I read the first novella, Silver in the Wood, back in April and loved it. Moving onto Drowned Country, I wasn’t sure if the cast and plot would persist or change. This novella somehow did both? Both continuing Henry and Tobias’ tale and building upon it. The narration switches from Tobias to Henry, who, as it turns out, spends most of his time sulking around being dramatic. I mean, I get it, but I also loved this new perspective we got of him. Tobias on his part does a fair bit of changing as well. Maybe Adela Silver, monster hunter extraordinaire and Henry’s mother, is the only one who stays the same, sure as a rock.

The sequel has that streak of fanfiction Silver in the Wood has, which I believe is the heart of it. It’s why I was able to curl up with it despite having trouble finding pleasure in anything I read. It thrives on character relationships, and not just romance. Drowned Country is able to count on the reader’s bond with Henry and Tobias to elicit emotions. Henry’s flair for the melancholic also contributes to this. Even with the weird fond secondhand embarrassment I felt for him, it was delightful to read how self-conscious he was about some things.

Also, oh my God, was I wrong about how the opening pages of this novella would go. Tobias and Henry adopt a plucky young woman, but before adopting her, Maud literally has the most perfect character introduction ever. Her retorts about everything Henry and Tobias did, their instant connection, made me pace around my room in happiness.

I do hope if you’re reading this you give these novellas a chance, because there are many more things to enjoy about them.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this novella!

Rating: 3.5 stars
Rep: m/m relationship

"Drowned Country" takes place a couple of years after the events of "Silver in the Wood". Henry is now the "wild man of Greenhollow" but it seems that Henry and Tobias have had a falling out. After his mother comes to demand Henry help her with a case, pulling him out of his self imposed isolation, Henry has no choice but to confront his past relationship, while also discovering more of The Woods many dimensions.

After reading this second installation, I've now come to the conclusion that Emily Tesh's writing style, while beautiful and magical, isn't for me. Though I definitely see why people love it! But personally, my mind kept wandering while reading and I found myself having to go over large chunks again and again because nothing was going in.

One thing I did like was the fact that this novella is told entirely through Silver's POV and I liked his character a lot more than Tobias's narration from the first book. Henry is so dramatic and emotional and I adored him. While there is definitely more romance development in this book, I still wasn't sold on their relationship but I liked the ending.

Overall, I highly recommend checking out this duology if you like magical stories, queer characters and lyrical writing.

Ohhh, I think I enjoyed this even more than the first!! I wasn't as into the beginning, but once Maud showed up and the next adventure began, I was so drawn into this story. And I'm so happy it all came full circle, and that it ended as it did.

Last year I discovered the gorgeous writing and imagination of Emily Tesh in Silver in the Wood, and at the time, I don’t believe it was intended to be a series. Fast forward to the release of Drowned Country, which continues the story of Henry Silver and Tobias Finch perfectly as if the author had intended it all along (and maybe she did!). Drowned Country is a lush, dreamy fairy tale that isn’t big on plot, but it does have charm and ambiance to spare.

The story takes place two years after the events of Silver in the Wood. Henry Silver is now Lord of Greenhollow, having taken over after Tobias Finch—the previous Lord—left abruptly after a disagreement. Silver has been languishing in his crumbling mansion and pining for Tobias, lying on the floor and surrounding the walls of his house with brambles and thorns. His lassitude is interrupted by his mother, Mrs. Silver, who insists that she needs Silver’s assistance in finding a lost girl named Maud Lindhurst. Mrs. Silver hunts monsters, and she suspects Maud has been kidnapped by an old vampire and may already be dead.

Silver agrees to help her, especially since Tobias works with Mrs. Silver and he desperately wants to see him again. But his excitement turns to annoyance when he finds out they want him to act as bait in order to draw the vampire out and follow it to its lair. Things don’t go quite as planned, though, and both Silver and Tobias find themselves in a rather interesting situation with Maud Lindhurst.

The story takes off after that as Silver, Tobias and Maud go on a strange adventure into, of all places, Fairyland. I’m sure you’re wondering, what’s become of the vampire? You’ll discover that too if you decide to read this. Drowned Country is written in absolutely lovely prose, and I have to say Emily Tesh uses her writing skills to great effect, especially since the heart of the story revolves around the characters’ emotions and the fantastical descriptions of this odd world. One of my favorite things about Silver in the Wood was the relationship Tobias had with the Wood and the trees and plants that lived there, and once again we see how Silver now has the ability to wave his hand and make an apple tree grow, or cover his mansion in thorny branches with a simple gesture. We also get a couple of short scenes with Bramble, the dryad who lives in the Wood, who was a favorite of mine in the last book.

