Review: The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed

Blurb:

At the northern edge of a land ruled by a merciless foreign tyrant lies a wild, forbidden forest ruled by powerful magic.

Veris Thorn—the only one to ever enter the forest and survive—is forced to go back inside to retrieve the tyrant's missing children. Inside await traps and trickery, ancient monsters, and hauntings of the past.

One day is all Veris is afforded. One misstep will cost everything.

Review:

The Butcher of the Forest is a dark, twisted fairytale for adults, packed into an explosive 150 pages. Cosmic horror, gory grimdark, and classic fable-esque tropes blend seamlessly in this macabre novella, written with lush prose that beautifully fleshes out characters and settings. The Elmever woods are full of the uncanny and ominous, and in this frightening realm, nothing is as it appears, and venturing too far always means never coming back.

Premee Mohamed is a Nebula award-winning author, and her skills shine in this novella. While many short novels are hindered by their length, Mohamed is able to deliver a fully realized world, heroine, and story in only a few chapters. I personally love the rise in ‘older’ female point-of-view characters (ie. mid-thirties and up) that we’re seeing in fantasy and sci-fi, not only in Mohamed’s work but from many popular and new authors. Mohamed’s character Veris has adjusted to a life after devastating trauma and loss, and her apprehension to put herself back in dangerous situations juxtaposed with her internalized need to do the ‘right thing’ are wonderfully relayed on the page. The story quickly transforms from classic fairytale set-up to nightmarish, weird fiction that left me unnerved and upset, and desperate to turn the page. 

My only critique of this book is that occasionally the writing can feel quite long and flowery, bordering on too much. It predominantly world for the tone and style, but if run-on sentences and lengthy metaphors aren’t your thing, you may find some sections difficult to push through.

I would recommend The Butcher of the Forest to fans of T. Kingfisher, Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation, and, of course, the Brothers Grimm.