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kal517's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Gore
Moderate: Confinement and Kidnapping
Minor: Body horror and Sexism
quinnyquinnquinn's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Death
Moderate: Kidnapping and Confinement
Minor: Sexism
meganpbell's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
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
4.5
I revisited Emily Tesh’s deliciously atmospheric forest- and folklore-infused fantasy Silver in the Wood before embarking on its sequel, the eerie and otherworldly Drowned Country. I loved seeing how the weight of an eternal wood has altered Henry and Tobias’s relationship, the expansion of the world, and all the character development—plus fairies, vampires, a plucky new heroine, and more folklore studies!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Body horror, Gore, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Toxic relationship
missanniewhimsy's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Confinement and Gore
shadowspinner's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Confinement, and Death
maeverose's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.25
My favorite thing about this duology is the descriptions of nature and the settings. Second favorite is the romance. I really like how everything concluded in this one.
The tone of this book feels a bit different than the first because we follow Silver’s pov in this one instead of Tobias’s. Their personalities are pretty different and show through the narration of each book pretty distinctly. This could be a pro or a con for some people, but personally I really liked it and thought it was done well. I do prefer Tobias as a character but I think it was cool to see from both their perspectives and it helped me connect to each character better.
Minor nitpick: I was a little annoyed with how often we were reminded how big™️ Tobias was, but halfway through it became less frequent thankfully.My biggest complaint is that I wish we actually got some interactions with the vampire. Instead he was killed before they even met him and it turned into a plot about finding fairies.. which I wouldn’t have minded so much if I hadn’t been promised a vampire story lol
Obviously these are novellas so you can only fit so much into them but I would maybe like a companion novel/novella of Tobias’s (or Mrs Silver or Maud’s) adventures in monster hunting. We don’t get to see much of that in these books and honestly that sounds like it would be pretty fun to read about.
The tone of this book feels a bit different than the first because we follow Silver’s pov in this one instead of Tobias’s. Their personalities are pretty different and show through the narration of each book pretty distinctly. This could be a pro or a con for some people, but personally I really liked it and thought it was done well. I do prefer Tobias as a character but I think it was cool to see from both their perspectives and it helped me connect to each character better.
Minor nitpick: I was a little annoyed with how often we were reminded how big™️ Tobias was, but halfway through it became less frequent thankfully.
Obviously these are novellas so you can only fit so much into them but I would maybe like a companion novel/novella of Tobias’s (or Mrs Silver or Maud’s) adventures in monster hunting. We don’t get to see much of that in these books and honestly that sounds like it would be pretty fun to read about.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Kidnapping, and Blood
Minor: Gun violence
Description of a beheaded corpselaurareads87's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Drowned Country is a solid follow-up to <i>Silver in the Wood.</i> I read them back to back over two days and I recommend this approach -- they feel like two parts of one work. This novella contained much of what I liked about its predecessor, though I preferred the narrative voice / POV of the first one. In this one, a strange and fantastical portal fantasy unfolds as the protagonists go in search of Fairyland. What they find is not what one would expect, but the ending is satisfying.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore, Death, Violence, Confinement, and Body horror
bexi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Kidnapping, Body horror, and Blood
Minor: Confinement, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Violence, and Murder
flameoflareon's review
adventurous
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A well written sequel that captures the same excitement and mood as the original book while adding to the characters. I loved how the sequel delve into fairies and added just a little bit more to the magic and world building. And while I'm not a fan of protagonists losing/giving up their powers I still found myself smiling at the ending. It was tidy in a way that would annoy me if I didn't like Silver and Tobias so much.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Confinement
booksthatburn's review
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
4.0
DROWNED COUNTRY picks up two years after SILVER IN THE WOOD to show how Silver and Tobias are adjusting to their new lives, what begins as a hunt for a vampire twists into something stranger as the girl they were sent to rescue is no damsel in distress.
SILVER IN THE WOOD didn't really feel like it left anything hanging for DROWNED COUNTRY to pick up, so while this does bring more of a resolution than the first book did, I don't really thing it wrapped up anything left loose, per se. The main storyline begins here and was not present in the first book, and contains several major things which are both introduced and resolved here. It is the last book in the duology and while SILVER IN THE WOOD had a satisfying ending, DROWNED COUNTRY brings a more emotionally complete ending which I like much better as a stopping point for observing this story. The point-of-view character changed from the first book, rather than following Tobias we're getting Silver's perspective. The third-person parts of the narration feel very similar across both books, but the two men have very different manners of speech and thought and the text conveys that well. This wouldn't make much sense if you skipped SILVER IN THE WOOD to read this. They're both novellas and DROWNED COUNTRY simply doesn't have room to retread the ground that SILVER IN THE WOOD already covered. There's enough context to be an adequate reminder for anyone who waited between reading the two books, but it's referential instead of explanatory, and I think someone who tried to start at here would feel like many things are missing.
At first I was a bit confused by the way the book starts out with Silver and Tobias somewhat estranged, given how the previous book left things, but it does circle back to show what happened before. I like this as a follow-up, it gives a much more satisfying ending as a duology than what SILVER IN THE WOOD had on its own.
SILVER IN THE WOOD didn't really feel like it left anything hanging for DROWNED COUNTRY to pick up, so while this does bring more of a resolution than the first book did, I don't really thing it wrapped up anything left loose, per se. The main storyline begins here and was not present in the first book, and contains several major things which are both introduced and resolved here. It is the last book in the duology and while SILVER IN THE WOOD had a satisfying ending, DROWNED COUNTRY brings a more emotionally complete ending which I like much better as a stopping point for observing this story. The point-of-view character changed from the first book, rather than following Tobias we're getting Silver's perspective. The third-person parts of the narration feel very similar across both books, but the two men have very different manners of speech and thought and the text conveys that well. This wouldn't make much sense if you skipped SILVER IN THE WOOD to read this. They're both novellas and DROWNED COUNTRY simply doesn't have room to retread the ground that SILVER IN THE WOOD already covered. There's enough context to be an adequate reminder for anyone who waited between reading the two books, but it's referential instead of explanatory, and I think someone who tried to start at here would feel like many things are missing.
At first I was a bit confused by the way the book starts out with Silver and Tobias somewhat estranged, given how the previous book left things, but it does circle back to show what happened before. I like this as a follow-up, it gives a much more satisfying ending as a duology than what SILVER IN THE WOOD had on its own.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, and Violence
Minor: Ableism
CW for ableism, kidnapping, confinement, blood, violence, death.