I also really enjoyed Henry Silver in this story. He’s a bit of a mess and doesn’t deal with his feelings very well, but he’s a vibrant, energetic man who makes mistakes but then learns from them. Many of the book’s humorous moments revolve around Silver and his complicated emotions. Tobias, on the other hand, is more of a rock. He barely speaks at all and appears to be mad at Silver for a ridiculous reason. In this sense, the romance in this story was a bit on the YA overly dramatic side, with Tobias refusing to speak to Henry and Henry desperately trying to connect with him. Luckily, the Wood itself intervenes, and the romance ended up in a very sweet place at the end. 

Tesh includes some flashback chapters that explain exactly what happened between Tobias and Silver two years ago (events that were not included in Silver in the Wood), and I loved these sections, especially since I was confused in the beginning about why the two lovebirds split up.

As for the plot itself, I found it rather fractured, but in a dream-like, fairy tale way. Usually this would bother me, but the strangeness of the story charmed me and I found the plot to be almost secondary to the atmospheric quality of Tesh’s writing. There are quite a few elements here, including a vampire, a fairy, an overbearing monster hunter, a dying Fairyland, and of course, the magical but dangerous Wood that seems to be the center of everything. I often find novellas to be too short for their ambition, and this is no exception, but I loved the ending so much that I can forgive the length this time. I can easily imagine more stories set in the world, and I hope that Emily Tesh returns to it someday.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

Oh my goodness, Drowned Country was so whimsical and lovely. Every word Tesh writes is so earthy and lush and vivid. Her work is very atmospheric and you can’t help feeling completely immersed in this folksy woodland world she’s created. If you don’t smell wet soil and see the greenish haze of sunlight through leaves while reading this, you need to be paying closer attention.

While this duology is largely character-driven, there’s always just enough adventure to remind readers of the magic and fantasy that saturates this world. Whether it’s casual mention of time moving differently or the sudden appearance of a fairy, there’s always some little tidbit that keeps this world feeling special and uniquely apart from our own. The consistency and subtlety with this really speaks to Tesh’s skill as a writer.

But while the fantasy and atmosphere are amazing, I think most of us stay for the romance. The relationship between Tobias and Silver is so tender and precious and I love that we got to experience so much more of it in this second half of the duology. I grinned constantly during this read because it was just so damn sweet. I loved the use of small flashbacks to give readers the backstory of what occurred between the couple during the gap between stories. I worried flashbacks would become confusing or overwhelming, but it was handled beautifully and provided just the right amount of added context.

I really enjoyed this second story and I’m sad to see the duology come to a close. I’d happily read about this sweet couple and their adventures in lore again and again. I’d recommend this story widely, but especially if gay folksy woodland adventure/fantasy sounds like your kind of romp.

Special thanks to Tor and NetGalley for the ARC!

Emily Tesh’s previous novella, Silver in the Wood, was a terrific fantasy, but, in my opinion, her follow up is even better.

The first book involved the folklore of the Green Man, but this one is a true faery tale. The novella opens with Henry Silver’s monster-hunting mother insisting he leave the Wood he presides over to help her rescue a young woman who has been abducted by an ancient vampire. Silver is reluctant, because doing so means that he will be reunited with his former lover, Tobias, who he’s been estranged from for the past two years. But he can’t say no to his mother, so off he goes. The situation is even stranger than Silver and the others know, however, and they wind up taking an unexpected journey into the unknown.

I loved everything about this novella, which is beautifully written in terms of both language and plot. The twist early on involving the young lady’s disappearance was unexpected and very amusing. (Given his mother, though, perhaps Silver shouldn’t have been quite so surprised.) The story then takes a turn into the fantastical with magic both awesome and perilous coming into play. And the pain of the broken relationship between Tobias and Silver runs through it all, before the Wood itself ultimately brings all right in the end.

I’d highly recommend this to anyone who loves well-written fantasy. After two amazing novellas, I’m hoping that Tesh has something longer in the works. I want more!

A copy of this book was provided through NetGalley for review; all opinions expressed are my own.

Drowned Country, after the decadent Silver in the Wood, was like coming back to an old friend. I really enjoyed the book, and the minor niggles were so small that I got a few pages on from each of them and they'd smoothed out again. Emily Tesh is definitely one to watch - it's so awesome to enjoy 'proper' folklore that is as dark and delicious and authentic as these books are.
I found the observations in this - about love, and myth and all of the magic in the world all mingled well, and the beats in the book were almost perfect. Pacing felt a bit off only once or twice, and not enough to detract from anything that I was enjoying when I felt myself pulled out a bit.
A wonderful second book, an amazing author, highly recommended.
I received a copy of this book on Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review, with thanks to the author and publisher.
More on this book will appear on my blog, as it's remaining with me even now.

