Monday, July 10, 2017

Review: The Wood by Chelsea Bobulski

Series: ???
Publication Date: August 1st 2017
Publisher: Fewer & Friends
Genre: YA, Fantasy 
Amazon ~ Goodreads ~ TBD


Synopsis:  After her father goes missing in the woods that they protect, Winter tries to seek the truth in what happened, why the wood is changing, and what it all has to do with the arrival of a mysterious stranger in this thrilling YA debut.

When Winter’s dad goes missing during his nightly patrol of the wood, it falls to her to patrol the time portals and protect the travelers who slip through them. Winter can't help but think there's more to her dad's disappearance than she's being told.

She soon finds a young man traveling in the wood named Henry who knows more than he should. He believes if they can work together to find his missing parents, they could discover the truth about Winter’s dad.

The wood is poisoned, changing into something sinister—torturing travelers lost in it. Winter must put her trust in Henry in order to find the truth and those they’ve lost.

Bobulski’s eerie debut is filled with friendship, family, and the responsibilities we choose and those we do not.
My Rating
3/5 stars

My Review
The Wood is a very creative story about woods that contain time travelling portals and the guardians that guard the wood and the travellers that enter it.

After Winter's Dad suddenly disappears and the council blames it on him losing his mind in the Wood, Winter takes it upon herself to solve the mystery of her father's disappearance. When a mysterious traveller keeps appearing in Winter's part of the Wood, Winter knows that something is wrong, no one should be able to access the Wood so easily. When Henry reveals the reason why he's seeking passage through the Wood, he and Winter decide to work together to solve the mystery of the Wood and the occurring disappearances. 

Honestly, I've never been a fan of time travelling stories. Like never. I don't know what it is about them, but I just don't enjoy them as much as other fantasies. You'd think I would stop reading them, but for some reason I keep trying to find a time travelling book I like.

Although this book contained very minimal time travelling, as in only one character time travelled and we didn't change settings... I still found myself not liking this book very much.

Winter was a good main character. She wasn't great, but she also didn't make me mad, she was just average. Winter's main problem in the story was trying to balance school and work at the same time as dealing with the death of her father. She's skipping classes, ignoring her best friend and intentionally not looking for a romance because her job in the wood comes first, and with that comes the thoughts of her father and her believing that he might not be dead. I really connected with Winter in this part of the story, and I really liked her up to this point. Once Winter meets Henry things start to change a little.

I like Winter, and I like Henry. They're both good characters, but I don't see them being more than friends. The whole romance between them that was added seemed really forced, and I didn't not enjoy it at all. I feel like the story would have been so much better if the two had remained friends. 

The world building in this story was truly fantastic. I loved the idea of the Wood, the history of the guardians and how they protect it and all the creatures in the Wood. It was all so creative. This was one of the most important aspects of why I liked this book. The other would have to be the family element. This book was very family related, with Winter dealing with her father's death and trying to stay close to her mother. I absolutely loved every scene with Winter and either/both of her parents.

The ending of this book was really intriguing. While there was no plot twists (maybe there was one, but I was expecting it from the beginning) the ending was still fairly emotional and very engaging, I definitely couldn't put the book down around the last third of the book. But while the ending was good, I was left with a lot of questions that were never answered, which kind of left me in the "Wait that's it?" state of mind, where I'm constantly questioning things.

Overall, this wasn't my favourite book, but I still enjoyed it. If you like time travelling stories then check this one out for sure.

Happy Reading,
Aneta

3 comments:

  1. I'm seeing a lot of reviews of this one this week! And I keep seeing people talk about how they're not sure how they feel about the ending and the romance feels rushed. I'm glad that you still enjoyed the book but hopefully the next one you read, you'll love!

    Thanks for sharing!
    Brittany @ Brittany's Book Rambles

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad I'm not the only one that feels this way, I haven't had the chance yet to read other people's reviews on it.
      Thanks so much for visiting Brittany :)

      Delete
  2. This doesn't seem very remarkable :( Sorry it didn't blow you away! I've been so looking forward to it, but I don't think it'd work for me. I don't like a forced romance, and I don't like the idea of her ignoring her best friend.

    Great review, though!

    Amy @ A Magical World Of Words

    ReplyDelete

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