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nyvixn 's review for:
Gods of the Wyrdwood
by R.J. Barker
hovering at 3.5/5 stars. the world of crua is fascinatingly wrought, from the mountain-high trees to the myriad creatures to the entire "web of life" that runs beneath. creepy woods and old gods and power beyond human understanding residing in the old places.. love how prominent these aspects were.
but otherwise, the whole thing is a bit of a mess.
we go through over 600 pages, but cahan still feels indistinct to me, his character flipflopping so many times between guilt and doing something, even after he encounters the same situation over and over again, from the people who first took his farm to venn to the village that scorns him. each time, it feels like the previous encounter might as well not have happened, for all he goes back and forth on staying and running. towards the end, when the villagers turn against him by ont, he's surprised and angry - which left me surprised and angry that he didn't expect this, as if the entire novel hadn't already led up to this, as if he himself had not already previously acknowledged the possibility. indecisiveness as a characteristic can work, but i don't think it worked well here.
other notes on character work:
- found venn to be incredibly annoying (not sure if that was overly biased from cahan's pov). the dedication to non-killing was fine, but the complete naivete was so eyeroll-inducing. even when cahan states that the kid was sheltered, and we know they were locked up, why write a character completely incapable of nuance and learning?
- kirvan was wasted, i think. it didn't feel like her so-called ruthlessness was conveyed well enough. a person in power doing vile things, but backed up by power doesn't speak of ruthlessness. which is fair, if the idea is to make her seem desperate and struggling to survive. but then that also just made her incredibly one-dimensional and tiresome. by the time her downfall came for her, i was pretty meh about the whole outcome.
the overall pacing is a bit strange as well. i liked the multiple expeditions that cahan takes into the woods and other towns, but it also felt weirdly episodic and repetitive. each time it felt like it was building to some Big Plot Turning Point, but then he just turns around and goes back home to the farm, where he's delusionally content for a weeks at a time, before another new episode comes up.
the ending twist was pretty cool - i'd been wondering if we would ever see the infamous cowl-rai of the new god and to learn it's nahac, and enabled by saradis? that the new god is all a front? cool. but also a bit flimsy, for all that we get to the end to learn this. we don't see enough of nahac's past, even from cahan's pov, that this reveal is made more powerful. it's giving "huh. that's cool i guess".
other annoying things:
- the grammar and tenses are all over the place. at first i though the switch to present tense only took place when cahan was in some forest trance as a deliberate way of creating vibes, but then it just keeps happens randomly, with no reason i can discern other than bad writing. there's also the run-on sentences and weird comma placements, and the expectation of a connecting noun and there being none. made it an absolute chore to read some sentences, i can tell you that.
- lack of a glossary, worsened by a lack of timely exposition. at the end of over 600 pages, i still don't know what the cowl is, beyond a power that lives under the skin and takes life force. but what is it? why's it called that? what are the rai? why are they longer-lived? why are they cruel? forest mysteries i get, but these basics not being explained was beyond annoying. what about the clans? how on earth is a clan derived, and why would it even matter if you were clanless? so much of cahan's story hinges on him being clanless, but we get zilch explanation on the significance of clans.
nevertheless, i loved the ritual of old woods and old gods and communion with an older power. the whole do not harm and harm will not come to you thing just speaks to me, and i loved that it's so in the forefront of the world.
but otherwise, the whole thing is a bit of a mess.
Spoiler
we go through over 600 pages, but cahan still feels indistinct to me, his character flipflopping so many times between guilt and doing something, even after he encounters the same situation over and over again, from the people who first took his farm to venn to the village that scorns him. each time, it feels like the previous encounter might as well not have happened, for all he goes back and forth on staying and running. towards the end, when the villagers turn against him by ont, he's surprised and angry - which left me surprised and angry that he didn't expect this, as if the entire novel hadn't already led up to this, as if he himself had not already previously acknowledged the possibility. indecisiveness as a characteristic can work, but i don't think it worked well here.
other notes on character work:
- found venn to be incredibly annoying (not sure if that was overly biased from cahan's pov). the dedication to non-killing was fine, but the complete naivete was so eyeroll-inducing. even when cahan states that the kid was sheltered, and we know they were locked up, why write a character completely incapable of nuance and learning?
- kirvan was wasted, i think. it didn't feel like her so-called ruthlessness was conveyed well enough. a person in power doing vile things, but backed up by power doesn't speak of ruthlessness. which is fair, if the idea is to make her seem desperate and struggling to survive. but then that also just made her incredibly one-dimensional and tiresome. by the time her downfall came for her, i was pretty meh about the whole outcome.
the overall pacing is a bit strange as well. i liked the multiple expeditions that cahan takes into the woods and other towns, but it also felt weirdly episodic and repetitive. each time it felt like it was building to some Big Plot Turning Point, but then he just turns around and goes back home to the farm, where he's delusionally content for a weeks at a time, before another new episode comes up.
the ending twist was pretty cool - i'd been wondering if we would ever see the infamous cowl-rai of the new god and to learn it's nahac, and enabled by saradis? that the new god is all a front? cool. but also a bit flimsy, for all that we get to the end to learn this. we don't see enough of nahac's past, even from cahan's pov, that this reveal is made more powerful. it's giving "huh. that's cool i guess".
other annoying things:
- the grammar and tenses are all over the place. at first i though the switch to present tense only took place when cahan was in some forest trance as a deliberate way of creating vibes, but then it just keeps happens randomly, with no reason i can discern other than bad writing. there's also the run-on sentences and weird comma placements, and the expectation of a connecting noun and there being none. made it an absolute chore to read some sentences, i can tell you that.
- lack of a glossary, worsened by a lack of timely exposition. at the end of over 600 pages, i still don't know what the cowl is, beyond a power that lives under the skin and takes life force. but what is it? why's it called that? what are the rai? why are they longer-lived? why are they cruel? forest mysteries i get, but these basics not being explained was beyond annoying. what about the clans? how on earth is a clan derived, and why would it even matter if you were clanless? so much of cahan's story hinges on him being clanless, but we get zilch explanation on the significance of clans.
nevertheless, i loved the ritual of old woods and old gods and communion with an older power. the whole do not harm and harm will not come to you thing just speaks to me, and i loved that it's so in the forefront of the world.