The Waking Forest

by Alyssa Wees

Pan's Labyrinth meets The Hazel Wood in this novel about a girl with terrifying visions and a wish-granting witch whose lives collide in the most unexpected of ways.

"Bewitching, sensuous, and spiked with the unexpected--The Waking Forest is a fever dream you won't ever want to leave."-Joan He, author of The Descendent of the Crane

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?

"A stunning, spooky, and lyrical debut....The pacing is taut as the tension steadily ramps up, creating an atmospheric read that is impossible to put down. A sure hit for readers of edgy fantasy and fans of Stephanie Garber's Caraval or Heidi Heilig's The Girl from Everywhere."-SLJ, Starred Review

"[A] masterfully woven fantasy debut...[with] an intricate pattern crafted to twist, invert, and fall apart with exquisite precision. Into the woods like never before."-Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

"Wees layers worlds and characters with cleverness and subtlety,...darkly satisfying."-The Bulletin

"A twisting mix of modern story and fantasy tale."-Booklist

• ISBN10: 0525581162
• ISBN13: 9780525581161
• Publish Date: 12 March 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Delacorte Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780525581161

Reviews

[kalventure]

✨ I am so beyond excited that The Waking Forest is one of the Reader Voracious Novel19 Books! You can read my interview with Alyssa on my blog here!

Narrative style: first & third person | Perspective(s): dual (The Witch {third}, Rhea)

Spooky Season is upon us my friends, and The Waking Forest is a beautifully written fantasy debut that is sure to get you in the mood! Wees weaved fairy tales, dreams, and nightmares into a lyrical tale that flows on the page and takes on a life of its own.

"What waits for a kiss that does not come? What dreams and dreams until it comes undone?"

This is one of the most atmospheric books I have read in awhile. Wees’ writing is beautiful and descriptive, and I almost feel like I am in a fever dream while reading it (much like when I read Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton – another witchy book I recommend).

This book is beautiful but requires some patience. The book has dual points-of-view and stylistically are night and day from one another. The Witch's narrative is more lyrical and is in third person, whereas Rhea's perspective is in first person and the prose is less purple (but still beautiful). There are two very different stories being told and I didn't really settle into the narrative until things started weaving together around the halfway point. I have a lot of "wtf is going on?" notes; I encourage you to just read the book and trust things will slide into focus.

"I can think of nothing more terrifying than a dream like this, which is only in your heart and cannot hurt you, until it suddenly reaches out and touches you."

There's a lot I would like to say about the plot itself and how much I enjoyed it once it came together, but I really think it is best for you to go in as blind as possible on this one. As someone who oftentimes struggles with multiple POVs, I found the alternating perspectives to work here and the pacing of the story is done well.

The story is beautiful and reads like a lucid dream but none of the characters never really felt real to me. There are moments of sisterhood and just daily life with the family that was heartwarming, but they never felt like real people; the story itself was what I was invested in and drove the narrative forward for me. And I suppose that is the point for a magical, ephemeral read. I loved the anxiety rep in this book and how supportive the family is of their mental struggles. It was also refreshing to have a young adult fantasy story where the parents are present for once, and there is a f/f side relationship mentioned near the end.

"All things end, eventually. Even the very best stories. And the worst of them too."

This is a book that I think will get better with re-reads. I spent the first half of this book utterly confused and wonder how much more I will enjoy it now that I know the ending. The story is beautiful and Wees is definitely an author to watch as I am sure she will continue to write atmospheric and lyrical stories. I don't think the writing style will be for everyone, but for those of you who love poetic writing, this debut is a great fall read to get you in the spooky mood.

Content warnings: anxiety, dead body, death, gore, grief, hallucinations
Representation: anxiety, f/f relationship

Many thanks to Delacorte for sending me an eARC via Netgalley for my honest review (I read my pre-ordered hardback)!

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[Djilan]

It was a bit of a strange story, but in a good way!
In a way that entertained and kept me reading. It's about dreams, fears, darkness and light.

[Jo]

3.5 Stars.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features creepy hallucinations, anxiety, death, grief, visceral descriptions - of a dead body, and, separately, of the chest cavity.

The Waking Forest by Alyssa Wees was one of my most anticipated books of the year, but while I really enjoyed it, and adored the concept, I felt the story was let down by the ending.

So I've been wanting to read atmospheric and creepy stories for several weeks, and I finally got what I wanted with The Waking Forest! It's told from the points of view of Rhea and the Witch of Wishes. Rhea lives with her family, is home schooled, but has very strange reoccurring dreams. Dreams of walking up a spiral staircase, and reaching a door and she's just about to open it when she wakes up. Despite not sounding like much, this is a nightmare she's had for as long as she can remember; knowing she has to open the door, but absolutely dreading what she'll find on the other side. She sleep walks during this dream, and always wakes up at the top of the stair leading to the attic. But this time, she wakes up having opened the attic door - and sees her own dead body on the floor. Because as well as having strange dreams, she also has terrible, frightening hallucinations - including that of a forest at the end of her garden, where there is no forest. Despite the terrifying vision, she decides that night to sleep in the attic, hoping that as she's already in there, she won't have her dream. But what she doesn't expect is the breathing and the disembodied voice she can hear in the pitch black of the attic. There is a boy in the darkness who wants her to guess his name. After his appearance, strange things happen to her family.

