I re started this book several times, but I couldn't connect with the story or the style. However, the ideas were interesting and I'm sure it was just a matter or likes. It may have been the wrong book for me.

This book had a unique premise, it was a tad bit slow at the beginning but swept me up soon enough and kept me in it's grip well until the end. I would recommend it to other fellow fantasy fans in a heartbeat. Thank you for allowing me to read and hand sell this title.

This story takes place in Khronasia, a war-ravaged, post-apocalyptic land with two different kinds of people. There are the Khronasians, and the Coalition. MC Seycia is. Khronasian, while her nemesis, Simeon, is a general of the coalition.
A lot of drama happens and Seycia winds up dying and leaving behind her brother Miko. She meets a beast in the underworld called Haben who turns her into something other. Not quite human, not quite demon, and bound on a mission to destroy the soul tree of General Simeon.
Back home, Miko stumbles into a group of Khronasians that treat him like a king and call him The Lasting Light.
More drama happens.
I don’t know... this book has such glowing reviews and I’m going to be honest here and say that I don’t get it.
A lot of it was confusing. The characters were interesting enough, and the whole concept seemed promising, but it just sort of fell short of my expectations.

3.5 stars

This is a fantasy novel that counts with its own mythology, a lot of action and a small dose of romance, so I highly recommend it. Although I feel that from the middle to the end the rhythm becomes slower due to the parallel plot that arises -I was not particularly interested in it, to be honest-, The Phantom Forest has a fascinating and addictive start. The characters are well built, they have virtues and flaws, but what I want to highlight the most is the original and rich world that the author has created. It is based on really interesting legends, not to mention that several fantastic creatures appear and that is a plus. I admit that that the love story felt a little bit rushed to me; however, as this novel is not intended to revolve around a love plot I don’t think it’s a major problem. The ending actually surprised me and now I want more! According to the author, this story is meant to be a trilogy, but currently she has no other publication contracts. I hope you give this novel a chance, since this dangerous adventure through the Underworld between a human and a demon is worthwhile and is a breath of fresh air to the genre of Young Adult literature.

After a worldwide catastrophe, the Veil that connects the Earth with the Underworld became visible in the sky. Civilization has taken a step back in history, leaving aside technology and luxuries and returning to its rudimentary and superstitious beginnings. Seycia and her brother are inseparable since their parents died, but one day she is chosen as human sacrifice in her village and is offered to The Savage, the demon that crosses the Veil and takes a soul to the Underworld. The problem is that Seycia does not die when she crosses the Veil and now Haben, the demon, does not know what to do with this strange and stubborn human. What if they allied against a common enemy? What if she is not as kind and he is not as wicked as they believe?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down once I started to read it. That doesn't happen all the time and I wasn't familiar with this author before I started to read it.

DNF at 19%. It was so hard to get into, it definitely was all over the place. I had really high hopes for this book. I do love the cover however. That's one positive!

Rating 1

The Phantom Forest is a really creative look at both a dystopian Earth and the after life. Unfortunately I felt kind of out of my depth and confused throughout the first third or so. Although the lore is really in-depth I thought it wasn't explained too well until about halfway through. In addition, there was a lot of "telling" not showing which I detracted from the unique world.and premise. Hopefully if there's any additional novels those aspects improve so the creativity can really shine!

Seycia's father told her this story as a child -- a story of the most holy place in the Underworld, The Forest of Laida, where all souls go to rest before embarking on a new life. But Seycia's father is dead now, and his killer has put a target on her back.

After being chosen for her village's human sacrifice ritual, Seycia is transported to the Underworld and must join forces with Haben, the demon to whom she was sacrificed, to protect the family she left behind from beyond the grave. In this story of love, survival, and what it means to be human, Seycia and Haben discover that the Underworld is riddled with secrets that can only be unlocked through complete trust and devotion, not only to their mission, but also to one another. - Goodreads

*sigh* 

*sigh*

*LE SIGH* 

I had high expectations of this book. I am thinking some of the creepiest sentences, settings and characters are going to come out of this book but instead I got a punk ass demon who doesn't have a backbone and a main character who is completely full of herself, that when I hear her voice in my head, all I hear is a grown woman whining about how she is the chosen one and you are not. 

