You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.2 AVERAGE
3.2 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Rhea Ravenna can see things, a mysterious world which lies past the back of her house, the Waking Forest. She’s always been the only one able to see it, but lately things are escalating and Rhea finds herself sleepwalking, visualising her dreams and is struggling to tell what it real anymore. Events in the forest seem to be effecting life in the real world. Her sisters Renatta, Rhesa and Rose also hint they see things at times, but will never admit to it. Rhea’s has a pet fox named Gabrielle, she appeared out of the forest one day and seems to guide Rhea.
I love the premise of this book and I adore the writing style, dark fairytale with hints of the Brothers Grimm, poetic and visceral, but the plot seems to be convoluted and a little confusing. I also wish there was more of a sense of place and time in the ‘real world’ to juxtapose with the Waking Forest and give it more of that Magical Realism feeling. Overall I enjoyed it for the folklore and macabre descriptions, but feel like it could have been improved in places and at times was overly wordy.
I love the narrator, a soft and expressive voice, read like a bedtime story. Fantastic.
Cover beautiful
3.25
I love the premise of this book and I adore the writing style, dark fairytale with hints of the Brothers Grimm, poetic and visceral, but the plot seems to be convoluted and a little confusing. I also wish there was more of a sense of place and time in the ‘real world’ to juxtapose with the Waking Forest and give it more of that Magical Realism feeling. Overall I enjoyed it for the folklore and macabre descriptions, but feel like it could have been improved in places and at times was overly wordy.
I love the narrator, a soft and expressive voice, read like a bedtime story. Fantastic.
Cover beautiful
3.25
adventurous
dark
inspiring
mysterious
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
A dark tale involving found family, overcoming injustice and discrimination, with a splash of a love interest. Rhea and the witch face a long difficult journey in this novel. Watching these stories intertwine was beautiful. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in dark stories with magic twists.
I was enchanted by the cover and short synopsis of the book, however didn’t excite me that much. But this kind of book will be good to those who want to explore fantasy in this kind of story line.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
The Waking Forest by Alyssa Wees is an ethereal story that combines fairytales and fables with a magical historical fantasy that brings to mind The Labyrinth or What Dreams May Come. The flowery language and detailed world building pulls you into a dual timeline tale of a girl with her family and a witch with her fox. Rhea has terrible nightmares and premonitions with a darkness that she can't explain. The more she tries to figure out, the more she loses. Similarly, the Witch in the woods fights to figure out a deep mystery that burns into her heart. This story is full of dreamy scenes and a strange mystery that draws the reader in. I enjoyed the slow pacing and melodic prose. The narration of this book was beautiful and I would definitely recommend listening to the audiobook.
adventurous
mysterious
Today! Todays this sweet little audiobook is coming out (28th of March 2023). It is a young adult fantasy novel. I got the to chance to listen to it as an ARC and I did enjoy it. In "The Waking Forest" by Alyssa Wees we are following the story of a witch in the forest and also the story of a girl, Rhea, wo is living with her parents and her three sisters in a beautiful house. One day their paths will collide and that will possibly change everything about both of their lives...
The audiobook was spoken by Katelyn Levering. Her voice is nice and clear, which is actually a big consideration for me as I am listening to audiobooks mostly while cleaning or doing other choires around the house. And everyone who does the same knows, that you can't hear someone who mumbles or has a deeper voice while you try to hoover or are scrubbing the bathtub.
The audiobook also had a nice length (8h 22m) and I could listen to it with 1,5x speed.
The audiobook also had a nice length (8h 22m) and I could listen to it with 1,5x speed.
The plot was a nice story with a twist, which i saw coming from the first quarter of the book on, but it was still an engaging story. The end felt a little bit rushed to me and the pacing was a bit off (really slow pace in the beginning, LOTS of big stuff happening at the end), so that part was not my favourite. But I did like the characters and as well don't mind for my cleaning stories, when they are not top tier plotwise, as long as they keep me entertained somehow. This audiobook did just that!️️️
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Narrated by Rhea, Wees’s plot has a Stream of Consciousness feeling.
There are frequent references to: Sleeping Beauty.
There are frequent references to: Sleeping Beauty.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Rhea has visions of a forest no one else can see. The Witch calls the forest home, and children visit her there to have their wishes granted.
The first half of this book was great. I really enjoyed seeing the two storylines intertwine, and the spookiness really hit. I adored the Witch storyline especially--the strange, dark fantasy elements, the flower in her chest that she plucks petals from to grant wishes, her collection of little pieces of people that she takes as payment. The prose was dreamy and flowery, perfect for the story (overdone once in a while, sure, but overall really fed the tone of the book). Unfortunately, all the dreams and visions and intertwining timelines are resolved at the midpoint. And then we just have a magic-princess-needs-to-save-her-kingdom-from-the-big-bad-baddie YA fantasy thing, and it feels like a completely different book. There were very few things from the second half that I enjoyed, and most of the lines or moments that I found really corny were in that part. After everything, it was just...unsatisfying. It's difficult to describe without spoilers, but one of the biggest disappointments was that our protagonist ends up feeling like a very inconsistent person, and a lot of her got left behind by the end. Also! I was really hoping for some kind of contextualization for the symbolism and body-horror-esque aesthetic of the Witch, and that also just kind of didn't happen.
