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zees_reading 's review for:

In the Forests of the Night by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
2.5
dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

As a pre-teen and teenager, I absolutely adored The Den of Shadows series. The fact that the author was a teenager herself when writing and publishing these books (living my dream at the time) made these books even more near and dear to my heart as a kid. 

This is my first reread as an adult. And while ‘In The Forests of The Night’ was never one of my favorites, rereading this was still wonderfully nostalgic 

But oof! You can absolutely tell that this book was written by a teenager early on in her writing journey. There are more than a few basic writing and editing issues throughout the book. And certainly a few cringy problematic elements. But the structure of the story itself and the characterization of the characters are incredibly messy. The plot is there but difficult to pin down and the main character is inconsistently written. Her goals, motivations, beliefs, and emotions are all over the place and shift rapidly without much sense or reason. 

The soul of the story is there. I think the author could honestly have an amazing novella here if she were to go back, now as an adult, and revise/rewrite/edit this story and make it more cohesive and solidified. 

Not an amazing novella. But I still enjoyed this reread all the same.