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A review by ericderoulet
The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed
4.75
Disclaimer: The author sent me an ARC of this book, no strings attached. Thus, I am reviewing it.
In The Butcher of the Forest, Premee Mohamed's exceptional ability to describe fae creatures, fae laws and norms, and boundary-crossing spaces shines through. This, to me, is the most obvious reason the story succeeds as a dark, decidedly adult fairytale. Mohamed builds a world in crisp, sharp detail but not to excess—Mohamed employs vivid imagery while still leaving enough to the imagination that we feel like we're in a dangerous fae world. As fairytale retellings and new fairytales are rarely to my taste, I expected this to be my least favorite book by Mohamed (though still a good one). I was pleasantly surprised.
Comparisons between this story and the Brothers Grimm fairytales have been popular among early reviews but might fall flat in explaining what exactly Mohamed has accomplished here. Whereas modern fairytales and retellings are known for being overly sanitized, and the original Grimm tales for being macabre, Mohamed's tale vacillates between the hopeful and the terrible to write a story with a better texture than either. Better still, the MC (Veris) and the children featured in The Butcher of the Forest are not merely vehicles for the plot, as I've tended to see in actual fairytales, but are sufficiently humanized to make me care about what happens to them. (Crucially, without this characterization, the twist near the end wouldn't have anywhere near the impact it does.) Veris is quietly extraordinary and doesn't quite understand her gifts herself, and both her buried traumas and her aging joints made me cheer her on throughout her adventure. The children Veris is charged with rescuing are neither flawless nor helpless, having what I think is a fitting amount of agency for children being escorted out of a scary, otherworldly place.
I'll admit I didn't quite like how Veris' primary trauma is partly hidden from us until the end, given that the narrative is very much zoomed in on her POV. That may just be a personal preference, though, and is my only real gripe with respect to plotting. The narrative is about as tight as can be for a secondary-world setting, and the adventure feels sufficiently perilous given that the time-and-space-bending nature of the Elmever allows some suspension of disbelief. After all, "all the world is a fable."
I highly recommend this piece of dark fantasy, and I continue to look forward to Premee Mohamed's several upcoming releases.
In The Butcher of the Forest, Premee Mohamed's exceptional ability to describe fae creatures, fae laws and norms, and boundary-crossing spaces shines through. This, to me, is the most obvious reason the story succeeds as a dark, decidedly adult fairytale. Mohamed builds a world in crisp, sharp detail but not to excess—Mohamed employs vivid imagery while still leaving enough to the imagination that we feel like we're in a dangerous fae world. As fairytale retellings and new fairytales are rarely to my taste, I expected this to be my least favorite book by Mohamed (though still a good one). I was pleasantly surprised.
Comparisons between this story and the Brothers Grimm fairytales have been popular among early reviews but might fall flat in explaining what exactly Mohamed has accomplished here. Whereas modern fairytales and retellings are known for being overly sanitized, and the original Grimm tales for being macabre, Mohamed's tale vacillates between the hopeful and the terrible to write a story with a better texture than either. Better still, the MC (Veris) and the children featured in The Butcher of the Forest are not merely vehicles for the plot, as I've tended to see in actual fairytales, but are sufficiently humanized to make me care about what happens to them. (Crucially, without this characterization, the twist near the end wouldn't have anywhere near the impact it does.) Veris is quietly extraordinary and doesn't quite understand her gifts herself, and both her buried traumas and her aging joints made me cheer her on throughout her adventure. The children Veris is charged with rescuing are neither flawless nor helpless, having what I think is a fitting amount of agency for children being escorted out of a scary, otherworldly place.
I'll admit I didn't quite like how Veris' primary trauma is partly hidden from us until the end, given that the narrative is very much zoomed in on her POV. That may just be a personal preference, though, and is my only real gripe with respect to plotting. The narrative is about as tight as can be for a secondary-world setting, and the adventure feels sufficiently perilous given that the time-and-space-bending nature of the Elmever allows some suspension of disbelief. After all, "all the world is a fable."
I highly recommend this piece of dark fantasy, and I continue to look forward to Premee Mohamed's several upcoming releases.