Official Review: The Wind in the Trees

trabernathy29 · Post by **trabernathy29** » 17 Apr 2015, 07:08

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Wind in the Trees" by Christine Heffelfinger.]

2 out of 4 stars

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This is a non-fiction book of relationship woes….serious roller coaster.

From the title page of this book, you can get an idea of how the relationship the author writes about is going to go. The subtitle being “A Memoir of Head F**k Games”.

From reading the author’s page, this is her first book. She says she likes to read and is a firm believer that everyone should read as well. Since this is a memoir the author speaks of one specific relationship where there was a lack of affection, communication, and overall gloom and doom from the start. It seems this particular boyfriend was a pathological liar. “When confronted about the crack pipe he refused to discuss it over the telephone. In person he denied doing any drugs” (Heffelfinger, p58). There are several warning signs that this guy was not an ideal person to pursue a relationship with from the beginning.

My initial reaction to the book was, “this ought to be good”. Upon further reading, I found that the book was lacking in several areas. Trying to be an optimist and understand that this is the author’s first book; however, it requires major help. The first issue was editing…there was none. Christine often referred to her boyfriend as “Rodney” and then in the next sentences my “boyfriend”. It was often confusing. She also referred to him several times within the book as Ron. At the beginning of the reading, she stated that name of her then boyfriend was changed protect his identity but she seemed to have forgotten to change that name a couple of times.
The second issue is that her writing was all over the place. There was no major focus other than Rodney and the things he did to her. Of all the games and foolishness, she never addressed why she put up with his behavior. It almost seems as though she has some mental issues that needed to be addressed. If that was the case, knowing that from the beginning would have made the book more interesting.

The third issue is that Christine had no substance to the book. It was a very short book and seemed to lack a lot of key information. Nothing that explained what led up to that behavior. It was more like excerpts from a diary entry than a complete memoir. There was no in-depth description of her background and how she ended up at the place where she met Rodney.

I would not necessarily say that this book was interesting, memorable, nor entertaining, but it does suck you in. I was intrigued to find out just how much stuff he lied about and how she handled it. The boyfriend “Rodney’s” behavior was so bad that you wanted to see what would happen next. It also made you hope that she would come to her senses and stand up for herself and ultimately dump him.

The author felt that even though he treated her badly, he still loved her. I don’t agree with that. It is my belief that he did not even love himself. She also has some underlying issues of love because she was seeking that love and affection from him but he was incapable of completing that action.

The issue this book raises is being in an abusive relationship, the signs, and how it affects the person receiving the abuse. The book leaves out whether she received help and what has she learned from that particular situation. There are other great memoirs that deal with an abusive relationship, such as: A Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown. In this book, she gives you an overview of how her life started and what started the downward spiral. It also shows how she overcame it and how successful she is at the present time.

Although I have experienced the head games some guys play in relationships. This book really had no effect on me. It just showed that there are some people who don’t respect women and think they can get away with manipulating them into believing they are good people. The only relation this book has to my personal agenda is me wanting to write a book of my own. It gives me encouragement that it can be accomplished and also insight on what not to do when writing.

My advice to potential readers is to go in with an open-mind. It’s not a perfect depiction of a memoir nor all the events that took place and how the author helped or enabled the situation. Abuse and manipulation is never good however, some still encounter it. It is my belief that once you have identified certain characteristics in a potential boyfriend/mate, you should take the steps to remove yourself from that situation and their life. Also, letting them know that their behavior is unacceptable from the beginning may oftentimes save you time and heartache.

Overall, I give this book 2 out of 4 stars. It was not very good but had potential. It was missing substance and focus but since it was short (82 pages); I managed to complete the book and give very honest feedback.

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The Wind in the Trees
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