But let's start off about what I liked, which was the setting. Although not creepy at all, the imagery was very clear. It completely draws the reader in and is filled with promises of the worst evil to come. But that didn't happen. 

As the imagery is the only thing I fully enjoyed about this book, I have to stress that the author wanted these demons to be humans that have simply lost there way and forgot who they were and who they could have been. This took the creepy-ness way out of the book. 

Seycia AND her brother are just uninteresting whinny and the most unfortunate batch of heroes that world has to offer. The book is told through both their point of views, so you get a little break within tone. However, while Seycia is the I am not going to think things fully through because I am the great one, her brother is the I am too scared to do anything on my own and need all the help I can get AND STILL and still whine about it. 

I loved the idea of there being a tree that allows people to come back to life and that I fully supported Seycia's mission to protect her family. But you can't talk about the Underworld and everyone is pretty much human. 

This book wasn't for me. But going through Goodreads, I see it is for a lot of other reads. Would I recommend this? I honestly don't think I would even knowing that there are some readers who would enjoy it. 

1 Pickle

This book suffered from a bad case of telling-not-showing. (Spoilers ahoy). We're told that Heban and Seycia develop feelings for each other but I have no idea why. We're told the three women, Dhov's sisters, are amazing but they seem pro forma. We're told about the rebellion but we don't see it grow or feel the details. Seycia gets dropped into Antenor by the Soulless to rescue Heban but it seems incredibly improbable that Dhov wouldn't show up to gloat at her. Miko loses his replacement grandmother after a day, when it barely feels meaningful, and his rebellion friend after they've exchanged like 2 sentences. Why didn't he stay with Beli... for like 3 weeks or 3 months? Seycia could have stayed with Heban longer so that would feel more realistic and the connection Miko feels to the rebels would be earned.

I think the book would need to be about 200 pages longer to do all the plotlines justice, or a few plot threads would be to be cut. There's no depth or richness here.

Also the setup for a sequel is annoying.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and Inkshares for the ARC in return for an honest review.

This book had my attention since the very beginning! Liz Kerin does an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G job in her writing. The story building was unique as well as the character build and growth throughout the novel; the plot had me absolutely absorbed and I just couldn't put this book down. Every paragraph was written so eloquently, with a lot of details but not excessive amounts of information where the reader would get bored; just enough to appreciate the environment, the characters and the action. If Liz Kerin writes anymore novels, I would definitely read them based off of her style of writing alone.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with an e-copy!

WOW.
Just wow.
This book was so good I have no idea what can I possibly say about it.
It was so unique and so well constructed and the story was very well narrated, the world was fabulous and the characters blend in the whole thing just perfectly!

I just couldn't get into this. Although the story starts with a prologue clearly meant to generate enough curiosity to carry the reader through the initial part of the book, it didn't work for me. The writing was too clunky for the premise to win me over - or even for that fantastical prologue to interest me enough to want an explanation and/or find out what was going on. DNF.

DNF at 19%

I know I said I'd try to read a few more chapters (or even finish the chapter I was on tbh), but this book literally puts me to sleep, and I just can't lie to myself or to NetGalley any longer. I will not be finishing this.

This book feels like a mish-mash of everything that was popular in 2008-2011. It's got the demons from another realm from Angelfall and City of Bones. It's got the postapocalypse from The Hunger Games and Angelfall again. It's got the girl searching for her sibling from Angelfall /again/. It's got the angsty love interest with a tortured past from every single Beauty and the Beast retelling ever, of which YA is currently saturated.

In other words, it was generic af and offered me nothing I hadn't seen before, done infinitely better or at least marginally entertaining. I couldn't stand the repetitive and passive writing. The action sequences were dull and the sentence structure lacked pretty much any variety until I felt like a literal robot wrote this book.

The inciting incident, if you can call it that, was so hokey that I was actually baffled that it was in the book at all. Basically, MC Seycia and her brother are at the ritual sacrifice thing and almost get robbed but, while the entire community is chanting the ritual thing around her, this girl beats the crap out of the would-be thief, and then is like "wow, I wOnDeR iF AnYOnE NoTIcEd?"

And I also couldn't stand literally any of the characters, except maybe the Missing Sibling™ Miko, and only really because I got his perspective right before I decided to drop the book and he didn't have a chance to bore me to death yet.

The villain is laughably black and white, with only a little bit of depth that's quickly overshadowed by his cartoonishly evil actions and appearance.

