I really enjoyed this anthology of tales inspired by the Baba Yaga. I especially loved that this is a compilation of stories by some of the best women in horror. It brings a uniquely feminine aesthetic to these tales that I appreciated. It was really interesting to read the different interpretations of the Baba Yaga. An array of stories that haunt, chill, enchant and occasionally warm your heart, this anthology is a win on all counts. If you would like your witchiness with an original flair you need look no further than this book. Thank you to @netgalley and @blackspotbooks for an arc.

Baba Yaga is a folklore figure near and dear to my heart, but, unfortunately, Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga presents a largely underwhelming and uninspired collection centered around the titular character.
However, there were a few gems that stood out to me.

“The Space Between the Trees” by Jo Kaplan – A mother and daughter live an isolated life in the woods, but when the daughter offers a lost villager shelter, it causes a rift between them.

This one was gorgeously told through vivid prose and filled with heartache.

“Herald the Knight” by Mercedes M. Yardley - Romance blossoms between a cursed knight and a young Baba Yaga.

I really enjoyed seeing the character dynamics between these two outcasts and it felt like a classic medieval romance to me (which I’m a complete sucker for).

That said, I still have one major gripe about this story and that is where Baba Yaga talks about making voodoo dolls, which is distantly a part of a Hatian folklore religion, and seems completely out of place within the story’s medieval European setting.

“Maw Maw Yaga and the Hunter” by Alexandrea Weis - A hunter waits out a storm with a mysterious old woman, but there’s more to her than what meets the eye.

By far the highlight of the collection for me, this one is a delightfully fun read that oozes with southern gothic charm!

Thank you, NetGalley and Black Spot Books, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a honest review.

From the publisher:
Deep in the dark forest, in a cottage that spins on birds' legs behind a fence topped with human skulls, lives the baba yaga. A guardian of the water of life, she lives with her sisters and takes to the skies in a giant mortar and pestle, creating tempests as she goes. Those who come across the baba yaga may find help, or hinderance, or horror. She is wild, she is woman, she is witch—and these are her tales.

Edited by Lindy Ryan, this collection brings together some of today's leading voices of women-in-horror as they pay tribute to the baba yaga, and go Into the Forest.

My Thoughts: This is an interesting anthology. They come at it as if Baba Yaga is a kind of being as opposed to only one witch. The foreward by Christine Henry is interesting regarding this.

There are 23 stories in the anthology. Some I liked better than others, but as I rated all of them I was pleased to find that most of them fell into the 4 and 5 out of 5 star range. There was only one story that I gave a 3 to and that was because while pretty much well written, I kept waiting for the action to start.

The short story,"Last Tour into the Hungering Light" by Gwendolyn Kiste I loved for among other things the language and imagery. A few stories had Baba Yaga posing as the witch in Hansel and Gretel. These were interesting. I liked the one where the Baba Yaga is slightly morally ambiguous and one of the bad guys is a parent. There are other stories that are definitely straight up horror for things like depiction of cannabalism. The blurb from the publisher states that sometimes Baba Yaga is a help. While this is true, there is always a price. Sometimes the price wasn't clear until after the protagonist received the aid. Other tales tackled the hut and its origins. And one story has Baba Yaga as a romantic interest. All together, these tales make for interesting and entertaining reading.

Into the Woods was released November 8th, 2022 from Black Spot Books. I received a copy of this book as an arc from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own. Overall, I would rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. The stories are interesting and imaginative. If you enjoy witchy tales and fairy tales, I think you should check out this book.

I gave this a four star rating. I really enjoyed this book and the stories in this anthology. I totally recommend this book.

I wasn't a huge fan of this and did nearly DNF it two thirds of the way through but decided to keep going. The stories were very hit and miss for me. A handful were brilliantly written with great settings and eerie feelings but the others weren't as exciting, didn't make me want to pick the book up and made it altogether drag, with me just skim reading some towards the end.

I didn't know much about Baba Yaga before reading this so it was interesting to read all the different takes the various authors had and I did enjoy the idea of it and the few that were really well done, but the amount of lesser great ones, brought this one down a lot for me.

