From the start this book was creepy in a way that was unsettling more than fun. I went into this thinking it was going to be more adventurous fantasy, having basically only seen the cover. It’s really more of an X-Men style youngsters with supernatural powers book. And it doesn’t really have much levity to balance the heaviness of the story. There were certainly things to appreciate in the book, especially a well-drawn main character who is tough and coming into herself bravely, but this book is really for people who want a dark, intense story.

*some spoilers!!*
Thank you to NetGalley and Clarion books for providing me access to an e-arc to review!

I was drawn in by the promise of a plus-sized main character and a witchy/magical forest/isolated story, but unfortunately I felt this didn't do enough with those concepts for me. I never quite got into the found family aspect as I found the other sisters to be quite forgettable and reduced to names and one or two characteristics about them. I think it was just hard to keep track of so many characters at once, especially as they were all introduced at pretty much the same time. I do appreciate the inclusion of characters of different ethnicities/gender identities and the LGBTQI+/mental illness representation, but think that when these characters don't get a lot of fleshing out beyond these characteristics about them, some of this representation loses its meaning.

I found the mystery element predictable, and in the last 50 pages I found it very hard to understand why characters were acting the way they were. SPOILERS: I also hoped that Frank wouldn't end up being the main villain, and instead was being corrupted by the forest or something like that, as in the end I didn't think the spooky forest had really resulted in anything of much consequence apart from two of the sisters disappearing for most of the book. Maybe this is setting up for a sequel? I also didn't quite understand why they wanted to stay at the house where their friends had died and their families were drowned in the lake - especially as so many of them had anxiety/depression and had been abused/tortured in that house for years. I also felt like the protagonist was the only one we really got to see come into her power when I was hoping for more of a 'let's do this together' type vibe.

It just didn't give what it was supposed to be gave :( I think House of Hollow had a more compelling mystery for me, and The Bone Houses had the spooky forest content I was looking for!! Kind of also had 12 Dancing Princesses vibes - for which I would recommend House of Salt and Sorrows]!

CW: mental/emotional abuse, murder

Trigger Warning: guardian abuse, mental torture, emotional torture, kidnapping, child abandonment, child abuse, murder, control, pain and fear

Something in the woods is calling...
Derry and her siblings have magic, and in a world that hates them, the best place to be is with Frank on their isolated farm. The farm lets them live and grow and seems like the perfect place on the surface, but with Frank being so overprotective, it doesn't feel like freedom- so they do what any child does, they find hidden ways to sneak out. All this comes to a head when her siblings start going missing, and doubt and darkness fills Derry's mind. Her missing siblings call her from the woods or something that sounds like them, and they say nothing is safe.

This book! THIS BOOK! This book gave me the most uncomfortable, sinister, nerve-wracking bad guy, and I have never wanted more than to go into a book to save characters more than this one. I was on edge the whole book for this character and then for the supernatural darkness haunting this book.
This book showed how you could have a supernatural story without the supernatural being be the worse thing to fear. That ending was VERY satisfying, even if it came with such a terrible heartbreak.

I also loved this book for the huge representation; lgbtq+ (trans and nonbinary folks, the asexual and bisexual plus pansexual), the diversity between the siblings and the found family trip -which I am a sucker for!

