Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of The Butcher of the Forest.

The Butcher of the Forest follows Veris, tasked with retrieving the Tyrant's children from this dark, dangerous, magical forest. Veris is the only person who has ever been in the forest and returned, so she is forced to go back in. She knows her chances of returning are very slim, but the tyrant has threatened to kill everyone in her village if she doesn't return soon with his children. She cannot refuse.

Premee Mohamed's writing is amazing. It's beautiful. It also creates this dark atmosphere; you can clearly imagine the world and the forest. You can feel, smell, touch, hear, and see the forest. I love it when authors can transport you into another world fully, and Premee Mohamed does that.

I also really enjoyed the creatures and rules of the forest. If you enjoy the more traditional dark and mischievous fae, I think you will enjoy the creatures in this world. They're cunning, dangerous, and scary. And it was really interesting seeing Veris navigate that world. She's smart, brave, and cunning. I really liked her.

I did find the story a bit hard to get into. You don't get to know much about the world outside the forest. You also don't really know much about Veris or the villagers she's trying to save. I like being given a bit more information so I can truly get to care about characters. It's also a slow start. There's not much happening until about 50% into the story. However, once it picks up, it's fast, and I was invested. There are more interactions with creatures in the forest. There's more danger. Things become harder for the characters. We get more insight into Veris's life and motivations, too, which I found very touching. I wish it were more interwoven throughout the story.

I didn't know what to expect, I find at first, the storyline and motives were unclear & confusing. But also, the lush description of the settings: villages, forest, everything? Stood out immediately, top notch. This is what I look for from a fantasy book.

This was a short read, and upon going further I would describe 80% of it like being taken on an escape sprint, an endless hide-n-chase adventure through a dark, magic forest. Not exactly a high stake but no no-stake either. As we rear towards the end, there were some important & touching backstory about Veris the main character that really.. finally wraps the book beautifully. Since I've been wondering about that a lot throughout the reading, wishing to get to know more about our lead. It was satisfactory (though I can implore moreee.. actually?)

Although? Seeing the ending, this does kinda sound like author is open to the possibility of story continuation? I would definitely tune in if she ever continues! 4.5 Rounded Down! Thank you to NetGalley and TOR Publishing for allowing me this eARC access in exchange of my honest review.

I received this DRC from NetGalley.

I think this worked well as a short story. There were a couple of times I thought it could have been even a bit shorter, like when not a lot is happening and the main character is just kind of thinking about things. I also would have liked to know a bit more about the forest and at least a little bit about the magic parts. The author clearly tried to throw in some old timey or obscure words in there to reinforce the time period, which can be interesting. (What does cinacth mean??) And it does answer the big question that keeps getting referred to throughout the book about her past, so that's good.

A twisty, dark and rotting romp through a fairy tale hellscape. Rich in atmosphere and feverish momentum this book has tremendous imagination. I loved the grisly body horror and eldrich woodland entities. It’s written beautifully with some amazing introspection dialogue. However I feel it might have been caught in its dreamy thoughts at times that took away from the immersion. But I will mention that I don’t feel like this ultimately takes away the overall experience and will boil down to personal preference. I’m instantly a fan of the writer and recommend to anyone looking for a dark horror fantasy read!

I utterly devoured this book.

The Butcher of the Forest is a dark fantasy novella featuring a woman named Veris who is tasked with rescuing some wayward children of the tyrant of the land from an uncanny forest. This is a dark fantasy novella with just a hint of a grimdark note due to how melancholy and somewhat hopeless the tone felt at times throughout.

Veris is sent into the forest on orders from the tyrant because she once rescued another child from the forest, so the tyrant thinks she'll be able to do it again. However, she’s self-aware enough–and just aware in general–to know that although her abilities might be enough to where she could survive the forest, it’s more about her understanding that if the forest doesn’t want her to survive or make it back with the children, she won’t. But knowing what’s at stake for her family and her village back home, she puts everything into her task and has some of the strongest determination and steeliness that I’ve seen in a character in a long time. I think it’s this steely mentality of hers that makes her a character I would incredibly confident being with–if I was stuck in this forest, she is the only person I would want to be with. She’s not going to lie and tell you everything will be alright or not to be scared, but she’s will tell you the rules and be extraordinarily careful, clever, and cautious at all times.

