A review by kezemu
After the Forest by Kell Woods
Did not finish book. Stopped at 35%.
If you have ever read any German fairytale, this is a butchery of somehow every one they touch, as well as the myths.
The style itself is fine enough, although as a native speaker I'm taken out of immersion every time there is a random German word thrown in, which, while in the context correct, are absolutely ill fitting as it's things like the literal translation for mayor or town square (and, for context: German nouns are written with capital letters, which this does extremely rarely and at seemingly random). That in itself wouldn't be a deal breaker, of course, but there's other things, like giving the main character a Jewish (although German sounding) surname while making them Christian leaves a bad taste in my mouth as it proves further that research didn't go further than opening random Wikipedia pages and fitting them together in no regards to anyone's culture. (Mind: I'd have loved to see a Jewish protagonist, but this felt incredibly disrespectful.) This shows in the handling of the stories and myths as well.
This could have worked if it hadn't attempted to tie itself so closely to a specific region and it's tales. The way it does however, it's not a clever reimagining, but a poor retelling of something the author might have heard as a child and then wrote down, misremembering most of the important pieces, merging tales in a nonsensical way.
If you aren't familiar with any of that, I'm sure it's a fine book. As I said, the style itself is very nice, easy to read, and the pacing is also decent. As someone with a special interest in these things however, I had to stop about 1/3th in as I grew tired of looking up every five or so pages about another thing that has been butchered.
The style itself is fine enough, although as a native speaker I'm taken out of immersion every time there is a random German word thrown in, which, while in the context correct, are absolutely ill fitting as it's things like the literal translation for mayor or town square (and, for context: German nouns are written with capital letters, which this does extremely rarely and at seemingly random). That in itself wouldn't be a deal breaker, of course, but there's other things, like giving the main character a Jewish (although German sounding) surname while making them Christian leaves a bad taste in my mouth as it proves further that research didn't go further than opening random Wikipedia pages and fitting them together in no regards to anyone's culture. (Mind: I'd have loved to see a Jewish protagonist, but this felt incredibly disrespectful.) This shows in the handling of the stories and myths as well.
This could have worked if it hadn't attempted to tie itself so closely to a specific region and it's tales. The way it does however, it's not a clever reimagining, but a poor retelling of something the author might have heard as a child and then wrote down, misremembering most of the important pieces, merging tales in a nonsensical way.
If you aren't familiar with any of that, I'm sure it's a fine book. As I said, the style itself is very nice, easy to read, and the pacing is also decent. As someone with a special interest in these things however, I had to stop about 1/3th in as I grew tired of looking up every five or so pages about another thing that has been butchered.