A review by hollowspine
My Throat an Open Grave by Tori Bovalino

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

In Winston Pennsylvania those who are bad, who break the rules, are offered to the Lord of the Woods. In a moment of exhaustion, overwhelmed teen Leah offers her infant brother to the LoW, and is sent in after him as an offering to get her brother back. Without her brother she'll never be welcome in Winston, or her own home, again. Stepping across that border, between her community and the realm of the Lord of the Woods, Leah must discover who she should fear more, the demon her community uses as a boogeyman, or a community that would condemn their vulnerable rather than support them.

It was a bit predictable where the two big twists of the story are concerned, but still worth reading.

It was a bit predictable once Leah enters the woods and discovers a community that works together and a LoW who offers choices rather than dictate edicts. I mean...in what story involving teen girls and communities with powerful male religious authorities are the religious authorities not the villains? It was a little vague on the worldbuilding (why do they take babies? wouldn't more communities than just one use it the way Winston does...I mean not to be a downer or anything, but there is the internet and men are terrible.) Also, how many families really just didn't care that their daughters didn't return? Especially if anyone who wanted to find someone lost apparently could?
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