Name: Samantha Bass's review of The Waking Forest by Alyssa Wees
Item: The Waking Forest
Rating: 4
Author: Samantha Bass

Alyssa Wees

Pan's Labyrinth meets The Hazel Wood in this novel about a girl with terrifying visions and a wish-granting witch whose lives collide in the most unexpected of ways. "Bewitching, sensuous, and spiked with the unexpected--The Waking Forest is a fever dream you won't ever want to leave."-Joan He, author of The Descendent of the Crane The waking forest has secrets. To Rhea, it appears like a mirage, dark and dense, at the very edge of her backyard. But when she reaches out to touch it, the forest vanishes. She's desperate to know more--until she finds a peculiar boy who offers to reveal its secrets. If she plays a game. To the Witch, the forest is her home, where she sits on her throne of carved bone, waiting for dreaming children to beg her to grant their wishes. One night, a mysterious visitor arrives and asks her what she wishes for, but the Witch sends him away. And then the uninvited guest returns. The strangers are just the beginning. Something is stirring in the forest, and when Rhea's and the Witch's paths collide, a truth more treacherous and deadly than either could ever imagine surfaces. But how much are they willing to risk to survive? "A stunning, spooky, and lyrical debut....The pacing is taut as the tension steadily ramps up, creating an atmospheric read that is impossible to put down. A sure hit for readers of edgy fantasy and fans of Stephanie Garber's Caraval or Heidi Heilig's The Girl from Everywhere."-SLJ, Starred Review "[A] masterfully woven fantasy debut...[with] an intricate pattern crafted to twist, invert, and fall apart with exquisite precision. Into the woods like never before."-Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review "Wees layers worlds and characters with cleverness and subtlety,...darkly satisfying."-The Bulletin "A twisting mix of modern story and fantasy tale."-Booklist

The Waking Forest

Samantha Bass

Savannah Winchell

3.75 ⭐️
- first 3/4 were perfect
- gorgeous prose and atmosphere
- incentive and enchanting
- pacing in the last quarter was bizarre and it got chunky and shifted in quality
- she did an amazing job with 2/3 of the world building and then gave up

Sophia De La Garza

2 Stars
- This book had an awesome premise going for it, and I was so excited to see how the author would expand on the ideas being stated. Sadly, I was very disappointed. I wanted an awesome fantasy forest and while I got that the way the author went about writing and developing this world did not sit well with me. The writing style focused too much on being lyrical and aesthetically pleasing and took away from the plot development. 

- Great concept, wish it was written better.

Toni Turner

This book is hard to rate (or maybe this makes it easy?) but there was probably 50/50 stuff I enjoyed reading and stuff that didn’t grab my attention as much. I’ve not read a YA in a long time that had a voice I couldn’t connect with in the present. I can tell if I had read this when I was a preteen I would have been obsessed with it.

Idk it was interesting and sweet, but very flowery, which I enjoyed, interspersed with dramatic kid speak. Like, snot nosed siblings being kids towards each other and not being able to talk like adults, but then rest of the book was intense metaphor and lots of flowery writing. 
Which I would have loved as a young teen when all I did was write flowery writing in my journal and fight with my siblings hahaha

Aleena Korell

This book is like a peep.

I used to love peeps-- adorable, colorful, fluffy little sugar-coated marshmallow creatures. What's not to love? Even still, whenever I see them, they trigger that nostalgic excitement and I always want one. 

And then I eat one and immediately remember that I don't love peeps anymore.

The summary promised to fill an exact literary need of mine for dark, sweeping, fairy-tale-toned stories ft. Sad Boys and Magical Princesses and Moody Witches and Shapeshifting Foxes. Aaaaand while it had all of those things, it just wasn't quite what I'd hoped for.

