Beware the Tall Grass, CSU Press
Praise for Beware the Tall Grass
"Beware the Tall Grass reads like poetic, creative nonfiction, creating a beautiful and believable story that leaves the reader satisfied yet in wonder about what we know and don't know about the mysteries of life and death. This novel is a compelling read."
-James B. Wells, Compulsive Reader
"The novel explores the inexplicable connection of our souls across time and space.. . . By nature a poet and short story writer, Morris' language is fluid and precise. Each section echoes the one before, creating a thematic connection."
-Gail M. Murry, Historical Novel Society
"Louisville native Ellen Birkett Morris' debut novel Beware the Tall Grass is a fascinating tale of intertwined lives."
-Laura Younkin, Kentucky Monthly Magazine
"Beware the Tall Grass moves at a wonderful pace and that all loose ends tie together by the novel's conclusion. More intriguing than the outcomes, however, is the way Eve deals with gaslighting, feeling dismissed, having to advocate for her child in the face of opposing forces—issues mothers often find themselves contending with. Eve has much to teach us about perseverance, courage, and growth, and Beware the Tall Grass is a captivating exploration of relationships, life's mysteries, and above all, the healing power of love."
-Diane Gottlieb, Mom Egg Review
"We all may be forever reconstructing ourselves through our relationships, over and over. But as we mature, and reflect (and refract) on a past of our minds' ideal, we might be building on a foundation that is also susceptible to influences beyond our understanding. This author cleanly captures a complex scenario that carries some devastating depth — especially those ready to open their minds to wonder."
-TE Lyons, LEO Weekly
"Ellen Birkett Morris's novel Beware the Tall Grass (Columbus State University Press, March 2024) weaves what appear at first blush to be two disconnected stories together in ways that are alternatingly troubling, thought-provoking, and, ultimately, deeply sad and resonant as the novel reaches its conclusions."
-Dorothy Rice, Story Circle Network
"In this beautiful novel, two stories separated by half a century intertwine to create an indelible narrative of peace and war. In the throes of his first loss, young Thomas joins the Army and travels to Vietnam, where he is propelled toward his fate. Decades later, in another time and place, Eve and Daniel welcome their infant son and resolve to set aside their own family ghosts. But is it possible to release the past? Can powerful experiences of love and death ever be forgotten? Through surprising and suspenseful turns, Beware the Tall Grass explores the evocative mysteries of time and memory.
-Lan Samantha Chang, Jordan Prize Judge and author of The Family Chao and Hunger.
"I was captivated by the intimate style, the gentle and graceful writing. The story reminds me of an epistolary novel in the way this intimacy intensifies the gripping suspense of the story. Ellen Birkett Morris is a writer to watch."
-Bobbie Ann Mason, author of Dear Ann and In Country
"A young man's coming-of-age in 1960s Missoula, and the fields of Vietnam; a young family's struggle many years later to understand the deep-hidden trauma of their young son; Ellen Birkett Morris's compelling debut novel, Beware the Tall Grass, explores the invisible, inexplicable connections of our souls across time and space. Masterful and deeply moving, Morris engages our hearts and challenges us to accept, and embrace, the transcendent nature of our being."
-Tara Ison, author of At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf
"Morris' first-person protagonists with their haunted names, Eve and Thomas, jump off the page into our own sense of reality: each of them, like ourselves, must deal with emotional baggage while trying to create a new reality: a family filled with trust and love."
-Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab's Wife, Four Spirits, Adam & Eve
"The past and the lives lived there are never really gone. They haunt the present in Ellen Birkett Morris's novel, Beware the Tall Grass. Written with a sure hand and a clear eye, this novel is a story of two families—one that suffers a tragic loss and one that endures. Two fast-paced storylines come together in a memorable end in this moving story of a mother's love.
-Lee Martin, author of the Pulitzer Prize Finalist, The Bright Forever
"This debut novel is mysterious and lucid, rich and poignant, as Ellen Birkett Morris creates two sets of memorable characters and follows them in gripping stories about love and loss, family and parenthood, with real war as their backdrop, and pain and redemption as their resonant outcomes." -Fred Leebron, author of Out West, Six Figures, and In the Middle of All This
"A new mother head over heels in love with her infant son 2005; a U.S. infantryman fighting for his life at Ia Drang in Vietnam in 1965-- how these two narratives connect is the first of several mysteries that Ellen Birkett Morris invites us to explore in Beware The Tall Grass, her heartfelt, luminous new novel."
- David Payne, author of Barefoot to Avalon