What would happen if you tried to put as many fairy-tale
characters and plots into one book? Wouldn’t everything get a bit confusing?
Wouldn’t you only be able to take snippets of these fairy-tale to try and work
them into a bigger plot line? Well that’s pretty much what happens in The
Woodcutter.
The Woodcutter, is a retelling of a number of fairy-tale
through a many story line revealing around ’The Woodcutter’. A man, one with
the trees and the wood in which he lives, setting off on a journey to protect
and serve his forest. Along the way he discovers the fae are being captured,
princesses are being murdered and generally happy ever afters are being ruined.
He must use his wits and his Axes to fight off the evils and right the wrongs
he comes across.
When I read the blurb for this book, it seemed like my cup
of tea completely. I love retellings of fairy tales such as Fables and the TV
series Once upon a time. So I go into these types of things knowing things are
not going to be exactly like the fairy tales I knew as a child. That’s what I love
about them. But with this book, well, I can’t say that I wasn’t disappoints to
begin with. I felt like so much more could have been done with it.
It does pick up and the last 40% of the book was really
quite good and really came together and gave me some ‘wow’ type moments. But
even then I felt I could put it down at any point to make a cup of tea, and in
reality when I get to the last half of a book I should be glued to it, as if I can’t
honestly wait a couple of minutes to make my tea and not be reading the book.
Overall, a pretty average read, but mostly I felt it could have been given more
depth and back story. There were so many times something was brought up and I would
think, ‘wow that would be a brilliant place for a flash back’. Due to the lack
of back story and depth it was difficult to really warm to the main character
until pretty late in the book.
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