After Ellis\u2019 best friend, Lora, disappears from Clearwood Home for Orphans, the only clue is Lora\u2019s bookmark, upon which she\u2019d written the phrase \u201cThe Forests of the Night.\u201d Soon after, Ellis is assigned as guardian to new resident Pip, who doesn\u2019t speak. Both girls feel a strong connection to the massive Ghost Tree\u2014the fossilized remains of the only tree that didn\u2019t rot away in the Blight. Ellis even hears the tree talking to her. After she and Pip see a huge, birdlike creature pecking at the tree, the girls are sent away to a summer camp, where kids are forced to mine an energy source that powers evil scientist Mother Dear\u2019s creations. Dealing in \u201cbio-hybridization, paleo-genetics, robotics, [and] artificial intelligence\u201d as part of her plan to rule the world by replacing nature, Mother Dear must destroy the last natural space on Earth: the forests of the night. If Ellis and Pip can\u2019t get there first, all will be lost, but luckily, they have the Ghost Tree on their side. The book\u2019s very slow first half lays a minimal foundation for the book\u2019s overall mystery. Persistent readers may feel rewarded in the second half, which features more clarity and exciting plot elements. Ellis has little agency throughout, mostly doing as she\u2019s told, which makes for a largely unengaging narrative. Most characters are cued white.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After Ellis\u2019 best friend, Lora, disappears from Clearwood Home for Orphans, the only clue is Lora\u2019s bookmark, upon which she\u2019d written the phrase \u201cThe Forests of the Night.\u201d Soon after, Ellis is assigned as guardian to new resident Pip, who doesn\u2019t speak. Both girls feel a strong connection to the massive Ghost Tree\u2014the fossilized remains […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}