'A world-weary woman races against the clock to rescue the children of a wrathful tyrant from a dangerous, otherworldly forest. At the northern edge of a land ruled by a monstrous, foreign tyrant lies the wild forest known as the Elmever. The villagers know better than to let their children go near—once someone goes in, they never come back out.
'No one knows the strange and terrifying traps of the Elmever better than Veris Thorn, the only person to ever rescue a child from the forest many years ago. When the Tyrant’s two young children go missing, Veris is commanded to enter the forest once more and bring them home safe. If Veris fails, the Tyrant will kill her; if she remains in the forest for longer than a day, she will be trapped forevermore. So Veris will travel deep into the Elmever to face traps, riddles, and monsters at the behest of another monster. One misstep will cost everything.'
Forests can be frightening places, especially as most people nowadays tend to never really have reason to go into them other than for personal enjoyment. They've evolved over our history from places that people would know well to things we tend to see from a distance, things we don't really know anymore. And, once we don't know much about something it becomes frightening. Stories are told that make it darker, more mysterious, and it begins to feel like some kind of primal horror. Premee Mohamed leans into this a lot in their new short novella, The Butcher of the Forest, which makes the woods a truly unsettling place.
The story follows Veris, a woman in her 40's, who is the only person to have ever entered the mysterious and frightening Elmever forest and returned. Many before her have gone into it, but no others have ever come out, lost to the dark and twisted forest and the monsters that call it home. However, when the children of the cruel Tyrant enter the forest Veris is recruited, without much choice, to go in and to bring them home. Not only will Veris have to contend with the horrors of the forest, but she will have only a day in which to succeed or she'll be lost forever too.
The Butcher of the Forest is not a long book, only 160 pages, and as such it jumps into the narrative very quickly, dropping the reader right into the middle of things. Despite there not being much time spent setting up this world or the characters, and much of the book being given over to what happens when Veris enters Elmever, Premee Mohamed somehow manages to make the book feel like that time is being taken. Mohamed uses long sentences, and beautifully flowing language to make the book feel longer than it actually is, and you come away from reading it surprised at the actual length of it as it feels like it should have been a lot more than 160 pages.
The book draws from fairy tale stories, but there are times that it also feels like you're slipping into cosmic horror, and the sense of unease that flows through the majority of the book plays wonderfully into these themes. It's violent and gruesome at times, and there are points that almost makes you want to put the book down because it goes to places you'd never have expected nor predicted.
I can see the ending dividing some readers, as it kind of divided me too. On the one hand I was very happy with how things ended, and was more than prepared to let things lie and never return to this character or world; but on the other hand I would devour an entire series if Mohamed decided to venture more into their creation. It's one of those dilemmas where you can say 'that ended perfectly, no more please' yet would also be first in line to get the next one. The perils of being a reader.
The Butcher of the Forest is a wonderful dark horror fairy tale with a beautiful writing style that is going to draw readers in very quickly, and make a lot more fans of Premee Mohamed by the time things are done.
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