Veris is a realist and an incredibly resilient character that I found myself rooting for and connecting with in ways I don't often do with characters. She is someone who has suffered a lot in her life, and although I wouldn’t say she is necessarily better for it, she has learned from her experiences how to adapt, survive, and keep her wits about her no matter what comes her way. Veris understands that she’s the only one who has ever managed to survive entering and exiting the forest and I appreciated that she knew herself well enough to know that she is very capable and confident about her abilities to do this.

This is really the dark forest story that I’d love to have written myself. I was just absolutely captivated. I wanted to keep inhaling this book and learn more and more about this forest and everything within it. It has some truly horrifying creatures and ideas that lurk within and make you want to look away or cover your eyes while also creating an urge to constantly peek through your fingers to see what’s happening because you don’t want to miss anything. There’s so many very particular rules to follow in this forest that have dangerous consequences if not followed, and there’s very little mercy–if any–to be found in this forest. There is nothing that can help you in this forest that won’t also demand something in return, no matter how big or small it may be. You can absolutely never let your guard down in this forest, be sure not to harm anything in the forest itself, and be very careful of what you say both to yourself and to anything else within it.

Premee Mohamed’s writing is evocative and has a riveting flow to it that I couldn't look away from. I thought there was a fantastic mix of creatures and beings or elements of the forest that we get to see and interact with as readers along with those that we only really hear hints about from Veris or observe through what she sees while in the forest, and this kept a truly delightful balance of horror of both the scene and unseen. Altogether, this made it genuinely terrifying to imagine being in this forest knowing–and not knowing?–what might be waiting inside. I would never want to step foot in it, as most people in this story don’t want to, and I think even my undying curiosity wouldn’t be enough for me to give it anything but a wide berth.

I feel like cozy books have been the trend lately, and this book is anything but cozy. Still, there’s something oddly comforting about this book to me. It’s almost as if it really scratched that itch in my brain that yearns for something dark to explore, something that feels both impossible and all too real at the same time, and I think this book really did that.

If it wasn’t already clear from what is probably an overly gushing review, I thought The Butcher of the Forest was an absolutely stunning book. I don’t think it’s going to be for everyone, as I think some people may find it a bit slow paced and may not connect with it in the same way, but for other it will hit that spot and will instead feel like something slow paced but that you could inhale in a matter of hours (I inhaled it like oxygen I desperately needed, personally). I was hooked the entire time and cannot wait to check out more of her work as well as see what she may publish in the future.

Overall, I’ve given The Butcher of the Forest five stars! I cannot recommend it enough. It you are someone who likes things a little on the darker side or just loves a forest that is dark and mysterious and dangerous, then this is the book for you.

The Butcher of the Forest is Nettle and Bone’s darker, edgier younger sibling. It has the same fresh take on an old story, but this one will not make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. It’s dark, it’s gritty, it’s seen some stuff. It’s definitely not for children. It is fantasy edging into horror. Who’s to say that’s not right, in the end--if magic were real, it would probably be horrifying. The magic, as Mohamed describes it, is a dangerous, visceral, chaotic sort of thing. One that is best kept away from you because it’s more likely to take something away from you than it is to lend you a hand.

This novella is very tight--at 160 pages it does not waste any time. The plot feels like a well trod path for the first few pages: two children lost in a forest, an evil king sends a plucky everywoman to rescue them. But it quickly transforms into more than a standard retelling. I enjoyed the author’s previous novella “And What Can We Offer You Tonight,” but this is, to my mind, a major step up in quality. The sentences are better--the pacing is clear, and the world building feels more substantial. And the ending is to me a satisfying and true feeling conclusion. Many authors confuse ambiguous plots for moral ambiguity--this book has the latter but not the former. I think it would make an excellent book club pick.

Recommended for people who like ALL of T. Kingfisher’s books, Ninth House, and the O.G. Grimms Brothers.

I was provided with an advance copy in exchange for this honest review.

Not a fan of the ending, but I can't really be mad at anything else. This is a very powerful novella and one that has made me very excited for any following sequels. A very short reads for someone looking for a bit of mystery.

The Butcher of the Forest is a gorgeously sinister fairytale, perfect for grownups who never wanted to grow out of the magic and darkness that mesmerized them as children.

