Darkwood (The Darkwood, #1)

by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch

Magic is forbidden in Myrsina, along with various other abominations, such as girls doing maths.

This is bad news for Gretel Mudd, who doesn’t perform magic, but does know a lot of maths. When the sinister masked Huntsmen accuse Gretel of witchcraft, she is forced to flee into the neighbouring Darkwood, where witches and monsters dwell.

There, she happens upon Buttercup, a witch who can’t help turning things into gingerbread, Jack Trott, who can make plants grow at will, the White Knight with her band of dwarves and a talking spider called Trevor. These aren’t the terrifying villains she’s been warned about all her life. They’re actually quite nice. Well… most of them.

With the Huntsmen on the warpath, Gretel must act fast to save both the Darkwood and her home village, while unravelling the rhetoric and lies that have demonised magical beings for far too long. 

Take a journey into the Darkwood in this modern fairy tale that will bewitch adults and younger readers alike.

• ISBN10: 1788421418
• ISBN13: 9781788421416
• Publish Date: 13 June 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Prelude Books
• Imprint: Farrago
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Darkwood is the first book in a presumptive series by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch. Due out 13th June 2019 from Prelude on their Farrago! imprint, it's 320 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is a very funny book and well written into the bargain. Ostensibly aimed at middle grade readers, it nevertheless has an awful lot to offer adults also. Written as a sort of 'fractured fairy tales' mash-up of Snow White and the huntsmen, there are cameos from an amazing array of well known fairy tale archetypes alongside some new faces original to this work.

The author has a very deft touch with humor (it's her day job), and her facility with the 'nuts and bolts' of plotting, pacing, narrative tension, dialogue etc are all superlative. This is an enjoyable read and I devoured it in one sitting. Despite being really truly funny, the themes of intolerance, dehumanising people who are different from ourselves, and personal responsibility and morality are presented unflinchingly and very honestly.

It should be noted for readers outside the British Isles that (most of?) the spelling and idiom are British, so Americans should be prepared to compensate.

Five stars, and I want to be a charter member of the Trevor fan club!



Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[HekArtemis]

Thanks to Netgalley for a free ARC of this book.

Darkwood is a sort of retelling of various fairytales, but it's also a somewhat satirical look at fairytales in general. With names like Darkwood and Nearby Village, how can we think otherwise. We are taken to a land controlled by the Citadel and the Huntsmen, a world extremely focused on rooting out witchcraft. To be fair, witches are real in this story and so are wyverns, fairies, unicorns and numerous other mythical creatures. But for the most part the witches aren't that evil, and the witch hunting that happens is very much like what happened in real life some centuries ago. Everything is witchcraft, particularly if it is done by a woman or girl. Even knowing 1+1 can get you in trouble for being a witch.

My favourite part of this book is actually Nearby Village. Of course it has it's issues and problems, like any town would, like any group of people would, but that doesn't change the fact that the people of this village are fiercely loyal to each other, even if witchcraft does pop up for real. They obey the edicts of the Citadel but they do it in their own way, dunkings are more like fun baths in the river for the girls and some purposefully get dunked every week or two. When a Hunstman comes for our protagonist, Gretel Mudd, the villagers do everything in their power to distract him so she can run. They never actually turn against her, they might be defeated for a while every now and then and so can't help her, but they never truly turn against her. I wonder if any villages or towns in the real world ever tried to protect its citizens like the people in this book did... I loved Nearby Village and its crazy people.

The writing in this book is great. It's set in the present tense, "She walks to the stream" instead of past, "She walked to the stream" which can be a bit jarring sometimes if you are not used to it. But it wasn't bad, just something to note. It makes good use of sarcasm and at times I actually wondered if the book was me, using very specific phrases I use regularly. It's not all sarcasm though, the book makes good use of other forms of satire and humour. Unicorns are amusing that's for sure. Trevor and his numerous disguises is hilarious. I spent much of this book smiling, and I laughed quite a lot - so I think the humour was on point.

The characters were fun, though I suppose they weren't super deep or anything. I don't expect satirical characters to have too much depth or character growth or anything though, so the fact that they did have that to some degree is a plus for sure. Jacks backstory is an interesting one, I like how that was put together. At the same time I love the almost completely missing backstory for the Head Huntsman. Sometimes in life we will not know the true story or motivations of our "antagonists" and that has to be true for fiction as well. Our villains can't always have a backstory, they can't all have great meaning to their life, they can't all have something that makes us sympathise with them. Darkwood is right in how they flesh out our villain by not fleshing him out at all.

I could go on and on about how much I love this book and why. It might be easier and quicker then to focus on what I didn't like, which is.... nothing. I loved this book. I really loved it, I gave it 5 stars after all. I really look forward to the future sequel and will read it ASAP when it's released. I might even read this to or with my kids, or at least buy them a copy. Seems like the right thing to do.