The best description I can come up with for this book is “dark Alice in Wonderland, with themes of intergenerational trauma and bodily autonomy.”
The protagonist of this book is Gemma, who lives with her antique-shop-owner mother Virginia (Gigi). Their home/store is next to a “little strip of woods” in their small Michigan hometown, which Gemma and Gigi know is also a vast, ancient, dark fairy forest. At least Gigi knows something about it; what Gemma knows is that her mother is very, very clear with her that there are monsters in the woods, and Gemma must never, ever go into them.
Gemma, being a kid, ignores this warning. In fact, being a kid, she takes every opportunity to go into the woods precisely because of this warning . She sometimes encounters scary things, but she also encounters things like fairy princes that make her question her mother’s insistent warnings. Luckily (depending on your point of view) Gigi is able to lock Gemma’s memories of the woods away thanks to an enchanted hairbrush. The plot proper starts when Gemma sees her mom having a serious conversation with something that sure looks like a monster, which is interrupted by a being called the Slit Witch with talk of bargains entered into, debts owed, and Gemma’s not-far-off 15th birthday. Gemma sees Gigi taken into the woods, and replaced with a doppelgänger summoned by the Witch, and things proceed from there.
I called this book a “dark Alice in Wonderland” at the top, by which I meant it’s in the tradition of “person falls into a strange world where strange things happen.” Readers looking for a Sandersonian “magic system” aren’t going to be satisfied here; magic remains otherworldly and unknowable. Which is exactly as it should be for this story.
The story switches between Gemma’s and Gigi’s perspectives, and between the present and the not-so-distant past when Gigi was just reaching adulthood. Gigi’s mother, Gemma’s grandmother, also worked hard to keep her daughter out of the woods, though in different ways and for different (or not-so-different) reasons. Obviously those efforts weren’t really any more successful than Gigi’s own.
The title of the book speaks to the primary theme. Good and bad, hero or monster; these things are not always easy to identify, and not just at the surface level of the appearance of the “monster” Gemma sees Gigi talking to which I mentioned above. No one is entirely good or bad; people can do bad things (like, for example, stealing your daughter’s memories) for good or at least justifiable reasons. Things that seem defensible and even admirable can be nothing of the sort. And even the very worst of actions can come from a place that inspires empathy.
And, of course, there are some people who are simply irredeemable. The Slit Witch, I have to say, is one of the more terrifying beings I’ve ever read about. The author’s descriptions of her alone take an already good book to another level.
This was gripping and scary. Standalone as far as I know; there’s room for a sequel, but one isn’t necessary. I hope there isn’t one; the ending felt satisfying, appropriate, and well-earned.
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