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sarahetc 's review for:
The Woodcutter
by Kate Danley
Way back in the day, I wrote a lot of fanfiction. Like, a lot a lot. Thousands and thousands of words of it and a few people really dug it. Having written way more fanfic than original anything, I am here to report that fanfic is fun because you can just tell a story. All the characterization and most of the setting is (usually, often) taken care of for you. So you pick a few phrases and a few tropes and then you just get to have a rollicking good time winging the wacky (or morose, or terribly dangerous or whatever) hijinx. It gives both the writer and the reader the chance to savor the best and favorite parts of the works without doing any work you don't really want to do.
So, that said, I bet you my bottom onion ring that this is a bit of fanfic that got a little bit big in some secret community and Danley got told this could be, like, a real book! And everything! And yes, I'm exaggerating. I'm sure it didn't happen like that. But it comes across like that. It's a tepid little exploration of a metanarrative that goes down the Aarne-Thompson list of types and tries to hit as many of the high points as coyly as possible. But what you're really left with is the idea that you're not getting the full story. You weren't in on the conversation that led to the story and so are left out of all the assumptions that go into it. She's just telling the story! Except she forgot that not everybody is in on the canon.
Further, it's just not that great a story.
Danley is clearly trying to write something entertaining and beautiful. But the plot is so loose and the characterization so very deeply reliant on a sophisticated and deep understanding of folklore that most people don't have that everything falls flat. I literally had to force myself to get through the last 10% of the book. If you get the urge to read it, just stop and go listen to "Into the Woods." Same ethos, better delivery.
So, that said, I bet you my bottom onion ring that this is a bit of fanfic that got a little bit big in some secret community and Danley got told this could be, like, a real book! And everything! And yes, I'm exaggerating. I'm sure it didn't happen like that. But it comes across like that. It's a tepid little exploration of a metanarrative that goes down the Aarne-Thompson list of types and tries to hit as many of the high points as coyly as possible. But what you're really left with is the idea that you're not getting the full story. You weren't in on the conversation that led to the story and so are left out of all the assumptions that go into it. She's just telling the story! Except she forgot that not everybody is in on the canon.
Further, it's just not that great a story.
Danley is clearly trying to write something entertaining and beautiful. But the plot is so loose and the characterization so very deeply reliant on a sophisticated and deep understanding of folklore that most people don't have that everything falls flat. I literally had to force myself to get through the last 10% of the book. If you get the urge to read it, just stop and go listen to "Into the Woods." Same ethos, better delivery.