Published: October 9, 2018
Publisher: John Joseph Adams
Series: Standalone
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 224 (Hardcover)
My Rating: 3.5/5.0
Synopsis:
In this contemporary fantasy, the grieving biographer of a Victorian fantasist finds himself slipping inexorably into the supernatural world that consumed his subject.
American Charles Hayden came to England to forget the past.
Failed father, failed husband, and failed scholar, Charles hopes to put his life back together with a biography of Caedmon Hollow, the long-dead author of a legendary Victorian children’s book, In the Night Wood. But soon after settling into Hollow’s remote Yorkshire home, Charles learns that the past isn’t dead.
In the neighboring village, Charles meets a woman he might have loved, a child who could have been his own lost daughter, and the ghost of a self he thought he’d put behind him.
And in the primeval forest surrounding Caedmon Hollow’s ancestral home, an ancient power is stirring. The horned figure of a long-forgotten king haunts Charles Hayden’s dreams. And every morning the fringe of darkling trees presses closer.
Soon enough, Charles will venture into the night wood.
Soon enough he’ll learn that the darkness under the trees is but a shadow of the darkness that waits inside us all.
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’m always game for a story featuring the Fae, whether it be darker fantasy or a bit more positive (or even romantic). This is definitely on the darker side of things and the fantasy element is much subtler than I usually find.
A deeply troubled couple moves to an inherited estate in England and it has a giant forest that locals have creepy stories about. People go missing. People see things in the trees. The previous owner even wrote a creepy book based around the “king of the forest” and it’s fairly disturbing and also the lifelong literary focus of the husband. He’s working on a biography and his wife is working on her art and taking too many pills. You see, their young daughter died and they’re blaming themselves and can’t talk about their problems. It’s a tragedy, and also quite frustrating for the reader.
The story was good in dark, melancholy sort of way and I liked that the fantasy/faerie element was pretty subtle. This isn’t a book I loved and definitely won’t be doing a re-read of it, but I do think it’s the perfect sort of read for the dark, rainy October weather we’re having where I live. The writing was good and there was an element of mystery that I love thrown into fantasy books.
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