Review of 'After The Forest' by Kell Woods
AU/NZ COVER: Release date: Oct 4, 2023
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Review of 'After The Forest' by Kell Woods
Publish dates: Oct 4th, 2023 (Oct 3rd in US/Canada/UK)
Publishers: Harper Voyager (AU/NZ), Torr (US/Canada), Titan Books (UK)
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REVIEW
After The Forest is a most delicious serve of magic, wisdom and wonder through a creative use of fairy tales. This lyrical feast casts its spell on your senses with its vivid descriptions and whets your appetite like Greta’s gingerbread recipe, leaving you longing for more. What a story! Beguiling, bewitching and mesmerising are not words strong enough to describe the power of this tale. Its complexity is just one element of its success. Not only has its alluring influence been drawn from a vast reservoir of ancient adult fairy tales but Kell Woods has painted with perfection and ingenuity a colourful weave of characters, setting and plot that blend into one glorious song of exaltation, danger and desire. The bite of magic in After The Forest is very real and hits with great force. There’ll be no sleeping on this reading watch for intrigue compels us along a journey through a twisty maze of events with a pace well suited to the action. There’s never a dull moment!
Brother and sister Hansel and Gretel appear as Hans and Greta and they are like nobody we have ever seen before. Kell has given them a new purpose and storyline and lets us imagine what it might have been like for those two after they escaped the witch in the gingerbread house. There’s plenty of conflict in the war against evil. And other larger than life characters who join in the plot. There are witches, a bear, foxes and wolves. And numerous villains in both human and creature form, including a sinister dwarf. With such a large and varied cast, the stage is never empty. Even when there are quiet moments or treacherous deeds occurring in the dark, the forest takes spotlight, and acts as another character, fully alive, enthralling and powerfully present.
There are different kinds of magic in this story and the explanations by Mira are fascinating. But one thing we know, there are consequences with its usage. Each type gives and takes. There are transformations and manipulations. The good versus evil is a present theme but the lines get blurred at times as nothing is ever truly black and white. What appears to be, sometimes is not what it seems. Yes, lots to confuse, trick and confound those who do not have a clear line of sight. And even those, who do, have much to learn about where to place their loyalty and trust. Particularly when it comes to a magic book that Greta rescues from a fire more than once. Is the source behind it good or evil? This unusual host is a most intriguing character!
I loved all the wonderful elements of the forest and how it protects the good souls who know how to tap into its shimmering glory. Due to Greta’s oneness with nature, a lot happens here: including moments with a bear. A creature often feared in most cultures. But its odd behaviour in After The Forest raises questions. Is this beast all that it seems to be or is it a captured prince or some other royal member under a spell?
The characters fly across these pages as grand as the sky and as frightening as an angry storm. The power, the gifts and the givers. The witches, the foxes, the bear and the wolves. There’s unexpected and expected betrayal. There’s romance—some real and others spell born.
After the Forest appeals to the age-old longing of needing to make sense of the world we live in and our desire to escape its limitations. This is a complex story full of frightening things but also wonder and delight. All constructed from various threads of fairy tales, where breaking spells is paramount. As we see here, it is often a lonely quest until joined by the hands of love. This is a story about identity, learning who we are, finding forgiveness, drawing on strengths, acknowledging our weaknesses and having courage to follow one’s heart.
As poet Emily Dickins said, “If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it.” I would add— fiction is the same and Kell's book hit me that way. Along with the thought (also by Emily Dickinson) that the 'brain is wider than the sky' as Kell has drawn broadly yet deeply from the reservoir of fairy-tales, reshaping their magic into her own. Her potential to 'imagine, perceive and create' is boundless. This novel proves that.
After the Forest taps into our hearts with the sweet aroma of ginger, cinnamon and honey. The smell and taste of gingerbread drifting on the hot baking wind is so strong, it evokes powerful memories of our love of fairy tales. Rich and inviting, vernal and never ending, this story of stories will last long past the closing of its pages. I highly recommend this magnificent novel that moved me so deeply, it entered my dreams. A glittering debut that should not be missed. 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Many thanks to Harper Voyage Australia and author for a review copy.
USA/CANADA Cover - Release: Oct 3, 2023
UK COVER_ Release Date:: October 3rd, 2023