A Dark and Starless Forest Review
Gosh, what a dynamite book! Thank you Clarion books for sending me this, god was it a ride!
I will go ahead and say this up front though. A Dark and Starless Forest is incredible but also, it
was not an easy book. What with some emotional abuse and manipulation/grooming (not sexual though) and some slight body horror and some general unsettling vibes. This is not what I would call a feel-good book. This is not warm and fuzzy and fluffy. You know what it is though? Necessary. Cathartic. Look at the absolutely gorgeous stunner of a cover. That does not show a happy, docile young lady. No, what we get instead is so much better. Hollowell gives us what is so rare to see, a badass fat girl protagonist who is allowed to be messy and angry and embrace her power. How utterly glorious is that? How great and good is it to get to have such a wonderful complex character like this that is fat and it gets to just be an attribute and not a source of shame? F***ing fantastic.
Speaking of fantastic, the way that diversity was treated in this book was just amazing. Amongst the alchemists who mostly come from different families we had multiple races, a trans and nonbinary character as well as a deaf character and several fat siblings as well and it’s all just treated with care and organically. Of the bad situations in the book, none of them are because of any of these factors which was appreciated. Like there was a character that was awful but Hollowell actively chose to not make the readers sit through them being awful about those things.
All that being said, it could sometimes be difficult for me in certain bits because Hollowell was so good at crafting a tense atmosphere and an air of worry and suspense. It just made certain bits uncomfortable to me because i was so invested. That’s a personal thing though. I know that i prefer happier books and i should have known from the cover that something was gonna happen to make Derry look that angry but like, it gets a little dark in a few bits.
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SOME SPOILERS AFTER THIS BIT SO LOOK AWAY TO AVOID THEM!!!
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One of these days, not today clearly, BUT ONE OF THESE DAYS, i’m gonna get to read a book with more than 6 siblings WHERE NONE OF THEM DIE. Like seriously, is it so much to ask to end a book with the same large number of siblings as when we started? What is it about big families that makes authors go “yes good, plenty of kiddos. It should be fine if i kill one or two, there will still be plenty. It’s all good.” Like no. No. stop it. Okay no author genuinely thinks no one will care but why is it that this is the third book i’ve read this year with a big family of sisters with a death toll? Like stop. Like i should take this as a sign and just stop requesting books about more than two sisters because the track record is bad. I am just a girl with multiple sisters who just wants to read about sisters and have them all survive at the end. Like please? Is that so hard? Apparently. Apparently it’s a very big deal. THat being said, i had my suspicions going into A Dark and Starless Forest that the same would happen here but I was still sad to be proven right. One was especially brutal. I know that the point was that they deserved better than that and because of that Derry took vengeance and did it so it would never happen again but also, they deserved better.
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END OF SPOILERS
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Overall, it was very well written. I liked that the siblings all felt distinct and I really felt like I knew them and their dynamics with each other. If you love complex ladies and sister stories and atmospheric creepy books, you’ll love this. If you’re a softie like me, it might be a little more difficult but I still think it was worth it! Thank you again to Clarion books for granting me access to this book!

I have had this e-arc sitting on my TBR for months and I am absolutely appalled that I did not read it earlier.

Anyone who has ever heard me talk about books knows how much I love a spooky/magical forest and this has an excellent one. It also had an amazing sibling group, with tons of diverse rep that felt quite well done although I can't speak for any of it.

The vibes of this book were just so sinister and I couldn't believe how fastly I flew through it. I was desperate to know if Frank really was bad (not a spoiler) and what was going on with these magical girls.

I can't wait to reread this and annotate!

Queer witches what more can I say! There’s something so hauntingly beautiful about this book that I’m still unsure I can narrow down to one thing.

The story follows Derry who is a witch stowed away in a house amongst the forest until her siblings beings to disappear and the secrets of her life slowly begin to unravel around her. Will say the story takes its time to get going and there are some moments that feel as if it’s prolonging the action instead of getting to the point. Yet, as you get more into it, a dark, almost psychological horror narrative begins to play out and that’s where the book shifts from an okay book to one truly worth your time. A lot of the time, I was reminded of Doki Doki Literature Club and how that starts slow and normal with some little hints to the darkness underneath until it reveals its true face.

The writing is, also, very easy to read. Derry’s a very clean cut narrator and doesn’t over complicate things but that doesn’t mean there is no room for gorgeous imagery especially in relationship to the fireflies. It uses its language to the max effectiveness without becoming dull which is so hard to do.