But what bothers me the most is that the average rating is so high, and that the parts I found to be the worst are many people's favorites. It really makes me wonder if we read the same book.

This mashup of a post-apocalyptic world with an underworld was super intriguing at first, and I was invested in maybe...the first 1/4 of it, but unfortunately the main characters fell flat and I just couldn't found myself being invested in their journey. Haben, the human-turned-demon boy, was probably the most interesting of the three protagonists, and even then I didn't care too much for him and his blossoming relationship with Seychia.

The worldbuilding is definitely its biggest asset; the various details of the underworld are vivid and often genuinely creepy, and I wished that the entire book was set there (I mean, the idea of underworld soul trees is fantastic).

And the two villains (one human, the other a demon) overshadow Sychia, Miko, and Haben as the stars of the story. They're magnetic in a way that the protagonists aren't, and while I'll always love baddies that I can sink my teeth into, if I'm rooting for them over the heroes for no reason other than that they actually feel more three dimensional than the latter, that's a big problem.

Overall, the story didn't do much for me, but I can definitely see why others are enjoying it.

Kerin's debut novel was full of action and nebulous adventure. The author easily won me over with her world building, her plot heavily influenced by religious mythology, her intriguing and broken characters, and everything else that exploded from this book and made me a fan. Between learning more about the well-developed characters and never knowing what would happen next, I was on the edge of my seat for this journey from beginning to end. The path proved treacherous and I enjoyed every spine-tingling minute of it!

This story centers around (and is told mostly by) three principle characters:
★ Seycia - she's a clever, courageous, fearless, and extremely headstrong. Alone during her formative years, after witnessing her parents death in her war-torn country, she's learned to survive and protect her little brother. Her love for her sibling is what really drew me to her, because big sisters love like no other. No one can touch, talk, or even think about our little ones. She's willing to do anything for him and ends up making the biggest sacrifice of all.

★ Haben - once a human who lived centuries ago, now a demon slave to the ruler of the Underworld. He has been turned into the Savage, a demon who comes to Earth twice a year to eat human sacrifices. He hates what he has become but feels his punishment matches his crime. You'll spend much of the book trying to figure out what he did to deserve this. Once Seycia finds herself in the Underworld, Haben does everything he can to help her survive. He becomes friend (and maybe more?), educator, and support when Seycia needs it most. FYI to the author... Haben IS this story and I need more of this man ASAP!!

★ Miko - Seycia's younger brother who ends up being the the Light for the people of his land. He's twelve and finds that his age doesn't diminish his strength or the fortitude required to do something about what is happening to his people. While he mourns his sister, he finds purpose and joins others in toppling the autocracy that his dominated his people for years. He's brave and intelligent, but still a bit naive and childish. His story arc intrigues me almost as much as Haben's does.

Other characters play a decidedly major role although they had minor parts:
⦾ General Simeon - he was the brutal ruler of Khronasa, with no love for its people or its traditions. He had an intense need to wipe out Seycia and her brother for wrongs done to him and lacked compunction for any of the evil he perpetrated. He was answerable and fearful of Emperor Caius, who had forced the people into subservience.

⦾ Dhov - ruler of the Underworld. He doled out pain and punishment on a whim. He was creepy, scary, and I would never want to meet him. He was right there, at every turn, during Haben and Seycia's mission to the Great Forest. He had spies everywhere and nowhere was safe from his wrath.

There were a ton of other characters we come to know. Some to love and some to hate along with everyone else. With her first novel, Kerin has established herself as a must-read author for the genre. She gave me everything I crave in a YA story and left me hungry for more. Now, at the end of this chapter of the tale, I'm tense and anxious to find out where this story will lead me next. I NEED a book two PRONTO!!

I could not put this down! The setting is fantastic – an intriguing post-apocalyptic world paired with an equally compelling underworld that is part Greek mythology and part Dante’s Inferno. Granted, you must accept that an underworld exists in the capacity that the author has described, but that is part of the fun of the novel.

The characters are understandable and likeable. Seycia is a self-reliant, stubborn, and tough young woman who refuses to be victimized. I loved her determination. Miko is a child character who never acts older than his age. Haben is perfectly executed – he is surly and bitter but never abusive. The reason for his curse is not a surprise, nor is his redemptive arc, but this did not take away from the story for me. I also love a good beauty and the beast tale, so I enjoyed their burgeoning relationship. The General was despicable and had clear motives – he never became a caricature of a villain. When Dohv is on the page he is menacing and unrelenting; a great pairing with the General’s tenuous hold on his power.