Katelyn Levering did a great job with the narration. I'm easy to spook, but I'm also quick to laugh if dramatic stuff is over-acted in audiobooks. Katelyn delivered the spook very well, and I really felt Rhea's uneasiness and was never yanked out of the story. The best narrators make you forget you're not just listening to the character, and I think Katelyn pulled that off with this one.
All in all, this baby gets three stars for the stuff that I did like and for all its potential.
Thank you to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The first half of this book was great. I really enjoyed seeing the two storylines intertwine, and the spookiness really hit. I adored the Witch storyline especially--the strange, dark fantasy elements, the flower in her chest that she plucks petals from to grant wishes, her collection of little pieces of people that she takes as payment. The prose was dreamy and flowery, perfect for the story (overdone once in a while, sure, but overall really fed the tone of the book). Unfortunately, all the dreams and visions and intertwining timelines are resolved at the midpoint. And then we just have a magic-princess-needs-to-save-her-kingdom-from-the-big-bad-baddie YA fantasy thing, and it feels like a completely different book. There were very few things from the second half that I enjoyed, and most of the lines or moments that I found really corny were in that part. After everything, it was just...unsatisfying. It's difficult to describe without spoilers, but one of the biggest disappointments was that our protagonist ends up feeling like a very inconsistent person, and a lot of her got left behind by the end. Also! I was really hoping for some kind of contextualization for the symbolism and body-horror-esque aesthetic of the Witch, and that also just kind of didn't happen.
Katelyn Levering did a great job with the narration. I'm easy to spook, but I'm also quick to laugh if dramatic stuff is over-acted in audiobooks. Katelyn delivered the spook very well, and I really felt Rhea's uneasiness and was never yanked out of the story. The best narrators make you forget you're not just listening to the character, and I think Katelyn pulled that off with this one.
All in all, this baby gets three stars for the stuff that I did like and for all its potential.
Thank you to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Liked
*Unique story
*Familial dynamics
*Fairy tale feels
Disliked
*Overly descriptive writing that often made no sense
*it was trying to be too many things and they didn't mix well
*The 2nd part of the book wasn't needed imo, the big reveal was shown at the end of the first part
*Unique story
*Familial dynamics
*Fairy tale feels
Disliked
*Overly descriptive writing that often made no sense
*it was trying to be too many things and they didn't mix well
*The 2nd part of the book wasn't needed imo, the big reveal was shown at the end of the first part
I enjoyed this book, specially the first part of it. When I got to the second part of it, it became something completely different and it got a bit weird so I didn't enjoy it as much.
THE WAKING FOREST was nothing like I was expecting it to be. It was a TRIP, but in the best of ways. To be honest, I see-sawed between 5 and 4 stars once I got around the 60% mark, but the moment I read the final line, I hit 5 stars without a second thought as a giant grin spread across my face.
The first half of this book was amazing. 5 stars hands down the whole way up to the midpoint. The voice was unique and gripping. The prose was EXQUISITE—I truly don’t think I’ve ever read a book that uses such intriguing similes and metaphors that are perfectly analogous to what’s being described. As a writer myself, I always appreciate beautiful, lyrical lines, though I feel that readers of all types will find beauty in the words on these pages.
Though the book did have a few flaws in my eyes that made me consider dropping its rating—a little telling at times, a plot that completely shifted and became a little confusing after the midpoint, worldbuilding and ideas that weren’t fully developed—I ended up with a 5 star rating because it was such a great and original STORY. Despite the confusing shift in worlds, I felt transported. I felt like I was a young girl again, sitting on the floor in my classroom as the teacher read to the class. And it was that mysterious and gripping storytelling coupled with fantastic writing that had me flipping through pages as fast as I could. Alyssa Wees has become an instant-read for me, and I can’t wait to devour another one of her books in the future.
The first half of this book was amazing. 5 stars hands down the whole way up to the midpoint. The voice was unique and gripping. The prose was EXQUISITE—I truly don’t think I’ve ever read a book that uses such intriguing similes and metaphors that are perfectly analogous to what’s being described. As a writer myself, I always appreciate beautiful, lyrical lines, though I feel that readers of all types will find beauty in the words on these pages.
Though the book did have a few flaws in my eyes that made me consider dropping its rating—a little telling at times, a plot that completely shifted and became a little confusing after the midpoint, worldbuilding and ideas that weren’t fully developed—I ended up with a 5 star rating because it was such a great and original STORY. Despite the confusing shift in worlds, I felt transported. I felt like I was a young girl again, sitting on the floor in my classroom as the teacher read to the class. And it was that mysterious and gripping storytelling coupled with fantastic writing that had me flipping through pages as fast as I could. Alyssa Wees has become an instant-read for me, and I can’t wait to devour another one of her books in the future.