And the characters. Obviously they are the true stand out of the novel. Derry is complex and a heroine you’re really rooting for. Plus, I love to see a fat lead who’s whole story isn’t about their weight but just a horror-fantasy thriller. Like Derry could be any size and the story would have stayed the same so loved that so much! Her siblings as well are all well developed and all unique in their personalities that it doesn’t feel like they’re just doppelgängers of Derry. Their relationships with each other is really the bind that holds this book together because without it, this book wouldn’t be half as good. And Frank. Really watching the slow unmasking of him is one of the best parts of the novel. I loved how dastardly he was and how he’s built up to seem unstoppable which makes the journey to stop him all the more satisfying.

All in all, this is a great YA horror-fantasy for the Halloween season with a stunning cast of characters, simple storytelling and a villain you love to watch be overcome. Great read, just what I need right now to get out of a slump.

A Dark and Starless Forest is a fun debut story by Sarah Hollowell. Full of mystery, darkness, love and wonder; this story will keep you on the edge of your seat but fill your heart with so much emotion.

DNF at 15% (for now)

The decsion to DNF this is entirely on me and not on the book itself. There's nothing wrong with the book that made me not want to finish this. It's just that I'm not engaged in the story or its content and nothing about it has inrtrugued me thus far.

From what I did read of it, I loved the diverse represenation. There's POC characters, there's plus-size characters (with the main protagonist being one of them); there's a non-binary and (I'm pretty sure) a trans character as well. One of the siblings is also deaf and uses sign lanugage to communicate. I've never seen this much represenation in a YA novel and I thought it was super cool to see that amount of rep.

With saying all that, I will come back to this in the future (I'm not sure when that's gonna be), but I know I'll read it again at some point, Once I'm in a better mood to pick this up.

A Dark and Starless Forest
By Sarah Hollowell

Derry is a witch, but that’s not what Frank calls her; he says that’s a harmful word and that she and her eight siblings are alchemists. It’s all a rather idyllic life filled with chores, meal times and magic practice, until one of her sisters goes missing in the woods one night. From then, a darkness settles and begins closing in all around her family, and it is up to Derry to save them. All of her skills, both magical and mundane, will be pushed to their limits. Will she be able to defeat the darkness before it takes more from her family?
Derry’s journey is full of twists and turns. Part ghost story, part thriller, Hollowell invites the reader to a world where it’s difficult to know who or what to trust. The world and magic are beautifully described and immersive. I love books with a found family where they are all brought together by their magic and we can explore everyone’s abilities.
The representation in this book was incredibly diverse; Derry’s found family includes varied body types, ethnicities, sexualities and gender identities. Their diversities are presented descriptively, as parts of each sibling's identity but are never intrinsic to the story. Derry’s presence as a fat main character is beautiful and relatable. She is big and not just curvy. She’s described as having fat arms, and at one point her attention falls to her belly resting on her thighs when she stands in front of the mirror. I can not recall another book where someone with a body like this was the hero of the story. I can not recall encountering a body like this in fiction where that body was not shorthand for gross, lazy, or immoral. It is important to have strong characters in all bodies. Being fat in real life is not a moral failing, so it should not be shorthand for that in the fictional world.
Sarah Hollowell has beautifully woven elements of fantasy, suspense and horror into a gripping story of found family, survival and hard choices through the vehicle of a beautiful, fat magic girl’s hero story. Derry reminds us how important it is to trust our instincts, and the perils when we don’t, even when everyone disagrees how to find and use our inner strength to protect those we love and how to allow ourselves time and space to grieve when we realize we were blind to the darkness around us. I am glad this book exists, and I am grateful to have met a character like Derry.

Wowee!! What a reading journey, A Dark and Starlight Forest is! There’s family, magic and mystery all wrapped around the forest and it will blow your socks off!!

We follow Derry, a 16 year old alchemist, trying to grow her magic and make Frank (her guardian) proud. Derry lives with her 7 sisters and Violet who is nonbinary, in a big house in the woods, which is out in the sticks. Frank is guiding the sisters and Violet to grow their magic and he is documenting it all.
When Derry’s sister goes missing, she needs to find out what happened to her so she goes into the forbidden woods to search for her as she knows she hasn’t died. Whilst she is searching she realises she is not alone and maybe this is why her sister has gone missing!?

