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!

The Butcher of the Forest is a beautifully written dark fairy tale novella with a vivid and immersive world oozing with atmosphere. Part fairy tale, part horror, and a whole lot of fun, this was a quick and engaging read with a hauntingly seductive world to dive into.

Veris lives in a village on the edge of the North Forest, a place between worlds. Anyone who refuses to heed the warnings and venture in anyway, never returns. Veris Thorn is the only person to have ever ventured in and returned to the village alive, so when the Tyrant's children go missing, Veris is made to entire that horrible place once again to retrieve the his children. Will her second encounter with the faery beings of the forest's realm be as "successful" as the first, or will it end in utter ruin?

Gah, Mohamed is just one of those writers who can do so much in a small space. In this short novel, an entire world takes form with its tyrannies and losses and terrors, and I kept trying to flip to the next page at the end to read more. This is a fairy tale with all the true implications of darkness that comes with it. All I can say is, what happens next?

My Rating: 4/5

The Butcher of the Forest was a real surprise for me. It didn't read at all like it thought it would but by now means disappointed me.
The writing style was lyrical and a bit of kilter, which for this book really worked! Our main character Veris is in the forest with the grim and dark, fae or fae like creatures. Everything is supposed to be beautiful but not quite right. It truly was very pretty writing.
It was a quick few pages and thought the main character, Veris, is a bit gruff and the mission isn't like the usual mission where people want to be on it in some way, you route for her. At least I did, maybe because it felt like I was there and I wanted to get out of that forest--either way works for me!
The only slight problem I had was the end suddenly happened quite quick. There was a twist and then BAM it was basically over with very little resolution. I would've liked just a bit more said about it.

If you love dark and grim fairytale-type beats and are comfortable with some flowery writing I think you'd enjoy this novella.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor for the ARC.

The Butcher of the Forest was a dense, haunting journey fully realized within a novella-length story. Veris has a history with the forest at the north edge of her village in the kingdom. A forest that usually lets people in, and never back out. Veris made it out, but not without scars that we don't fully understand until close to the end of the book.

Her return from the forest makes her the one person the Tyrant can command to go back to the forest and save his lost children. But a successful rescue mission will be much harder than anyone realizes, and the lives of everyone in Veris' village are at stake.

We are treated to a dark forest of creatures, rules, and hunger that slowly increase the tension as Veris ventures further into the woods to find the children. Along the way, we slowly learn more about Veris' history with the forest and her tenuous relationship with her own future. For the entire journey, we don't know if she will succeed, or if the forest will consume both her and the children. Even at the end of the book, there is tension in the resolution. This is an old folk tale, dark fantasy, and eldritch horror wrapped into a single package that keeps you turning the pages.

Blog goes live Feb 23rd
Imgur link goes to instagram post scheduled for Feb 27th
Will be featured in January Reads pt 2

TL;DR : Dark and gloomy, but beautiful and fast paced. A dangerous ride, I definitely recommend for dark fantasy fans.

The Butcher of the Forest was a near perfect dark fantasy novella for me. We follow Veris, a simple village girl as she’s forced by the king to enter the dark and enchanted forest to the North of their village and retrieve his two children who wandered off. Veris is the one person in history who has managed to do this once before, but she’s in no hurry to return to that leafy hell.

The story is deeply atmospheric, and Premee Mohamed toes that line perfectly of making the world dark and fairy tale but also very real feeling. She doesn’t loose the substance of her ‘creepy’ in pursuit of the over the top language and it was fantastic. The costs are high, the forest is brutal, and I genuinely believed and enjoyed 95% of this story.

My only complaint was an entirely personal one, and one I can’t spoil. I’ll note as a content warning there is mentions of death of a child, but past that I’ll not elaborate. If you are wanting a dark fantasy with real costs and disturbing imagery then this is the one for you.

4 out of 5 creepy little kids.

