This was an excellent novel by any standards, and especially for a debut. Creative and exciting, and more than a little bit scary.
It’s not as much of a Little Red Riding Hood retelling as one might think. You’ve got a protagonist named Red, and she wears a red cloak and hood, and there’s a guy known as “the Wolf” (though his name is actually Eammon) … and there’s a forest? That’s pretty much it for the similarities. No granny, no woodsman with an ax to save the day. Everyone’s eyes and ears and teeth are all appropriately human-sized. Beyond some superficial inspiration, it’s very much its own story.
So let’s get into that story. A few centuries ago, dark and evil gods were bound up by the creation of the Wilderwood, which also trapped the Five Kings who created the Wilderwood in the process. Within the Wilderwood there lived a man known as the Wolf, and the younger daughter of the queen of the adjacent kingdom. Except one day the Wolf brought the daughter’s body out of the forest, telling the people to send the next Second Daughter. Since then, every Second Daughter of the kingdom has been magically bound to the Wilderwood, compelled to go there as she enters adulthood, never to return. These sacrifices keep the monsters and dark gods bound, and (people hope) eventually the Wolf will find a Second Daughter satisfactory enough to release the Five Kings who have come to be revered as gods.
Of course it’s more complicated than that.
Redarys (“Red”), the Second Daughter of the current generation, has accepted her fate despite the objections of her slightly-older twin, Neve, who wants her to try to run. But running isn’t possible, and Red doesn’t want to escape anyway and is determined to go to the Wolf. Who turns out to be a guy named Eammon, and he’s not so much a “scary monster” as “mildly rude.” He acts as the guardian of the Wilderwood, keeping it healthy with his magic and sacrifices of his own blood. He tells Red to go, and not to let the Wilderwood consume her like it has the other Second Daughters.
The story proceeds along two lines. The primary storyline concerns Red and Eammon; her desire to understand what the Wilderwood is and how she and Eammon are connected to it, the struggle to keep the Wilderwood healthy, and the relationship between the two of them. The secondary storyline is about Neve, her distress at her sister (whom she believes is trapped with an evil monster) and her determination to find a way to free Red and bring her home.
My only real critique of the book is Neve’s storyline. It’s much weaker, and her character development isn’t nearly as good. Each Neve interlude mostly had me wanting to get back to Red. It’s not bad by any stretch, but not the strength of the book.
This book is a delight to read. It’s frightening in the best way. The Wilderwood is scary, and the monsters that occasionally break free are uncanny and creepy and frightening all at once. The last quarter or so is an extreme emotional roller coaster, tugging my heartstrings first one way and then the other. It was an intense read. It ends on a hell of a cliffhanger, so hopefully the sequel will land very soon.
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