The book kept me hooked and wanting to know what happens next and the relationship the sisters and Violet have are wonderful and really heartfelt.
If you like mystery, magic and a bit of gore then this book is right up your street!

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an advanced ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Saddest story ever told. I was pining for this book all year, I requested from the publishers only to be denied and then by a miracle they found a copy for me and I didn't wait to start reading it but ultimately couldn't get through it.


The writing style is not my cup of tea. You can tell it's supposed to be a character driven story but they all fell flat for me and I had trouble telling them apart probably because like 10 of them were thrown in my face in 3 pages.

Also, Frank, their "father figure" creeped me out so much idk why.

Ughhhhh should I give up on magical books?

THAT COVER THO

The best ways I could describe this book are "slow-burn," "claustrophobic," and "creepy." If you like your mystery with horror...if you like your X-Men to be on the Gothic (not goth), girl-power side...this is the book for you. From the moment I saw this cover on Twitter I knew I had to read it, and the book did not disappoint.

I have almost 300 YA fantasy books shelved on my GR so these days I’m looking for something different, and – sadly – fat girls in fantasy and on book covers are still rare enough to be different. But that means I didn’t overlook this book and instead eagerly snatched it up (from NetGalley) and read it in one day!

Derry is fat but it also absolutely doesn’t matter that she’s fat (except that it does to me). The story has nothing to do with her being fat – no ‘overcoming’ fatness or dealing with fatphobia. She’s just fat. So are three of her sisters. It’s no big deal – and therefore I love it.

In terms of representation we get a veritable smorgasbord. This is gradually becoming more common but so incrementally that it felt like a wonderful brush of fresh air. One of the sisters is trans, another is nonbinary, multiple sisters are queer (including asexuality and pansexuality). One sister is deaf and its made clear that the others sign to her (instead of some books where a character is deaf and then it’s never mentioned again!). Several of the sisters are Black, two are Mexican-American, and the others are white (I think). And then also there are fat girls! Oh, and mental health gets rep too!

The large cast means there’s scope for lots of representation, but having so many sisters also meant that it was a little harder to develop a really close connection with any of them. We’re told often how close Derry and Jane are close, but because Jane goes missing after the first chapter we never actually get to see that closeness and are told about it instead. I cared what happened because I cared about Derry, but it would have been nicer to develop deeper relationships with the sisters.

(Side note, but this is my third YA fantasy book with girls doing plant magic so clearly that’s very on trend right now!)

As much as I really enjoyed this book, I did want the creep-o-meter turned up a couple of notches. Considering one of the settings is a big spooky forest that feasts on magic/death, I thought I’d be a little more unnerved while reading. However, I’m glad I read this book and look forward to what the author writes next!

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. i didn’t know what to expect when i went into this book, and although it wasn’t perfect, i still thoroughly enjoyed reading it. because of this i am going to give it 4/5 stars.

"A Dark and Starless Forest" by Sarah Hollowell is one of the best books I've read in a while. I was so excited to read it and it was everything I imagined and more.

This story is about Derry who has eight siblings who all live together with Frank, the man who raised them after they were abandoned by their parents, in an isolated house near a forest. All of the siblings have magical powers and when some of them start disappearing, they have to make use of them to figure out what's happening to their family..

The representation in this book was so on point. Derry and several of her siblings are fat. There are several siblings who are queer, including a non-binary pansexual Mexican-American character and a trans girl. Several of the siblings are Black. One of them is Deaf. There's representation of anxiety, ADHD and depression.

None of the characters felt flat or reduced to stereoypes. I enjoyed getting to read about each sibling equally because they were all valuable to the story.

I loved that this is a book about family and mystery, there was no romance plot and it worked so well. Please, we need more of that.

The magic system was understandable, yet super intriguing and I would have loved to read even more about each siblings' individual powers.

The writing style captured the dark, enchanting and mysterious atmosphere beautifully.

This was the feminist urban fantasy book of my dreams and I hope I could convince you to put this on your TBR!


content warnings: murder, anxiety, depression, violence, emotional abuse, torture

I received an ARC from Netgalley and ClarionTeen in exchange for an honest opinion.

