The Lord of the Wood, E.M. Anderson (Review by Abigail Blake)

Rating: 3.75/5 Stars

E.M. Anderson’s The Lord of the Wood dabbles in a variety of genres. In the midst of adventure, lgbtq+ and monster romance, horror, and eco-fiction, at its core, this novel is about vulnerability. In order to love, and allow themselves to be loved in turn, all the characters must wrestle with their true selves and be willing to share the good, bad, and the ugly with one another to experience true love and acceptance. It’s a beautiful story filled with charming characters and a magical, struggling forest that grasps onto you and refuses to let go.

Arthur, our main character and small-town misfit, spends his time dutifully supporting his widowed sister and her children while daydreaming of a better, more exciting life for himself and his family. When he receives an opportunity to make a change by traveling through the haunted wood in exchange for financial freedom for his family, he takes it. However, fewer and fewer people have been making it out of the wood alive or uninfected by “wood illness.” He and his sister even lost their father to the woods as children. Yet, for the sake of his family, Arther pushes past his hesitancy and supposed “lack of skills” to complete his quest, and unwittingly encounters the legendary Lord of the Wood, who is suffering from his own sickness that’s slowly transforming him into a beast. As Arther works to save the woods and its keeper, who’s he’s begun to realize he’s in love with, he must overcome his preconceived conceptions of himself and accept the challenges that come with bravery.

While the story mainly follows Arthur, it also gives us the perspective of his sister, Charlotte. Both must overcome the walls they’ve built to protect themselves from their town’s small-mindedness (and in Charlotte’s case, the additional everyday bargaining with chronic illness) to embrace love, true happiness, and save the wood in the process.

My only critique is the titles of chapters, which drift into a facetious tone that doesn’t entirely match some of the heavier plot lines. Overall, The Lord of the Wood is a cozy, if sometimes a little scary, tale with well-rounded characters and fantastic creatures.