A review by liteartha
The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

ehh. this is a tricky one to rate. from a prose standpoint, this would've been a four star read. i liked the dark folktale atmosphere, found the two leads likeable, and did enjoy the hungarian and jewish cultural aspects very much (though i have it on good authority that the brief line of turkish in this book is some mild bullshit lol)

the frequent weaving in of storytelling drew a lot of focus from the book's plot and politics and the pacing really suffered for it, especially in the latter third. i also really wished there'd been more establishing of how various sorts of power and magic worked within this world and found the relationships difficult to believe
particularly how évike seemed hardly to think of boróka (her one apparent friend) after leaving, the evolution of her relationship with gáspár which at once seemed to have a lot of forced tension and very little real development before they loved each other, and the relationship with her father and the other yehuli that felt thoroughly under-explored


overall, a promising debut novel but not quite all i'd been hoping for

p.s. gáspár is like a soft boi matthias helvar meets prince zuko and i'm not mad about it
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