Book Review: The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

Read this book if you like:

~Pagan vs. Religious Establishment

~Dark fantasy with gore and violence

~Misfit trope

~Enemies to Lovers

~Well-written, lush prose

I’m torn about my experience with The Wolf and the Woodsman. From chapter one, I was drawn into the story by a combination of the author’s skill with words, the world building, and the connection I felt with the main character, Evike. I loved the forest setting, the mythology, and the feeling of darkness lurking around the corner.

Evike is thrown into an adventure, taken by the shadowy, feared Woodsmen, and after a dangerous journey through creature-infested forest, she is left alone with the one-eyed captain, Barany Gaspar, who turns out to be the disgraced prince himself. At this point in the book the tension began to flag, and the plot wanders.

Even though TWatW is clearly enemies to lovers, no real chemistry ever develops between Evike and Barany. Despite him showing compassion for poor villagers, and reluctantly saving Evike’s life, Reid never gives me a reason to fall in love with him. He seems more devoted to his religious dogma than anything else, and is often conflicted about his feelings for Evike in a way that is irritating and wishy-washy as opposed to convincing. On the romantic front, the book falls flat.

Much of the story is devoted to the religious constructs and myths in the world of The Wolf and the Woodsman, and after a time becomes heavy-handed. The characters often tell stories (this reminded me of The Bear and the Nightingale) except instead of magical and winsome, the tone was oppressive and dark; the mythologies didn’t seem to positively contribute to the lives of the people in Regorszag or the characters. The rare exception was the Yehuli community, in which Evike briefly finds a sense of home and identity. But the description and storyline of the Yehuli so closely resembles the Jewish people (even the story of Esther is taken straight from Torah/Old Testament) that it pulled me out of the story completely. I expected fantasy, not an insertion of actual history with a different name. I felt cheated and disappointed. Especially with the potential stakes of genocide casually thrown in.

This feeling overshadowed the last third of the book, which is taken up by a quest for a magical creature that is the key to defeating the evil that is threatening all of Regorszag. (YAWN). Which, I might add, Evike and Barany had already tried to find and failed. I did not enjoy them setting out again on the same journey, and the way the plot resolved, this part of the book seemed futile time spent. I did not find the villain convincing or fleshed-out, and never really understood type of magic he used to resurrect himself.

The only thing that really made TWatW worth reading was the quality of writing. The prose is beautiful. But even good writing can’t carry a lackluster story, no chemistry between the main characters, and a religious system too similar to a present day faith to be effective world-building for a fantasy novel.  

3 Stars