Review: The Waking Forest by Alyssa Wees

Title: The Waking Forest

Author: Alyssa Wees

Published by: Delacorte Press

Released: 2019

Source: Library

Synopsis: 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? (Synopsis from Goodreads)

My Thoughts: I did not enjoy this book, at all. It was a struggle for me to get through it. I feel a little bad because it's a debut book, and I don't want to be mean, but I am allowed to have and share my honest reading opinion. This was not the book for me.

I was drawn to The Waking Forest because of the cover. It is very pretty. I thought it was going to be a scary, eerie book, but it wasn't. It was kind of a fantasy/fairytale-ish read.

I pretty much struggled from the first page. I don't DNF books, it's just a personal policy. I like to give a book every chance it can to impress me, so even thought I wasn't liking it from the beginning, I kept going.

I didn't like the writing. It was very much focused on style over story. It was packed with similes, metaphors, alliteration. The story was bloated with them and they were all so far-reaching. They weren't natural. They really interrupted the flow of the story. I would have to read the same sentence over and over again. Most times, the comparisons would just make me roll my eyes. It was just bad. There was also this weird thing where the same word would be repeated three times in a row. I can't. I just really couldn't stand the writing style.

The characters did nothing for me either. They were all kind of flat. I honestly had trouble remembering who some of them even were.

The story itself was kind of weird too. It just didn't have any impact for me. The story also had this twist in it that really did nothing for me. After the twist happened, it kind of turned into a different story. It became more fantasy, but it had really poor world building.

I did not like this book. I did not enjoy it. Someone else would probably think it was good with beautiful writing and enjoy it much more. To me, it was trying-too-hard prose and a sub-par story. I didn't get any magic from it.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 2/5

Nope.