4/5 ⭐️
This short story about a dark, sentient forest was reminiscent to other tales, yet entirely its own. There are numerous stories with dark woods I could compare this with, but it also had that eerie, just a step away from reality quality to it that sort of reminded me of the arena in the Hunger Games. There are rules to these woods, very similar to the traditional rules surrounding faeries in classic folktales. Yet, this quest is done by a slightly different main character. She is in her forties, wiser but not as strong as she had been the one and only other time she entered the woods. It is a story of feeling the threat of enemies and playing by their rules. A story of existing in a place familiar with being conquered. Of being in a war zone. It was lovely and creepy and thought provoking.
Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for providing an advance reader copy of this book for my honest review.

The Butcher of the Forest is a short, dark, and a bit disturbing fairytale that will suck you in from the first page.
Veris is woken and immediately taken to the Tyrant, not even given a chance to change out of her night clothes. At first, Veris has no idea what The Tyrant wants with her but it soon comes to light that he needs her to go into the forest and retrieve his children. You see Veris is the only person to ever go into this forest and come back out again, and if she fails, well not only her life, but the life of her family will be forfeit.

I really loved the way this story is told, it's short and gets to the point quickly. It's just descriptive enough that I could easily picture everything happening. The forest is dark, and disturbing full of things just waiting for you to make a mistake. Veris is a great character, she knows the stakes if she fails, and the gigantic miracle it will take to succeed in her task. She is strong, and resilient, and has known tragedy many times over. I enjoyed this from the first page to the last, and every moment in the forest had me on the edge of my seat in suspense.

Veris was taken from her home abruptly in her nightdress and not told where she was going.

She met a violent, intimidating tyrant who had a task for her. His children disappeared into the Northwoods. They are known as treacherous and locals are taught to never enter the woods for they will not return.

Veris was called because she has retrieved a missing child once from the woods before. She was told she was to go and find the tyrants two children or he would burn her village to the ground.

There are creatures who live in the woods, but Veris knows that she only has one day to retrieve the children, and her odds are beyond poor in succeeding.

Within the woods is another woods, something darker and stranger that tricks the mind called Elmever.

I found this book immediately thrust you into the action and immediately painted the scenes without cumbersome descriptors that some fantasy novels can become hitched on.

If a reader cannot commit to some of the 700/800 page fantasies I have been seeing in recent years, this is a great novel to get you into the genre without the daunting task of work building and detail.

This story reminded me of classic fair tale telling. The stories were rich but not bogged down with every detail. I was able to picture the characters, feel the discomfort and picture the unpleasant rot. It was very well done!

This story was imaginative with a gothic tone and I couldn’t put it down!

A dark fairy tale in the vein of Arden’s Winternight trilogy and Gilmore’s the Witch and the Tsar. This atmospheric novella takes you on a dangerous action packed ride through the Elmever.
When the tyrant who took over Veris’s kingdom summons her to his throne room there's only one task he could possibly have for her. As the only person to ever delve into the darkest parts of the Elmever forest and come out alive, its up to her to retrieve the kings two children who found themselves lost among its dark and twisted flora. If she fails, those she care about will pay the price.
There’s a lot to appreciate here for those that like the grimmer side of the Fae folk. The author develops the characters enough that you do get to care for them and how their story turns out. I do wish the book was just a little bit longer. You get thrown right into the major conflict with this title. I think if we'd had just a midge more background story regarding the forest inhabitants and some of the key players this could have been a much stronger book.

A dark, twisted folktale with a spin of spook akin to The Ritual or The VVitch, for fans of horror movies. Beautiful writing that feels like a poem told around a campfire, this quick read is perfect for giving you goosebumps on a rainy afternoon!

Such an interesting read! The concept was great. The Butcher of the Forest felt a little like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with a whole lot less friends.

Unfortunately this book didn’t capture my attention enough to keep me from putting it down or drawing me in to pick it up often. It took me too long to get through it. I loved the story, don’t get me wrong. It needed more imagery. The Butcher of the Forest was missing something.

If this novel ever becomes a movie, I would definitely watch it! Unfortunately it’s not a book I think I would read again though.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got an eGalley for this for review through NetGalley.

