Shadows of the Forest

by Emma Michaels

[layawaydragon]

I received a free copy by agreeing to post an honest review from Ebooks For Review.

Content Warning: Child Abuse, Murder, Piss-poor Representation of Abuse Survivors.

The cover is gorgeous and the blurb was intriguing. I didn’t get what I thought I would at all though. This isn’t what I expected and the descriptions didn’t live up to the mental images borne from the cover.

Shadow of the Forest began startling and initially had me curious. However, Lily quickly bugged me with her endless lamenting and damaging mantras. I had an abusive father, I understand the trauma but this felt like someone clueless laying it on thick for sympathy points and couldn’t incorporate a personality as well.

Her brother Cole is the other side to her coin with survivor's guilt. I bet this book would be 50 pages shorter if they didn’t endlessly repeat how Lily deserved a chance to live and Cole couldn’t do anything to protect her and Cole is so amazingly perfect deserves the best and blah, blah, blah.

Later, they finally understand why their mother stayed and what she did when their parents went into the woods. As if that wasn’t fucking obvious from the first time they mentioned it. And excuse me, that’s fucking awful solution in every way.

I’ve also been the mother in an abusive relationship with a child in the house. No fucking way she made that decision. She’d have been agonizing on how they’d survive and be okay. There would’ve been a plan in place for them in the aftermath. It’s fucking offensive and stupid that THIS was the first and only thing she did.

Fuck all of the survivor representation in this book. I severely doubt anyone did a sensitivity read for it.

Honestly, I’m surprised I made it 100 pages before starting to skip and skim. It was only the last 50 or so pages but I couldn’t take it any longer. The first 100 felt like 5 hundred and I wasn’t in the mood to torturing myself more. I deserve better.

I was tired of:
Knowing what was going to happen
All the repetition
The cliches and stereotypes
The ham-handed child abuse portrayal
The appropriation of Japanese myths

It’s a Princess Mononoke wannabe with shallow focus and uses a baseball bat to get its point across. There’s no subtlety, nuance or layers.

I read the epilogue to see if I was right about it all and I was. It’s supposed to be sweet and full of hope but felt cheap and meaningless, like an infomercial and an after school special had a child with Japanese style nursery.

Recommendation: Skip it. Not worth it, even if it’s free.