Friday, November 19, 2021

In the Night Wood by Dale Bailey (Adult Magical Realism Book Review)


In the Night Wood
by Dale Bailey
Published by Mariner Books
on October 2018
Genre: Adult, Magical Realism
Length: 214 pages

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

Literary Awards:
Shirley Jackson Award Nominee for Novel (2018)
Locus Award Nominee for Horror Novel (2019)
World Fantasy Award Nominee for Best Novel (2019)

Synopsis:
In this contemporary fantasy, the grieving biographer of a Victorian fantasist finds himself slipping inexorably into the supernatural world that consumes his subject.

Failed father, failed husband, and failed scholar, Charmes Hayden hopes to put his life back together with a biography of Caedmon Hollow, the long-dead author of a legendary Victorian children's book, In the Night Wood. But soon after settling into Hollow's remote Yorkshire home, Charles learns that the past isn't dead. 


My Thoughts:

Content warnings:
loss of a child, infedelity, pharmaceuticals

Charles Hayden has made mistakes. Big ones. Grieving and trying to move on from the loss of his daughter, Charles and his wife move to England to the home of Caedmon Hollow, an ancestral author who wrote In the Night Wood; a dark fairytale that parents in the town use as a cautionary tale to keep kids out of the local wood. But a local girl has gone missing and Charles is convinced it's connected to Hollow and his dark fairytale.

As Charles delves deeper into the life of Caedmon Hollow, he begins to unwrap an uncovered mystery that seems to parallel history itself. 


This took me a while to get into but the ending made it worthwhile.
 It starts out rather depressing with a heavy focus on the MC's affair, fragile marriage, and the grieving process after losing their six-year-old child. It eventually morphs into a dark fairytale-esque thriller that includes missing locals, an old mystery, and a terrifying 'Horned King' of the wood. 

This novel has hints of fantasy and horror and may appeal to adult readers of both genres.




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