Personally, as an adult, I do want a fairytale with a more fleshed out plot than those I encountered in childhood. Although this novella was enjoyable, it didn’t quite meet that expectation. While the eerie journey through the forest was the most thoroughly developed aspect, it still felt like it lacked something. I also felt dissatisfied with what little I learned of the tyrant. There was room to do so much more with this, and I am sad that wasn’t realized.

3.5 stars

I am immensely grateful to Tor.com and NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.

This was a super quick, dark story and I highly recommend it for fans of spooky fairytales! I was pleasantly surprised by just how scary this one was - I would never want to be lost in the Elmever.

I went into this book knowing nothing and landed in a fairytale that was part Hansel and Gretel and several other stories woven together with something entirely new. The overall arc is interesting because despite there being a clear ending and beginning, it’s hard to fully understand the journey of the story, which only makes it more reminiscent of original fairy tales themselves. It’s definitely an interesting novella and an interesting story that Mohamed has crafted, one that I raced through pretty quickly myself. If you like fairy tales, sentient forests, or adventures where time is running out, then this is definitely worth the read.

The overall vibe of the story was interesting and kept me engaged throughout. I also think it was interesting to see the story through Veris’s eyes, both in having an older-for-fantasy protagonist and in the frequently referenced dynamic with the Tyrant.

As far as the actual contents, it did feel sometimes like the most interesting moments in the story were underdeveloped or happened overly quickly. Elements of the forest were quickly run through despite sometimes being pivotal to the overall success of the story, which made them a little less impactful in hindsight. The hinge at the end of the story adds an interesting level of humanity to the overall story, but it still almost feels like it was over too quickly. All in all, I think this feels like the backstory to a fairytale, ultimately creating its own fantastical story along the way.

Old, large forests have a tendency to make us a little uneasy, perhaps because of their age, and the darkness under their canopy, and what that might conceal. Premee Mohamed sets her tale in a conquered land bordered by an old forest. The land is ruled over by the Tyrant, as main character Veris, and others of this conquered land, refers to him.

At the story's open the Tyrant kidnaps Veris and forces her to enter the north woods, which everyone in her land knows not to enter, for no one ever returns from there.

Veris had once, to rescue a child, and this is what the Tyrant latches on to when his own two young children enter the wood, probably after adventure, or because of curiosity. No matter the reason, the Tyrant threatens to murder Veris' last remaining family members unless she retrieves his children.

Families who have lost members to the forest hold funerals and move on. It is common knowledge amongst her country's residents that any time longer than one day in the woods means that one's loved one is lost to the dangers in the forest. Veris knows that the only reason she succeeded the last time was because she was within the time limit. Otherwise, neither she nor the child would have returned home.

There are terrifying creatures and swift death everywhere in the north woods, and Veris must use every bit of skill and small magics she has at her disposal this time to work her way to where the children might be.

The prose is evocative, adept at evoking equal parts terror and revulsion, and wonder. Mohamed writes unsettling stories full of otherworldly menace and danger, which this story has plenty of.

From the stunning book cover, to the horrors of the woods, to the middle-aged protagonist--a nice touch, as Veris is no hardy adventurer, just a woman forced into an impossible situation by a cruel man--this was the opposite of a cozy and comforting read. But I am always in the mood to read this author's work, and this delivers on its dark premise: don't go into the woods, but if you do, watch out for monsters....

Thank you to Netgalley and to Tor Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for my review.

This was a comforting yet compelling read. Veris is a reluctant hero; years ago, she was able to rescue a child from the Elmever, an alternate space in the North woods similar to faerie. Now, living modestly and trying to survive under The Tyrant who has conquered her town, she is summoned to an audience with him. His children have gone missing, and he is told that she is the only person to return from the Elmever.

Veris must get the children back, or her village will be razed and her loved ones murdered. What follows is an adventure that explores the moral ambiguity of trying to remain ethical and kind while under extreme duress, and being clever enough to outwit the creepy inhabitants of the Elmever.

Well-paced, with strong characterization, this is a stand alone novel that will appeal to those who like reluctant heroes, and those who enjoy tales where humans attempt to outsmart the fae.

I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting into, but Mohamed's prose trickled out in a dark, lyrical fairytale that despite the horrors, still promises hope. Nothing is what it seems, from the protagonist Veris to the Elmever forest itself, leaving the reader guessing at motivations and rooting for the heroine, no matter the circumstances.

