Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - The Wolf and the Woodsman

Other people are talking about the Hungarian history and Jewish folklore, which I guess was an interesting spin that I didn’t expect going into the story. The characters go over the story of Esther (yes, from the Bible) for a hot minute and Evike (MFC) feels like her father is calling for to be like Esther and use the story to give her insight into how to save an entire kingdom of people. So… I guess it depends on how you feel about Esther’s story. This added copious amounts of gory, self mutilation, and magic.

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moonchild_cos's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.75

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stardust_heidi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

3.75

I have no idea how to rate this book. I listened to the audiobook. Saskia Maarleveld did an amazing job, as per usual. But the story itself... It was fine? I think part of it was what usually happens when I listen to fantasy on audiobook (for the first time) -- I miss a lot as I go about my day. And I'm fairly slumpy right now. But at the same time, it lacked something that made me look forward to listen to it every day. I think the story was solid enough for me to keep going, for sure, but not enough to love it. It was very gruesome and dark, so beware. The romance was not particularly moving, but I like how they connected by the end. The mythology and lore parts of the story are pulled from is interesting.

I liked it okay but definitely won't reread it. I'm hoping Ava Reid's other books are better. 😬

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immovabletype's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense 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

3.25

man, i thought this was going to be a solid 4 stars for a good chunk of the novel, while we're following the two main characters on a quest of sorts. this is hate-to-love, and throughout their journey they're grappling with preconceptions about each other based on centuries of hatred and oppression between their people (the fantasy is very cleverly based on pagan, christian, and jewish mythology, with all the attendant real world conflicts--the author "has a degree in political science . . . focusing on religion and ethnonationalism" and her expertise shows). grappling while wanting to grapple each other, if you know what i mean. it makes for a very intimate narrative, slow-paced but propulsive . . . but then the journey ends, the world opens up, and our two lovers are separated. what was compelling me to keep reading just kind of dropped out of sight for a while and i found it harder to pick up as much as i had been, and even after they were reunited it never quite got that spark back for me. and then i loathed the epilogue.

idk. there were things that happened in the latter part of the book that i liked and i think were necessary to forward the narrative and themes. however. it just could've been done better. i will also say, this is sold as adult fantasy. i would argue it feels a lot more ya. the heroine is almost a classic ya heroine, the tropes are very ya tropes. these aren't necessarily bad things, but that's not gonna work for everyone, so i wanted to make a note of it.

i did enjoy this for the most part, i'm glad i read it because now i know that ava reid is gonna knock it out of the park for me someday (this was a debut). i'm quite looking forward to reading more from her.

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triley's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense 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

4.0

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chrispybacon's review

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adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

The book had a strong premise but poor execution. I was excited to have a heroine in her mid-twenties but Evike is so dumb I could not relate to her at all. None of her relationships are healthy - the Yehuli want her to convert (they also help her but they are very interested in her joining them), her love interest is a coward and also her jailer, her whole village physically and verbally abused her. Her life was shit and I would have left all of them in the dirt. It makes zero sense to return to her abusers.
The plot is a lot of walking, being horny, being angry, being horny, plans backfiring, suffering deadly injuries but surviving them, more being horny and more walking. Somewhere in there were aspects of accepting yourself, growing into your powers (and loosing them), and conflicts about religions and cultures clashing which suffered greatly under all the rest.

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ericageorge91's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.75

If you told me that this book came from lost pages of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, I would believe you. From beginning to end, The Wolf and the Woodsman felt like a dark fairy tale told around a campfire.

Ava Reid wove a brilliant story full of Hungarian history and Jewish mythology. The writing is stunning. The story was magical and atmospheric. As for the characters, you can’t help but root for Évike and Gáspár’s heroes’ journey as well as their love story. The last time I read an enemies-to-lovers handled this well was in Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse. Let me tell you, there were parts of this book that had me giggling and SCREAMING! I won’t spoil those parts because I need readers to discover them organically 😌

Keep in mind that this isn’t romantasy. The quest is very much the forefront of this story and the romance is slowly roasting in the background, which is, personally, how I prefer my romance. I highly recommend this book. Shoutout to the audiobook narrator Saskia Maarleveld. Her talent really enhanced the storybook feel 🤗

TW:
(Graphic) Blood, body horror, death, gore, injury/injury detail, murder, religious bigotry, self-harm, violence

(Moderate) Animal death, antisemitism, bullying, grief, physical abuse, sexual content, trafficking, xenophobia

(Minor) Animal cruelty, child abuse, death of a parent, torture, vomit

Rep: Hungarian history, Jewish side characters, sapphic side characters

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chrisljm's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

1.25

Meh. Not a fan of the narration, which read like poetry but in the way where I just don't know wtf they're talking about sometimes. The folklore is written well but it became repetitive and too drawn out, making the story drag.

Also for all the people who recommended this book because of the romance, you had to be making shit up because the romance sucked. Not to say the romance came out of nowhere, because I knew it was going to happen, but there was absolutely no build up at all. I didn't care for any of the characters, which is besides the point because they also had no chemistry at all. I truly don't understand what Gáspár liked about Évike because she was honestly dumb as fuck. She had no common sense and no sense of self preservation. She absolutely refused to think before any of her actions, even when Gáspár explicitly explains how she'd make the situation worse. She also spends majority of the book belittling Gáspár, and constantly attacking him on how she thinks he's ashamed they've laid and slept together, even though they have so many other things to worry about. He literally tries to get her to think before doing something rash and getting them both killed and she accuses him of fearing people will found out he's no longer pure. Like be fucking fr.

The book also touches on religious/ethical/moral themes but honestly with the messy plot and execution, flat characters, and confusing narration, I honestly don't know what the take away was supposed to be.

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