Last year I reviewed one of the most atmospheric books I had ever read—Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh. It was whimsical, verdant, and dark. When I think about it a year later, I still get the mental picture of a deep lustrous forest with secrets to keep. Silver in the Wood was the first book in the Greenhollow Duology. The second, Drowned Country, is as good as the first one, although the tone is slightly different.

Drowned Country brings us many of the characters from the first story, specifically of the two male leads of Tobias and Silver. Where Silver in the Wood was very much Tobias's story to tell, Drowned Country is Silvers. It has been two years since the first novel has taken place. While in the first story, the setting of the deep dark woods was a character as much as Tobias was. Now in Drowned Forest, the temperament of the story has changed too much more character-driven.

Silver has a difficult time finding his footing as the new wild man of the forest. He is sulky, petulant, and bored. Tobias has taken to working with Silver's mother, the aging monster hunter Adela Silver. Adela asks Silver to come to help her with her newest monster problem. There is a 900-year-old vampire afoot and a missing ingenue that needs rescuing. Silver is bored and wants to get back some of the excitement that he had when he was not the wild man. Thus starts their adventure. Things certainly do not pan out as we think they will.

Most of the story is the tension between Silver and Tobias. There is a certain charm between the two of them, a lightness that comes off easily and is a testament to how good Tesh's writing is. Their relationship had an effortless quality to it. I spent much of the book wishing they would work things out. The background story of elves and Maud is less important than their relationship. It is what they were doing at the time, but it is not all-encompassing.

The small detractor I found with this novel is that I wished it was longer, and the plot felt more important. I wanted it fleshed out. It had some pretty vague points that lost me as a reader. And, because of its vagueness, it lost some of the atmospheric quality. I couldn't picture it as well as her first book, Silver in the Wood.

In the end, Tesh did a great job with this book. It is a fine ending or beginning depending on how you look at it to this Duology. I loved the romance between the two of them; there is a slow burn quality to it that is almost steamy. This book gave me some warm fuzzies.

I am sad that the series is over, but in many ways, the journey of Silver and Tobias is just beginning.

Lush, folkloric storytelling returns in this sequel to Silver in the Wood. This time, Silver and Mr. Finch have broken up within the two years since the end of the previous book, but have reunited to solve a vampire problem. And then it's off to Fairyland.

I really liked the yearning in this one. Silver clearly wants to prove himself, but he is a baby man who wants not much to do with responsibility. I loved the way the state of the manor reflected his inner turmoil, and the fact that Rothport wasn't much better.

Maud was a fantastic addition to the cast, her introduction with a cleaver is some peak content. She served as an excellent contrast to Silver's reluctance and Tobias's more reserved natures. The bit in fairyland was every bit as deceiving as expected. The flashbacks worked really well to contextualize SIlver's feelings and didn't interrupt the narrative whatsoever.

If you want to get lost in some magical storytelling, definitely pick up the conclusion to thing duology on 8/18/2020.

This is a story about the magic that lingers in the hidden corners, in the dark and secret places of this world. It’s also about the magic that lives in the deepest reaches of the heart – whether that heart is more-or-less human – or so very definitely not.

When I finished Silver in the Wood last year, I thought that it was utterly lovely. Also that while it was complete in itself, I really wanted there to be just a bit more. Drowned Country is that bit more, and it is every bit as lovely as its predecessor.

But it is also a very different story. And probably doesn’t stand well on its own. Howsomever, even combined the Greenhollow Duology is short enough to be just an afternoon’s jaunt to a world that both is, and is not, our own. (The duology is even short enough that the listening time for the combined audiobook is just under 6 hours!)

When Silver in the Wood opened, Henry Silver was a young scholar, determined to find the truths behind the old myths and legends of not just the Greenhollow, but of all the legendary, magical and mythological creatures that still haunt the hidden places. He doesn’t want to believe that they are all merely the dangerous monsters that his mother has made a living out of hunting down and destroying.

When the Drowned Country opens, it opens in the aftermath of the events of Silver in the Wood. Two years after Henry traded places with Tobias Finch, the former “caretaker” of Greenhollow, Henry himself is now the Wild Man of the woods and Tobias is now Henry’s rather formidable mother’s assistant.

But Tobias had few difficulties with his centuries of solitude as the Green Man, while Henry is more than a bit lost in his new role. Or he just plain misses his friend and lover, Tobias Finch.