I couldn't help but realize halfway through this book that I only wanted to like it. I had that nostalgic, optimistic expectation to like it. I was SO READY to like it. And in the end I just think I have to accept the reality that my tastebuds have changed. Ten years ago, I would have been so here for moody prose that is actually sort of nonsense *but it makes you feel something* and vague-random-statement-to-make-a-dramatic-point dialogue. There were a number of cool elements and moods and ideas that I wish it had focused more on, like the creepy atmosphere of the wish-granting witch and the shapeshifting fox-- but it used one of my least-favorite tropes of (view spoiler)[not remembering lost love/past life (hide spoiler)] instead.

I don't dislike this book (although I do think that the VERY purple prose will be highly divisive amongst its readers)-- but it's not for me.

Story Eater

This book is a well-written puzzle. For a piece.
 
The first part of this book sucked me in with its mishmash of dream psychology, teetering among the narrative devices in Inception, Shutter Island, some M. Night Shyamalan, “Sleeping Beauty,” “Hansel and Gretel,” some Cornelia Funke, and quite a few other tidbit references from all over movie/story world.

 After a certain point, I started paying very close attention to names. I looked up the name meanings of each of the characters, which will spoil the book if I put them here. For those who get into the book enough, or like to pick out tiny nerdy treasures when they read, the name and place meaning will be fun to help decipher the puzzle of the first half of the book.

My thanks to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the ARC, for which I give my own opinion. 
The second half of the book delineates into a very different writing style. It is very much as if a different author wrote it altogether. The characters become shallow and simple and the dialogue descends from carefully chosen clever conversation to modern high schooler speak. The story became more of the same. 

Ultimately, I enjoyed the book. In the end, the first half of the book provided more than enough motivation to keep reading. I look forward to more of this author’s lyricism, and hope that the next book will be more consistent and just as brilliant.

Until about 75% of the way through this book, I adored it! I was enchanted, intrigued, and mystified as to what was going to happen next and what exactly was going on. The writing is gorgeous and had me so entranced I couldn't stop reading. At about 75% of the way through though, the story shifts and it got more messy and more confusing for me. Granted - there was very little action up until this point and then everything turned into an action scene, but it was hard to keep up with. While I loved the story and the direction it was going, so much happened in that last 25%, I'm not sure I can even explain what happened. Now, granted, it might be because I read through it quickly to see what happens next, but it was hard for me to get through the end because I couldn't pinpoint what exactly was going on. 

Besides that confusion, I loved this story. The writing is stunning, the characters are interesting, and the plot gives me a Hazel Wood vibe, but better. If messed up fairytales, magic, and witches are your vibe, then you are going to love this book. I was able to read it in about 2.5 hours, so it's not very long at all and very easy to get through, so this is good for anyone looking for a fun, fast paced read. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I am excited to read more from this author in the future!

"When the lives of a girl, who has terrifying visions, and a witch, who grants wishes to children in the woods, collide in the most unexpected of ways, a dark, magical truth threatens to doom them both"--

Joleen

3 stars

The Waking Forest had a beautiful start that left me dying for more. The concept of the book is somewhat similar to Pan’s Labyrinth and as I big fan, I knew it was going to have beautiful writing. Alyssa Wees did not disappoint with the writing, I found it beautiful and lyrical and would gladly read more from this author.

But the more I read, the more I lost interest. That sounds bad I know, but it has 3 different stories and eventually they connect. It took a while for the connection to happen and I just didn’t understand half of the things I was reading. I had to read several parts over to grasp what was happening. A dream within a dream is a hard thing to grasp but I wish it could have been explained better and was developed better.

What I did love was the mental illness rep, its nice to see the main character of a book who I can relate to! Plus, Rhea has a strong bond with her sisters and I appreciate seeing a strong sibling bond. Its good to focus on a good family instead of the usual evil family members.

Overall, the book won’t be for everyone, it wasn’t for me, but if you love books that have a unique concept then I say give this one a go.

Manon van Heumen

This book was super promising for the first part! The second part I sadly didn't enjoy as much. It was confusing and a little boring, and I lost interest in the story rather quickly.

Samantha Bass &
The Waking Forest by Alyssa Wees

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