While the prose was evocative and descriptive without being boring, but there were some inconsistencies and repeated descriptions of emotions (such as people being exasperated). There wasn’t enough of this to be distracting, but it could have been tightened.

I’m a big fan of quest narratives and this novel had real tension. I could feel the threat of Dohv everywhere the pair travelled. The sections with Miko dragged a little for me. They weren’t poorly done or boring, but I was wanting to get back to the underworld!

I wasn’t a fan of the ending. While I understand it was set up for a sequel, it could have ended more definitively. But that seems to be the trend today.

Overall, a very fun, interesting, enjoyable novel!

So when I sat down to write my review for The Phantom Forest, all I wanted to write is this:

Protect this character
Seriously, protect this character
Take them away from Liz Kerin; it’s the only way to protect them
But uh, that doesn’t work as a review (maybe one day). Anyways.

The Phantom Forest is haunting.

Kerin’s debut is creepy, everyone. The world here is atmospheric and brings a chill or two, even when the story isn’t in the Underworld. In a world ruled by the Coalition where one practicing their belief in gods or superstition results in death, General Simeon overlooks a village with tight control. He keeps the people under his authority by taking a religious ritual where only criminals are sacrifices to one where anyone can be chosen.

I wanted General Simeon to choke on sharp pineapples while reading.

Since her father died, Seycia lives in hiding with her younger brother Miko in the village. It’s not long before General Simeon makes her a target and she becomes the next village sacrifice, sending her to the Underworld where she joins forces with Haben.

Interesting Characters Arcs
I find myself most invested in Haben’s story and wanted to keep reading to find out what happens to Seycia and him as they journey across the Underworld. While The Phantom Forest has a multitude of POVs, most are from Seycia, Haben and Miko.

The story seems to focus on one character with the others sitting in the backseat, undergoing the most development. However, I do feel this is only the beginning, and there is more to come for both Seycia and Miko. Their story seems to stand in the back of the room, but they’ll likely develop in future books. I want to see what Kerin has in store even if I only want to protect Haben.

There are slow moments in The Phantom Forest
Kerin builds a world and plot that captures my attention from early in the novel. However, there are moments where I felt the scenes were maybe irrelevant and unnecessary. While it was a rough patch to go through, it was well worth it. I wanted to see to the end of the story, and I had a lot of questions that won my curiosity. By the end of The Phantom Forest, I still have plenty of questions, but I’m sure there will be answers eventually.

When I first read the premise for this book, I got super excited. The story follows a young girl named Seycia after she has been chosen as the human sacrifice to the demon Haben.

Sacrificed by the man who killed her parents, Seycia and Haben embark on a journey to the most sacred placed in the Underworld - The Forest of Laida. Every tree in the forest houses a soul that will return to the mortal world for many lives to come, but Seycia is determined to destroy the tree of the man who killed her.

This premise for this book sounded absolutely amazing, and I did end up actually enjoying the story. The subplot of the book follows Seycia's little brother, Miko, as he deals with the aftermath of Seycia's death. While I thought both plots were super interesting, there were times where both Seycia and Miko absolutely annoyed the crap out of me. To be fair though, they were supposed to be fairly young, so I gave them a little slack here. The writing was fairly good, and I was engrossed in the story from the very beginning. While the plot with Miko was interesting, I was a lot more invested in what was happening in the Underworld, and I wish the story had focused more on that. After reading The Phantom Forest, I would definitely pick up another book by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley and Inkshares for an advanced copy of The Phantom Forest in exchange for an honest review.

BOOK REPORT for The Phantom Forest by Liz Kerin

Cover Story: High School Art
BFF Charms: Eventually, Yay
Swoonworthy Scale: 4
Talky Talk: Historical Future
Bonus Factors: The Underworld, Brothers and Sisters
Factor: Standalone?
Relationship Status: There Might Be Something There

Trigger Warning: There’s a scene of attempted rape in The Phantom Forest that might be triggering for some readers.

