You know how sometimes you read a book that the you are absolutely loving, and you are like, Oooh, I am going to have to buy a copy of this one, and then something happens that makes you say, Why did she have to go and do that? I've read a couple of those lately. The first one, which I actually read more than a month and eight books ago, is the one I made reference to at the end of my May post - The Waking Forest by Alyssa Wees:
The waking forest has secrets. To Rhea, it appears like a mirage, dark and dense, at the very edge of her backyard. But when she reaches out to touch it, the forest vanishes. She’s desperate to know more—until she finds a peculiar boy who offers to reveal its secrets. If she plays a game.
To the Witch, the forest is her home, where she sits on her throne of carved bone, waiting for dreaming children to beg her to grant their wishes. One night, a mysterious visitor arrives and asks her what she wishes for, but the Witch sends him away. And then the uninvited guest returns.
The strangers are just the beginning. Something is stirring in the forest, and when Rhea’s and the Witch’s paths collide, a truth more treacherous and deadly than either could ever imagine surfaces. But how much are they willing to risk to survive?
I don't think I did more than scan through the blurb before I checked this book out. I don't really remember, but it doesn't seem like the kind of thing I would choose to read. Not only that, but most of the chapters in the first quarter of the book don't even have anything to do with the witch, and I don't remember feeling misled while reading, so I probably just saw it on the new releases shelf and thought it looked good and creepy (except for those wolves, which I later discovered weren't wolves - I vaguely remember worrying that they hinted at something other than 'creepy.')
Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I chose this because of the back of the book cover:
IN THE PECULIAR QUIET of the absolute dark, I sit up in bed, cross-legged, wondering if it was a mistake to come here. Wondering if, maybe, even this darkness cannot help me escape myself.
I'm so deep in these thoughts that it takes me a few minutes to notice it: the darkness, breathing. The darkness itself is breathing.
Or.
Someone is breathing in the darkness.
I don't know which frightens me more.
It's exactly like in my dream, except now I'm awake. Holding my own breath, I hear it: long drag in, short whoosh out.
Again . . .
And again . . .
And again.
Seeeeeee? What did I tell you? Creepy. (Which must be why I checked it out even though those 'wolves' were telling me it was a bad idea.)
And then I read the first chapter. It was about the witch, and told in that really boring fairy-tale sort of way. Not in the interesting fairy-tale story sort of way. (You know what I mean, right?) So, at just seven pages in, I was like, who on earth could sit through 297 pages of this? because for some reason I thought the whole book was going to be like that. But, having learned my lesson to not give up quite so quickly, I moved on to chapter two. Which began like this:
Alternatives to screaming: Hold your breath. Chew the inside of your cheek. Push your face into your pillow. Stuff the hem of your T-shirt far into your mouth. Wrap your arms around your ribs so tightly that you fear your bones will break and your lungs collapse. Pretend you don't have a mouth or a chest or a throat with which to produce such a sound. Close your eyes and smile.
Smile, and maybe even laugh, just a little, however much laughter you can manage, even if it's only a squeak, when all you really want to do is yell and thrash and cry, cry, cry and never ever cease.
And then I was like, well alright, now this, I like. And then the author started in with the figurative language, which was dark and creepy and strange:
...suddenly I can see straight through my sternum to my heart, like my skin was a window all this time that was just waiting and waiting for me to notice and look inside. My heart, right there, red and jarring and wrong, wrong - hearts are meant to be heard, not seen - and it's not beating so much as it's opening and closing, opening and closing, very, very fast. Almost like a mouth, gasping, or a fist, unfolding.So, there I was, liking the way the author writes, and liking the main character, and then, then there was a fox. Which was the girl's pet. And this fox pet was named Gabrielle. And it just sort of lurked around. And I was like what? How stupid. And annoying. And then, the sisters were introduced. And every one of them was annoying. And I thought, how can the main character be pretty good, and the other characters so annoying? But I was still liking the writing, so I kept going. And theeeen, I discovered that this is supposed to be a family of modern witches and I was like, she did not just go there, because, you know, me and my thing about modern witches.
But by then I was about a quarter of the way into the book, and I still liked the main character, and pretty much loved the writing (even though for some reason the wonderful examples of figurative language were somehow not working so well together to create the mood I think the author was going for), and even the random fairy-tale-ish chapters thrown in here and there about the witch in the woods were getting better and better, so I decided to keep going.
Now, about those random chapters - they didn't really seem to have anything to do with the main part of the story. They were just thrown in there every once in a while, and progressed somewhat chronologically, as if two totally different stories were broken up into chapters and then shuffled together. I didn't really get the point of it all . . until all of a sudden I did.
At some point, maybe about halfway through the book, after the boy was introduced, and after things started to get really weird, and the witch in the woods chapters got longer and more frequent . . . suddenly everything came together and fell into place and I was like Aha! and OMG! (again and again, mind you).
And I was listening to one of my reading playlists, and this song by Peter Gundry just so happened to be playing (click to listen, but let the whole song play through!), and I don't know if it was just the music or what, but the story became amazing - beautiful, and tragic, and beautifully, tragically romantic, and I was like, how did this even happen? But of course I was glad that it did.
Now, if you read the previous post, you might remember that I said that this book got way better, and then way, way worse.
Somehow, with a little more than a quarter of the book left to go, the whole creepy/fairy tale vibe morphed into - get this - pretty much pure fantasy of the variety that I absolutely CAN NOT STAND. And not only that, but the climax was super rushed and cheesy, oh, but with some creepy stuff thrown back in. (Why? I don't know. Maybe the author thought it was a good way to tie everything together? Whatever she was thinking, it just made everything worse.)
And that was it.
Honestly, I don't even know what to think about the whole experience. I don't understand how a book can have a first half that is okay to pretty good and then have a quarter that is completely awesome, and then have another quarter that is just plain awful. Maybe it happens when an author tries to create a mix of genres that, for me at least, just don't quite work together (remember the gothic science fiction book, Strange Sweet Song?!) Maybe if you are into strange, creepy fairy tales, but also clique fantasy, you will find this book more appealing overall.
But if not, don't say I didn't warn you.
Rating: 3 Stars
Reading Level: ?
Age Appropriate: Middle Grade +
Page Count: 304
Genre: Fantasy
Keywords: sisters, magic, witches, good vs evil, romance
