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bawright1987's review against another edition
2.0
I forced myself to finish this because I really wanted to like it, but in the end, I thought it was weird and really didn't understand what happened or what the point of the story was supposed to be. I kept plugging away at it, hoping that the gothic aspects would continue to suck me in deeper, but it never happened and before I knew it I was at page 300 going what-just-happened? Don't recommend this book.
sabregirl's review
3.0
RHL Classifications:
Time and Setting: Victorian England
Genre: Historical/Paranormal Romance
Heat Level: 1
Reviewer Rating: 3 stars
Review by Lizzie English
Jane has a terrible secret and only her two best friends know the truth about her. She’s not a witch, she’s not a magician, but she’s something else, something of the Earth, almost, and she can see the souls of objects. It’s a promising start – an odd power, and it takes a lot of explaining through the novel. It’s pretty much in this very point that the author had lost me. Something new and unheard of, hearing the souls of man made objects? What could that lead to? How does it manifest? That questions that I kept having didn’t really get answered through the book. It never really gives an orgin for her powers.
Everything that Jane is involved in leads to disaster. She’s isolated and living in a house where her only family is barely around and the servants are scared of her; she’s even isolated from her friends. Her best friend Madeline is scared of her and unfortunately Madeline can’t stand to touch her. When someone touches Jane they experience seeing the world as Jane does where everything has a soul and it’s not pleasant. That leads to some awkward moments: how can you have a friendship of that nature when you can’t even touch?! This is in the time of Victorian London where aristocratic girls and women are each others bosom companions, often lacing arms and hugging. Her other best friend, Nathan, is the opposite; he craves her touches and experiences. It’s Nathan that story centers around, Nathan’s obsession with Jane’s power and finding out the answers that she can’t give him.
At the start of the novel, Nathan has gone missing. He had just returned from war and joined a cult that promised that he would understand Jane’s power even more. There are a number of twists and turns in the story, involving him and what exactly happened when he went off to war, because he wasn’t involved in the fighting. He gets stuck in a monastery that just happens to worship a long lost Earth goddess. The White Forest was easy to picture, but it reminded me a lot of The Time Machine by HG Wells as Nathan goes into the future complete with subhuman primates. But what is never explained is Why? Primates? What is this place? How was it suddenly inaccessible one minute, and then all the characters are there the next? The description of the White Forest though is lovely, it’s one of the few things that’s a saving point. It’s not what you would expect but it holds a certain beauty that makes the reader realize why it was so wanted.
The romance in the book is pretty straightforward. Jane thinks that because Nathan is so attracted to her power that he is in fact in love with her, but it’s not like that at all and eventually gets thrown in her face in the worst way. That was pretty hard to read, even though the author has foreshadowed it, especially with how Jane is treated, but to read her actually going through it is heartbreaking. But this shows Jane’s naiveté in relation to her secluded life. Any slight form of affection shown toward her is almost guaranteed to be seen on her part as love. It makes you feel sorry for Jane and what she has to do in order to finally be accepted towards the end of the book. There are a lot of awkward moments in the novel, especially revolving anything involving potential love and Jane. It makes the reader wonder if the goal of the author was to show that Jane was unlovable and how no one understood her. It makes the reader feel sorry for her more than anything, but frustrated at the same time.
The White Forest is really captivating as it has an interesting plot and it’s very unique. Taking into account my misgivings I could only give it a three star rating, but that doesn’t mean that others won’t enjoy it more.
Time and Setting: Victorian England
Genre: Historical/Paranormal Romance
Heat Level: 1
Reviewer Rating: 3 stars
Review by Lizzie English
Jane has a terrible secret and only her two best friends know the truth about her. She’s not a witch, she’s not a magician, but she’s something else, something of the Earth, almost, and she can see the souls of objects. It’s a promising start – an odd power, and it takes a lot of explaining through the novel. It’s pretty much in this very point that the author had lost me. Something new and unheard of, hearing the souls of man made objects? What could that lead to? How does it manifest? That questions that I kept having didn’t really get answered through the book. It never really gives an orgin for her powers.