This book at first truly captivated me with its eerie writing and building of this creepy other world. The need to resuce those that are in a much more privilages postion than you really emphasis the empathy needed to understand reading this book. That being said after the first half the pacing in the writing began slowing down and i started to find the main character more and more insufferable.

just reviewed The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed. #NetGalley

When I think about a short story, this is exactly what comes to my mind. The Butcher of the Forest if for the people that love reading about forbidden creepy forests with a candle by the window.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing team for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

<img src="https://s13.gifyu.com/images/S0GJ8.jpg" width="500" height="200" alt="photo"/>


𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: Undead animals.

I love it when forests are weird and scary in books, there’s just something about the fog, the moss and the weird little beings breathing down your neck that just connects with my brain.

Please keep in mind that this is a story for people that love the spooky, the writing is perfect for this genre and it can make you a little anxious sometimes.

𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬: At the northern edge of a land ruled by a merciless foreign tyrant lies a wild, forbidding forest ruled by powerful magic. Veris Thorn, the only one to ever enter the forest and survive, is forced to go back inside to retrieve the tyrant’s missing children. Inside awaits traps and trickery, ancient monsters and hauntings of the past. One day is all Veris is afforded. One misstep will cost everything.

𝐓𝐚𝐠𝐬: 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭, 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐲, 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬, 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐬, 𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐳𝐞𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝.

Beautifully written. I did not put this novella down at all once I started reading; I finished it in one sitting.
The characters, the imagery, the emotion were all almost perfect…until the end. I wasn’t a fan of the ending, it felt abrupt and incomplete. Up until the last few pages, it was hands down a five star read. While the ending wasn’t “bad,” it was disappointing.
Still a solid four star read! I would absolutely recommend this to anyone!

This reads like a really dark adult version of a fairytale. It’s a quick read and I was torn between wanting a little more world-building and appreciating that there wasn’t extraneous details. It is definitely worth a read.

Some of Premee Mohamed's works are among my favourite contemporary fiction, particularly The Annual Migration of Clouds (2021) and These Lifeless Things (2021). I was so psyched when my request to review this new book was approved.

This book tries to be a fairy tale that takes its own elements and their consequences seriously. Wouldn't Hansel and Gretel have PTSD after escaping the witch? What does happen to all those brave woodsmen after the evil is banished or vanquished or whatever?

In keeping with the fairy-tale vibe, most elements are abstracted: the setting is a nameless, generic valley, which has recently been conquered by a Tyrant (capitalized in the text), where there are woods, some tame, some not. The concept of magic exists, but not witches, although the protagonist Knows (also capitalized) things, sometimes (as plot allows, I think).

No human who goes into the wild forest ever comes back out.

Except the protagonist, Veris. She managed to do it, rescuing a child from the forest's clutches, about fifteen years ago.

For this reason, when the Tyrant's two children go missing, Veris is ordered to retrieve them. She has a little less than a full day to do so, according to the rules of the eldritch forest magic that everyone somehow knows. If she fails, her entire village, including what's left of her family (a grandfather and aunt), will be slaughtered.

Okay, so! These are high stakes! Good thing Veris has been in the forest before, so that her memories can help us orient ourselves in such a nightmare realm during the perilous current mission.

Only, no. The text goes out of its way to obscure and neglect specifics of Veris's hard-won knowledge, preferring instead to credit what exposition there is to common knowledge/legend/what have you. (If no one's ever come out, how is there common knowledge? I don't know.) In fact, as the day passes and Veris goes deeper into the forest, the subject of her previous trip becomes more and more notable for just how thoroughly it is avoided. We're not told the gender of the child she rescued, only that maybe she shouldn't have bothered because something bad happened later. Her thoughts sometimes veer toward this subject -- we get the initial letter of the child's name -- only to skitter away.

As the book unfolds, the mystery of what happened *then* becomes, it seems, more and more important than what is happening *now*. This is, frankly, increasingly annoying. The current mission is replete with conflict and difficulty: should Veris care about the children of the Tyrant who killed her own family? To what extent are they culpable for his (His?) misdeeds? Shouldn't she spare some worried thoughts, even in passing, for her loved ones outside the woods? Just what IS a monster, anyway? Something in the woods? The Tyrant? Humanity?

