Scan barcode
A review by bitteralbatross
The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid
Did not finish book. Stopped at 46%.
As much as I'm on board with hating the racist religious guy, it's absolutely abhorrent to mock someone and actively try to make them uncomfortable about sex. That's not cute banter, that's gross.
Very insta-love for someone from the order that killed her mother and countless other women, and thinks she and her people don't deserve human rights. Before he has had any kind of character growth. Also thinking someone is hot is not chemistry. I did not need every sentence to mention how sexy she thinks he is. The yearning was so ham-fisted, going into way too much detail instead of being subtle and giving the reader credit for understanding the tension, which should grow over time. "My breath hitched, and not from the cold" - I know that from context, I don't need the constant over explanation that actually diminishes the tension.
The whole first part was repetitive and felt so disjointed and jarring. Travel, a bit of conversation, then a thing would just happen, and they'd go back to travel. I respect that the task that would normally take up the whole book was actually resolved/abandoned early on, but it also made it feel odd and pointless? Like the whole journey hadn't furthered the plot or their relationship and experiences, and it took like two seconds to accept that they had to change their plans completely - no tension or emotion. I thought they would have encountered things along the way that would give them greater understanding of each other and more empathy, which would build their relationship and character growth but instead it just felt like things happened to them for action (or to make her think more about how sexy he is) and then they immediately moved to the next thing.
I was surprised to learn their ages given how childish and over the top the adult women mean girls at the beginning were. There's such thing as subtlety - she can feel like an outsider without having been literally abused by her entire village her whole life. And if she wanted to go that route, she could have written an interesting character affected by the trauma she experienced - she did a much better job of that in Juniper & Thorn but didn't even seem to attempt it here.
Very insta-love for someone from the order that killed her mother and countless other women, and thinks she and her people don't deserve human rights. Before he has had any kind of character growth. Also thinking someone is hot is not chemistry. I did not need every sentence to mention how sexy she thinks he is. The yearning was so ham-fisted, going into way too much detail instead of being subtle and giving the reader credit for understanding the tension, which should grow over time. "My breath hitched, and not from the cold" - I know that from context, I don't need the constant over explanation that actually diminishes the tension.
The whole first part was repetitive and felt so disjointed and jarring. Travel, a bit of conversation, then a thing would just happen, and they'd go back to travel.
I was surprised to learn their ages given how childish and over the top the adult women mean girls at the beginning were. There's such thing as subtlety - she can feel like an outsider without having been literally abused by her entire village her whole life. And if she wanted to go that route, she could have written an interesting character affected by the trauma she experienced - she did a much better job of that in Juniper & Thorn but didn't even seem to attempt it here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Child death