I cannot begin to express how much I love this book! Not only does it touch on magic but it is also, if I do say so myself a bit dark which I love! This book will have readers hooked from the first chapter

I wanted to like this, but there were several reasons I could not get into this. The first and most major for me was that I could not get into this world. I found the world building to be severely lacking and otherwise drab and boring. The author would spend a long time describing certain parts of the world that, to me, felt unnecessary whereas she would not give good detail for Derry's interactions and relations to the world. I wanted to enjoy this, but was left feeling wanting more than what I was given, and not in a good way.

Synopsis:

Derry and her eight siblings live in an isolated house by the lake, separated from the rest of the world by an eerie and menacing forest. Frank, the man who raised them after their families abandoned them, says it’s for their own good. After all, the world isn’t safe for people with magic. And Derry feels safe—most of the time.

Until the night her eldest sister disappears. Jane and Derry swore to each other that they’d never go into the forest, not after their last trip ended in blood, but Derry is sure she saw Jane walk into the trees. When another sibling goes missing and Frank’s true colors start to show, feeling safe is no longer an option. Derry will risk anything to protect the family she has left. Even if that means returning to the forest that has started calling to Derry in her missing siblings’ voices.

As Derry spends more time amidst the trees, her magic grows more powerful . . . and so does the darkness inside her, the viciousness she wants to pretend doesn’t exist. But saving her siblings from the forest and from Frank might mean embracing the darkness. And that just might be the most dangerous thing of all.

Review:

Thank you so much to Netgalley and HMH books for providing me with an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Hmm.. I'm kind of conflicted on how to rate this one. I definetly enjoyed it. I thought it was super similar to The River Has Teeth, Wilder Girls and most notably Girls with Sharp Sticks. I think that, if I hadn't read any of those books I would have loved this way more, but I felt like it took quite a lot from those stories, and made it feel less unique than I was hoping.

That being said, I still felt there were lots of positive aspects, so let's dive right into the review!

The characters of this book were very good. I liked the 'found family' ish part of it really great! Derry as a main character was.. okay. I liked her overall, but I found her to be kind of 'meh' at times. I didn't like how she became super ruthless at the end, and how she was constantly thinking that she was a badass. All the other siblings were more interesting to me! My favorite would have to be Winnie :) Without spoiling anything, I'm just going to say that Frank isn't my favorite.

In terms of representation, I was very impressed! In this book we had asexual, bisexual, and gay characters, along with one character who uses they/them pronouns. I liked how there was also diversity in race: there were white characters, but also black and brown characters. This book does a great job of representing all different body shapes, too. I appreciated these things a lot, it's always great to see these important elements brought into fantasy!

The setup and story was where I had the biggest problems. This book is basically 'girls with sharp sticks' with just a dash of 'wilder girls'. Let me just say that I loved both of those books, but I liked them individually, as their own unique stories. I just felt that, with this one, there weren't that many aspects that seemed wholly original.

I found the writing and pacing to be very good! Not too long, but not stunted. I read the entire book in one day, I really couldn't put it down. It reads almost like an action-horror movie, you find your heart racing and need to put it down to breathe, haha!

At the end of the day, this book is quite the wild ride, and though I had some problems with it, I don't regret reading it.

Anticipation: 4.5: I love the cover!
Enjoyment: 4: THIS WAS CRAZY

--> 4 stars

Derry has been living in a secluded house in the woods with her siblings and their protector, Frank, for years. They don't have luxuries like cosmetics or snack foods or even new books and DVDs. They're not spoiled at all. But they're taken care of. They're safe.

Which Frank has told them is much more important in a world that fears their magic. It's the same reason he calls them alchemists instead of that more dangerous word: witches.

White, fat, sixteen-year-old Derry and her siblings dislike Frank and fear him even as Frank reminds them that he took them in when no one--not even their parents--wanted them. Derry and her siblings--eldest Jane (who is Black); Winnie (who is fat and white); Brooke (fat, Deaf, Mexican-American); white twins Elle and Irene (Irene is trans); nonbinary, Mexican-American Violet; and the youngest identical Black twins Olivia and London--have fierce bonds between them. Which makes it so much worse when first Jane and then Winnie disappear.

