Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - The Wolf and the Woodsman

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

64 reviews

alliecat1915's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense

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

5.0

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cepbreed's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.75

“We belong to each other. ”

So atmospheric and each description is as fantastical as the last. I was particularly impressed by the witch in the sod house. The sudden switch to the grotesque and horrifying caught me off guard and was truly immersive. The world building is like no other but at the same time it is convoluted and hard to keep track of. I won’t pretend that I could name a single place or character besides the main two despite dedicating days to reading this book.

The one thing occupying my mind during the duration of my read was the fact that Gáspár is basically Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The evil royal father casts him aside, abuses both him and his mother, and most strikingly delivers a prominent eye injury. Just like Zuko Gáspár has to become a warrior and complete an unsavory mission. He’s forced to work alongside Évike, an enemy of his determined by the wars of men that came before them, aka she represents Katara/the entire Gaang. Similarly to Zuko losing his firebending Gáspár becomes incompetent in the art of battle when he’s forced to use an axe as a woodsman rather than the sword he was used to as a prince. In both scenarios, the change in power is due to casting aside their family.

Even the final battle is similar. Gáspár/Zuko face their overly powerful dark sibling Nándor/Azula with the help of their former enemy-turned ally Évike/Katara.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE LEFT ME WITH SO MANY THOUGHTS. As much as the act of Gáspár kneeling in front of her was sexual it brought me so much relief. Nándor constantly made lewd jokes about Évike on her knees which were meant to demean her. In the one scene where someone is on their knees in that context, it is not Évike. Even more importantly it is an expression of love, a plea for forgiveness, and a promise from Gáspár to her. So wonderful.

I can’t help myself. Whenever I read something with any remotely religious undertones I have to put on Ethel Cain. This is no exception, hence the songs I feel represent the novel.

Songs:

Strangers - Ethel Cain
Compass - The Neighbourhood
Take Me to Church - Hozier
Not Strong Enough - boygenius
Dear Arkansas Daughter - Lady Lamb
mad woman - Taylor Swift
The Exit - Conan Gray (“the shape of our wounds is the same” - Évike)

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ericageorge91's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

If you told me that this book came from lost pages of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, I would believe you. From beginning to end, The Wolf and the Woodsman felt like a dark fairy tale told around a campfire.

Ava Reid wove a brilliant story full of Hungarian history and Jewish mythology. The writing is stunning. The story was magical and atmospheric. As for the characters, you can’t help but root for Évike and Gáspár’s heroes’ journey as well as their love story. The last time I read an enemies-to-lovers handled this well was in Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse. Let me tell you, there were parts of this book that had me giggling and SCREAMING! I won’t spoil those parts because I need readers to discover them organically 😌

Keep in mind that this isn’t romantasy. The quest is very much the forefront of this story and the romance is slowly roasting in the background, which is, personally, how I prefer my romance. I highly recommend this book. Shoutout to the audiobook narrator Saskia Maarleveld. Her talent really enhanced the storybook feel 🤗

TW:
(Graphic) Blood, body horror, death, gore, injury/injury detail, murder, religious bigotry, self-harm, violence

(Moderate) Animal death, antisemitism, bullying, grief, physical abuse, sexual content, trafficking, xenophobia

(Minor) Animal cruelty, child abuse, death of a parent, torture, vomit

Rep: Hungarian history, Jewish side characters, sapphic side characters

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chrisljm's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

1.25

Meh. Not a fan of the narration, which read like poetry but in the way where I just don't know wtf they're talking about sometimes. The folklore is written well but it became repetitive and too drawn out, making the story drag.

Also for all the people who recommended this book because of the romance, you had to be making shit up because the romance sucked. Not to say the romance came out of nowhere, because I knew it was going to happen, but there was absolutely no build up at all. I didn't care for any of the characters, which is besides the point because they also had no chemistry at all. I truly don't understand what Gáspár liked about Évike because she was honestly dumb as fuck. She had no common sense and no sense of self preservation. She absolutely refused to think before any of her actions, even when Gáspár explicitly explains how she'd make the situation worse. She also spends majority of the book belittling Gáspár, and constantly attacking him on how she thinks he's ashamed they've laid and slept together, even though they have so many other things to worry about. He literally tries to get her to think before doing something rash and getting them both killed and she accuses him of fearing people will found out he's no longer pure. Like be fucking fr.

The book also touches on religious/ethical/moral themes but honestly with the messy plot and execution, flat characters, and confusing narration, I honestly don't know what the take away was supposed to be.

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bethsreading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.25

This book was definitely a disappointment. It had an enticing concept, a matriarchal village that must pay the tithe of one girl a year to the ruling patriarchal coloniser of the area. The main character, Evike, is the only girl in her village without magic, and so she is cast away into the arms of the enemy when the tithe must be paid. I thought the story would be comprised of a dark and mysterious journey through the woods between these two enemies, with some obvious enemies to lovers romance in there. I think that if the book had been this, it would have worked a lot better. However, the scale became too grand with kings, politics, and war, and sadly it just felt flat and tropey for me. In fact most of this book was a genuine struggle to get through.

Evike on the surface is an interesting heroine, someone without magic from a community where magic defines and protects them. But she was so irritating

and ends up getting a dark magic anyway! Whatsmore, she is supposed to be the best huntress in her village and Gaspar (the love enemy love interest) is supposedly keeping her alive because he is a useless hunter and she will protect him. However, it ended up being him saving her over and over again — also he ends up being a really skilled swordsman which completely conflicted that element of the plot. She doesn’t save him once, except by wrapping his wounds and cooking his dinner, which feels like it is just reinforcing the gender stereotypes it was trying to subvert.

I did like the books commentary on religious hypocrisy, but it kept hammering it home every page as if it thought the reader was too stupid to recognise it. A lot of the book was obvious and the rest convoluted. I did not genuinely care about a single character and if I hadn’t have DNF’d Belladonna just before it, I wouldn’t have dragged myself through it. I have heard good things have Reid’s other book, Juniper and Thorn, which I would be willing to try in the hopes it is better than this

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maresuju's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.75

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jaybird_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

Read the book you will NOT regret it!! A dark, gorey fantasy with a cast of fully dimensional female characters and a well-done enemies-to-lovers romance. I don’t even want to say much else because it’s just such a good read. I loved the main character and the love interest is babygirl to me!!

Readers who dislike religion (even in the fictional setting) may want to pass this one over because it’s such a heavy theme but I thought it was delicious.

The critique: the author LOVES purple prose and cannot stop herself from writing as many metaphors as possible. This is a pro or con depending on personal taste imo.

PS there’s a pronunciation guide at the back of the book lol

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