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vgartner's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cultural appropriation
marhill31's review against another edition
4.0
I decided to give myself a reading challenge where I will read the books on my physical and digital shelves for this year. The goal of this reading challenge is to read more of what I already have instead getting something new. Also, I hope to discover some great reads that I had an initial excitement for when I first bought them but got replaced by the latest purchase to get that excitement all over again.
Well, I’m off to good start on my reading challenge with The Wood Wife by Terri Windling. This novel has been on my main bookshelf for over a year and I have known about the book since it was published in 1996. Windling has been an editor for one of my favorite writers, Charles de Lint, for many years and when I heard she had written a novel of her own that got my interest.
The Wood Wife told the story of a writer named Maggie Black who inherited the Tucson AZ estate of a reclusive poet named Davis Cooper. Maggie just ended her marriage to a famous musician and was looking to start her life over by writing the biography about the poet’s life. She started to learn the nature of the poet‘s death through the people that lived on various parts of the estate. Also, Maggie discovered through the poet’s letters about his lover, Anna Naverra, a gifted painter and the visions she saw through her art. Those visions drove the painter into madness about how real they became and their connection to the environment in Tucson. Maggie elicited help when another painter who lived on the estate named Juan heads into a similar fate that befell Anna Naverra. Will Maggie and her new friends be able to stop Juan from following the same path as Anna?
Windling draws upon various mythologies to tell a story about how the power of art, how it can drive one into madness if not channeled properly. Also, this is a story about new beginnings in a place off the beaten path and how a renewal of life can start where you would have never visited before fate intervened. The Wood Wife is an intelligent, thoughtful, and mature fantasy novel that should get more recognition. Tor Books has repackaged the novel in its Tor Essentials edition and rightly so. The Wood Wife should be an essential read for fantasy literature fans and an entry point for non-fantasy readers too.
Well, I’m off to good start on my reading challenge with The Wood Wife by Terri Windling. This novel has been on my main bookshelf for over a year and I have known about the book since it was published in 1996. Windling has been an editor for one of my favorite writers, Charles de Lint, for many years and when I heard she had written a novel of her own that got my interest.
The Wood Wife told the story of a writer named Maggie Black who inherited the Tucson AZ estate of a reclusive poet named Davis Cooper. Maggie just ended her marriage to a famous musician and was looking to start her life over by writing the biography about the poet’s life. She started to learn the nature of the poet‘s death through the people that lived on various parts of the estate. Also, Maggie discovered through the poet’s letters about his lover, Anna Naverra, a gifted painter and the visions she saw through her art. Those visions drove the painter into madness about how real they became and their connection to the environment in Tucson. Maggie elicited help when another painter who lived on the estate named Juan heads into a similar fate that befell Anna Naverra. Will Maggie and her new friends be able to stop Juan from following the same path as Anna?
Windling draws upon various mythologies to tell a story about how the power of art, how it can drive one into madness if not channeled properly. Also, this is a story about new beginnings in a place off the beaten path and how a renewal of life can start where you would have never visited before fate intervened. The Wood Wife is an intelligent, thoughtful, and mature fantasy novel that should get more recognition. Tor Books has repackaged the novel in its Tor Essentials edition and rightly so. The Wood Wife should be an essential read for fantasy literature fans and an entry point for non-fantasy readers too.
kslhersam's review against another edition
3.0
This was not a great vacation book. I picked it over Tiger's Curse, because the writing was better, but the story was a little too mystical/weird for me. I liked the characters and enjoyed reading something different than my normal books. I have no idea why I marked it to read though.
naoms's review against another edition
5.0
A book of mystical speculative fiction grounded in the desert mountains (a character in their own right), with an endearing group of people and enough of an edge to the story that it sank into me.
Here European folklore and Southwest spirits merge; here painters, poets, farmers, and handymen attend to one another; here there are Celtic spirals and cacti spines.
