eProof Review - The Butcher Of The Forest

Happy First Read of 2024! Fingers crossed all your have been fun and great. 

Mine? Not so much. You’ll see why in the moment in gif form and for that, I do apologise. 

Anyway, let me get all the details for you and we can get this party started!

Title and Author: The Butcher Of The Forest by Premee Mohamed

Publisher: Titan Books

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction.

Buy from (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

In the dark, fairytale-like novella, a ruthless Tyrant forces an ordinary woman into an enchanted forest to retrieve his two missing children. The enchanted forest is full of dark things and won’t let the heirs go easily. And the woman isn’t as ordinary as she’s the only person known to have gone into the forest and to have come out again, all to save a child. 

If the woman fails, all she lives will be destroyed. So, she must step carefully as one misstep could be the end of everything…

I had such high hopes that my first read of 2024 will knock it out of the park. I fell in the love with the cover and the little I read from the NetGalley blurb made me hopefully.

 
Alas, it didn’t work for me. So much so that, looking back, I’m surprised I didn’t quit when I realised that this wasn’t the story I was hoping it was. 

Let me make something clear: this is just my opinion and I am thrilled that so many other readers enjoy the story and the writing style. If it works for me, wonderful. But I didn’t. In fact, every time I read it within the first 60%, I kept nodding off. Not sure if it was because I was tired or because of the writing. Oh yes, it’s Gif-time!

For me, the writing was very descriptive but, at the same time, not very. I would have to go back a few pages to check if I missed a description for a new character or creature when they appear. At times, it felt like the story was getting drowned out by the description which, for the most part, didn’t push the story forward. And we must remember, this is a novella and novellas only have a limited amount of pages as every word matters.

 
As the story, it was ok. But it took a long time before I felt a connection or excitement with the pacing and the characters and, by then, it was too late. I didn’t care and I was just reading this as I wanted it to be done.

Sadly, this wasn’t for me (which is annoying). But I know it will hit that sweet spot with some of you so if you’re curious, go for it!