Wednesday, August 18, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

 




The Wolf and the Woodsman is a debut fantasy novel by Ava Reid, and like a lot of books, it's one that I originally was all set to pass over given its similarity in portrayal to other books I'd read.  The book draws comparisons to Naomi Novik's "Spinning Silver"* and Katherine Arden's "The Bear and the Nightingale", in being fantasy inspired by Eastern Europe (Hungary apparently), featuring a growing in power and prejudice form of Christianity, to the detriment of believers of other faiths, such as Jews and Pagans.  Those were not quite my favorite books, but I'd seen enough hype and praise for this book from authors I appreciate on social media, that I wound up putting his on my library holds list anyhow.  

*Oddly I kind of think the better Novik comparison is to her Uprooted* 

And I did enjoy The Wolf and the Woodsman quite a bit, especially due to its impressive focus on its pagan (and half-Jewish by blood) heroine, in a world that may be fantastical, but also uses a very historically real portrait of Christian persecution and scapegoating to tell a story that goes in some interesting and very solid directions.  The book's lead heroine Évike is really well done, and on a more personal note for myself, the book's portrayal of its Jewish community is very strong.  The book still has a few speedbumps - reliance on one trope I really don't like and an ending that is incredibly rushed - but it's a very strong debut novel, worthy of much of its praise.  

Trigger Warning: Self-Harm 
---------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------
Évike is an outcast growing up in a pagan village hidden in a dangerous forest - for not only is she the daughter of a Yehuli man, but she is the only girl in the village not to be blessed with some of the gods' magic.  Especially after years ago, when the cruel Patritian king, known for his persecution of pagans and others not of the Patrifaith, sent his Woodsmen to take her mother for her magical power.  Without her mother, Évike grew up alone, with only a few friends, living in isolation in an already isolated village....which itself lives in fear of the Woodsmen coming back yet another time to take a girl for her power.  

But when the Woodsmen come again and seek to take the village's prodigal seer, Évike's adopted mother gives up Évike instead as a sacrifice.  Soon, Évike finds herself alone with the cruel Woodsmen, some of whom hate her for her beliefs...and more than a few of whom believe she should be killed on sight, power or no.  But when a forest monster attack leaves only Évike and the Woodsman captain alive, the two find themselves forced to rely upon each other to survive. Especially as Évike soon comes to learn that the country is on the verge of being taken over by a zealous bigoted bastard prince, who blames all non-believers in the Patrifaith religion for the nation's problems. 

Évike will need to find a connection to her own form of magic, and to the heritage of both her pagan mother and her Yehuli father, in order to survive and make a stand, and in the process, she and the Woodsman may come to believe there is more to each other than they first believed..... 
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The Wolf and the Woodsman features a number of fantasy elements that are clearly based upon real world peoples and religions with basically the serial numbers sawed off - the Patrifaith religion is clearly Medieval Christianity, the Yehulis are obviously Jews (to the point where their language is literally hebrew and their religion is straight out Judaism*), and the Pagans are of course the remnants of multitheistic faiths in this cruel new world.**  This generally works very well, as all these peoples feel very true to the real world versions of them, and the setting does a really nice job adding in literal magic as interpreted by all three groups (and others) - such that even when our heroine Évike obtains magic through self-harm - a tradition of the Patrifaith religion - she still attributes the magic not to the Patrifaith, but to her own Pagan teachings.   

*On a personal note, as a Jewish reader, this book does a very good job with its portrayal of its Jewish community, who both serve an important role in the Christian world by performing jobs (Money-Lending) and working on days when the Christians would not, but are ostracized and forced to live in particular areas or worse at the same time by their jealous and bigoted Christian neighbors.  The story of Esther, which has some parallels to this story, and her holiday of Purim is recited a bunch of times, as are some other Jewish myths, and they're all done well, much better than in many other similar books, leaving me with only one minor quibble (a plot point features a character telling another orally the name of God, which would never happen).  So yeah, I appreciated that a lot.*

**I'm going to use the real world equivalents in the rest of this review just for ease and understanding, not that it matters.**

And this setting is home to a really strong lead character in Évike, a girl of multiple worlds who in many ways fits in neither.  She was brought up believing devoutly in the pagan stories and gods, despite her feeling ostracized even by her adoptive mother figure (after her mother was taken) and especially by the rest of the village for her lack of magic - and after they sacrifice her to the Woodsmen, she certainly feels like she can't go back.  At the same time, her belief and her childhood still makes that her home that she cares about.  Meanwhile, as she discovers her father and his Jewish faith, she finds herself entirely welcomed into his community....but it's still not the faith she grew up in, even as she tries to welcome it into her heart.  She will fight for him, just like she fights for her Pagan family, but Évike is not truly part of either.  And despite that, despite this being a perfect excuse for her to give in to despair, Évike almost never does, barreling head first through her obstacles and fighting for what she feels is right.  For, as she says to the Woodsman Gáspár, if she went quietly, all that would change is that she'd die quietly, and so what's the point of staying quiet and letting others cow her to her knees?  

The rest of the cast is generally well done as well, even if they get lesser roles by comparison.  Gáspár is a solid secondary protagonist as the half-blooded prince who knows there should be more than persecution in the world, who knows how much is wrong, and still clings to the faith he was brought up in despite it causing so many others to go astray - a really interesting twist on a usual character.  Évike's father and his Jewish community is really well done as a loving community trying their best to live their lives in peace despite persecution, trying only to keep their heads down in truth.  And some of Évike's pagan brethren all have solid backstories even as they spend precious little time on page (and more in her memories) to explain why they act as they do.  They all contribute to a plot that takes some very different swerves and will really keep you guessing.  

The book still has some issues, some related to this being a debut, some not.  Like Naomi Novik's Uprooted (or other similar books), the book relies upon an enemies to lovers type plot that features the male romantic partner abducting the female one to start their relationship, and I don't really like that dynamic anymore....there are just power dynamic issues when Évike really has nowhere to go other than to stay with Gáspár for most of the book, as they fall in love, which the book never addresses (Yeah Gáspár is a good guy at heart, but that doesn't absolve it).  And the books' ending is incredibly abrupt, leading to a really not-set-up-at-all final confrontation that honestly makes no sense, allowing things to be tied up in a bow, even thought he factors that led to the deadly prejudice should still all be present at the time of the book's ending....which the book basically ignores.  

Still, the journey and characters and faiths are done so well that I can hardly complain, and The Wolf and the Woodsman definitely makes up for most of its faults.  A really solid debut novel, and one that will definitely have me consider Reid for Astounding Award consideration next year.  Recommended.  

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