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inkandplasma 's review for:
The Wolf and the Woodsman
by Ava Reid
Full review live on my blog from 7th June: https://inkandplasma.com/2021/06/07/the-wolf-and-the-woodsman/
Thanks to Del Rey for the ARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.
Content Warnings: graphic gore, torture, self-harm (including self-amputation), graphic animal death (not pets), antisemitism, genocide and ethnic cleansing, physical abuse by parental figures, vomiting.
I actually was able to listen to an advanced audiobook edition of this book, and I thoroughly recommend it if you like audiobooks. The narrator, Saskia Maarleveld, does an excellent job with all the characters and is very easy to listen to. The Wolf and the Woodsman started a little slow, to be perfectly honest. I was a little confused in the early chapters, and found myself slowing the audiobook down so that I could keep track of what was happening. Despite that confusion I was still very firmly enjoying it. The slow start gave the romance a real chance to develop naturally and shine. And when this book picked up? It picked up.
One of the most gorgeous things in this book is the way the folklore elements were threaded throughout. Combined with Ava Reid’s beautiful writing style, it made for a lyrical and potent read that felt steeped in magic. Even the graphic gore felt somehow poetic and I know I’ll be reading anything else that Ava Reid comes out with – her writing is just so wonderfully readable and they created characters that felt real. I loved the slow burn relationship between Évike and Gáspár. The isolation that their journey presses upon them makes them rely on each other despite their ingrained animosity, and I loved watching the complex way they have to learn to live with each other. There’s a scene in particular that actually HAUNTS me in its intense beauty, and despite being aro (and kind of ace), it was so hot that I literally had to sit down for a minute. That is rare for me, as I don't usually get much interested in m/f romance.
I couldn’t review this book without mentioning the way that it approaches the complexity of nation building and cultural identity, with Évike struggling to balance the facets of her heritage that she’s never known with the facets she does. Ava Reid covers the violence and intricacies of ethnic cleansing and persecution in a fantasy world, specifically focusing on the history of Jewish persecution. It was raw and painful to read at points, and all the more powerful for it.
Thanks to Del Rey for the ARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.
Content Warnings: graphic gore, torture, self-harm (including self-amputation), graphic animal death (not pets), antisemitism, genocide and ethnic cleansing, physical abuse by parental figures, vomiting.
I actually was able to listen to an advanced audiobook edition of this book, and I thoroughly recommend it if you like audiobooks. The narrator, Saskia Maarleveld, does an excellent job with all the characters and is very easy to listen to. The Wolf and the Woodsman started a little slow, to be perfectly honest. I was a little confused in the early chapters, and found myself slowing the audiobook down so that I could keep track of what was happening. Despite that confusion I was still very firmly enjoying it. The slow start gave the romance a real chance to develop naturally and shine. And when this book picked up? It picked up.
One of the most gorgeous things in this book is the way the folklore elements were threaded throughout. Combined with Ava Reid’s beautiful writing style, it made for a lyrical and potent read that felt steeped in magic. Even the graphic gore felt somehow poetic and I know I’ll be reading anything else that Ava Reid comes out with – her writing is just so wonderfully readable and they created characters that felt real. I loved the slow burn relationship between Évike and Gáspár. The isolation that their journey presses upon them makes them rely on each other despite their ingrained animosity, and I loved watching the complex way they have to learn to live with each other. There’s a scene in particular that actually HAUNTS me in its intense beauty, and despite being aro (and kind of ace), it was so hot that I literally had to sit down for a minute. That is rare for me, as I don't usually get much interested in m/f romance.
I couldn’t review this book without mentioning the way that it approaches the complexity of nation building and cultural identity, with Évike struggling to balance the facets of her heritage that she’s never known with the facets she does. Ava Reid covers the violence and intricacies of ethnic cleansing and persecution in a fantasy world, specifically focusing on the history of Jewish persecution. It was raw and painful to read at points, and all the more powerful for it.