The Girl and the Grove—Eric Smith

Sixteen-year-old Leila has recently been adopted. But one thing she hasn't told her new parents about: the whispering on the breeze that she occasionally hears, the nagging feeling that someone is trying to talk to her. The only person she's told is her old friend from the group home, Sarika. While attending summer school, Leila and Sarika join an environmental club. Leila has always felt a special affinity with plants and trees. While out on what becomes a disastrous date in a local park, the voices Leila hears become louder and more clear. She discovers a grove, and the key to the mysteries of her biological parents. But she may have discovered it all too late, as the grove is about to be demolished and developed, and the poison that is leaching into the grove seems to be affecting all of the local wildlife, and Leila herself. Leila must work with her new parents, her friend Sarika, and a young park ranger (and love interest?) named Landon to stop the demolition of the grove before she loses everything.

So I first encountered Eric Smith via BookRiot, and especially since I've been listening to their new podcast Hey YA! (Which I really enjoy and highly recommend.) I also started following him on Twitter at about the time I decided to pay more attention to the publishing world and especially follow some writers/editors/agents, not only because I'm a bibliophile, but also so I could be forewarned about books that were getting critical acclaim but didn't stand up to scrutiny from bookland people I trusted. So I was excited to be given the opportunity to read an early ARC from NetGalley of this new book. Can we just admire the cover art for a second, because it's flipping gorgeous.

I felt a lot of feelings while reading this book, because Smith packs a lot of feelings into it: Leila's struggle between wanting to be loyal in a way to her biological parents, and wanting to fall all the way in and belong with her new parents. Her growing feelings for a boy who seems to understand her, and especially to be more sensitive to her past and her birthmark. Jon and Liz's love for Leila and their desire to be good parents and enough for her. The pain that Leila's bio-mom feels at not being able to care for her and having to send her away when she was so young. When Leila gets very ill towards the end, the heartwrenching scene where she collapses into Jon's arms as she calls him "Dad" for the first time? Yeah, there were some good, fat teardrops rolling down my face.

I think this is one of the most nuanced and realistic portrayals of fostering and adoption that I've seen, and it makes a lot of sense, as Smith talks seems to be pretty open about his own experiences being adopted. (He even edited a collection of adoption-themed stories in a book called Welcome Home, which I haven't read yet but about which I've heard really good things.) The fact that Leila has a visible birthmark on her face created an external reason for her to not feel accepted, that paralleled well with her internal reasons for not feeling accepted. It also came back into play when they discover how she is connected to the grove, as the birthmark becomes something of a harbinger of impending ill for Leila. Leila is eminently relatable, not necessarily because of anything specific that happens to her (and there are definitely some weird, otherworldly things), but because she often feels so uncomfortable and out of place, and sometimes angry. Who hasn't felt that way?

Her relationship with Sarika was also well developed. The sarcastic way they communicate with each other is the way I am with every girlfriend I've ever had, and it made me feel like they would've been girls I hung out with when I was a teenager. Leila's relationship with Landon felt natural and adorable, and the conflict didn't seem contrived and didn't last excessively long, both of which seem to be a hard balance to find for many YA books.

I did feel like there could have been a bit more explanation about the connection between the grove and the impact of its destruction on the park's and Philadelphia's ecosystem, as that seemed a bit cobbled together and unclear. I think part of it may have to do with the mythological nature of the grove, but it wasn't obvious what Smith was going for there. Some of the prose was a bit clunky, but honestly, the visceral feelings that are portrayed and the magic of the story counteracted any frustration at specific phrases that seemed unnatural.

The mean girls were a little one-dimensional, but that's pretty typical of mean girls. And though I think that it would be easy to discount Shawn (Leila's one-time love interest) as just a dick of a character, I actually think his arc in this book made him one of the more human. He's well-meaning, but doesn't get the execution quite right. He's insensitive, but he genuinely seems apologetic and interested in learning from his mistakes. I know a lot of humans in real life like that.

In general, this book has a lot of feels, a mostly happy ending, some elements of otherworldliness, and a relatable and awesome protagonist.

The book won't be released until May, but you can find out more information and preorder it here.