I loved this debut.
It's eerie, creepy and thrilling; bizarre, touching and riveting. It's a beautiful example of dark fantasy done right, featuring great world building, fascinating folkloric creatures and intriguing characters. A yes from me!

Folk horror meets "The Village" in Alex Woodroe's "Whisperwood."

Anna, a woman fleeing her troubled past, stumbles upon Whisperwood village, which is situated beside the haunting forest known as the Unspoken. The village is home to enigmatic creatures that roam the streets, and the inhabitants have fortified their doors and homes with salt and silver. This narrative presents an engrossing account of how a community reacts to coexisting alongside a realm that starkly contrasts with their own. I found the macabre folk horror to be both gruesome and captivating. However, I found the middle section of the narrative to be a bit long-winded and could have been more concise. Additionally, several characters lacked depth and remained underdeveloped. Despite these shortcomings, I swiftly read through the story and enjoyed it overall.

Thank you NetGalley for an opportunity to read this title in exchange for an honest review.

A fantastic horror story that I will be rereading and rereading again and again.

The story sucked me in and I never left it. I loved every moment of this novel.

"Whisperwood, a town that’s not on any maps, that nobody goes to, and nobody comes from"
I was so here for this premise! Throw in folk magic, witch hunters, and horror? Sold!
Unfortunately, even with the really cool plot line and concepts...it fell flat due to the characters. I just could not find it in me to give a damn about Anna and the people she interacted with. It felt like the situation of her being plunged into the secret goings on of Whisperwood was forced and happened way too fast for no real reason. I just couldn't keep interested which sucked because I had high hopes.

When Anna arrives in Whisperwood, fleeing from something or someone, she quickly notices that the town also has its secrets and monsters.
I sadly just couldn't get into this book. The summary sounded incredibly cool, but for me, I felt the distribution of information and the continuation of the plot wasn't quick enough to keep me interested. I really liked the way the author phrased things in and of itself and found a lot of the imagery very vivid and beautiful, but when I realised I was at a point in the book where I felt I should know and understand a lot more about the characters and the world than I did and probably would for another big bunch of pages, I stopped reading. Some of the interactions between Anna and the other characters fell a little flat for me, which could also be related to me not knowing enough about her and the world to draw such clear lines around each characters stereotypes. Maybe this book is more for people who enjoy a story with slower paced information distribution and guessing a lot more what's going on. I feel like I can't really rate it properly on these grounds, but since I'm required to by NetGalley to submit my review, I'll settle at a solid three stars. Since I liked the idea and the author's style I would absolutely try another book by them though!

Thank you to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the cover and the description, but I could not get into the story. I generally adore horror, fantasy, and the Witcher, but this did not hold my attention. I will try again later and give a more through review when I do so.

What a great book, creepy and so engaging. This page turner is perfect for spooky season. And wow what an ending. Thank you so much for my eArc.

Wonderfully creepy and enchanting. It pulled me in from the beginning and I was not expecting the ending!

Whisperwood is a dark fantasy with an intriguing premise, a young woman, on the run from her past, searches for a remote town that is rumored to be haunted so she can hide and be safe.

I struggled with this book. Anna’s character was never fully fleshed out, and she makes statements and assumptions that put her deep into the “secretive”town’s goings-ons when she literally had just arrived. I found the town of Whisperwood to have a very complicated situation that I barely understood. The Unsongs, the Tides, the Whispers, the Unspokens, the political hierarchy, the jobs of the young people, I kept forgetting what it all was and had to scan back into the book to remind myself.

I decided to DNF at 40% because of shallow characters and overly complicated town within a minimally built world.

I have very mixed feelings about Whisperwood. I really enjoyed Alex Woodroe's writing style, it was descriptive and it had a great flow to it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get into the story itself. While I was drawn to the concept of the story, I wasn't able to get into it as much as I hoped.

This book was extremely hard for me to get into. The writing style just wasn't for me and I struggled to connect with the characters. At over 50% into the story I didn't see this coming out as a better experience for me so I decided to put it down. It is not an objectively bad book, just not one that I felt I would enjoy.

