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A review by beakers
Song of the Dark Wood by Sheila Masterson
3.0
I’ll start with what I liked: The setting of the village and the Dark Woods, the magic, the role of the Red Maiden as a ferry of souls between the Mother and Death.
Unfortunately I was just frustrated with the entire book. There are major pacing issues. So much that 90% of the book I’m frustrated and feeling like we’re not getting anywhere, and then the final 10% of the book was a total cluster eff. Like things escalated to the WTF point so quickly.
There were also some storytelling decisions that also frustrated me, like keeping us in the dark about certain things (and not in a good way, in a way that made me feel confused like I was missing something) and I can’t even tell you how many villains popped up throughout the story.
Finally, the author relied too much on exposition to spell out everythingggg for the reader. It was redundant and poorly executed when we were following one character’s POV but reading what the other character thought/felt.
Unfortunately I was just frustrated with the entire book. There are major pacing issues. So much that 90% of the book I’m frustrated and feeling like we’re not getting anywhere, and then the final 10% of the book was a total cluster eff. Like things escalated to the WTF point so quickly.
There were also some storytelling decisions that also frustrated me, like keeping us in the dark about certain things (and not in a good way, in a way that made me feel confused like I was missing something) and I can’t even tell you how many villains popped up throughout the story.
Finally, the author relied too much on exposition to spell out everythingggg for the reader. It was redundant and poorly executed when we were following one character’s POV but reading what the other character thought/felt.