A ferocious wolf god. A world drenched in fear. A woman’s quest for revenge.For millennia, the people of Senla Nora’s village have followed a cryptic command inscribed on an ancient tablet: Fear the Wolf. To fear the Wolf is to know your place. If any villager were to step out of line, the Wolf would emerge from the surrounding forest and massacre every man, woman, and child.For a young garment … woman, and child.
For a young garment weaver like Senla Nora, knowing her place should be easy. But Senla has never been one to blindly follow orders. When she dreams of abandoning her assigned duty and becoming a fearless warrior, the Wolf devastates her village.
Racked with guilt and bloodthirsty for revenge, Senla sets out to hunt down the enormous beast. To survive in the forest, she must learn to fight vicious creatures, outsmart violent nomads, and ally with the unlikeliest of beings. If she fails, no village will ever be safe … and Senla will never discover what it truly means to fear the Wolf.
more
This is a dark fantasy, and from the start, it was difficult not to compare it to They Mostly Come Out at Night by Benedict Patrick. A village in the forest, with villagers full of superstitions to protect their simple lives, threatened by mysterious dark creatures with supernatural powers. The villagers have lots of rules for dealing with these threats, but they don’t really understand their world or how it works. But unlike Yarnsworld, there are no elaborate folktales. This story is less about finding out the source of the Wild Forces and more about the personal struggles of Senla to find where she belongs.
The story is a classic fantasy quest: a giant monster has killed everyone in Senla’s village and she seeks revenge. She must learn how to fight and navigate a dangerous forest to find the foe. With these common elements, the story is still unique in the way it’s told and how things transpire. At times, the narrative can drag a little because Senla tends to repeat many of the same questions in her head, and she spends a lot of time wandering around until she stumbles on the next thing, but overall it was compelling.
I also found it interesting that Senla was raised vegetarian and chose to stay that way. I expected her to throw off her dietary restrictions when she rejected most of the rules of her old village, especially since other characters were encouraging her to eat meat so she could survive in the forest. But she decided to live her way and accept that others might make different choices. It wasn’t preaching vegetarianism, it was more about accepting that every person had to choose their own way of life and people with different beliefs could coexist. This tied into the overall theme of the book about personal growth and making personal moral choices instead of following strict rules without question.
In the end, it’s not just about physical strength to win the day. Senla must also understand herself and the world in order to make the right choice. I was left with some questions about what happened and there is an opening for a sequel, although there’s no indication if this is planned as a series.
Trigger warnings: violence and death, moderately explicit. There is non-explicit sex. There’s also an attempted rape scene which continues to haunt after with flashbacks.
LGBTQ content: the main character is a lesbian. The story starts with her unrequited feelings for her best friend, who is about to marry a man. It’s interesting to note that Senla’s village used to accept same-sex partners but after too many people are killed, their elders wanted to replace the population, so they’re forcing everyone into breeding pairs. Accepting herself and finding likeminded people is a driving force for the main character. Also, one character appears to be intersex but it’s described vaguely and comes out of left field (no hints before to set up the twist). I think it could have been handled better, but it’s rare to see intersex people mentioned in fiction at all.
I would recommend this book to readers of dark fantasy, including Tanith Lee, Neil Gaiman, and Terri Windling. Yarnsworld readers may enjoy similar elements or may be disappointed by the less detailed world-building.