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bedtimesandbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Antisemitism, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Xenophobia, Genocide, Animal cruelty, Body horror, and War
Moderate: Child death
excritos's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Death, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Antisemitism
Moderate: Vomit and Torture
Minor: Sexual content
meteoricendings's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
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
Ava Reid’s The Wolf and the Woodsman follows Évike, a young woman who lacks the magic skills the other women in her pagan village develop. When the village is forced to give a seer to appease the King, Évike is given up instead. The journey to take her to the capitol does not go as planned, and all but one of the holy guards sent to collect her are killed. Danger lies ahead as Évike and her captor are forced to align their goals and prioritize the future of the country. As they progress, Évike is able to explore her heritage and learn about the existential peril it is facing.
I picked up this book because the cover caught my eye, and I am so glad that I did. I was at most hoping for a fun story with some elements of folklore, but I was completely blown away but what I got. The Wolf and the Woodsman explores Hungarian history as a cultural patchwork and not, as some would have you believe, a homogeneous society. This book does not give you easy answers to difficult questions. Characters are made human by the choices they are forced to make. This is not a story of perfect characters or decisions. The Wolf and the Woodsman tackles issues that remain pertinent in today’s political climate, particularly antisemitism in Hungary and throughout the wider world.
I cannot express how happy I am that I found this book and highly recommend it to anyone. If you get a chance, I encourage you to read Ava Reid’s essay “Imagined Nation-States: The Danger of Depoliticizing Eastern European Fantasy,” which was included in the edition of the book I found. The Wolf and the Woodsman reminded me of what good literature can do.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm
anastasiadreaming's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I really wanted to love this one, and unfortunately it didn’t work out. I’m granting one star for the atmosphere, and another for Gáspár, but I’m stripping three for how nonsensical Évike’s decision-making was.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Self harm, and Lesbophobia
fuitfortuna's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Mixed feelings on this one.
I really liked the world building, it was interesting and I could tell that the author was really knowledgeable about the folklore that inspired the world and the magic system was intriguing.
My problems lie everywhere else. While Reid certainly is talented I often found some of the writing repetitive, the author would find a phrase she liked and rinse it multiple times within 5 pages and at times i found it very difficult to power through - i actually put the book down for almost two months when i reached the halfway point because i had no motivation to continue.
And that’s not even to mention how this almost felt like a YA masquerading as an adult? Evike is supposed to be 25 but spends most of the book acting like she’s 16. I have no real basis for this but there were multiple times where the vibes were just incredibly YA.
The pacing was also a large issue for me the first half of the book almost moved too slow and the second half moved way too fast. The book really started to pick up once they reached the city and then it felt like events were flying by. This was really unfortunate as once we meet Katalin once again and have the big battle (for some reason?) it feels so unearned that I just didn’t really care.
I also have some conflicted thoughts on the romance. I’d heard it was more of an enemies-to-lovers type of deal and to not expect it to be the main focus of the story. And while they were certainly enemies at the very start by virtue of their backgrounds, the romance actually felt very insta-love to me,with little development as to why they’d grown to care for each other. Though I agree that the romance should not be the main thing you focus on, it’s difficult not to when Evike is horny for Gaspar on like every page.
The epilogue left me very unfulfilled, while I could understand how Evike longed to belong somewhere and loved Keszi despite her difficult history I do not understand why she would have chosen to go back there when like every single person there was terrible to her at best and actively abusive at worst.
Overall I was quite disappointed as I expected to like this a lot more than I actually did, perhaps I just built it up too much in my head. However I did still enjoy most of the book and would read some of the authors other works.
I really liked the world building, it was interesting and I could tell that the author was really knowledgeable about the folklore that inspired the world and the magic system was intriguing.
My problems lie everywhere else. While Reid certainly is talented I often found some of the writing repetitive, the author would find a phrase she liked and rinse it multiple times within 5 pages and at times i found it very difficult to power through - i actually put the book down for almost two months when i reached the halfway point because i had no motivation to continue.
And that’s not even to mention how this almost felt like a YA masquerading as an adult? Evike is supposed to be 25 but spends most of the book acting like she’s 16. I have no real basis for this but there were multiple times where the vibes were just incredibly YA.
The pacing was also a large issue for me the first half of the book almost moved too slow and the second half moved way too fast.
I also have some conflicted thoughts on the romance. I’d heard it was more of an enemies-to-lovers type of deal and to not expect it to be the main focus of the story. And while they were certainly enemies at the very start by virtue of their backgrounds, the romance actually felt very insta-love to me,
Overall I was quite disappointed as I expected to like this a lot more than I actually did, perhaps I just built it up too much in my head. However I did still enjoy most of the book and would read some of the authors other works.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Blood, Death, Self harm, Body horror, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Racism, Antisemitism, War, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
circlesarah's review against another edition
I couldn't get into the relationship between the two main characters
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Self harm
mold_munchr's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Antisemitism, and Self harm
Moderate: Sexual content
manchester_macy's review against another edition
I thought the concept was great, but there was no progression of the main character who got quite annoying. The plot also took really random side bars which didn't make sense. Even after getting half way I wasn't engaged.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism and Self harm
Minor: Emotional abuse and Racism
chloenrogers's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism and Self harm
lindseyhall44's review against another edition
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
3.5
Review is withheld in solidarity of Harper Collins’s workers/union on strike.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Gore, Religious bigotry, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Death, Grief, Self harm, Violence, Torture, and War