This sounded like an enticing fairytale, but the characters just didn't connect with me. I may try again in future, but sadly it was a DNF. Apologies.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Flame Tree Press in exchange for an honest review.

I ended up DNFing this book at 28%, which I hate to do. I think maybe I just didn't read this at the right time, or that my expectations made it so I couldn't enjoy the book for what it really is. I don't typically read fantasy or period pieces, and this book is both those things. I struggled a lot with the language and honestly thought that I was reading about teenagers/young adults -- I had to keep reminding myself that the main character, Anna, is actually a grown woman running from a traumatic past. The vanishing town was a neat idea, but overall I didn't feel drawn to the story.

First of all the cover is lovely! That's what attracted me to this book. And I love creepy stories which are set in forests and this book delivered! But I felt like the middle was a bit slow paced, and characters could be more . overall I enjoyed the atmosphere and eeriness. thanks for the copy on net gallery

Whisperwood is a truly captivating read that has you hanging on every word unable to turn the pages fast enough. I absolutely loved this book and thought it was beautifully creepy and it made my spooky little heart happy.

A very dark fantasy, a novel where a young girl go exploring the unknown and may she will discover that monsters exists and not everything is what it seems
Well plotted, creepy and entertaining.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I've put off this review a bit so I can try to get a grasp on my feelings about this book. I'm still not sure I'm there. It took me 18 days to finish this, and I'm not sure if that was because of the book, or me and how tired I've been lately.

It dragged for me in the beginning, and I wasn't really clear on what was going on. Once it got going though, it definitely caught my interest a bit more. I loved the characters, the author did an excellent job of making them well rounded and making me, as a reader, care about them. Perdy was probably my favorite, she was sweet, but tough, and her story reminded me of myself when I was young a little.

Overall, this is a good dark fantasy, and I look forward to seeing more from this author.

Fast-paced. Creepy. Enchanting.

And did you see that cover?! So pretty. 💖

I would classify Whisperwood as haunted-forest historical horror. In a sense, it is unlike any other horror books I've read, in terms of the time period and settings. Another positive note is the amount of strong and admirable women in this story.

I did find the middle part to drag a bit though, to be honest.

But all in all? Great fun, I'll keep an eye out for future books by Alex Woodroe.

<i>***I thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review*** </i>

Welp! It’s not even autumn, yet I am eating up horror books right now and enjoying myself.

<i>Whisperwood</i> was—I don’t know how to put it—weird? In a very good way actually.

The main character, Anna, didn’t quite develop over the plot-line but the story was well-driven and well-written overall. Whisperwood is a town of secrets, and secrets lead to ill fates. There was this subtle gothicness to the atmosphere that I really liked, blending in folklore and fairy tales.

The book definitely succeeded in the horror and thriller part. Adding to that, the fantasy and world-building was amazing! I also loved the supernatural concept <3

It was fun to read this and, I’ll say this again, support + read small authors! Hoping to read more of Alex Woodroe soon again!

Rounding up, it’s 3.75.
★ ★ ★ ★/5
Would recommend it to anyone who wants to dip into creepy vibes ;)

⊹ . ⋆ ☽ ⋆ . ➶

Anna is on the run from a dark and dangerous past, so desperate she is willing to disappear into any backwaters part of the world just to find a place where no one has ever heard of her husband, a fanatical witch hunter. Although initially mistrusted, she finds herself drawn into a small community that is fighting an alternative world full of dark and often dangerous creatures. The setting is remarkably intriguing but I struggled a bit with the pace of the revealing. I enjoyed the tidal scenes where everyone would vanish and the world would seem almost like a twisted Alice in wonderland full of vicious and alien beings but the dialogue was often frustrating and drawn out, like the rules about not discussing things that were misunderstood. Overall, I think this is a really good book but not something that I would read again because of the small towns folk hush hush conversations that seemed too in depth yet frustratingly uninformative.