Novel set in COPENHAGEN at Christmas
A thrilling and informative story set around a magical hill in DEVON
1st November 2024
The Whispering Trees by Alice Allan – an informative story set around a magical hill in Devon.
The Whispering Trees is a very well written and (up to a point) believable YA story.
Olivia’s Dad, a policeman, is seriously wounded when trying to apprehend two criminals in London. He suffers from PTSD. As a result most of the family, Dad, Mum, and Olivia, decide to move to a quieter life in Devon. A sister is left behind and Mum doesn’t really want to go. Olivia is pretty dubious about the whole idea – leaving her friends and old life behind. That is until she discovers a strange hill near their new house. When she explores, she feels the hill is talking to her and trying to tell her something… In a small cottage by the hill lives Annie, guardian of the hill and seen by many locals as a witch, but in fact a much misunderstood old lady. She takes Olivia under her wing and teaches her both about the hill and also about the healing potions that can be made from the plants living on and around it.
All is far from well with Annie. She is tormented by cruel ‘pranks’ presumably orchestrated by suspicious locals. At the same time the natural world is getting out of kilter and the hill is trying to explain the perilous position to Olivia.
The Whispering Trees is a good story, well told. It is mysterious but also offers really insights into the worlds of nature and natural healing. It is at times a pretty thinly disguised and negative commentary on modern farming practices. Olivia and her friend Sadie at one stage break into a mass production egg farm. They are appalled by what they see and perhaps even more appalled when they discover that the lack of welfare in the ‘factory’ is perfectly legal. Similarly one of the characters is talking about an intensive pig farm where everything is controlled by computer, but where the animals are kept in close (but legal) proximity to each other – unable to forage in the open air.
A good book, and one that will hopefully make some Young Adults think a bit about our world.
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