A review by emrysmerlyn
The Forest God by Jamie Lackey

5.0

“Even if you knew you’d start a new life tomorrow, would you want to die today?”

I was drawn to this book by its cover; for about six years now, I have made it a point to conduct an annual re-read of Richard Adams’s book Watership Down. You can probably guess why a fantasy featuring a dramatic rabbit illustration on the cover caught my eye. (Although it is in fact a hare, not a rabbit, on this cover). At a quick 80 pages, this poetic and magical little novella packs a punch.

The story is a delightful mix of magic and pragmatism — exemplified in the scene where Margery and Lord Hugh meet in the strawberry garden that the Witch maintains for the benefit of the Forest God. Lord Hugh asks how it is that she can pass through barriers that open only to the Forest God, and Margery replies simply: “Someone has to weed the strawberry patch.”

Premise:

A Witch’s apprentice, a dandy lord, and a god walk into a forest... and set out on a mission to right something broken in the world.

Characters:

The Forest God has been reborn, ready to live out this lifetime in the body of a hare. The god has lived many lives and assumed the cares and joys of all the creatures of the forest at some point during its many reincarnations.

Margery - A reluctant apprentice to the local Witch (nameless, as all full Witches are, after all, “She does not have her own separate self. A Witch needs a name no more than a tree does, or a river, or the Forest God.”). Margery actually more or less enjoys her work and the life she is currently living, but she’s deeply resentful of the fact that it was not her choice to live this way. She is kind and talented and a compassionate healer, burdened by fairly severe self-esteem issues.

Young Lord Hugh - A silly and rather notoriously useless Young Lord (back at it again with the Proper Nouns). He makes a life changing error one day, when he tries to do the Witch a favor by shooting a hare he sees eating the strawberries in her garden. He is good natured and confident, in the way of someone used to getting whatever he wants, and yet he is willing to make any effort to become the Lord his village needs.

I’m a sucker for stories about unlikely friendships, so this really hit the mark for me. It’s a love story where friendship and duty counterbalance the romance. I don’t typically go into novellas expecting them to be very character-driven, and was pleasantly surprised to find that this quiet fairy tale features a trio of cleverly well-drawn characters.