"Fox sat on the steps of his adobe cabin breathing in the intoxicating smell of the desert after the rain: the pungent scents of creosote and sage, and the spicy scent of mesquite wood burning in a house farther up the mountain. The rains had brought autumn wildflowers to the rock-strewn mountain slopes. Yellow brittlebush blanketed the hillside and orange globe mallow lined the sides of the wash. The small oval leaves of the cottonwood trees were turning autumnal gold. In the stillness of early evening eh could hear the call of the mourning doves, a lone coyote high in the hills, and sound of someone approaching, tires sliding on the old dirt road. An engine revved, revved again, then silence. A string of steady curses. Grinning, Fox got to his feet..." (20)
"She is something other than woman in this place... I accept the fact that [she] has visions; she is after all a woman, a witch, a lapsed Catholic, a painter, a Surrealist... I can't see it, but I can almost hear it. A low drum beat. A murmur of language. There are poems in these trees, in the rock underfoot. I resist it, this slow seduction." (50-1)
"I need the wild. I need the source. I need a land where sun and wind will strip a man down to the soul and bleach his dying bones." (75)
"The sky overhead was turning deep blue, streaked with banners of orange, red and pink. The desert was bathed in a golden light, each cactus, each small tree vivid, distinct. Its beauty stopped her on the path. Something had changed. Something was different ever since she woke up that morning. Her eyes seemed to have adjusted now to the subtler colors of the Sonoran palette. The desert was no longer an emptiness, an absence of water and dark northern greens, but an abundance: of sky, of silver and sage and sepia and indigo blue, of gold desert light, so pure, so clear she wanted to gather it up in her two cupped hands and drink it down." (140)
"It was curious to her that it didn't alarm her more to have her vision of reality so abruptly expanded to include the surreal, the supernatural—although it now seemed the most natural thing of all. But is was the only thing that made sense of it all..." (170)
"The world would be a tamer place. And that, Maggie thought, would be a loss." (227)
"She looked at the words. Type on a page. Runic shapes in black, black ink. Words were chunks of turquoise in her hand; words were what protected her." (306)
Here European folklore and Southwest spirits merge; here painters, poets, farmers, and handymen attend to one another; here there are Celtic spirals and cacti spines.
"Fox sat on the steps of his adobe cabin breathing in the intoxicating smell of the desert after the rain: the pungent scents of creosote and sage, and the spicy scent of mesquite wood burning in a house farther up the mountain. The rains had brought autumn wildflowers to the rock-strewn mountain slopes. Yellow brittlebush blanketed the hillside and orange globe mallow lined the sides of the wash. The small oval leaves of the cottonwood trees were turning autumnal gold. In the stillness of early evening eh could hear the call of the mourning doves, a lone coyote high in the hills, and sound of someone approaching, tires sliding on the old dirt road. An engine revved, revved again, then silence. A string of steady curses. Grinning, Fox got to his feet..." (20)
"She is something other than woman in this place... I accept the fact that [she] has visions; she is after all a woman, a witch, a lapsed Catholic, a painter, a Surrealist... I can't see it, but I can almost hear it. A low drum beat. A murmur of language. There are poems in these trees, in the rock underfoot. I resist it, this slow seduction." (50-1)
"I need the wild. I need the source. I need a land where sun and wind will strip a man down to the soul and bleach his dying bones." (75)
"The sky overhead was turning deep blue, streaked with banners of orange, red and pink. The desert was bathed in a golden light, each cactus, each small tree vivid, distinct. Its beauty stopped her on the path. Something had changed. Something was different ever since she woke up that morning. Her eyes seemed to have adjusted now to the subtler colors of the Sonoran palette. The desert was no longer an emptiness, an absence of water and dark northern greens, but an abundance: of sky, of silver and sage and sepia and indigo blue, of gold desert light, so pure, so clear she wanted to gather it up in her two cupped hands and drink it down." (140)
"It was curious to her that it didn't alarm her more to have her vision of reality so abruptly expanded to include the surreal, the supernatural—although it now seemed the most natural thing of all. But is was the only thing that made sense of it all..." (170)
"The world would be a tamer place. And that, Maggie thought, would be a loss." (227)
"She looked at the words. Type on a page. Runic shapes in black, black ink. Words were chunks of turquoise in her hand; words were what protected her." (306)
djinnandtea's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
2.0
I know this is a beloved book, and a bit of a classic for urban fantasy. The writing is lush, the story well-developed. Strong characters, too. But the issues with appropriation overwhelm the whole of it for me. Lots of spiritual/cultural tourism here. There’s no doubt Windling got to have her Native American wish fulfilled with this story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cultural appropriation
saerryc's review against another edition
3.0
A solid “there is magic in the world!” story, reminiscent of something de Lint would write except that it's set in the Arizona desert rather than a city. Its use of myth reminded me of Mythago Wood by Holdstock, except that this book is way better than that one because it has actual characters instead of cardboard cut-outs. I thought the climax felt sort of rushed, but on the other hand, it's admirable that Windling managed to get as much done as she did in <300 pages.
