Reviews - The Traitor of Sherwood Forest

76 reviews for:

The Traitor of Sherwood Forest

Amy S. Kaufman

3.44 AVERAGE

kayreadsandcrochets's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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

goldenrodgirl's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

starrymynx's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

erinarkin20's review against another edition

3.5

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

manda_lynne's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

crothe77's review against another edition

5.0

emotional informative mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Traitor of Sherwood Forest by Amy S. Kaufman is a third person-POV historical novel examining the story of Robin Hood through the original Medieval lens. Jane has few prospects in life and has little respect for her mother relying so much on men. When Jane meets Bran, she finds someone who is calm and steady but maybe doesn’t necessarily fill her with excitement. But then Bran brings her to meet Robin Hood, setting off Jane’s own journey of self-discovery and she’s going to have to make a lot of sacrifices if she’s going to survive.

The author’s note helped to contextualize a lot of what happens in the book, particularly in regards to Robin Hood. Like a lot of Americans, I grew up on the Disney version and all the stories of the selfless Robin and his beloved Maid Marion. This is all apparently a revision that started in the time of Henry VIII and the original Robin Hood was much more morally gray and didn’t really have a love interest as he instead devoted himself to the Virgin Mary. It was a really interesting experience for me to read this because it showed me how much my enjoyment of an adaptation is colored by the version I grew up on and prefer.

Beyond Robin’s devotion to Mary, Jane’s brother has joined the Church and there are discussions around the ways the Church abused their power in the Medieval era. It isn’t a secret that the Catholic Church had a lot of power in Europe for centuries and it handled that power very poorly, with many of the people who claimed to serve God using the Church as a shield to commit heinous acts, acts that, unfortunately, do continue today. Not all depictions of the Church are painted in a bad light, as Jane’s brother is genuinely devoted to God and appears to be a better man than some of the other members of the clergy and Jane works with a nun who is trying to convince Jane to join a nunnery so she can have some kind of power over her own life.

The romantic elements between Bran and Robin are definitely frustrating, mostly because I could see Jane falling for Robin a mile away and how toxic he would be for her. Bran is a good partner who cares about her and respects her boundaries, but he’s also safe. Despite all the negative things Jane thinks about her mother, she still made less than ideal choices regarding men. This helps to show the cycle that many people wind up in when it comes to partners and how anyone can be lured in by a charismatic personality.

Content warning for mentions of CSA and sexual assault

I would recommend this to fans of Robin Hood looking for something based on the original ballads and readers of historical fiction who like more morally gray characters

Content Warnings

emijoy15's review against another edition

2.5

I received this book courtesy of NetGalley, and I’m grateful to them and Penguin for the opportunity to read this in advance of publication! The Traitor of Sherwood Forest will be published on April 29th, 2025.

I’m going to try and give a truncated version of my thoughts up top to keep this as spoiler free as possible. I think those interested in reading this book should really go in not quite knowing what’s to come. Maybe even especially true for Robin Hood fans, because it was fun to be surprised and excited when familiar elements popped up!

The Traitor of Sherwood Forest follows Jane Crowe, a young woman who becomes Robin's spy inside Kings Houses, where she works in the kitchen. It follows her complicated relationship with the morally gray actions of Robin and his men, and the spiraling events that occur while she becomes increasingly involved.

In short, I have really mixed feelings about this book. It is very specifically an adaptation of medieval Robin Hood ballads, which will clue readers in on what to expect depending on how familiar they are with those texts. It borrows only a few things from more contemporary Robin Hood works. By a few things, I mostly mean that Friar Tuck here is “Tuk”, a Muslim mercenary in the newer tradition of having a Muslim character among the Merry Men (i.e. Djaq in the 2006 series, Azheem in Prince of Thieves). That’s the primary concession made. Otherwise, I can only assume that the oft-used description of Robin’s hair as “fox-colored” is a nod to the Disney movie, which has perhaps contributed to the proliferation of ginger Robins running around. No complaints.

I think the publisher's summary of the book makes it pretty clear that Robin is a violent and dangerous individual, but learning how much of that is true or not is part of the entertainment of the novel so I won’t spoil that. That said, this is definitely gritty. If you want a fun book, this ain’t it. It was hard to predict exactly how this book would end, although I had a pretty good idea about one element of the ending because of my familiarity with Robin Hood lore. The suspense elements at play were quite enjoyable, though!

I’m not sold on Jane as a protagonist. I understand her role in the story, and why she is the way she is, but I wish I had found her more intriguing as a character in her own right, rather than as an avenue to the story being told. Her decisions and logic were frustrating as she became increasingly wrapped up in the world of the plot. I wish I had understood her choices more or could have shaken some sense into her.

I’m not the most well-versed or academic when it comes to medieval Robin Hood ballads, so I won’t speak too much on how this book presented its interpretations, but it was interesting to see how the author chose to stitch them together into her narrative, and what changes she chose to make.

The Traitor of Sherwood Forest adapts Robin Hood and the Potter, The Geste of Robin Hood, Robin Hood and the Monk, and The Death of Robin Hood. That last one is what makes this list a spoiler, although I was absolutely expecting it. I screeched a bit when the prioress was introduced early in the story, and knew immediately that Robin would die. The prioress, here named Ibota, was a marvelous addition, and I’m glad that she was present throughout the novel.

I don’t like gritty Robin Hood stories. I just don’t. I liked elements of this book and elements of what it was trying to do. Some of the writing was quite lovely. It was descriptive and evocative (although it perhaps overused similes), and that includes descriptions of violence. Parts of this book were so gory and unpleasant that I gagged. Your mileage may vary, of course.