Everything that Jane is involved in leads to disaster. She’s isolated and living in a house where her only family is barely around and the servants are scared of her; she’s even isolated from her friends. Her best friend Madeline is scared of her and unfortunately Madeline can’t stand to touch her. When someone touches Jane they experience seeing the world as Jane does where everything has a soul and it’s not pleasant. That leads to some awkward moments: how can you have a friendship of that nature when you can’t even touch?! This is in the time of Victorian London where aristocratic girls and women are each others bosom companions, often lacing arms and hugging. Her other best friend, Nathan, is the opposite; he craves her touches and experiences. It’s Nathan that story centers around, Nathan’s obsession with Jane’s power and finding out the answers that she can’t give him.
At the start of the novel, Nathan has gone missing. He had just returned from war and joined a cult that promised that he would understand Jane’s power even more. There are a number of twists and turns in the story, involving him and what exactly happened when he went off to war, because he wasn’t involved in the fighting. He gets stuck in a monastery that just happens to worship a long lost Earth goddess. The White Forest was easy to picture, but it reminded me a lot of The Time Machine by HG Wells as Nathan goes into the future complete with subhuman primates. But what is never explained is Why? Primates? What is this place? How was it suddenly inaccessible one minute, and then all the characters are there the next? The description of the White Forest though is lovely, it’s one of the few things that’s a saving point. It’s not what you would expect but it holds a certain beauty that makes the reader realize why it was so wanted.
The romance in the book is pretty straightforward. Jane thinks that because Nathan is so attracted to her power that he is in fact in love with her, but it’s not like that at all and eventually gets thrown in her face in the worst way. That was pretty hard to read, even though the author has foreshadowed it, especially with how Jane is treated, but to read her actually going through it is heartbreaking. But this shows Jane’s naiveté in relation to her secluded life. Any slight form of affection shown toward her is almost guaranteed to be seen on her part as love. It makes you feel sorry for Jane and what she has to do in order to finally be accepted towards the end of the book. There are a lot of awkward moments in the novel, especially revolving anything involving potential love and Jane. It makes the reader wonder if the goal of the author was to show that Jane was unlovable and how no one understood her. It makes the reader feel sorry for her more than anything, but frustrated at the same time.
The White Forest is really captivating as it has an interesting plot and it’s very unique. Taking into account my misgivings I could only give it a three star rating, but that doesn’t mean that others won’t enjoy it more.
linguana's review against another edition
2.0
My full review can be found at SFF Book Review
This book started out very interesting. The setting and style took me in immediately and the protagonist's strange gift - she can hear and fell the "souls" of inanimate objects - was intriguing enough to keep me going for a while. Additionally, Jane's best friend, Nathan Ashe, has disappeared, so she and her other friend Maddy set out to investigate and bring Nathan back... if he's still alive, that is.
What sounds intriguing turned into one of the most tedious novels I've read lately. The intricate prose kept me going long after I was already annoyed with the plot. The heroine constantly loses herself in memories instead of acting. We are fed the tiniest bits of (mostly useless) information but the plot simply doesn't move forward. I read more than half of this novel and when, by then, there still was only one clue as to what Jane's gift is, I gave up.
I read the last few pages to find out the secret - and it left me incredibly underwhelmed. I was too lazy to look for what happened to Nathan and (I think this speaks for itself) I really didn't care. The author certainly knows how to write beautifully and some characters have potential. The tension between Jane and Maddy was quite interesting but taking all things into consideration, none of these positive points are enough to make a good book.
This book started out very interesting. The setting and style took me in immediately and the protagonist's strange gift - she can hear and fell the "souls" of inanimate objects - was intriguing enough to keep me going for a while. Additionally, Jane's best friend, Nathan Ashe, has disappeared, so she and her other friend Maddy set out to investigate and bring Nathan back... if he's still alive, that is.
What sounds intriguing turned into one of the most tedious novels I've read lately. The intricate prose kept me going long after I was already annoyed with the plot. The heroine constantly loses herself in memories instead of acting. We are fed the tiniest bits of (mostly useless) information but the plot simply doesn't move forward. I read more than half of this novel and when, by then, there still was only one clue as to what Jane's gift is, I gave up.
