The Butcher of the Forest

This was a fun quick little read very much in the same vein as Alice in Wonderland and Every Heart a Doorway. Spooky forest, interesting creatures and a race against the clock, what more could you want?

Beautiful and terrifying with quite the unsatisfying while also satisfying ending.

The butcher of the forest is a dark fairytale like novella, with a stunningly beautiful writing, and an immersive atmosphere.

This book has everything needed for a spooky season read:
- Enchanted forest where kids disappear
- Creepy and mythical creatures
- Difficult decisions
- Magic
- High stakes
- 24-hour limit to the saving operation

This was much darker than I was expecting and I was anxious the whole time, but I really liked it!

Despite the short size and limited knowledge of the past, I was able to connect and care about the characters deeply. I believe that knowing they live under a tyrant played a significant role on this.

The story is very fast paced, and we are thrown into the action immediately, with no time to adjust. This kept me at the edge of my sit the whole time, and the only reason why I didn't read it in one sitting was because I needed to take some breaks from the dark atmosphere.

Premee Mohamed is a fantastic writer and was able to create an enticing world that captured my attention, and that I wanted to know more about, even while recoiling from its darker theme. I am sure going to read more by her!

If you are looking for something light-hearted, this is not it, this is the absolute opposite of a cosy fantasy read... But if you enjoy dark fairytales, or even if you don't, you enjoy well written fantasy, do pick up this book upon its release in February 2024.

I would like to thanks TOR and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is an entrancing dark fairy tale novella. The protagonist, a practical woman in her late 30s, is sent into a horrifying and dangerous forest on a quest, and an adventure ensues. I really enjoyed the writing; at times it reads like nature writing, with sensory descriptions of the forest that made you feel that you were right there in the midst of it. The horror/fantasy elements reminded me at times of Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer, at times of Princess Mononoke, and at times of Over the Garden Wall (if it was much darker). An excellent fall read.

Like the previous book I have read by this author (The Annual Migration of Clouds), this book does a lot in few pages. They also both had somewhat open-ended conclusions, so I come away from this one with the same feeling I had with the previous book: it feels like a window into a world about which I would love to read more stories.