Scan barcode
A review by cemeterygay
The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
I am so immensely happy I read this as my first fantasy of the year. If you're looking for a phenomenal fantasy steeped in aspects of Jewish and Hungarian folklore with a heavy dose of gore and beautiful prose, I could not recommend this book enough. This book is just a spectacular debut for Ava Reid.
The beautiful lyrical writing style works so brilliantly with both the quick pacing of the story and the horror elements so beautifully to create an almost gruesome fairytale-esque vibe. While some of the gore and horror elements can be quite intense the writing style almost happens to spin it into a softer vibe along the lines of darker fairytales and folk stories like Cinderella or Beowulf. The choice of POV worked wonderfully in tandem with both the writing style and pacing. As the pacing of the book is just so quick limiting the book to a first-person POV helps immensely as you are often learning aspects of the world as Evike learns them or are having them gradually recounted by her which helps make the quick pacing feasible. It also helps to establish a lot more about Evike as a person and to better illustrate the many internal conflicts she was dealing with which allowed the lyrical writing style to not only just be pleasing to read but to give it purpose by helping the reader to better understand Evike and how she thinks.
That brings me to Evike as a character. She is such a brilliant protagonist who is given both great space to grow and falter and really delve into her internal struggles of cultural identity, grief, and morality while confronting the horrors of religious persecution and colonization that she faces. Evike's deep empathy and sense of internal morality colliding with both external concepts of morality and her own grief and suffering is so interesting to read as it handled with such grace and sensitivity. Watching Evike grapple and find peace with her struggles of religious and ethnic identity is so deeply interesting and satisfying. The ultimate trajectory of her story is intensely satisfying and works so beautifully with the themes of the story.
The relationship between Evike and Gaspar is so well-handled as is Gaspar as a character. I'm not a big enemies to lovers person but this, this is the blueprint for how to effectively write an enemies to lovers story. Watching both Evike and Gaspar consistently challenge each other's views on the world, the future of the country, and religion was so deeply fascinating and greatly helps the exploration of religious persecution, specifically both towards Jewish folk and as a result of Christianity, as well as the many contradictions and complexities of Christian imperialism. I was so deeply invested in watching these characters grow from enemies to reluctant allies into more and to watch them individually grow.
I also need to highlight to how much Evike's relationship with the Yehuli including her father really adds to the story. Watching Evike explore what is essentially her Jewish identity and reconnect with her family is not only incredibly heartwarming but is such a nice aspect of the story that really helps portray an amazing example of resistance against oppression. It's such a nice contrast from earlier parts of the book in both tone and character development. It really helps provide a lot of resolution to prior conflicts and questions raised in the story specifically with Evike and really gives a broader look at discussions of religion and survival in the face of Christian imperialism.
The last relationship I need to highlight is between Evike and her village. This is where a lot of the conversations of trauma and grief really shine. Watching how Evike changes her relationships and views about other people from her village is just very compelling and really goes hand in hand with how her views on her own identity, religion, and the past trauma she's suffered change. Watching her heal from past trauma while also participating in community healing as well is such a nice departure from other books. Also just seeing how much those relationships affect her other relationships with other people, her own religious identity, as well as her own sense morality is such a needed addition to the book.
The exploration of both Nandor and the magic system is just absolutely phenomenal. Nandor as a character is so deeply entwined with the magic system and the exploration of it. The way Nandor represents Christian hypocrisy and imperialism is so interesting to watch play out. He does an amazing job at really becoming an imposing unlikeable character with a very real and consistent, but not true, view on the world and religion. Nandor is so heavily used as an exploration of how different groups gain access to magic and thus gain political power and also just the way people practice religion. Watching Nandor, the Woodsmen, and even Evike sacrifice to gain power so clearly parallels a lot of the conversations in the book about each religious system and the contradictions within each's religious beliefs and practice. In general, seeing this concept used to discuss how Christianity adopted Pagan practices while also decrying them to gain support is fascinating and so well-executed. Even the discussions of how each in-text religious group view each other parallels real life experiences so brilliantly.
I just want to thank my friend Bri for getting me this book, as I think this is a book that will really stick with me for a long time.
The beautiful lyrical writing style works so brilliantly with both the quick pacing of the story and the horror elements so beautifully to create an almost gruesome fairytale-esque vibe. While some of the gore and horror elements can be quite intense the writing style almost happens to spin it into a softer vibe along the lines of darker fairytales and folk stories like Cinderella or Beowulf. The choice of POV worked wonderfully in tandem with both the writing style and pacing. As the pacing of the book is just so quick limiting the book to a first-person POV helps immensely as you are often learning aspects of the world as Evike learns them or are having them gradually recounted by her which helps make the quick pacing feasible. It also helps to establish a lot more about Evike as a person and to better illustrate the many internal conflicts she was dealing with which allowed the lyrical writing style to not only just be pleasing to read but to give it purpose by helping the reader to better understand Evike and how she thinks.
That brings me to Evike as a character. She is such a brilliant protagonist who is given both great space to grow and falter and really delve into her internal struggles of cultural identity, grief, and morality while confronting the horrors of religious persecution and colonization that she faces. Evike's deep empathy and sense of internal morality colliding with both external concepts of morality and her own grief and suffering is so interesting to read as it handled with such grace and sensitivity. Watching Evike grapple and find peace with her struggles of religious and ethnic identity is so deeply interesting and satisfying. The ultimate trajectory of her story is intensely satisfying and works so beautifully with the themes of the story.
The relationship between Evike and Gaspar is so well-handled as is Gaspar as a character.
I also need to highlight to how much Evike's relationship with the Yehuli including her father really adds to the story. Watching Evike explore what is essentially her Jewish identity and reconnect with her family is not only incredibly heartwarming but is such a nice aspect of the story that really helps portray an amazing example of resistance against oppression. It's such a nice contrast from earlier parts of the book in both tone and character development. It really helps provide a lot of resolution to prior conflicts and questions raised in the story specifically with Evike and really gives a broader look at discussions of religion and survival in the face of Christian imperialism.
The last relationship I need to highlight is between Evike and her village. This is where a lot of the conversations of trauma and grief really shine. Watching how Evike changes her relationships and views about other people from her village is just very compelling and really goes hand in hand with how her views on her own identity, religion, and the past trauma she's suffered change. Watching her heal from past trauma while also participating in community healing as well is such a nice departure from other books. Also just seeing how much those relationships affect her other relationships with other people, her own religious identity, as well as her own sense morality is such a needed addition to the book.
The exploration of both Nandor and the magic system is just absolutely phenomenal. Nandor as a character is so deeply entwined with the magic system and the exploration of it. The way Nandor represents Christian hypocrisy and imperialism is so interesting to watch play out. He does an amazing job at really becoming an imposing unlikeable character with a very real and consistent, but not true, view on the world and religion. Nandor is so heavily used as an exploration of how different groups gain access to magic and thus gain political power and also just the way people practice religion. Watching Nandor, the Woodsmen, and even Evike sacrifice to gain power so clearly parallels a lot of the conversations in the book about each religious system and the contradictions within each's religious beliefs and practice. In general, seeing this concept used to discuss how Christianity adopted Pagan practices while also decrying them to gain support is fascinating and so well-executed. Even the discussions of how each in-text religious group view each other parallels real life experiences so brilliantly.
I just want to thank my friend Bri for getting me this book, as I think this is a book that will really stick with me for a long time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse and Grief
Additional CW: Colorism (moderate), hunting, frequent discussions of genocide (not actually acted upon), Neglect (moderate), Disowning (graphic), Imprisonment (fantasy), revolution