Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - After the Forest

A good story that combines the Hansel and Gretel fairytale with Snow White. Trigger warning: there is animal cruelty in the latter end of the book.
Overall I did enjoy the story. However, I could not imagine Greta as a 22-year-old woman - she struck me more as a teenager. Hansel was also an interesting character, although he was underdeveloped (understandably though, since it is not his story but Greta’s).

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aj_langley's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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becandthebooks's review against another edition

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Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Oh my goodness I want to eat this book up like one of Greta’s gingerbreads! The beautifully lyrical combination of writing and the narration by Esther Wane has me wanting to restart this audiobook again!

“After The Forest” follows Hans and Greta (Hansel and Gretel) approximately 15 years after they were imprisoned by the old crone in the forest. It explores what kind of a life they lived after such trauma, with sprinklings of Snow White & Rose Red, Rumpelstiltskin, magical beasts, witch trials and an unlikely romance.

Kell Woods writing is just stunning and Esther Wane’s voice performance was so complementary to this whimsical fairytale retelling! I will 100% be picking up what Kell Woods comes out with next!

Pure joy 💛 Off to bake gingerbread.

………..………………………………………………

⚠️ TW: After reading some other reviews I’ve learnt that Chapter 25 is the chapter number with some descriptive animal cruelty (bearbaiting). Reviewers who skipped this chapter have said it didn’t hinder their experience. I listened to it and it was graphic, but it is also written for a different time and that’s how I tackle these situations personally.

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victoria_catherine_shaw's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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lyall_reads's review against another edition

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Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

Dark whimsy perfect for the Midwest winter! (and anyone who romances Halsin in BG3 😉)

*******

After the Forest is an adult fantasy following Greta (of Hansel and Gretel) years after the woods and the witch. Greta has a lot to love about her home, but with her brother falling into debt and accusations of witchcraft nipping at her heels, danger is always near. When suspicious visitors threaten her and her town, Greta is forced to embrace the magic she’s learned to conceal.

****

I think my favorite part of this story was how it grounded itself in the town and place of the Black Forest in the 1650s with the hardness of life, the threat of war, and the particular brand of misogyny Greta faces. My two complaints are 1) the pacing lagged for me near the end- I read the first 75% pretty quickly but then didn’t feel as caught up- and 2) my personal pet-peeve, only women friends are dead! It’s not entirely fair to put this critique on the book as Greta has few friends period and she gains a woman mentor figure in the story, but her being pursued romantically by multiple men (granted, most of them were unwanted) while only really interacting with townswomen who hate her hit right in that NLOG adjacent area that irks me. Again, I admit this isn’t quite fair for this book because it actually makes sense within the story, but it always annoys me!!

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ashburttt'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? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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rambles's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

The story is an impressive mix of the Hansel and Gretel story, Rose Red, and a little Beauty and the Beast. It made me crave gingerbread.

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sarrie's review against another edition

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sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Tl;DR - 2.5 stars. A cold, disconnected story with a reactionary character, this was a frustrating read for me.

I genuinely was expecting something very different than what I got with this and I’m quite disappointed. For some reason I thought this was more modern, however this leans very hard into the fairy tale ‘retellings/what if’ stories we’ve been getting a lot of the past few years. Hans and Greta are now adults and this follows their lives as more supernatural beings begin to enter it and how they deal with life after ‘the witch’.

My biggest complaint on this is that Greta was just so bland. I’m not sure if this was due to the writing, which in general felt very disconnected and cold, or the character herself. Even after the traumatic events of her childhood, the frequent supernatural events that followed, and the magical book that talks to her in her own home daily she still manages to find shapeshifters and werewolves surprising and frightening. I believe I would have started having problems well before the book started whispering in my mind, but to each their own.

Sadly I spent the entirety of the book disconnected, cold to the characters and only growing more frustrated. Greta felt a lot like many female characters I read in these types of stories, reactionary and mild in manner. If you met these women on a Tuesday in the supermarket you’d never know. Which, if this was literary fiction then yeah I can see that making sense. But in a fantasy novel? A retelling of a fairy tale? It makes for a dull and frustrating time for the reader.

2.5 bewitching gingerbread houses

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