Book Review: Sorrow’s Forest by Kaitlin Corvus

Sorrow’s Forest teems with beasts, some ugly, some beautiful, all unnatural. A ban restricts travel beneath her branches, existing for as long as Lakeview Township has, and most who disobey do not return.

To win a bet, twelve-year-old Mackie King enters the forest, and in its depths, he discovers a boy-like devil. Then he steals him from the trees.

In as little as an hour, the devil names himself Blue and fits seamlessly into the Kings’ life. No one seems to remember he wasn’t always there. Only Mackie knows the truth.

Now, Mackie and Blue are grown, Queen Sorrow has awakened, and she wants her devil back. She’s willing to tear the town apart to reclaim him. Mackie has always been resourceful, but it will take every bit of ingenuity he and Blue possess to thwart Queen Sorrow and her minions, save the town, and free themselves from the shadow of the bittering forest.

GENRE: LGBTQ+ New Adult Fantasy/Horror

PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kaitlin Corvus is from Ontario, Canada. The north holds the best part of her. She writes about nobodies, monsters, and gutter glitter, loves the stars, the deep dark sea, and a good horror mystery.

Review

Scary forests that may have lives of their own have already been done before, but Sorrow's Forest had twists that I truly enjoyed! I'm also still wrecked by the ending. HOW DARE IT STAB ME IN THE FEELS.

Third person present is not a POV I'm accustomed to seeing, and while I was worried at first, it worked very well especially in keeping the tension high. The prose is crisp and very easy to get through. (I'm one of those readers who don't like the wordiness and apparent seriousness of "adult fantasy," which is particularly common in epic fantasy. That "books that read like YA" discourse lately? I'm in that camp. Give me fast paced stories with accessible worldbuilding and feels and great characters who still make dumb choices—and Sorrow's Forest has all that!)

That said, I LOVE the characters. Blue is delightfully and unapologetically queer, and Mackie's the protagonist you really want to root for. Even the side characters were interesting, down to the devils in the forest and Queen Sorrow herself. I loved the variety of the creatures, too!

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️️⭐️️

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Hi! I'm Marie, a Filipino fantasy author and book reviewer currently based in the UK. I’m the co-author of The Prophecies of Ragnarok, a Norse myth new adult urban fantasy trilogy, and I also have several short stories published in anthologies and literary journals.

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