Those questions get brief lip-service, but they don't go anywhere. They emphatically do not drive any emotions, reactions, or decisions on Veris's part. The narrative tension is instead given over completely to wondering just what happened last time, such that the weird and heartbreaking events *this* time get short shrift. (I'm avoiding big spoilers, but I will say: the big heartbreak just happens and I don't know why she makes that decision, and it's made worse by the fact that she doesn't really think about it herself later.)

This unwieldy structure is, I think, using Parul Sehgal's term, a clumsy trauma plot. Terrible things happened in the past that Veris now does not, cannot, think of. Okay. She continues not thinking of them, until the very end, when she confesses everything (in the process conveniently answering all the reader's questions) to the most unlikely audience in the world. The confession is unfounded and it has fairly vague, if any, consequences.

There are some fine qualities to this book. The sensory details about the forest are evocative and ring true. Some of the eldritch-horror elements are distinctly creepy. I would have loved more of the weird forest denizens and reflection about the Old Power in the forest that pre-dates the valley's later beliefs. (This concept of old, persisting chthonic forces also features in some of the stories in Mohamed's collection, No One Will Come Back For Us [2023].)

Unfortunately, the characterization is warped by the necessities of the trauma plot. What's more, the prose is frequently excruciatingly affected. That is, there are frequent gestures at archaic/fairy-tale-esque language, particularly in diction and sentence construction -- use of "for" as a conjunction instead of "because"; the word "whit"; the Meaningful Capitalization of words like Know and Tyrant -- but I found this style distracting and painful to read. It was poor pastiche, I think, rather than anything authentic/organic to the story being told. The emphasis on Stock Characters and Generalized Abstractions, combined with faux-archaic language, coexists uneasily with concerns about trauma and ethical relativity, and in the end, compelling psychological development is sacrificed. The world of the story, so far as I can tell, is sort-of Traditional Medieval Fairy Tale Land, which has heard of guns but never seen one, but it also has pretty expansive gender roles (Veris wears breeches without issue and could, if she wanted, own property). Barbara Hambly's Dragonsbane (1985) offers a similar kind of Fairy Tale-ish setting, in which there were spectacles and Manic Panic-esque hair dye, but the choice works there in a way it doesn't really here.

I have other, nitpicky things to complain about, particularly the confusing chronology of how long the Tyrant has been in power, but it doesn't matter.

I'm just really disappointed by this book. It tries to do many things, some of them contradictory, and succeeds in none of them.

Through a familiar lens of eldritch forest horrors, Mohamed spins a tale of what it takes to remain human in the face of unspeakable and repetitive trauma. A truly poignant masterpiece.

This was a fun, short read. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would, which is how I often feel when it comes to novellas. Maybe they’re just not my thing? I always want to know more about the world, the characters, the bad guys, the interactions, etc. I still enjoyed it, I really did—but I feel like I would have enjoyed it more if it had 200 more pages and I could really feel invested.

I’d recommend to people who enjoy short, dark reads.

❤️ Strong, older FMC
❤️ Very short read
❤️ Dark, unsettling atmosphere
❤️ Creative and fast-paced
❌ No chapter division
❌ Lack of character development
❌ Slightly underwhelming ending

Plot:
The children of a cruel tyrant are missing, believed to have disappeared in a dark forest. There is only one person who has gone into the woods to retrieve a child and lived to tell the tale: Veris, a weary peasant who has known her share of horrors. This is the very last place where she wants to go, but when the tyrant threatens what’s left of her family—along with her whole village—Veris returns to the forest and faces its countless traps. She has exactly one day to find the children and bring them back, otherwise they will all be lost forever.

The story was captivating from the start, and it remained fast-paced the whole time. I loved how the author revealed tidbits of background information on the main characters along the way, never breaking the flow. I’d say this book is more atmosphere than plot or characters, which totally works for a novella. The ending, however, felt a little underwhelming. I need closure!

Characters:
There’s not much to say about most of the characters, including the kids, because we barely get to know them. I liked that Veris was older and wiser than your usual 17- or 21-year-old FMC, and that she was more smart and cunning than powerful or feisty. The humanoid creatures in the forest were pretty cool, and I would have liked to see more interactions with them.

Writing:
The writing was smooth and polished, accessible and evocative. However, there were no chapters, and that doesn’t work for me. I like being able to say “one more chapter” or “okay, I’ll stop at the end of this chapter” before going to bed. Ending a reading session at a random spot in the book gave me anxiety, ah ah!