The Wood

[cornerofmadness]

The Wood by Chelsea Bobulski

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I got this one a few years back from the author at Ohioana book festival and then promptly put it 'somewhere safe' and lost it until now. It's a really interesting YA fantasy (I chucked it into my rural fantasy shelf vs urban since so much of it is set in the woods)

Winter's family has been appointed for generations to watch this patch of woods in Ohio. Among other things the Woods can host fairies and other supernatural folk but more importantly to Winter is that it also has time rifts and people come through and her family leads them back to the right portals to get home. Other families and woods exist all over the world.

Only a while back her father did something guardians are not supposed to be able to do: leave the paths within the woods. Once in the woods they must remain on the path (outside the woods they're fine) Winter is struggling with her depression (and her mother's overprotectiveness) as a result of his loss. She holds out hope he's merely lost in the supernatural wood and her father's fairy friend, Joe is there to help her.

So balancing school and guardianship, Winter has new worries. The woods look poisoned and something that shouldn't have happened has: a young man from another time period is running from portal to portal.

Henry is from eighteenth century England but instead of sending him back there, he has convinced her to help him find his parents, guardians like her who have become lost; he suspects because of foul play so Winter does what she shouldn't, she brings him home and teams up with him.

Naturally you're going to get a YA romance subplot and it's well handled with all the angst of he must go back home mixed in. It had some nice plots and I really liked Winter and Henry. She's smart and independent and actually thinks things through for the most part. Henry's fish out of time stuff works well as it introduces some of his old fashioned ideas but he doesn't become a patronizing misogynist along the way.

The ending did feel a bit rushed but other than that, it worked really well. It seems like this is a stand alone book (since we're 8 years out now) which is fine. That said I would have liked to see Winter again.



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