A review by thesandyreader
The Traitor of Sherwood Forest by Amy S. Kaufman

dark slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

2.5

This book just wasn’t what I was hoping it would be. 

I loved the premise of it - a peasant girl who works for Robin Hood, whispering secrets of the household she works in. Robin’s tricks implicate her in a murder and she needs to decide if she is a pawn in the game or an equal player. 

Unfortunately, I don’t think the book really lives up to it. There isn’t much action in the book, it feels like a long drawn out story that meanders from place to place but doesn’t really pick up till 60% of the way through. I didn’t find myself wanting to read it. 

Jane is a selfish main character who seems forever unhappy with what she has gotten in life and I found it difficult to care about her.

The story is at its core about the hunt for Robin Hood by three different people, and that Robin Hood is not the hero he is perceived as. In that sense, it did a great job getting that across, but the story lost the sense of adventure that typically comes from Robin Hood stories. Instead this was a brutal and almost gory version where it’s just a timeline of people murdering each other. Jane has no chance to grow and there is no pivotal moment where she is really implicated and needs to make a tough decision or can really have an impact and think for herself. She’s supposed to be the main character but is really just subject to the whims of everyone else until essentially the last page. 

This might be for you if you prefer books that are dark twists on fairy tales and want to explore human nature.