The Witch of Wishes lives in the forest, granting wishes to children who visit her in their sleep. She grants wishes by opening up her chest, as in her heart grows a rose made of blood petals, bone stem, and tooth thorns. She takes a petal from her heart, puts it into the child's mouth, and their wish is granted. She does this over and over, all night, and at dawn, she sews her chest back up. There is a scream building in her, and constant, unending pain. Every second is agony. She she spends her days doing the only thing she knows to distract herself from the scream and the pain - she dances, with her fox companions frolicking around her. She is alone, but tells herself she is not lonely. She tells herself she has everything she could possibly wish for, in her palace made of bones in the middle of a forest. But one day a boy and his sister appears, but rather than make a wish, the boy asks her what she would wish for. She sends him away, but he returns as a black fox, and curious, the witch allows him to tell her about his world; history, culture myths and legends, and then a story about a princess who put herself into an enchanted sleep.

Mate this book is almost - almost - absolutely everything I have been wanting to read over the last few weeks! The writing is gorgeous and lyrical, completely enchanting. I was captivated from the very first page! And then there's the story itself, the Witch's story like a very dark fairy tale, and Rhea's, set in our own world, full of bad dreams, terrifying visions, voices in the dark. While dark, the Witch's story is beautiful and magical, but Rhea's has this uneasy feeling to it, a sinister vibe that runs throughout. And I loved the story within a story; the story of the princess who put herself into an enchanted sleep that the Fox Who Is Not a Fox tells the Witch was just as engrossing as what was going on with the Witch and Rhea. And with Rhea, even before things get too weird, her sisters, Rose, Raisa and Renata - who I adore - are kind of strange. They say the weirdest things! And Renata struggles to discern dream for reality, and doesn't seem to have her feet firmly on the floor, who reacts really badly if people don't know what she's talking about or tell her it was just a dream. And their mum believes dreams have meaning, and wants the girls to record their dreams in dream journals. There's definitely something odd going on in this family. But then the boy in the dark - the Darkness, as Rhea refers to him - turns up, and everything gets completely messed up.

Then there's what's really going on, and oh my god, it's amazing! I guessed what was happening with the Witch, but not with Rhea! The concept is just so, so awesome! It's so clever and twisty, and pretty mind blowing, and I absolutely loved it! That is until we got to Part 2 of the story. Once we have the big reveal, and we know what's going on, the second part of the story had so much potential! Mate, it could have been amazing! But while I was engrossed while reading it, looking back, it could have been so much more. The atmospheric and sinister vibe seemed to practically disappear. And while the second part is still dark and macabre, it wasn't as enchanting or magical in regards to the writing. And except for the final climatic moment, not a huge deal happens - it's all lead up to the climax. After the incredible, incredible beginning, I just felt quite let down by the ending. Part 1 was roughly two thirds of the book, with Part 2 being the last third, and I kind of feel that maybe this book should have been a duology, with the book book being kind of short compared to the length of most books, yes, but with Part 2 made longer, both in regards to length of the book but also in time scale within the story longer, and just developed more. In my opinion, everything that happens in Part 2 should be bigger; the things that happen that lead up to the climax should be major events in their own right. I just feel like Part 2 let the rest of the story down.

I did love, however, all the little nods scattered throughout the story to actual fairy tales and myths and legends - with Rhea herself even mentioning that the Darkness wanting Rhea to guess his name is similar to Rumpelstiltskin. That was really quite cute, and spotting them all was really enjoyable. And I loved the small elements of how real world mental illnesses were touched on within this fairy tale type story. No labels are used, but I'm pretty sure secondary characters have depression and PTSD. Though I am unsure what to make of Rhea's hallucinations given what's really going on. Yes, she hallucinates, but also anxiety - which I personally feel was done very well - and yes, there is mention that she has seen a therapist and has medication, but there's an actual reason for the hallucinations, and with the fact that there are people who do experience hallucinations, I'm not sure what to think about it. I don't know if it's a problem or not?

I am really super excited to read what Wees writes next, because for the most part, I adored this book! But I was let down by the ending, sadly. But do read other reviews before deciding whether or not you'll read this book yourself.

[Liz (Bent Bookworm)]

~*Check out all my reviews over at The Bent Bookworm!*~

I sort of do know what she means, sitting here in the semi-dark and the semi-silence. I have a scratchy, restless feeling, as if my soul were grinding against my skin, my bones, not necessarily wanting to get out but urging my body to go to impossible places, convinced I can touch the stars and not burn.

The Waking Forest is a story that is a true journey. I wasn’t EXACTLY sure what to expect going into it, and I was almost halfway through before I was even sure what the heck I was reading! Perhaps not the most stellar start for a debut novel, BUT. Bear with me – and bear with the book, too. While I did only rate it at 3.5/5 stars (rounded up), I also feel it is totally a book worth reading and I will gladly be reading the next novel that Alyssa Wees comes out with.