DNF at 37%. I just couldn't get into this collection of stories. There is nothing wrong with the stories, they just were not for me. I think if I were to read from these authors I would read one of their full-length novels, instead of a short story.

Any themed collection is going to be hit and miss, so I went in to this one prepared for some mild disappointment (admittedly, I was also ready to enjoy it regardless, because Baba Yaga). However, this was refreshingly low on duds; there were only a few that really, truly stood out, but most of the stories were solid, and I think that was because it has been curated really well. The stories show a real diversity of approach, even the ones that had the most common themes (wives/young women who've had enough of the patriarchy) and that made this a stand out, for me.

Into the Forest is just what I hoped for when I heard about an anthology based on the Slavic folklore figure of Baba Yaga. She’s a figure that has been portrayed in many ways, from the monstrous witch who eats children, to the crone who helps those in need and wise woman who passes on her knowledge. An excellent foreword by author Christina Henry talks more about the mythology surrounding the figure, and I felt that the selection of stories lived up to the legends. There is something for everyone, with stories touching on all these aspects and more.

Some authors have stuck to a tradition fairytale style and added their own touch to their retelling, while others have pulled the legend of Baba Yaga into the modern world. Some of my personal favourites were ‘The Story of a House by Yi Izzy Yu’, ‘Flood Zone’ by Donna Lynch’ and ‘Herald the Knight’ by Mercedes M. Yardley. It was interesting to see how each author interpreted Baba Yaga, but do be warned; while there are stories of fantasy, magic and fairytale in this anthology the darker side of Baba Yaga has not been forgotten. There are tales of horror that will leave you shuddering and hoping that these are just stories…

This is a great read if you have the courage to go Into the Forest 😉

As with every short story collection, my enjoyment varied from story to story. Overall, the stories could have been a bit scarier for my liking.

I loved this take on different Baba Yaga Short Stories. As someone who is fascinated with the story of Baba Yaga to read the different takes on the legend was extremely enjoyable. Definitely will recommend.

Deep in the dark forest, in a cottage that spins on birds' legs behind a fence topped with human skulls, lives the Baba Yaga. A guardian of the water of life, she lives with her sisters and takes to the skies in a giant mortar and pestle, creating tempests as she goes. Those who come across the Baba Yaga may find help, or hindrance, or horror. She is wild, she is woman, she is witch— and these are her tales.

This is a thrilling horror anthology to read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own honest voluntary review.

I adore Baba Yaga. Like any other folklore character, she has many nuances and a lot of liberty can be taken with her. I really enjoyed these stories.

In this book we have a short stories collection by a bunch of authors. Spooky, strange and with a pinch of horror. At least that what I thought I will get. However I was hugely dissapointed. It was so boring, that I just DNF'ed it at 70% mark.
Majority of the stories was just a stream of conciosness or even worse - just I jumble of fansy words without any contecst or meaning. Seems like some of the authors opened up a dictionary and decided to use the most fanciest words they can find instead of creating a solid horror story.
There were only two stories that eas interesting enough to finish.
Do not reccomend.

Love the wide variety of stories in this. They're all interpretations of the traditional Baba Yaga story, but each author has their own, unique take on it. As with all collections, there are some that I loved and some that really didn't work for me, but I liked most of them overall.

A dramatic and chilling ride through the haunting realm of Baba Yaga.

Still with me until the end of this review as we have an interview with Mercedes Yardley who wrote ‘Herald The Knight’ in this collection. One of my favourites!

This entire collection is jammed packed with dark poetry and blood curdling stories. This collection is hit after hit. There isn’t an aspect of the collection that falls short of the mark. The stories were the main call for me, forgive my ignorance, but I don’t really follow poetry as it doesn’t resonate with me as it would with others. I will say though, from my limited knowledge of the medium, they are dark and brooding and I’m so you will find yourself positively chilled!

The stories are short and dramatic, passing haunting tales through you with pace and intensity. Among my favourites was ‘The Story of a House’ by Yi Izzy Yu which tells the story of Baba Yaga’s house, from it’s point of view. It is such a unique angle to take, one that I personally haven’t seen before. The other story that stuck with me was ‘Of Moonlight and Moss’ by Sara Tantlinger, a story of ultimately, love. A twist awaiting that ensured the story imprinted on my mind.