I read the last few pages to find out the secret - and it left me incredibly underwhelmed. I was too lazy to look for what happened to Nathan and (I think this speaks for itself) I really didn't care. The author certainly knows how to write beautifully and some characters have potential. The tension between Jane and Maddy was quite interesting but taking all things into consideration, none of these positive points are enough to make a good book.
greenldydragon's review against another edition
4.0
I'm really torn about this book. It was REALLY well-written, but half the time I was confused about the narrator's special powers. Even at the end I still was unsure that I understood the author's meaning. Aside from that confusion, the plot draws you in and keeps hold of your attention for the entire book. I almost gave it 3 stars but in the end, it is worth 4 stars.
crumpette's review against another edition
2.0
At first I thought it was a bit quirky but interesting but then two thirds of the way through it just got super strange and I had to really make myself finish it.
aphelia88's review against another edition
2.0
The mention of H. P. Lovecraft in one of the back cover quotes intrigued me; although I haven't read that author, I have read mentions of his Elder Gods and different takes on his mythology in other works I've enjoyed. While I can see a similar type of ideology at work here, both the central love (more like obsession) triangle and eventual unveiling of the other realm failed to be affecting.
Stylistically, this is a slightly creepy read that gradually builds up a feeling a pervasive dread that slowly fizzles out. Set in Victorian London, it follows an unusual trio of friends: shy, sheltered Jane, the outgoing Maddy - with her Gothic affectations and sensibilities - and the dashingly handsome Nathan who beguiles them both. He has the personality of a lout, so it must be his long auburn hair and "Bryonic" moodiness that enthralls them. This relationship between the three only makes sense when, towards the end of the book, we are told that.
Nathan does have an unhealthy curiosity about otherworldly things.
If Maddy is a spider, and Jane is a blundering fly, then Nathan is the sticky web that binds them both. For while Maddy moons over Nathan, he in turn is fascinated by Jane. In her painful naivete, Jane imagines that his interest is romantic, but he is merely using her for her strange abilities.
After her mother dies (in an incredibly odd, hallucinatory way - supernaturally poisoned by air vents in a field of shale while out walking), Jane starts to see and hear the essence of man-made objects around her. Blindingly bright auras and terrible anguished noises. As these sights and sounds grow stronger, Jane starts to receive glimpses of an unnaturally still world beyond chaotic reality - the White Forest of the title - which Nathan helps her conceptualize as the Empyrean. When Jane touches others, she can share her perceptions with them, something she calls "the transference".
Jane is a doorway of sorts into this realm, but although she is drawn to enter, she fears it as well.
Then Nathan is sent to war and returns a changed boy. He becomes involved in a dark cult run by charismatic Ariston Day, a mystic determined to "unmake" the world, peeling away its layers until it returns to a primeval Paradise. He stages dramatic "provocations" to alter the reality of his disciples in an attempt at reaching altered consciousness. Such a notion does fit neatly with the Victorian interest in the occult and supernatural.
Nathan believes that the Empyrean is this Paradise and so he breaks his promise to Jane and tells Ariston of her talent. When Nathan disappears, Maddy goes mad, and Jane must push the limits of her unknown abilities to find him.
I did not find Ariston Day to be villainous enough. He spends far too long trying to convince Jane to join him, only to use physical force and manipulative coercion anyway. Why not have done so from the start, if she obviously need not be willing? Jane proves ridiculously easy to "provoke". His acolytes, the Fetches, are creepy but otherwise are of little important or menace. The famous Inspector Vidocq, who I kept waiting for more from (I was sure he was going to introduce Jane into the truth of her nature, and a hidden supernatural world) is completely superfluous.
Ultimately, although the setting of the showdown in the great Crystal Palace was inspired, none of the characters - not even pitiable Jane - is remotely likeable or sympathetic. And the white God apes in the Forest were just plain weird. A waste of time.
