Giving my thoughts on this particular book may be a little difficult, as that ending and its message somewhat blindsided me, while I was actually having a decent time with the story up to that point. There are parts of the book that are really engaging: its worldbuilding, its ruthless commitment to showing how terrifying the dangers of the forest are, the foreshadowing, and the resilience and cleverness of Kestrel.

But there's one small thing that sours the pot, and it's

the complete apology of all the abuse Kestrel suffers at the hands of her mother and grandmother, even her father to a degree. In the end, Kestrel believes that all the abuse she went through, all the times her mother and grandmother made her terrified for her life, whether it was the near drowning, physical or mental harm, or really just scaring the daylights out of her, was warranted because it made her stronger. I really don't think there is any good way to swing that kind of message. If anything, seeing the constant abuse from her family and the townspeople really made me squirm numerous times while reading. And the fact that it all culminates to her entire family dying, being run out of her home, leaving her only two friends behind so she can leave the forest with her worst fear at her side, is just....sad. It doesn't feel like a triumph, it just feels like she truly has nothing left to lose so why not try to get out of the forest? I mean, I don't mind bittersweet endings but this is just overkill isn't it?

My rating stands as 2.5 stars mainly because I do recognize a lot of great elements here, but the final message really drags this book down from something that I can enthusiastically recommend to children.