Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - The Wolf and the Woodsman

ehh. this is a tricky one to rate. from a prose standpoint, this would've been a four star read. i liked the dark folktale atmosphere, found the two leads likeable, and did enjoy the hungarian and jewish cultural aspects very much (though i have it on good authority that the brief line of turkish in this book is some mild bullshit lol)

the frequent weaving in of storytelling drew a lot of focus from the book's plot and politics and the pacing really suffered for it, especially in the latter third. i also really wished there'd been more establishing of how various sorts of power and magic worked within this world and found the relationships difficult to believe

particularly how évike seemed hardly to think of boróka (her one apparent friend) after leaving, the evolution of her relationship with gáspár which at once seemed to have a lot of forced tension and very little real development before they loved each other, and the relationship with her father and the other yehuli that felt thoroughly under-explored

overall, a promising debut novel but not quite all i'd been hoping for

p.s. gáspár is like a soft boi matthias helvar meets prince zuko and i'm not mad about it

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amber_vw's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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alyrayj's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

3.0

I didn’t totally love this book. It was gory to the point of making me uncomfy (I do have a weak stomach though). It felt like a really try hard analogy for world religions and politics. However, I enjoyed the world it takes place in with all its magic and mythos and boy am I a sucker for enemies to lovers!

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kaetheluise_nckl's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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fromjuliereads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow. I had wondered about the hype of this book but it did not disappoint. The commentary on religion, culture, politics - it was so intriguing. The folklore and all of the stories woven throughout wete so well done. And I loved the characters.
Reid's writing is so descriptive. It's so easy to imagine the scenes from the page. There are definitely some graphic descriptions for the more brutal and violent scenes. But it added a darkness to the overall dark atmosphere of the book.

I will say that trigger warnings should DEFINITELY be checked. And to note that ethnic cleansing/ getting rid of a religious group or group of people is a big plotline in this novel.

Highly recommend though if you enjoy darker fantasy novels!

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thehappylittleelf's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

An entrancing adventure filled with unique lore and desperate internal struggles. If you like the enemies-to-lovers trope with a strong-willed female lead, you'll love this book.

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oliverreeds's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

this book was fine. i don't understand what all of the hype is about around its release because, while the characters and their relationships are well-written, the magic and world-building seemed a little scant. i have no doubt the author spent a ridiculous amount of time building lore and that is evident, but i didn't understand a lot of the lore. it felt like when a super smart professor is explaining a very detailed and advanced concept and just kind of expects you to know it. the history of the the world just didn't make much sense and wasn't explained as well as i wanted it to be. most of the book

is spent looking for this creature called the tulur? and maybe i just didn't read super carefully, but i had no idea what the tulur actually meant to the world until it died. and even then nothing seemed to have changed. there was still magic. the trees seemed to still be alive. so why was there such a thing about killing this bird. i didn't understand it

. i also didn't understand the way magic works in this story. the wolf-girls are (mostly) all born with magic- all except evike. great. that makes sense. but then

evike wants magic so she cuts of her finger as a sacrifice to one of the gods and he just... gives her magic? i didn't understand this. it didn't make any sense. and then without practicing using her magic, evike fully shatters an axe in the royal court without really knowing what the perameters of her magic or the cost of her magic. the rules seemed flimsy. especially when she saves Gaspar after they're attacked by the witch. how did she save him?? she can't heal people??

. i also thought it was interesting that there are so many religions (only three) but they all have their own magic given from their own god which seems to imply that all of the gods actually exist in this universe. this then begs the question: why is there so much hate? the hate the woodsmen feel towards the pagans never is fully explained. i kind of understand the metaphor the author was working with, but in general, it felt forced sometimes. like... why? the pacing of this book was also pretty slow. in the climax moments, i didn't feel like there was much of a climax.

like when evike has just been stabbed. i was like oh sh*t! but then she just like gets up? and walks to gaspars room and then she rests for like ten minutes and then she's just like fine. like she's having a full conversation when she was just on the brink of death. this also happens in the pagan battle at the very end. nandor has just pulled out evike's molars (by all means a traumatic and painful experience) and then after the whole gaspar nandor fight, she's just fine? she kisses gaspar but like she just had like buckets of blood in her mouth??? the severity of wounds was definitely something that didn't make much sense to me because a character would be seriously wounded (often to the brink of death) and then like have full on coherent conversations and then get up and walk around.

the first part of this book also read a lot like fanficiton (which i honestly didn't have a problem with. it was my favorite part of the book no cap) because it's all about the

slow romance between evike and gaspar so evike will like almost freeze to death or pass out or something and then gaspar (shocker) will save her or help her. like the amount of times evike ~almost~ died on the way up to find the tulur the first time was honestly wild.

but overall, the characters were interesting and i liked the in depth analysis of how religious bigotry effects people, romance, and governing states. i thought it was a good first book.

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hanz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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