Thoughts: I enjoyed this, it's a well done dark fairy tale read. The story follows Veris, the only woman to enter the forbidden forest and return. When the tyrant ruler's children go missing, he forces Veris back into the forest to find them, else her family's life is forfeit.

I enjoyed the dark and twisting secrets of the forest which intersects with the fae realm. This has a very traditional dark fairy tale feel with it. Dangerous bargains are made and deals sealed in order for Veris to navigate the forest safely.

This ended up being a bit darker than I expected. Veris has some very dark secrets of her own in her past and these are unveiled as she tries to survive the forest.

The writing was easy to read and flowed well. There is some adventure and a lot of dark fae in here. I enjoyed Veris as a character and liked her resourcefulness. The story wraps up nicely with a bit of a mystery still unanswered at the end.

My Summary (4/5): Overall this was a quick read that I enjoyed. I think if you are a fan of traditional dark fairy tales you will enjoy this. It was engaging and well written and I look forward to future books the Mohamed writes.

so incredibly immersive, emotional, creepy, and just plain good. I do NOT like horror but oh boy, this doesn't deserve anything less than four stars.

some things I liked:
- story building in novellas can be kind of hard because most things end up being a little rushed or just info dumped on you, but the world building here made total sense to me.
- you can tell the entire time veris isn't giving you all the information but you can really empathize with her - her fear, her determination, her anger, her sadness. she's smart and clever and persevering, and you're cheering her on the entire time. when the truth comes out at the end, you can't even really be mad at her for holding back because it's so heartbreaking and you've felt so many of her emotions this entire time.
- mohamed's writing literally gave me the goosebumps. the only other horror author I really read is t kingfisher and both authors have this vivid way of describing things in a way that is so inexplicably unnatural and creepy, which really lends itself to the atmosphere of the novella. (I had to read this during the day tbh.)

the ending felt a little abrupt to me - I'm torn over liking certain aspects of the ending and disliking other aspects, and the fact that this is a novella and it ended where it ended made me feel almost cheated? but I loved this anyway, and would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a novella they can only read when the sun's out.

"A world-weary woman races against the clock to survive a deadly forest in this dark, otherworldly fairytale from Nebula and World Fantasy Award-winning author Premee Mohamed.

At the northern edge of a land ruled by a merciless foreign tyrant lies a wild, forbidden 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 await traps and trickery, ancient monsters, and hauntings of the past. One day is all Veris is afforded. One misstep will cost everything."

If this book hasn't been on your radar I think it's time to get it checked.

Dark little fairy tale horror where our hero tries to save two children trapped in a dark forest while plagued with nightmares of a child she couldn't save.
I can't wait to read more by this talented author
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

Thank you to NetGalleg for the ARC in exchange for an honest review! Minor content warning/spoilers ahead.

A delightful little horror-esque fairy tale that brings in a lot of delightful classic fairy tale themes and tropes. A very quick easy read with beautiful imagery. The overly detailed use of sexual abuse was unnecessary and out of place in such a short piece- it can be done well but only when it’s part of a rich nuanced character development and serves a purpose more than shock value, which this did not. Otherwise I’m glad I picked it up.

Thank you to Netgalley, Tor, and Premee Mohamed for providing this arc in exchange for a honest review!

I came across this book while scrolling on Netgalley and was immediately intrigued in this gothic fantasy novella especially after reading and absolutely loving One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns — i was just itching for another gothic fantasy book.

Well, this book definitely delivered on gothic fantasy. it delivered above and beyond. Despite being under 200 pages this novella packs a punch and kept my attention fully (i literally read this in less than 2 hours bc i couldn’t put it down).

If you’re a fan of dark and twisted fairytales, this is definitely for you. The best way i can describe the vibe is if the Grimm Brothers wrote hybrid of Alice in Wonderland and Hansel and Gretel but like make it very horror. This book is whatever the opposite of cozy fantasy is — it’s unnerving basically.

The only critique i have is that the writing some times inhibited the story for me. I sometimes would read something and then have to go back a few more times before i felt like i had an understanding of what was being said — however, i think that’s partly a stylistic choice, so if you are into more flowery and metaphorical prose than you should have no problem with it.