“Stay on guard. Be aware of your surroundings. Notice the nuances. Cover your tracks. Always be prepared. Question everything. This is how you stay alive, Joy. This is how you keep the ones you love alive.”
The words of sixteen-year-old Joy Montgomery’s late father, Zephyr the Magnificent, urge her onward in this quest for truth and freedom, with the allusion that all is not as it seems in … seems in Bygonne.
Faced with the exhausting task of building mechanical trees that produce the precious oxygen they breathe, the Greenleigh orphan slaves piece together clues about the existence of a possible forbidden paradise beyond The Wall. To find the truth, shatter the illusions, and free the children, Joy must entrust the aid of an unlikely ally who harbors dangerous secrets.
This is the first book in the Treemakers Trilogy. This series is intended for mature YA audiences, as there are mature themes (some abuse, some graphic violence, some sexual situations, character deaths, etc.) which may be too emotionally intense for younger readers, and/or disturbing to those sensitive to such content.
If you enjoyed this book make sure to pick up “The Soultakers,” the second book in the trilogy. Book three, “The Seeker’s Keys,” is now available for pre-order for 25% off the list price, and releases on December 3, 2016.
To be emailed directly when this, and other new releases become available, sign up for ‘The Rozelle Army’ mailing list: http://eepurl.com/68sS9
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The Treemakers by Christina L. Rozelle is the first book of The Treemakers Trilogy. It’s about a 16 year old girl, Joy, who has to work making “trees” so everyone will have air to breath. Joy becomes restless and wants to flee the prison and the torment the Superiors have thrust upon all those who make the “trees.”
This is a very interesting concept. I have never read a book quite like this. The world building was fabulous and the characters were well fleshed out. The author spins a wonderful tale of a world so far gone that it is frightening. I can’t wait to read the second installment.
The Treemakers kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering what’s to come. It also filled my heart with a heaviness, my eyes with tears. Then there are the moments my soul would flitter, in that way it does when touched by such moments of love. Christina can definitely tell a story & there’s wisdom flowing from her soul. The Treemakers not only touched a variety of emotions, but it brought my brain into play as well, and I’m anxiously awaiting more releases by this wondrous author!
This is by far one of my most favorite stories that I have ever read. This author is amazing at keeping you at the edge of your seat throughout the entire book. I am so excited to find out where she takes this story. LOVE LOVE LOVE this book.
The Treemakers are a bunch of orphaned children forced to be slaves by the Superiors, who work the children to their death. The trees are meant to keep the dying outside world alive with fresh oxygen while inside the factory the children are dying and enslaved. No one at the factory lives past the age of 30.
The main character Joy is awesome. She is only 16, yet she has taken her orphan brothers and sisters under her wing, caring for them and trying for a better future for all. Joy begins to plan how to free them. So go read this book and find out what happens.
I am so excited for the rest of this trilogy and can’t wait to see what loops Christina has decided to throw at her readers in The Soultakers. If you haven’t read this book yet I highly recommend you pick it up as soon as possible! Trust me you will not regret your decision. This is easily the best book I have read this year.
So I was lucky enough to win a copy of The Treemakers at an author takeover event, it’s fair to say that this author wasn’t known to me until then and I’m glad that I got this opportunity.
So, the Earth has been ruined by it’s inhabitants, the hole in the atmosphere leaving no protection to anything above ground, wander in the open at your peril. The decimation of the trees has led to poor oxygenation and life expectancy. In order to survive new trees are fabricated from metals, filtering out the toxic air and allowing life – of a quality of sorts. Joy (although her existence is far from joyous) is a teenager working in the tree factory, although young herself, she is “momma Joy” to the younger children forced to work alongside her in perilous conditions, her and her best friend Jax, the unofficial parents to the orphaned brigade. The factory is overseen by the “superiors”, truly vile specimens of adulthood, able to prolong their lives through the oxygen canisters they are privy to. The children are ruled by fear .
Joy and Jax, when the opportunity arises, spend their nights exploring the bunkers and underground tunnels for anything that could make their lives easier, and one night they are pulled into an experience like no other, a paradise beneath the factory and a chance to escape. Caught on their return, punishments are severe and without mercy – punishments that fuel their need for vengeance and escape further than ever. Help from unexpected quarters leads to a a chance of a new life, but at what cost, and can paradise really be so?
I would say that this is a book which is very much at the top end of the YA age range, there are some really difficult topics which although are alluded to, still very much stayed with me. The friends receive horrible abuses at the hands of the Superiors and powerful imagery is left in it’s wake. The story pulls no punches when it comes to the risks taken and is very much a tonic to the stories where some characters are obviously expendable from the start.
It had the power to convey a sense of menace throughout and i had adrenaline at times about what was going to come on the next page, I was left never fully relaxed whist reading on tenterhooks about what would happen next. It’s been a long time since i have been reading a book and spending every spare second sneaking in a couple of pages here and there.
I realise that i have made this sound very doom and gloom and it isn’t the case there are some beautiful moments – especially when Joy becomes storyteller to the children, and when she find she is able to reminisce about her father when new friends are unexpectedly made along the way. The children’s final destination provides them with the reprieve that they so needed, but the truth weighing on Joy’s shoulders is very much something that i am looking forward to finding out more about in book 2.
In a world which seems too good to be true, can Joy let her guard down and embrace what the future could be?
This is an exceptional story and i’m glad I also won book 2 so I can move straight on to the next part