justins52books's review against another edition
4.0
I'll freely admit that I would've passed this book by under normal circumstances. The setting, the premise, and the subgenre of "Urban Fantasy" (whatever that means - this takes place in a desert), are all things I would typically avoid under normal circumstances, but this book's inclusion in the TOR Essentials made me set those concerns aside and I am so glad I did. This will be the 6 1/3 TOR Essentials book and I have found them very much to my liking.
What I loved most was Windling's venue for her fairy story. Going in, I figured there would be no end to the constant description of desert flora and fauna and there is plenty, but she does it well enough and ties the description to the action of the story that it's not just pretty words about pretty things. Ultimately this results in a new space to explore old stories.
The pacing, mystery, reveals, and technique were all spot on for me and I was very happy to have picked this one up. I got to the last few chapters thinking, "There isn't enough of this book left to tie all this up," but I liked how it all ended and all wrapped up.
One thing though, and others have spoken on this as well: there are times where the book veers into 90's-style moral judgement on the things we have all come to know as problematic: suburban sprawl, government-run animal population control programs that outlive the problem, the loss of individual place in our society. I don't have an issue with any of these themes, but they took me out of the story more than I would've liked. Especially that bit about using shepherds. I'm the grandson of a sheep man and that part made me chuckle a bit. This book kept reminding me of [b:Today I Baled Some Hay to Feed the Sheep the Coyotes Eat|7384498|Today I Baled Some Hay to Feed the Sheep the Coyotes Eat|Bill Stockton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328813309l/7384498._SY75_.jpg|9237258] by Bill Stockton though I'm not sure the either author would 100% appreciate the comparison.
What I loved most was Windling's venue for her fairy story. Going in, I figured there would be no end to the constant description of desert flora and fauna and there is plenty, but she does it well enough and ties the description to the action of the story that it's not just pretty words about pretty things. Ultimately this results in a new space to explore old stories.
The pacing, mystery, reveals, and technique were all spot on for me and I was very happy to have picked this one up. I got to the last few chapters thinking, "There isn't enough of this book left to tie all this up," but I liked how it all ended and all wrapped up.
One thing though, and others have spoken on this as well: there are times where the book veers into 90's-style moral judgement on the things we have all come to know as problematic: suburban sprawl, government-run animal population control programs that outlive the problem, the loss of individual place in our society. I don't have an issue with any of these themes, but they took me out of the story more than I would've liked. Especially that bit about using shepherds. I'm the grandson of a sheep man and that part made me chuckle a bit. This book kept reminding me of [b:Today I Baled Some Hay to Feed the Sheep the Coyotes Eat|7384498|Today I Baled Some Hay to Feed the Sheep the Coyotes Eat|Bill Stockton|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328813309l/7384498._SY75_.jpg|9237258] by Bill Stockton though I'm not sure the either author would 100% appreciate the comparison.
dinosaurcat314's review against another edition
hopeful
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
4.5
miss_fish's review against another edition
4.0
Picked this up at the library despite the cover. I have a small obsession with fairy tales and folklore/mythology already, and love finding modern fiction that uses old stories in a new way.
This is sort of a Native American trickster/rebirth story with some magic and spirituality and a love story thrown in. Her descriptions of the desert made me so homesick I found myself crying at times.
This is sort of a Native American trickster/rebirth story with some magic and spirituality and a love story thrown in. Her descriptions of the desert made me so homesick I found myself crying at times.