually) is mixed-race; and Aaron Valentine, a blond 19-year-old from Portland Oregon.

June (his sisters are July and August) basically runs away from home (with his cat) with no plan other than hiding out in the cabin in Bass Lake, California, where his family has spent every summer since he was a toddler. For some reason, his parents discontinue this family tradition and June can’t stand the idea of missing one last summer with his lifelong friend Angie Delgado, whose family runs the local ice-cream parlor in Bass Lake.

Aaron runs away from his home because of a job lost through humiliating circumstances that were not his fault. He heads to the only place he can think to run to, which is the isolated cabin his parents own but he’s never visited, buried in the woods above Bass Lake.

And there you are: the two young men arrive at the same, beginning an awkward friendship that takes the reader through the entire summer.

Cull digs deep into these boys’ back stories, probing their hearts and minds with a keen eye, letting the reader really get to understand both June and Aaron. While June vociferously rejects any idea of fate, both he and Aaron begin to wonder if this cabin in the woods, with its huge, ancient maple tree out front, hasn’t somehow drawn them both there for a purpose.

That makes it sound far too simplistic, and the author takes her time to really explore this friendship—and its connection to Angie Delgado, and indeed to the entire area that June loves so much and Aaron comes to know through June and Angie’s eyes.

There is a literal darkness that enters into the story—but also a metaphorical one that isn’t revealed until the second half of the book. I don’t want to spoil any of the author’s good plot twists, but suffice it to say that the metaphor of the great old maple tree becomes increasingly present in the reader’s mind as the narrative progresses.

I was not entirely satisfied with the ending, although it was just the ending I wanted. You’ll have to figure that out for yourself, and settle in for the duration. It’s a story that can’t be rushed and will work its way into your heart.