The first half of the book is told in alternating chapters between Rhea, in our modern world, and the Witch of the Wood, in a very odd dream-like world. I was SO confused as to what was supposed to be happening in these…but the writing is beautiful. If you are not into heavy descriptions and very sustained metaphors, you might not enjoy it. It’s a very different style from what I’ve been reading recently, so it took a little while for it to grow on me. But grow on me it did, and eventually the prose (which could, admittedly, be considered kind of “purple” prose) was just painting these amazing pictures…so even if I was turned around and had no idea where the story was going, I was just enjoying the journey.

Eventually the two tales merge, and that is rather…mind-bending. There is enough foreshadowing that you sort of see it coming, but not…not…in the way it played out, or at least I didn’t. The story shifts to an entirely fantasy world, with incredible creatures and magic. I really wish the magic had been better explained! I was still kind of confused by how everything worked in the end, but it was glorious and shiny and I liked it.

My absolute favorite part was Rhea’s relationship with her sisters. These four girls are kicking ass and taking names and making no apologies – and dealing with their own issues along the way. There is some beautiful encouragement for those of us who struggle with anxiety in these pages – and the characters aren’t considered less than or incapable because of it! I loved it. Absolutely loved it.

Overall, The Waking Forest isn’t perfect but if you like fantasy and quirky characters, definitely give it a try. And keep an eye out for more books by Wees!

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[bookishzelda]

The Waking Forest is such an intriguing story. It has that eerie fairytale quality to it that once you pick it up and start reading. It’s hard to stop.

We start off with two different worlds that we are seeing into. Rhea’s world, with her house and family by the beach. Then there is the Witch of Wishes, with her palace of bone in the Woods and foxes that dance. We alternate between these two realities and learn more about each character. We later add in a third perspective in the form a story that someone tells the witch.There are many layers, kind of like photoshop document. At least that is how my brain thinks of it.

I really liked Rhea and her sisters. She is plagued and haunted by visions of things that are not real. Scary visions of people dying or missing parts of flesh and Woods that magically appear and disappear when she tries to enter. I loved the unique characteristics of each sister and how that blends with the other. They also have a very strong bond.

The Witch is intriguing, and the way she goes about her kingdom. The Witches section of the plot also brings us the story or fairytale of a princess in a kingdom where magic is feared. With a King who seeks to contain and destroy it.

I don’t want to give anything away from the plot but it’s interesting how the pieces fit together in the end. Red string of fate that binds them all. I loved the writing, it has the dreamy feel to it. I also found the plot to be fast paced and engaging. I think sometimes a story like this can drag on but this gave you just enough and kept it interesting.

I do wish the anxiety was touched upon a little bit more. To understand how the character that experiences it feels.

I really enjoyed The Waking Forest and I think it’s something to read if you like stories like The Hazelwood or The Wren Hunt.

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Once upon a time, there was a princess.  This princess possessed magic, but needed to hide it because her grandfather the king kept people like herself in chains.  She survived for a while living two lives, but then she was discovered, and faced with death or enslavement, the princess made her own choice.  This is the story that Rhea Ravenna hears in the darkness of her attic, and it is a story that will change her life.

At the beginning, I loved The Waking Forest.  Alyssa Wees's writing is a little flowery, but I like that aspect.  Part One weaves between the Witch in the Forest who grants wishes, and young Rhea Ravenna and her sisters.  Both of these worlds were interesting and I liked them.  The voices were distinctly different and the pacing between each with great.  Early in The Waking Forest, I thought I was going to love this novel.

Enter Part Two.

For me, Part Two felt like it was written by an entirely different person.  The toy box of characters and world building elements was dumped on the table.  It was quickly paced.  Where the contemporary was interesting and grounded in Part One, and the fantasy was rich and blossoming... now we're entirely in fantasy, everything is getting done very quickly, and the characters are still behaving fully like contemporary characters.  All the goals are accomplished easily.  The magic system is not really explained.  The beautiful language from the start of the book is gone.  Part Two was jarringly different, and it was not the fantasy I was promised in Part One. I didn't believe that things would have worked out for Rhea.  I felt like the sister dynamic was lost.  The magic system was assumed rather than explained.  I can't get past how much it felt like two different books, and I felt hugely let down.

Many people compare this to The Hazel Wood, and that's a fair comparison.  It's the same type of story.  The Waking Forest is more magic in the beginning, with a better integration, but people who enjoy the pacing and beat of contemporary YA will probably prefer this one to The Hazel Wood. At the end of the day, The Waking Forest was not for me, but I believe it will find a good audience.

[HekArtemis]

3.5 stars. The first half or part of this book was really good. It was twisted and weird and I loved it. The second half though was really different and read to me like the sort of thing teens usually write in their first attempts at writing fantasy - wish fulfillment type of stuff, you know, where you suddenly get your memories back and you're a super magical awesome hero/ine from a magical universe blah blah. Even the attitude of some of the characters and how they spoke to each other, very very teen-ish - and sure this might be a YA novel, but that doesn't mean it needs to read so... cliched. It was a bit disappointing to find in this book that had such an unusual and twisted start. Also it has much less forest in it than I was wanting. The final confrontation had a good bit of darkness to it though so that was good.