Reviews

The Wood Wife by Terri Windling

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.

nytshayde's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

5.0

drewsof's review against another edition

4.0

Such a throwback, in a great way. This book *feels* very early-90s in a simple way, in a "cellphones would change this" way, in a "genre blurring hasn't quite gone mainstream" way. It's predictable (not a bad thing) at times, particularly around the revelations of who is who... but Windling gets a lot of mileage out of some *really* destabilizing chapter endings, particularly in the early going, that keep the reader off-kilter for a while. And then the last hundred pages or so go whole-hog into the wild in ways that I really, really enjoyed.

sp_ellstar's review

5.0

Beautiful and brilliant.

hopeevey's review against another edition

5.0

I'm not sure I can really review this book. I mentioned in an update that I want to crawl in and live in this story - that pretty much is all I know how to say about it. I need to own a copy of this book, and it will become a frequent re-read.

chasing_dallas's review against another edition

4.0

I am surprised that I liked this book as much as I did. It is total fantasy and the story is a bit contrived, but the plot was interesting, the characters captivating.

captaincymru's review against another edition

4.0

I have no interest in going to Arizona. The sun lives there and the whole place is testament to man's arrogance. But such is the strength of the book that I did find myself wanting to go see the desert. The landscape itself is a character in this urban/rural fantasy centred around Maggie Black. She's inherited her penpal's house and papers after his mysterious death and comes to Arizona with thoughts of writing his biography. Naturally, spooky stuff starts to happen.

The 'Readers Also Enjoyed' bit in the corner of the screen suggests several Charles de Lint novels and there's a very similar vibe. If you enjoy Charles de Lint, you'll like this book and vice versa.

reallifereading's review against another edition

3.0

I have to admit that around the first couple of chapters, I was wondering if I should adhere to my first 50 pages rule and give up as it was nearing 50 and I was a little uninterested in her writing. But I was on a long-ish bus journey and needed something to drown out the TV Mobile (yes we have TVs on the buses in Singapore). So I persisted and I'm glad I did. It's quite a fascinating plot and somehow it made me think of Murakami's Kafka on the Shore a little (of Nakata and the cats). But I wasn't totally enamoured with the writing, which I think tended to tell more than show. I felt disconnected from the characters. And that, as well as the plot, made me race through the book rather quickly.

herbwyfe's review against another edition

4.0

I am a very picky fiction reader and fantasy/magic is not an interest but this book came highly recommended. The writing style is easy to read and for me a good fiction keeps me thinking about what I just read when I have to put the book down. I do love the AZ desert and enjoyed the both accurate and magical descriptions of the natural ecosystem. The romance side of things was predictable, and I would have liked more depth. The fantastical scenes were interesting though I found myself skimming a bit indicating it went on a bit too much in some sections. I loved the attention to poetry and thought that it could have been woven in a bit more.
I am glad I bought the book b/c it will be one of those rare fictions that I will reread several times.