A review by nettleviolet
The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A

1.75

This had to be one of my least favourite books of the year, which was super disappointing. To start, I found the characters really inconsistent, unbelievable, repetitive and one-dimensional and the romance between the two main characters to be totally unbelievable and gross. I hate the trope of "the oppressed falls for the oppressor" (where the oppressor is a person of great power in the oppressive system) because it is very hard to do and they did it really poorly in this book. 

The first half was mostly this blossoming, totally unbelievable and really gross romance, which consisted of the "strong female character" doing her best to both be mean to, but not hurt the feelings of, her captor that she is "falling in love" with.  

But, into the second half, I enjoyed the story more as it delved more into politics, spirituality, family and ancestry. Not enough to enjoy the book, but enough to rate it more than 1 star. 

There were many folk tales peppered through the book which were my favourite part, and the mythology was well developed as was the magic system. However, neither of these were good enough to redeem the book.

I'm not super into horror/gore and there was a lot of it in this book and that was also off-putting. BUT I have definitely tolerated higher levels of horror/gore in books I've enjoyed, so I think it just was a point against a book I already hated. 

Overall, if I hadn't been reading this for a bookclub I would've DNF'd it about 20% in, if not sooner. 
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