Was hoping for a new take on Little Red Riding Hood. It starts out that way but quickly plummets into plot twists and modern day. Didn't do much for me. DNF'd it

This one felt more like a thriller/ mystery than a horror. The storyline was well thought out and delivered some unexpected twists that kept me engaged. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and I fear that some character development was lost due to sheer numbers resulting in a number of characters whom felt very much alike and somewhat redundant. While I can see the folk story basis of this tale it was lacking the slow, atmospheric horrific dread that I've come to expect from folk horror, but if your looking for a twisty thriller this may be one you resonate with.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc of this title free of charge. I'm leaving an honest review voluntarily.

“The Woodcutter” is a dark and twisted fiction, mixing historical lore, Christian devils and witches, and pagan beliefs of spiritual beings.

This starts out strong and I was captivated by the end of the first chapter. The set up for the characters and plot was very eerie and intriguing. Readers will find out the bloody history behind the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, Grandmother, the Wolf, and the titular Woodcutter.

Around the halfway mark, the story begins to get a bit jumbled. Suddenly a time jump takes us forward to Halloween (a bit jarring) and relationships between characters have developed that the readers have completely mixed. I kept thinking “is this real? No? Yes? Maybe? What?”, like the author was trying too hard to confuse the readers, throw red herrings out, and it felt like the thread of the tale had frayed badly.

The remainder of the story continued to feel “off” and just didn’t work for me. I’m still giving this 3 stars as it is a really great idea and for the first half of the book I enjoyed the read.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Brigids Gate Press for a copy.

The Woodcutter by Stephanie Ellis  is a horror novel about an old tale about a Woodcutter and Grandma who lived in a cottage in the woods.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Brigids Gate Press, and the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.




My Synopsis:    (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)
The story of Grandma in the cottage in the woods, and the Woodcutter, were stories told to the youngsters of Little Hatchet from the time they could walk.  But these stories were more than just tales to entertain.  The residents of the area have followed certain procedures to ensure the safety of the village.  Some still believe.

Years ago, Grandma did, indeed,  exist, although the stories were a little extreme.  She was deemed a witch, and she lived in GodBeGone Wood, just outside the village.  They say she demanded six lives every six years. She would name the people she wanted, and her assistant, The Woodcutter, would knock on their doors on the Night of the Gathering, and take each person, who was never seen again.  The Woodcutter, will this giant axe was deemed a monster, and would not be denied.   Rumours said that the blood of the victims kept the pair young. But perhaps they had made a deal with the devil for long life.

Alec Eades discovers his ties to the area when Cameron knocks on his door.  Apparently this man was Alec's brother, who he had never heard of.  Cameron aske him for help.  He feared that their younger brother Vinnie was in trouble.  Alec apparently has a whole family he was unaware of.

Meanwhile, landowner Oliver Hayward has plans for the village.  He wants to re-enact part of the Woodcutter legend.  People are not impressed with Oliver, but there is a lot of money to be made for this village, and they are desperate.  They will do what they are told.

 

 

My Opinions:
Well, this was interesting.  Blending folk lore with unreliable narrators creates a rather wild tale of both supernatural and psychological horror.  Deception ran rampant.  Nothing was as it seemed, right to the end.

The characters, some likeable, but others not so much.  Yet they all had enough depth to keep them somewhat real.  Often you didn't know who to believe, which is what made you pay attention.

The actual plot was really good.  It felt like a strange take on Little Red Riding Hood.  The author definitely captured the scary woods, the local scary legend, and the closed-in feeling of the villagers.  She captured both their greed and their community cohesion, which in this case, may not have been a good thing.

Overall, this was a true horror novel.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

(Rounded down from 2.5)

This story has so much potential, but it falls apart for me on too many levels for me to enjoy it, unfortunately.

Let’s talk about what I liked. The whole idea is a fun one, pointing at folk horror, twisting it with fairy tales, and then combining it with a modern twist involving meta-awareness, faux ritual re-enactment, and online profiteering. Take these ideas and add a prodigal son, a haunted-feeling wood, and a whole bunch of unreliable narrators and there are so many possibilities. I really enjoyed the concept of the story, especially including the twists and turns right up through the end. The sources being played with, the ideas, the overall story? A lot of fun.

The execution, though, didn’t live up to that promise. The legends about the forest and the Woodcutter and the Grandma were far too muddled to be enjoyable. Yes, not everyone in the village knew the “real” history, and we were learning about it from unreliable storytellers, but the stories constantly collapsed on top of each other in ways that felt like the fault was not at the feet of our characters. There is definitely an intended element of psychological horror here, but this felt like unintended confusion, not authorial manipulation. The characters felt generic and flat, unfortunately. None of them felt fleshed out; what characteristics they were given were introduced right before they were needed for the plot. Especially our main character, we don’t know anything about the life he was living before the night he met his brother, and there was nothing about him that made him more than a generic warm body, I had no clue why I should root for (or against) him. There was nothing to connect to with any of these characters, and unlike the fun cannon-fodder characters of a slasher most of these characters we were supposed to feel something for, but they barely felt like anything. The plotting itself felt rushed and disorganized. The way time moves and jumps felt illogical, and it never felt like characters were making decisions that made any sense given their contexts. Yes, some characters were unreliable and various secrets and twists are revealed at the end, but that type wasn’t the source of characters’ bad decisions. It all felt like incredible plot conveniences, not anything that felt grounded in the reality being constructed here. In order for the finale to happen as it did there just needed to be unbelievable event after unbelievable event after unbelievable event, and it strained even horror-logic credulity. In addition to all of that, the writing just didn’t feel strong enough to carry this story. It wasn’t bad writing, but the way the POV moved from one paragraph to another sometimes, and some of the word choices and phrasing, they just felt a little clumsy. Sometimes it felt like really great short story writing that had to be stretched out and it couldn’t bear that weight.

Look, the story as planned was crazy ambitious. The way the story twists and turns on itself, the reveals that come at the end? They are really smart and fun, but they are hard to set-up and pull off. It is really challenging to plot out a story that has this type of ending combined with a psychological and folk horror amalgamation colored by numerous unrelatable narrators. I really do applaud the ideas of this story, but every idea feels like it made the author’s job harder and harder. I am here for every big swing the author took, but for me they just missed the mark. If you really like contemporary approaches to folk horror then you might find something to enjoy here, depending on how much you care about character development and world-building. The twists and turns at the end, as they layer one atop another, are fun too, when they come. The work to get there wasn’t worth the payoff for me, but your mileage might vary.

I want to thank the author, the publisher Brigids Gate Press, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Folk horror is my jam. This book takes a plot and makes it creepy and the vibes are also very nice. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this free eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Atmospheric, unsettling and intriguing. This one was a little bit frustrating. It was a good book and so close to being a great book!

The descriptions in this book are spot on, I found it so easy to picture the surroundings as I followed the characters into the forest. However, it felt too long and convoluted at points when the word count could have been used to set up the plot twist a little better.

Overall, I enjoyed this and can see myself picking it up for a re-read at some point. If you're wanting to try out folk horror, I'd definitely recommend.

Stephanie Ellis does a great job in writing this horror novel, it had that element that I was looking for. The overall story worked well and had that suspenseful atmosphere that I was looking for. The characters had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed the overall feel.

I am still scared. And that is a good thing, if I read a horror/thriller, I want to be on the edge of my seat, scared and nervous and this definitely did that for me

A frightening folk horror novel that had me cringing and gasping audibly!
This is a terrifying story and so well-written that the author had me guessing (incorrectly) throughout.
Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read this advanced copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.