A review by ktrain3900
North Woods by Daniel Mason

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I finished this book a few hours ago and I still feel lost in it. Part of me wanted to go back and read it from the start, even though I'm not much of a re-reader, to catch things I know I missed. The world of the woods is lush, filled with beautiful imagery of birdsong, trees, with love and lust, and peopled (although not solely by people) with a cast of fascinating and maddening characters. I found the format, of 12 essentially interlinked chapter-stories, interspersed with various intermissions (blurred images, music, lyrics, almanac pages, &etc.), a nice variation on more traditional novel composition, adding layers to an epic that is about more than the words on the page. I couldn't shake the feeling that it was more evocative than imaginative, which isn't a bad thing necessarily, but left a slight desire for a little more...of something. I'll likely be coming back to this one at some time in the future.