However, regardless of my mileage, I don’t want to read about Robin torturing people. Which he does, twice. Once, while killing Guy of Gisborne and once while killing the sheriff. While killing the sheriff, he specifically calls the act “fun”, and views it as a “reward”. Little John actually mercy kills the sheriff against Robin’s wishes.

I had a look at the Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne ballad, and in it, Robin cuts off Guy’s head and then mutilates it so it is unrecognizable. That’s already a lot to handle. In Traitor, Robin mutilates Guy while he’s still alive, and Guy dies from the torture of it, and then loses his head. That’s a lot to handle! There are a few other changes to the ballads adapted, but this one was rough. I didn’t like it. Okay, as a reader, I wasn’t supposed to. I’ll admit that. But as a reader, it downgraded my opinion of the book, too. It just felt like it went too far.

There are multiple points in this book that really smack the reader over the head with the message that Robin Hood is not actually a hero. Multiple people talk about it, and Jane explicitly states it. Robin is a genuinely scary, horrifying person. The last third of the book reads a bit like horror, but it’s Robin Hood who wants to slowly torture people to death. While his character is nuanced enough that you can see how he might have been a good person once, he starts to seem like an irredeemable psychopath. I think that’s a bad faith interpretation of the medieval ballads. I get what the book wanted to do and say. I even think it’s kind of cool to build a story entirely around only the medieval ballads themselves, but this isn’t the message I wanted from that theme.

Here, have some pretty writing that I liked. This was so nice, it made me want to be there. A palette cleanser:

“A massive oak held court in the forest’s center, thick and strong among the birch trees’ snow-white bones. Seashells danced on ropes throughout the oak’s branches, tangled white and gray and pink among the crisping leaves. The shells sang like tiny church bells when the wind swept through.”

I do think that if you want a gritty Robin Hood book, this is a really good one. Jane’s slow descent from wonder to confusion to horror is fascinating. The use of the medieval ballads as a base is unique, if not done in a way that I personally like. I don’t want a gritty Robin Hood book, though. I don’t particularly care if the idealized, romanticized Robin Hood is not the same as the Robin Hood of medieval ballads. I like him to be idealized and romanticized. I like empathetic heroes. I don’t think ultra-violence is required for Robin Hood to be a subversive character and story. I like Robin Hood. I don't really want a book to give me any reason to hate him.

Content Warnings

thesandyreader's review against another edition

2.5

dark slow-paced

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

This book just wasn’t what I was hoping it would be.

I loved the premise of it - a peasant girl who works for Robin Hood, whispering secrets of the household she works in. Robin’s tricks implicate her in a murder and she needs to decide if she is a pawn in the game or an equal player.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the book really lives up to it. There isn’t much action in the book, it feels like a long drawn out story that meanders from place to place but doesn’t really pick up till 60% of the way through. I didn’t find myself wanting to read it.

Jane is a selfish main character who seems forever unhappy with what she has gotten in life and I found it difficult to care about her.

The story is at its core about the hunt for Robin Hood by three different people, and that Robin Hood is not the hero he is perceived as. In that sense, it did a great job getting that across, but the story lost the sense of adventure that typically comes from Robin Hood stories. Instead this was a brutal and almost gory version where it’s just a timeline of people murdering each other. Jane has no chance to grow and there is no pivotal moment where she is really implicated and needs to make a tough decision or can really have an impact and think for herself. She’s supposed to be the main character but is really just subject to the whims of everyone else until essentially the last page.

This might be for you if you prefer books that are dark twists on fairy tales and want to explore human nature.

ashleyh99's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Thank you to Penguin Group Viking for providing me with a gifted ebook copy of The Traitor of Sherwood Forest through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Jane Crowe has grown up as a common peasant girl, in a home where she didn’t receive much love. At 19, she now has the chance to leave her abysmal home life behind and work for Robin Hood as a spy in the King’s Houses. Jane is immediately drawn to Robin’s charismatic personality and she is willing to pass on the information he’s looking for. As Jane spends more time with Robin and his men, she realizes there is more danger involved and she starts to question her work for Robin and the feelings she’s had for him since their first meeting. Now Jane must decide what’s right and what’s wrong, and what her ultimate role will be in the game between Robin and the nobles.

The Traitor of Sherwood Forest is an interesting take on the Robin Hood legend. I enjoyed having the story told from a female perspective and seeing how Jane wants to prove herself, but is also naive to the situation she gets caught up in. I found myself feeling sorry for Jane throughout much of the book, because her bad decisions and lack of experience brought a lot of chaos to her life.

There is no definitive line between “good” and “bad” characters in the book. Robin is not your typical whimsical, good-natured character from other Robin Hood stories. He is very much morally grey, and I really loved the idea of his character’s initial purpose being a proponent for the undervalued in society, while losing sight in taking things too far with his fight against the nobles. The book did have one likable character that I connected with (Ibota), and I found her to be a strong female character, who was the voice of reason to Jane’s poor decision making.

There is a great historical feel to the story, and Kaufman includes an Author’s Note, that explains some of the decisions she made in her writing, that I really appreciated. I did find the Baron’s War to be a bit confusing, which caused me to not feel as strongly connected to some of Robin’s motivations. I think this was probably due to some pacing issues, that muddled the story, for me.

If you are looking for an intriguing historical fiction read, with a fresh perspective on the Robin Hood legend that explores the lines between heroes and villains, then I would definitely recommend The Traitor of Sherwood Forest.

aliteraryescape's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

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