Book Review: "A Girl Walks Into the Forest" by Madeleine Roux

Well, I can't say I've been too active on social media lately. I'm sort of losing it with Twitter and when it comes to BlueSky, I'm basically barely there. Facebook has been alright and I've most been sticking around there especially uploading things to my story. I don't know why but I'm finding Twitter a bit boring and am seriously considering my future there. It's always better to have many different avenues if you are looking to expand your audience for writing but the place has become such a horrid pit of nothing that it almost seems pointless. Well, that's enough of me ranting, time for the review...

First of all, I'd say that perhaps the internet blurb gives more away than I would like to know before I read the book. The book is about a girl named Valla who has been told her entirely life that she is the most beautiful girl in all the land. This is all well and good, and I liked the folkloric writing style. I just don't feel like I had known her all her life. Instead we are kind of thrown into just trying to get to know the characters as we meet them in the opening chapter and because the names are a bit out there, it comes across a little heavy at times.

However, when she initially goes into the forest with her brother and his wife, she proves herself to be a fairly annoying character who is mostly concerned with herself. I get it, her town depends on her making a good marriage with the Count who wants her purely because she is beautiful. But because of a horrid time in the forest, she obviously arrives with a disfigured face and therefore, her beauty for him is ruined. I mean, this is pretty obvious for a story about a woman who is praised and then scorned but the issue I was having is that the main character wasn't even that likeable. When she is being punished by the Count therefore, you don't really get a feeling of sadness for the character.

Be that as it may, Valla's character definitely changes throughout her stay at the cruel castle of Count Leonid. After enduring hauntings which tell her of violence and the psychological torture she endures, her character becomes more and more fierce. She no longer wants to be this passive bride who is only healing to make her husband happy and put her town in a better position. For once, she is thinking about her own happiness. I would have liked it more though if Valla had a better character to begin with.

Let's go back to the point where I said that I liked the folkloric writing. It was very atmospheric, very enjoyable and yet, there was still something missing. I think that might be because that everywhere I've read, this book is listed as a young adult novel and so, it seems a bit toned-down and basic. Don't get me wrong, it is still a read with a lot of depth. You definitely get the feeling that there are especially stories of Perrault and Grimm happening around you, but I don't think the horror quite lived up to its title in the genre department. A lot of people saying that the book reminds them of Midsommar clearly haven't seen the movie. I would say it reminds me more of Disney's Twisted Tales perhaps taken up a notch. There's nothing wrong with that, but it wasn't quite what I expected.

However, I did enjoy the hefty relations to the character of the Baba Yaga. It definitely felt like the writer was trying to work in some fierce witch-like qualities into her transformation and then, of course we have that little speech at the end. The latter half of the book definitely proves to be better written than the first half. I'm going to just leave that there.

All in all, I think this book was enjoyable, but probably required some extra work. Maybe the advertising could be a bit more truthful about the fact that the writing style is skewed towards a teen audience a bit more, but on the whole it was thoroughly average in that department as well. I probably wouldn't read it again but I also wouldn't say it was awful.