So when Henry’s mother arrives at what has increasingly become the ruin of his house, Henry is both appalled and energized. He may not want to deal with his mother, but he needs to put himself back out into the world – and he needs to beg forgiveness of the lover he lied to and lost.

Henry also hopes that his mother has finally recognized his skills and his value to her work. After all, he is both a published folklorist and a powerful nature avatar. But Adele Silver does not think that much of her son. She just wants to use him as bait for a vampire with a predilection towards handsome young men.

What Henry finds is a woman who might be the sister of his heart, if he can just manage to save her from the fairy who plans to install her as the queen of an ancient and dead realm. He can manage to save the girl, assist his mother, and gain his lover’s forgiveness. In order to do so he’ll have to fully embrace the role that he stumbled into with little thought for the future.

The magic he has at his fingertips might be just enough to save everyone else if he is willing to fully inhabit a role that fits him nearly as badly as the too-large coat that Tobias left behind.

But there is still magic in the world, and it might be just enough to save them all.

Escape Rating A: Silver in the Wood linked back to a lot of different stories, particularly those that revolve around nature spirits like the Green Man – meaning characters like Tom Bombadill and Tam Lin. It also nicely – or rather evilly – ropes in all those stories about evil spirits that never die without great sacrifice.

The story in Drowned Country feels more like it hearkens back to Rip Van Winkle and all of those stories about the magic of fairy rings, that they are gateways between our world and the land of the fae, and that those who wander between can disappear for centuries only to return after all their loved ones are long dead but believing that they’ve only been away a short time.

At the same time this story has a feeling of “the magic goes away” in that the Greenhollow is smaller than it once was, that its magic doesn’t stretch as far as it used to, and that the magic places in the worlds are dying.

Plus there’s that connection to the supernatural stories that became so popular in the late 19th century – the time period when this slightly alternate history feels like it belongs. The vampire that Adele Silver plans to lure out of his lair is quite real. Also quite dead and not merely undead.

And overtop of all of this is a combination of a quest and a romance. Henry isn’t sure whether he really plans to rescue the girl or he really hopes to follow her into Fairyland. She reminds him of himself, with that same sense of undying and something unthinking curiosity. But Henry also wants to win Tobias back for however long he can keep him. As an avatar of the wood, Henry will live for centuries, but Tobias is now mortal.

The only problem is that he has to first get Tobias to talk to him, and second to forgive him. Both are easier said than done, with all of the puns implied.

At the end, I was blown away. I expected the ending of Silver in the Wood, the whole story was leading straight towards it. I was NOT expecting the end of Drowned Country. It was beautiful, and breathtaking, and a complete surprise. It was also a perfect and fitting ending to the entire story..

I read books one and two back to back and these little books are beautiful. I was trying to describe them to my boyfriend and the best description I could come up with was “these are a pagan, LGBTQ+, love story”. Tesh creates a magical dreamlike world filled with fantastic magical creatures. I could not put these books down. I would say that I wish they were longer but that’s only because I want more time in this world. They really are perfect as they are. Drowned Country is the perfect sequel. I just love the relationship between Tobias and Silver. Give me a tall, handsome, handy, quiet, man any day. Five stars!!! Seriously Tor, Tor Teen, and Tor.com never disappoint.

Emily Tesh has been on my TBR for a while, often recommended to me by readers who know that I love fantasy, romance, and queer stories. I finally sat down with both books in the Greenhollow duology over the weekend. There's a gentleness and a tenderness to these tales (a warmth to the language ) that encourages readers to comfortably settle in, and I quickly found myself enchanted by the world Tesh created. Drowned Country takes place two years after the events in the first novella. Tobias and Henry’s folklorist mother Adela require Henry’s help with a vampire who has taken a local girl. Once they all arrive in Rothport, it’s to find that the missing girl they’re meant to rescue is hiding a few secrets of her own. Drowned Country hit shelves earlier this month and is a beautiful conclusion to the story that begins with Silver in the Wood. Readers who enjoy folklore will love this fantasy duology and the romantic thread that runs through it.

This book was reviewed by me for American Library Association's Booklist. As a result, my review for Booklist is linked below.

So, I’ll make this one short and sweet, cause that’s what this book was! Overall, I really enjoyed it. I think it actually worked for me a little better than the first. I enjoyed the plot, and think Maud was a really fun character and Mrs. Silver has really worked her way into my heart, she just seems like a tough old bird who does what she wants and I like that. I also loved the way the faeries in this book were, they were the sort of creepy and dangerous faeries that I’m really drawn to. And of course, as I did with the first one, I loved the atmospheric and lush description of the wood.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting this novella to pick up where it did, but I did appreciate the little flashbacks that were rolled out throughout the book to provide context. And I think it worked to make the ending much more satisfying. And of course, I did find myself more invested in Silver and Tobias’ relationship than I expected—the pining was really on point in this book.