Frank says the girls must have died in the dense forest surrounding their home. But as Derry explores the forest she wonders if the disappearances might be tied to Frank himself.

As she learns more about Frank and her own magical affinity for growing both real and imagined plants Derry will have to decide how far she is willing to go to keep her loved ones safe in A Dark and Starless Forest (2021) by Sarah Hollowell.

Find it on Bookshop.

Despite each sibling having distinct magical abilities, this element of the story is largely set dressing for the novel's plot which is a blend of horror and suspense sprinkled with hints about a dark moment in Derry's past that makes her reluctant to re-enter the forest in her search for Jane (and later Winnie). The novel is also notable for its focus on the bond between Derry and her siblings with a total absence of romance subplots.

Derry's first-person narration amplifies the siblings' isolation with a palpable fear of Frank and his punishments, including the dreaded time out room whose horrors are honed to each sibling's worst nightmares (blaring lights and erratic, staticky noise for Derry). The restricted narrative works to amp up the tension but leaves many questions about how the siblings' magic works and, more importantly, the implications of said magic in the outside world.

Hollowell is at pains to create an inclusive cast with some elements (Violet being nonbinary, Irene's trans identity, everyone's use of ASL--designated by single quotes around signed dialog--to communicate with Brooke) integrated into the narrative better than others. Derry's quest to find her missing siblings and save all of them from Frank drives the story but leaves little room for character development of the other siblings who are often absent from the action and remain little more than names and attributes.

Derry's moral ambiguity is unresolved by the end of the novel as she embraces darker choices to save her siblings heedless of the consequences. Questions about world building and what will come next for all of the siblings are also up in the air. A Dark and Starless Forest is a dark, inclusive blend of horror and extremely light fantasy. Ideal for readers looking for a slightly supernatural tale of suspense.

Possible Pairings: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan, The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco, The Scapegracers by Hannah Abigail Clarke, Half Bad by Sally Green, The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman, Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton, Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand, All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O'Donoghue, Wilder Girls by Rory Power, The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton, Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters

*A more condensed version of this review appeared as a review in an issue of School Library Journal*

Derry lives in a house in the woods with her eight siblings, and their seemingly adoptive father/teacher Frank. Frank took them in when each of their parents didn't want them because they couldn't handle the magic that was being exhibited. Or did they? He's often cruel and always restrictive, but he keeps them safe from the outside world, a world he's told them would kill them without remorse if it knew they existed. When one of Derry's sisters goes missing, she's certain into the mysterious forest, and then another, and then a third, it breaks open the life they thought they had in a way that will change their future forever.

This was a propulsive, disturbing, challenging, and ultimately hopeful book. It contained so many of my favourite things: found family, lots of queer representation (there are two confirmed ace characters, both a trans character and a trans nb character, and several of the other sisters are suggested to be under the queer umbrella, including at least one bi character); a fat main character, revenge upon an evil man. There is definitely more violence and gore than I was expecting, but it worked well with the tone of the rest of the book, was realistic, and represented real stakes, even in a world with magic. Derry was an exquisitely flawed character, making poor decisions but also invested in the safety of her family. My one big qualm is that I wish we'd gotten a little bit more meat of the other siblings' character development. At one point, the siblings are watching The Little Mermaid, and I couldn't help thinking that the siblings in this book felt a bit like Ariel's sisters, in that we don't learn a whole lot about them. I do think by the end I had a better picture of most of them, and perhaps that is fodder for future books from Hollowell, but that was my main gripe. My biggest recommendation is to look into content warnings before picking it up, so you can be prepared for some of that content. Overall, an exquisitely paced and engaging book, and a spectacular debut.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance ecopy in exchange for an honest review.

Content warnings for emotional and physical abuse, death/gore, violence, forced confinement, mentions of anxiety/depression.