Reviews with content warning for Violence - North Woods

Loved this unique novel. (Novel novel?) Weaving together stories of the inhabitants of a parcel of land in western MA, the book takes you chronologically from the 1600s through present day. With ballads, poems, and letters in addition to the usual prose, there is a wonderful blend of historical fiction, ghost story, and natural history. If you liked Lincoln in the Bardo, you’ll probably like this one too.

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basil_touche's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

It took me until the story with the Osgood family to get truly captivated by this novel, but once I did I found it such an engrossing listening experience. The various narrators (except one which I found grating but thankfully doesn't feature much) really helped each chapter feel like the time periods they were set in and the prose was rich with detail, especially about the nature surrounding the house. The way each character's history linked in small ways was very rewarding to come across, and I much prefer that rather than having a big reveal. Feels more natural (ha) that way.

I also quite like how the supernatural elements were executed here as well, gradly being introduced until the last chapters focus more on it. It made me laugh hard at a part in the chapter with the seance, I'll just say good for them so as not to spoil anything.

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alexjamiestaples's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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very_mellifluous's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

So...this book was not what I expected it to be. It was more somber (only by my interpretation) as a whole, and because the main character is sort of, in reality, the house (or the north woods), there is a lot of death that we are brought along to watch and deal with, which is hard for me!

There is a lot of beautiful writing of Nature, and I want Daniel Mason and Anne Carson to collaborate on something. He has a lovely sense of writing rhythm into his prose and my favorite passages involved descriptions of the woods and flora/fauna within.

Truthfully I would have loved for the book to end on a high note, with the final inhabitant we watch be someone who cares for the house and 'resets' it, almost like Osgood, with her care and enthusiasm for the place. That does not happen, but what we do see is beautiful and idyllic. It occurred to me that Osgood and his daughters called the place Eden, and it seems that they truly imbued that into the land. Truly the character I care about most is the painter, William Teale, who deserved love!!!! There is a character involved in his story that I spent the rest of the book cursing at.

There is also a line from Osgood's narration at the start where he writes about the spirit of the eldest apple tree being a guardian for the rest of the orchard, and he writes: "I have come to the opinion, generally, that he who does good to the land shall be protected, while he who trespasses upon her will be met with violent return." It turns out that

Osgood grows to be this sort of figure himself,

which is very sweet and comforting.

Lastly, I found it interesting that the "original" pair we see inhabiting this space, the pre-Puritan escapees, were not more present in the narrative. Most of the other characters are threaded through newer storylines, but these are allowed to rest. I wonder why Mason chose to do this - instead, he uses Osgood as an anchor point (okay, we see a lot of the people in between Osgood and the first pair, but Osgood feels different). The first pair really feel like a localized Adam and Eve, who are too pure and mythical to dredge from the past. They spiritually inhabit the place, but don't make any appearances. I just wanted to note that for myself.

Also, the section when

Nora comes into the glade with Osgood

could totally be scored with Televangelism by Ethel Cain.

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emjay2021's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

Fantastic. I started with the print book, but was having a hard time getting through it and had to return it to the library. Then I picked it up again as an audiobook and loved it. Don’t know if it was because of the different format, but the different narrators are all excellent and really add to the experience of the story. I felt like I was sitting around a fire with people taking turns telling stories about the land we were sitting on.

I loved all the callbacks to previous chapters and the recurring characters, human and non-human alike. THE BEETLES! Some stories were funny, some suspenseful, some poignant. There is something special about this book. Highly recommended if you like historical fiction and linked stories with a strong sense of place and detailed description. I’m so glad I gave it another chance.

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mmccombs's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

5.0

I absolutely adored this book! So creative and fresh, the prose was lovely and the mix of mediums (chapters, letters, songs, images) was so engaging. Following one house through time made for an incredibly interesting character study, the setting being the main character and the people flowing in and out of it character development. The way nature was described filled me with wonder and made me want to go on a hike (and I do not hike!), but also made me interrogate how humans have perceived “nature” over time. I loved thinking about how each inhabitant of the yellow house came to it with different intentions, with different relationships to the solitude and wildness it offered. And seeing how characters we meet show up later for other characters, how their actions are remembered when so much of their context is lost to time. It was also unexpectedly pretty funny, like there was some silly content and really funny bits that caught me by surprise. Basically this was a book that I enjoyed just thinking about, one that I will probably continue to engage with and reread!

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