So, I didn’t end up reviewing the first book in the duology, but I did read and enjoy it! So, if this one seems like it’ll be interesting, definitely check out the first one, Silver in the Wood, Tesh’s writing is beautiful and very atmospheric!

(This review will go live on my blog on August 11, 2020)

Drowned Country concludes a charming duology populated with fairies, satyrs, and an immortal wood. The fae tale is also a quiet gay love story. Silver is now the face of the Hallow Wood while Tobias assists his mother in her paranormal work. We get flashbacks to the dissolution of their relationship, while Silver travels to help with a new case involving a missing girl. It's a small window into a mystical land, driven by the relational conflict between Silver and Tobias.

As with the first book, the writing here is lovely. The contrast between the very normal growing pains of a relationship and the concerns of magic and immortality is an interesting one. What happens when a being of power throws a petty tantrum? We kind of get to see that here. The mystical plotline was definitely less dramatic and satisfying than the first book, but I still enjoyed it. It's a lovely little duology. I recieved an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The plot for this sequel felt a little predictable (at least in terms of the love plotline), but not in a way that detracted from the reading experience—a reader who liked the first in the series will probably like this just about as much, even if it is slightly less memorable. Kind of fluffy, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

Thank you so much to Tor.com (Macmillan) for providing me with an early e-copy of this novella through Netgalley. Drowned Country is out on August 18.

I read and really enjoyed Emily Tesh’s debut, Silver in the Wood, about a year ago, given its atmospheric writing style and the forest-centric folkloric elements, although I did find the novella somewhat lacking in plot. In this second installment, Tesh flips the style, emphasizing a plot to uncover secrets about the wood and a mysterious Fairyland rather than focusing on the lush descriptions and creation of atmosphere present in the first novella. While I continued to enjoy the characters and did find the story engaging, this one did not capture me quite as much as Silver in the Wood did. This novella also felt similar in tone to Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series, which I do not particularly enjoy but I know are well-loved by many. If you are a fan of the Wayward Children series, I would definitely recommend reading this second installment, but only if you’ve read Silver in the Wood, as this one does not provide some of the background needed to enjoy the story.

Drowned Country is the sequel to Silver In the Wood, a beautiful folklorist story about a man in love with the lore of fairy tales and how they are more real than he imagined.
Drowned Country was a good follow up to the first book, which I did enjoy more. In this story, Silver joins his mother and Tobias on a mission to save a young girl from a 900 year old vampire. Silver begins to see the girl like a sister who has similar thoughts and ideas about the world around them and tells them that she is going to Fairyland. Silver immediately sees this as the next adventure in his supposedly immortal life he will be leading.
This book was good, I felt it jumped around a bit more so it wasn't quite as cohesive as Silver in the Wood but it was still enjoyable.

Silver In The Wood was the story of the young squire Henry Silver; his fling with the local Green Man, Tobias Finch; and the evil they vanquished. In its wake, the two of them parted; now Silver is the spirit of the wood, and Finch works with Silver's wonderfully indomitable mother, hunting monsters. Silver In The Wood wasn't a long book, but it packed a lot in; likewise here, and this is without even getting into the sheer volume of feelings that are also in the mix. The setting this time, at least once we're past Silver's very 2020 "fourteen months spent pitying himself in a thorn-girt fortress", is Rothport, a small fishing town distinguished by an abbey and rumours of vampires, so yes, I'm picturing Whitby. The other crucial detail is that it borders the drowned country of the title, what we now know as Doggerland, and once we're reminded that the Green Man's powers extend to anywhere his Wood stood (fnarr fnarr) within the memory of the land, well, you can see some of where this is going. But, as with the first book, not as much as you might think. I felt echoes of Jonathan Strange, Pendulum Sun, maybe even a little Laundry Files, and Pratchett (though not the bits of Pratchett his name first calls to mind) – all of them very good company to be in. And despite it only being the current unpleasantness which delayed Drowned Country's publication from June, there are elements to the bittersweet conclusion which work much better for being read while the blackberries are nearly ripe.

This book is a fantastic sequel to Silver in the Woods!
Emily Tesh's ability to draw the reader in through her world building and descriptions only is incredible and reason enough to read her stories.
For me this book was much more plot driven vs. the first book where it was more about the characters themselves. Like the first book, the second book still left me wanting more stories from this world. I would highly recommend this book to others.