This book was published on September 26, 2017. I got my hands on an Uncorrected Proof copy (essentially an advance reader copy) and there will undoubtedly be some differences between the version I read, and the published version.
I like fairy tales. I like fairy tales when they're retold, provided they're done well. I really like it when authors take fairy tales and tweak, twist, and turn the familiar elements into an entirely new story.
Also, isn't this cover art gorgeous?!
An amazon summary where I removed the weird spacing because it took up so much page space, "Welcome, my little lambs, to the Puszcza. It's an ancient forest, a keeper of the deepest magic, where even the darkest fairy tales are real.
Here, a Girl is not supposed to be a woodcutter. Or be brave enough to walk alone.
Here, a Wolf is not supposed to love to read. Or be curious enough to meet a human.
And here, a Story is nothing like the ones you read in books, for the Witch can make the most startling tales come alive. All she needs is a Girl from the village, a Wolf from the forest, and a woodcutter with a nice, sharp axe.
So take care, little lambs, if you step into these woods. For in the Puszcza, it is always as dark as the hour between night and dawn -- the time old folk call the Wolf Hour. If you lose your way here, you will be lost forever, your Story no longer your own.
You can bet your bones." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
Magia and her family live in a small hour on the outskirts of the Puszcza, a forest thrumming with magic that will swallow you whole if you don't have a method to find your way home. Magia's Tata (her father) is a woodcutter who braves the Puszcza forest for longer burning wood to sell more wood to the villagers. He wears a red hat that protects him from the magic of the Puszcza, especially because he always wants to find his way home to Mama. The Puszcza has been luring more girls away from their homes, and a music teacher is said to have magical flutes that will keep girls within their homes. Magia doesn't listen to the magic of the Puszcza, but she has not been inside of it either. She desperately wants to be a woodcutter like her father.
A she wolf loses her mate to a story; her mate first blows down a house of straw, then blows down a house of mud, before climbing to the top of a house of brick to get to the three pigs through the chimney. He tumbles down the chimney into a pot of boiling water, and the she wolf loses her mate. In her grief, she retreats to a tower which is covered in spiderwebs on the inside and has her litter. Only one of her four pups survives. She vows to make sure her pup will not fall victim to one of the human's stories the same way her mate did.
That's enough summary.
This is kind of the re-imagining of Little Red Riding Hood, the Three Little Pigs, and a few I don't recognize (which I'm sure is where the author added their own creative flair as well). There was also a lot of Polish terms (I think, pardon me if this is a missed identification error on my part) throughout the story which I thought only enhanced it. I also liked how the narration jumped from Magia, to Martin (the wolf pup), and then also to the witch telling her stories too (oh yeah, there's a witch). I really liked how all the stories threads were really tied together, and the magic of the Puszcza was somehow menacing, but also not. The Puszcza is almost a character of it's own, but it doesn't really seem malevolent, the magic is there, but others can twist it for their own uses.
I also liked how the story didn't shy away from the violence, but it didn't go into graphic detail about it either. I mean, one of the prevalent magical elements is literally bones. I think there was also an interesting theme of greed throughout the story, but I don't want to say more as it'll give away other elements. Oddly enough for a wolf, I found Martin to be a very well rounded character and a good balance to Magia. There was so much of the story that felt so deeply tied into the magic, that it kind of left me to wonder what wasn't magical about their world.
I would love to see more fairy tales like this, as I think it took a lot of the essential elements of the original fairy tales, and then owned them with this story. It was good.
Happy reading!
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