First of all let me say I loved it I was impressed by Whitaker’s writing. Despite being British he pulls off the American setting perfectly With a large list of unique characters each one has been carefully thought out and developed to the point that they all leave a stamp on your heart the way they all have separate stories but some how Chris weaves them all into one amazing thought out story Tall Oaks is quite dark and emotional yet very funny. Some parts have you laughing out loud but at the same time parts of it really pull on your heart strings you can identify with each and every character of the story which I find usually is really hard to do I would definitely recommend reading chris Whitaker's debut novel it's the best book I've read in ages