The Beginning Woods by Malcolm McNeill

The Beginning Woods

by Malcolm McNeill

A MYSTERY NO ONE CAN SOLVE

The Vanishings started without warning. People disappearing into thin air - just piles of clothes left behind. Each day, thousands gone without a trace.

A BABY NO ONE WANTED

Max was abandoned in a bookshop and grows up haunted by memories of his parents. Only he can solve the mystery of the Vanishings.

A SECRET THAT COULD SAVE THE FUTURE

To find the answers, Max must leave this world and enter the Beginning Woods. A realm of magic and terror, life and death.

But can he bear the truth - or will it destroy him?

A STORY THAT WILL TAKE YOU TO ANOTHER WORLD

Greater than your dreams. Darker than your fears. Full of more wonder than you could ever desire. Welcome to the ineffable Beginning Woods...

Reviewed by Eve1972 on

4 of 5 stars

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ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

3.5 Stars

I've been picking up this book and putting it down for a few days now. The writing is fabulous. It has a fairytale quality to it as you can see in my quote below....

“We found out about snowflakes today,” he’d told them. “How they’re shaped like a star, with all these patterns and diamonds. Mr Chandra told us that’s how water crystals form when they freeze.” “That’s right,” said Forbes. “And did you learn how they all have eight arms? Like an octopus?” “Six,” said Alice, giving him an elbow. “It’s six, isn’t it Max?” “Yes,” said Max. “But Mr Chandra is wrong.

It doesn’t have anything to do with how water freezes. It’s the Starmakers. “Oh-ho!” said Forbes, wriggling with pleasure. “Who are the Starmakers?” “Don’t you know?” Max had been surprised at this, because Mr Chandra hadn’t known either. “If you look even closer at a snowflake, if you look much more closer than ever, you see tiny chisel marks on the snowflake. Tiny chisel marks made by tiny silver chisels.” “Is that so?” Forbes said, winking at Alice.“The chisels belong to the Starmakers,” Max explained “Snowflakes are stars that weren’t good enough. Each Starmaker makes thousands of stars a year, and they throw most of them away because of little mistakes.

But now and again, once every million years, one of the Starmakers looks up from his anvil. And all the other Starmakers look up as well and put down their chisels, because they know what’s happened—finally there’s a star perfect enough to go in the sky."


Certain parts would suck me completely in, while others seem to drag on a bit. Hence the picking up and putting down over the course of several days. I enjoyed the characters though. The World building was interesting. A bit of an old World feel, but with modern touches. Actually, it had a bit of an Alice In Wonderland feel to it.

Overall I enjoyed it.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 6 July, 2016: Finished reading
  • 6 July, 2016: Reviewed