Stylistically, this is a slightly creepy read that gradually builds up a feeling a pervasive dread that slowly fizzles out. Set in Victorian London, it follows an unusual trio of friends: shy, sheltered Jane, the outgoing Maddy - with her Gothic affectations and sensibilities - and the dashingly handsome Nathan who beguiles them both. He has the personality of a lout, so it must be his long auburn hair and "Bryonic" moodiness that enthralls them. This relationship between the three only makes sense when, towards the end of the book, we are told that
Spoiler
Maddy's reasons for reaching out to weird, isolated Jane are a sort of "Cruel Intentions" style erotic game she's playing with Nathan, in order to win his affectionNathan does have an unhealthy curiosity about otherworldly things.
If Maddy is a spider, and Jane is a blundering fly, then Nathan is the sticky web that binds them both. For while Maddy moons over Nathan, he in turn is fascinated by Jane. In her painful naivete, Jane imagines that his interest is romantic, but he is merely using her for her strange abilities.
After her mother dies (in an incredibly odd, hallucinatory way - supernaturally poisoned by air vents in a field of shale while out walking), Jane starts to see and hear the essence of man-made objects around her. Blindingly bright auras and terrible anguished noises. As these sights and sounds grow stronger, Jane starts to receive glimpses of an unnaturally still world beyond chaotic reality - the White Forest of the title - which Nathan helps her conceptualize as the Empyrean. When Jane touches others, she can share her perceptions with them, something she calls "the transference".
Jane is a doorway of sorts into this realm, but although she is drawn to enter, she fears it as well.
Then Nathan is sent to war and returns a changed boy. He becomes involved in a dark cult run by charismatic Ariston Day, a mystic determined to "unmake" the world, peeling away its layers until it returns to a primeval Paradise. He stages dramatic "provocations" to alter the reality of his disciples in an attempt at reaching altered consciousness. Such a notion does fit neatly with the Victorian interest in the occult and supernatural.
Nathan believes that the Empyrean is this Paradise and so he breaks his promise to Jane and tells Ariston of her talent. When Nathan disappears, Maddy goes mad, and Jane must push the limits of her unknown abilities to find him.
I did not find Ariston Day to be villainous enough. He spends far too long trying to convince Jane to join him, only to use physical force and manipulative coercion anyway. Why not have done so from the start, if she obviously need not be willing? Jane proves ridiculously easy to "provoke". His acolytes, the Fetches, are creepy but otherwise are of little important or menace. The famous Inspector Vidocq, who I kept waiting for more from (I was sure he was going to introduce Jane into the truth of her nature, and a hidden supernatural world) is completely superfluous.
Ultimately, although the setting of the showdown in the great Crystal Palace was inspired, none of the characters - not even pitiable Jane - is remotely likeable or sympathetic. And the white God apes in the Forest were just plain weird. A waste of time.
luckyliza13's review against another edition
4.0
Great gothic read, beautiful vocabulary, lush settings, intriguing characters. Reminds me of Great & Terrible Beauty and The Night Circus.
pema66's review against another edition
1.0
Ugh. Why don't American authors write about what they know?! You're an American from Chicago? Set your novel in 19th century Illinois then. I gave up and left it on the bus after three chapters of terrible writing when it became clear that the author appeared to see Hampstead Heath as some sort of Yorkshire moor. Painful to read.
sanaastoria's review against another edition
5.0
[5 Stars] I need more time to formulate my opinion about this book. I absolutely lived the writing, its originality, the dark Gothic tone, the Victorian and slightly steampunk setting, the vivid somewhat dense descriptions, the imperfect flawed and at times cruel characters. Then again, this left me hungry for something more, to be further convinced... Regardless I loved this and would give it 4.5 stars, may be even 5 stars. It was exactly the kind of book I like to read.
I've decided this deserves a 5 star rating from me. I had a few issues with it, yes, but I loved the experience of reading the White Forest. It reminded me in a way of Angela Carter, and this book resonated with me in some way, in a way which negates my problems with the book and firmly places it with a 5 star rating. Simply put, I loved reading this book.
I've decided this deserves a 5 star rating from me. I had a few issues with it, yes, but I loved the experience of reading the White Forest. It reminded me in a way of Angela Carter, and this book resonated with me in some way, in a way which negates my problems with the book and firmly places it with a 5 star rating. Simply put, I loved reading this book.