The forest is a dangerous place, where siren song lures men and women to their deaths. For centuries, a witch has harvested souls to feed the heartless tree, using its power to grow her domain. When Owen Merrick is lured into the witch’s wood, one of her tree-siren daughters, Seren, saves his life instead of ending it. Every night, he climbs over the garden wall to see her, and every night her … night her longing to become human deepens. But a shift in the stars foretells a dangerous curse, and Seren’s quest to become human will lead them into an ancient war raging between the witch and the king who is trying to stop her.
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I’m a major fan of Joanna Ruth Meyer. She writes the most exquisite YA fantasy novels. Her characters always have such incredible depth, her stories are always immersive with deliciously complex and unique mythology, and she always fills them to bursting with excitement and romance. With INTO THE HEARTLESS WOOD, she’s written what I think is her best book yet. It’s eerie and atmospheric with lush writing and a story so compelling I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. I think I can best sum it up by saying that if Sarah J. Maas wrote a Grimm fairy tale it would be INTO THE HEARTLESS WOOD.
This dark young adult fantasy was GORGEOUS. So lovely and atmospheric with breathtaking descriptions and haunting beauty in a bleak world where a family lives close to a cursed wood and tree sirens lure souls out to their death. Owen has already lost his mother to the curse of the wood. Now he cares for his young sister (loved the sister) and tries to keep his family going as his father grieves. When he’s on a train to visit the next town, he’s attacked by the forest sirens. He’s the only one spared. He and Seren, the youngest daughter of the witch of the wood, form a forbidden connection. She’s a siren. He’s a human. This had a lovely forbidden love cursed fairy tale feel, and I devoured every bit of it.
*I received this book from Netgalley for my honest review*
Joanna Ruth Meyer does it again! She magically crafts a story with enchanting prose, wonderful characters, and a beautiful plot. I fell in love with Owen and how he wanted to help his family, and yet is drawn to Seren, a tree siren who has saved his life. He knows better than to trust her, but he can’t help but wonder what she is truly about.
The prose for Seren is almost like poetry as she grows and learns more about the humans. She constantly is struggling on wanting to help Owen, but also her loyalty to her mother and sisters. Will she break tradition and help her new human friend, or will she succumb to fate?
The first book I read by Meyer was Echo North and I immediately fell in love with her writing style. This books follows the same style of weaving different folklore and fairytales, and yet being something completely different. I recommend it to anyone who loves YA fantasy!
All of Meyer’s books have a beautiful lyrical voice to them. I love all her books, but this one with the tree siren who falls in love with a star-watching boy is my favorite…so far.
Into the Heartless Wood is an enchanting dark fairy tale that defines humanity by actions and choices.
Defining Relationships
What was most engaging about this novel was how Meyer chose to define the relationships in this novel. The opening prologue sets up Seren’s relationship with her mother. She defines herself as her mother’s youngest monster. Already this lets the reader know that Seren’s mother views her as a slave, a monster, and not as a daughter.
It gives the story interesting tension because Seren also seeks to be human. She has thoughts of her own, desires of her own, that may be because she was the youngest made, the last made, so her mothers’ influence and hate did not seep so deeply into her roots. It is a toxic relationship, highlighting how anger and hatred has poisoned the Tree Witch.
However, the reader can understand the mothers’ hate. Something precious was stolen from her. It serves as an analogy of rape; the Soul Eater took her soul, he stripped her and tore out something precious from her, so the reader sides with her from the beginning.
What is more, is the way Meyer explores the idea of revenge versus forgiveness. The Soul Eater is trying to diminish the wood, to destroy the earth with industrialization, another powerful message that Meyer focuses on with her writing. However, Seren’s relationship with Owen almost mirrors that of her mothers.
Seren has caused Owen much pain, but she regrets it. Unlike the Soul Eater who chose to inflict pain, Seren felt as though she never had a choice, that she was her mothers’ monster. As for Owen, hurt and in pain, he lashes out, but in the end, he chooses forgiveness. This forgiveness blossoms into something beautiful.
Seeing these two relationships explored balances out the novel’s tension and makes the romance even more engaging.
Exploring Humanity
As for Seren, as mentioned above, she is a character who is continuously telling Owen she was made without a soul. Nevertheless, her actions, her capability to love, and wanting to be loved in return challenges this belief. She fights her mothers’ control, a woman who forces her children to steal the souls of others. She has hundreds of souls to call her own but no morality. However, for Seren, the opposite is true. She grows a conscious with every soul she takes.
Furthermore, the same goes for the Soul Eater. He eats souls to grow more powerful, for immortality, and yet he is as cruel as can be.
Meyer shows that having a “soul” or not does not define a person; it is actions. Owen is always telling Sere throughout the novel that she has a choice, that she can choose to be more or to be her mothers’ monster. Choice is everything; actions speak louder than words, which is a powerful way to explore humanity throughout the narrative.
Final Thoughts
Into the Heartless Wood is a breathtaking dark fairy tale. Enchanting from beginning to end, Meyer’s style of writing and depth in her characterization gives readers a compelling read that will lure readers into the heartless wood.
Meyer has created a world that feels like Narnia with more blood, The Little Mermaid in the woods, and a gender-swapped Beauty and the Beast. Fantasy and fairy tale readers, rejoice!
This lush YA Fantasy is like taking a walk in a beautiful haunted forest. Highly recommend for readers who love intricate worldbuilding and characters who come alive on the page!
Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
**May contain minor spoilers**
So I want to preface my review by saying that this is not typically a genre I am drawn to and don’t often read however I was intrigued by the illustration on the cover and plot summary. I am so glad I was! This book was incredible. I loved the similar theme to “The Beauty & The Beast” and loved that the roles were reversed!
The Gwydden has been there for as long as Owen knows. It is the wood that stole his mother from them a year ago, on his little sisters first birthday and is home to a terrifying, soul eating witch and her eight monstrous tree siren daughters that lure people into the woods to die. Owen’s life is irrevocably changed one day while he heads into the kingdom to file his fathers astronomy charts, only to have his train derailed by a tree siren. Everyone else on the train dies, but the tree siren stops singing and spares his life. He doesn’t understand why his life was spared when nobody else has ever been able to walk away.
The Gwydden’s youngest tree siren daughter doesn’t want to be a monster, but with no soul and her mother’s ability to control her she doesn’t feel like she has much of a choice. This leads to small acts of defiance when the siren can no longer bear to be a monster. She didn’t want to kill all of those people on the train but when she got to Owen and saw how brightly his soul burned, she could no longer fathom being a monster to do her mothers bidding.
This book is very well written and includes vivid details to draw you in. I love that the book frequently switches narratives between Owen and the youngest tree siren, despite that the story is mostly told from Owen’s point of view, so you can fill in any gaps. The switch of viewpoint is nicely done and obvious so it is not confusing to the reader.