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A review by graculus
For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
Another entry for the 'thank heavens I got this from the library and didn't spend cash money on it' category of reviews, I'm afraid. Which is a shame, since this was a book I was very much looking forward to and hoped would give me more than it managed to do. Meanwhile, I know there's also a bit of an issue at the moment where some people automatically go 'female authored fantasy book = YA' - this book is categorically not being sold as that but that's not helped when the writing overall (and particularly the relationship out of nowhere) feels just so teenage at times.
Okay, on with the book itself, which is the first of a trilogy. It's set in a world where there's an ongoing deal between the rulers of a particular kingdom and the wild forest on their borders that if there are two daughters born into the royal house, the first will be the heir (since it's a matrilineal crown, apparently) and the second will be sacrificed to the forest. The job of this particular country, which apparently survives in significant part because of it and the tithes it receives as a result, is to hold back the encroaching forest which would otherwise cover everything. There's also a slightly confusing piece of world-building going on about five kings who we discover partway through the book were not the Good People they were supposed to be.
Anyway, our protagonist (Red) is the eponymous Second Daughter and has been brought up for her entire life on this basis. She and her older sister also had an odd encounter a few years earlier when they got drunk and tried to burn the nearest part of the forest, only for the forest's magic to manifest through her and kill some local bandits in various gruesome ways. On reaching the right age, Red goes into the forest despite all of this and meets the Wolf, who conveniently turns out to be an attractive emo boy with floppy hair and a tendency to try to take responsibility for everything on himself called Eamonn.
Without spoiling the entire story, there's a lot of blood magic going on (mostly involving people who are not just restricted to Red and Eamonn cutting themselves) and also lots of the forest going a bit crazy for various reasons, both positive and negative. Red's sister is dragged into a conspiracy involving the religious practitioners of her country, supposedly in order to get Red back from the forest, but really for ulterior motives of their own.
I really wanted to like this book more than I did but found myself skimming chunks of it as the same things happened over and over again - character A is told not to do something but does it anyway, character B feels guilty about it even though it's clearly character A's fault for being a stubborn dumbass. Rinse and repeat. This is also one of those books where the world-building has been a bit over-egged and at times became semi-coherent as a result and that always has an impact on my ability to give a crap about what happens to the characters. I'm sure there will be people who'll absolutely adore this book but I'm not one of them. I might pick the next one up from the library if they get it but there's plenty of other stuff I'd prioritise reading first over that...
Okay, on with the book itself, which is the first of a trilogy. It's set in a world where there's an ongoing deal between the rulers of a particular kingdom and the wild forest on their borders that if there are two daughters born into the royal house, the first will be the heir (since it's a matrilineal crown, apparently) and the second will be sacrificed to the forest. The job of this particular country, which apparently survives in significant part because of it and the tithes it receives as a result, is to hold back the encroaching forest which would otherwise cover everything. There's also a slightly confusing piece of world-building going on about five kings who we discover partway through the book were not the Good People they were supposed to be.
Anyway, our protagonist (Red) is the eponymous Second Daughter and has been brought up for her entire life on this basis. She and her older sister also had an odd encounter a few years earlier when they got drunk and tried to burn the nearest part of the forest, only for the forest's magic to manifest through her and kill some local bandits in various gruesome ways. On reaching the right age, Red goes into the forest despite all of this and meets the Wolf, who conveniently turns out to be an attractive emo boy with floppy hair and a tendency to try to take responsibility for everything on himself called Eamonn.
Without spoiling the entire story, there's a lot of blood magic going on (mostly involving people who are not just restricted to Red and Eamonn cutting themselves) and also lots of the forest going a bit crazy for various reasons, both positive and negative. Red's sister is dragged into a conspiracy involving the religious practitioners of her country, supposedly in order to get Red back from the forest, but really for ulterior motives of their own.
I really wanted to like this book more than I did but found myself skimming chunks of it as the same things happened over and over again - character A is told not to do something but does it anyway, character B feels guilty about it even though it's clearly character A's fault for being a stubborn dumbass. Rinse and repeat. This is also one of those books where the world-building has been a bit over-egged and at times became semi-coherent as a result and that always has an impact on my ability to give a crap about what happens to the characters. I'm sure there will be people who'll absolutely adore this book but I'm not one of them. I might pick the next one up from the library if they get it but there's plenty of other stuff I'd prioritise reading first over that...
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm and Blood
Minor: Body horror