All of the collection has their own majesty to them and I assure you, if you are a fantasy/horror fan, there is something in this collection for you. Thank you Black Crow for inviting me on the tour. This collection is fantastic and I can’t wait to hear what you all think!

I have previously enjoyed another short story collection from Black Spot Books titled 'Under Her Skin', so was intrigued to try this collection centred on Baba Yaga, who's an interesting figure within folklore that I have wanted to read more about. I hoped this would include interesting fantasy, horror, and contemporary takes on the traditional character, which it definitely delivered.

As with many collections, my enjoyment of stories varied quite a bit between different authors, writing styles and themes - lots of different tastes will be catered to in this collection, so it's inevitable that a few shone out to me above the rest. Overall I think it's a pretty good collection, with a lot of interesting ideas and clearly talented writers. However, there were quite a few stories that I skimmed over as they just weren't interesting to me, or I felt were weaker than the ones I especially enjoyed, so I have to rate the collection as a three star average overall.

My favourite stories were:
Wormwood,
Floodzone,
Sugar and Spice and the Old Witch's Price,
Water Like Broken Glass,
Herald the Knight.

As with any collection of stories there were ones I enjoyed and ones I didn't enjoy. This collection of stories about the Baba Yaga was a typical mixture of both.

I really wanted to love this book. The list of authors, the message the collection is trying to get across (that of powerful women) is one I absolutely love. But unfortunately, this collection just didn't land for me.

Let's get to the positives first: the writing in this anthology is incredible. Every single story was powerful, well-edited, well-crafted. I loved getting the chance to read the wonderful words of new authors, as well as those I've read before. Lindy did a great job putting this together.

Where it fell flat: the "sameness" of each story. I'm familiar with the Baba Yaga tale, and so I knew the general vibe this anthology was going to give. I was disappointed though, that every story had a very similar feel to it. Plots may have differed in some ways, but in others, it was pretty easy to predict where each story was going to go. I'm not sure if there was a great way to have stories that all felt entirely unique, with different takes on a common tale. Either way, by about midway through, I was beginning to feel a bit bored. I was reading this straight through, reading 1-3 stories a day, so maybe breaking this up, reading one here and there, over weeks, would help?

In the end, a handful of stories absolutely did stand out. Here are my favorites, in order of appearance:
- "The Peddler's Promise" by Catherine McCarthy
- "The Space Between the Trees" by Jo Kaplan
- "Sugar and Spice and the Old Witch's Price" by Lisa Quigley
- "Birds of a Feather" by Monique Snyman
- "A Trail of Feathers, a Trail of Blood" by Stephanie M Wytovich
- "Stork Bites" by Ev Knight

If you're a big fan of fairy and folk tales, I do recommend picking this up, at the very least for the wonderful writing and editing!

I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Baba Yaga is one of my folklore figures, so I was excited to see an entire anthology focused around this theme and it definitely didn't disappoint. With anthologies, there are always going to be some stories that you connect with more than others, but the strength of this collection really shown through in just how many stories I loved.

Some of my favorites were:

-Of Moonlight and Moss by Sara Tantlinger
-Flood Zone by Donna Lynch
-The Peddler's Promise by Catherine McCarthy
-The Space Between the Trees by Jo Kaplan
-Sugar and Spice and the Old WItch's Price by Lisa Quigley
-Baba Yaga Learns to Shave, Gets her Periods, then Grows into Her Own by Jess Hagemann
-Fair Trade by Jacqueline West

If you're interested in Baba Yaga or feminist folklore anthologies, I highly recommend this fantastic collection!

A fantastic delve into the lore of Baba Yaga in tiny tales. I loved every one of these sort stories and it has given me plenty of new authors to look up.
There were plenty of gruesome stories, ones where Baba Yaga was a villain and others where she was the hero. Each one, though, was beautifully told and gave the whole anthology a cohesive feel.
My full review is available on my website www.brokengeekdesigns.com.