Cover Story: High School Art

This cover is … fine. It’s a little juvenile, and doesn’t look polished. It’s intriguing, but at the same time, it seems like an unfinished project. It could be a lot better.

The Deal:

Seycia and her brother Miko have eked out a meager existence in the years since her parents were brutally murdered at the hands of General Simeon, the ruler of Khronasa, the city near which they live. They don’t have much, but they have each other … until, that is, Seycia and the weapon she got from her father—a fang from a paranormal creature—are spotted at the Sacrifice, a horrific event the people of Khronasa take part in to appease The Savage, a brutal creature from the underworld.

Seycia’s captured and ends up the next unwilling participant of the Sacrifice. But unlike all the unlucky others, Seycia doesn’t die. Instead, she forms an uneasy alliance with a demon, Haben, and works to protect Miko from beyond the veil.

BFF Charms: Eventually, Yay



Haben’s, well, a demon. He’s been damned for a reason, and it’s unclear until the end of the book what, exactly, that reason is. There’s good in him, sure, but the whole demon thing made me question his motives for much of the book.



Seycia’s a strong-willed, caring young woman with a good head on her shoulders. She’s a little eager to jump to action, rather than thinking things through, but she’d be a great partner to have on the sort of adventure they experience in this book.

Swoonworthy Scale: 4

Seycia and Haben have a weird sort of connection that maybe turns into something more along the way. It’s not without swoon, but it’s also a little convenient (considering Seycia’s the first non-demon Haben’s met in, like, centuries).

Talky Talk: Historical Future

The Phantom Forest is set on Earth, but in a future where many of the people have reverted to a simpler time. Technology is scarce, and those who have it have all the power. There’s talk of a long-ago war that was fought, in part, because someone broke through to the literal Underworld, and religious factions the world over decided they didn’t like reality compared with what they believed. The world building of this book is excellent, and the Underworld is a truly fascinating place.

On the flip side, the language Kerin uses is at times clunky. There were a few phrases in the start of the book that completely took me out of the reading experience, and had me wondering if the story couldn’t use another pass by an editor. The relationship, too, was a little insta-love-y, and the near-rape scene at the start of the book was super jarring, and didn’t tie in with the feel of the rest of the story, which was far less brutal (even though there were other instances of violence).

Bonus Factor: The Underworld



I’m repeating myself a bit, but Kerin’s depiction of the Underworld was really gorgeous, even while being vicious. Anyone who can make Hell sound enticing has a definite way with words.

Bonus Factor: Brothers and Sisters



Seycia and Miko have a really sweet relationship. Even when they’re separated by seemingly insurmountable distance, they’re always thinking of each other and doing what they can to make sure each other are safe.

Factor: Standalone?



According to Goodreads, The Phantom Forest isn’t part of a series. I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if Kerin released another book in the series at some point in the future. The book didn’t end on a complete cliffhanger, but there were a lot of plot points left somewhat unresolved.

Relationship Status: There Might Be Something There

Our date started our a little rocky, Book, but after I got past your weird turns of phrase and sucked into your story, things went pretty well. I wouldn’t say no to spending more time with you. I’m not sure we’re going to make it all the way to love, but I certainly wouldn’t write you off completely.

Literary Matchmaking:



● If you’re interested in spending more (figurative) time in the underworld, check out Jeff Giles’s The Edge of Everything series.

● Zoraida Cordova’s Labyrinth Lost also features an otherworldly “other” place in which the main character must go on an epic quest to save her family.

● And The Remnant Chronicles series by Mary E. Pearson also takes place in a world in which the people of Earth have reverted to an earlier way of life.


FTC Full Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Inkshares, but got neither a private dance party with Tom Hiddleston nor money in exchange for this review. The Phantom Forest is available now.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the free book.*

I somewhat likes the premises of this book yet I wasn't to happy with the execution. After humanity has pierced the veil that divided the dimension of the demons from the human realm, humankind has suffered. They are terrorised from both the demons needing human sacrifice and by an totalitarian system where critics etc are hunted down and sacrificed.

A sister and her brother will fight evil overlords in both the human and the demonic realm. Maybe they can save the world and humankind?

Things I liked:
- references to former civilization
- survival
- idea of demons
- was entertaining

Things I disliked:
- random imba siblings
- world building quite week
- character and story development predicable
- pseudo Hunger Games
- weak plot

2,5 Stars