Desperate to escape the past, she hides in the wild wood, and then the Whispers come: Whisperwood by Alex Woodroe #Whisperwood #NetGalley

A journey into the wild woods with a character who just needs a break—and the terrible things that stare back at her.
When curious nomad Anna hears about Whisperwood, a town that’s not on any maps, that nobody goes to, and nobody comes from, she sees an opportunity to hide from her violent witch-hunting ex.
But not everything is peaceful in the isolated community. A vanishing town, a gruesome funeral rite, an emergency field surgery—these surprises and more test Anna’s resolve.
Prevented from leaving the frontier settlement by folk magic she doesn’t understand, Anna lends helping hands everywhere she can, but quickly finds that investigating the forest too closely could end up being the last thing she does.

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Hi and welcome to my review of Whisperwood!

Well… This is going to be a very difficult review to write. The title and cover drew me to Whisperwood but it was the premise that made me click that request button. And the premise is 100% accurate. It is exactly what it says on the tin. Yet, somehow, Whisperwood didn’t quite work for me and I can’t put my finger on why. 

Perhaps the writing style wasn’t quite for me? It took me rather long to get into the story, which is never a good sign. I didn’t give up because I’ve had it happen that a book doesn’t grab me from the start, that it kinda needs to grow on me, but does grab me later on and I end up loving it, but unfortunately, that was not the case with Whisperwood. Whenever a scene grabbed me, the next one kinda lost me again and I never became fully invested. 

I’m not sure it makes sense, probably doesn’t, but I felt like it was simultaneously too slow and too rushed. For instance, setting the scene and the eerie atmosphere is of course important, especially with this kind of story, but it made for a rather slow pace at first. But then the protagonist becomes best friends with a couple of people basically overnight and then that bugged me because insta-friendship, much like insta-love, doesn’t work for me and I hardly ever find it convincing. 

Look, Whisperwood is not a bad book, not at all. It’s atmospheric, has some great action scenes and the creatures (Whispers) are fantastic. Although it was clearly not engrossing enough for me personally to keep my attention throughout, I’m sure many people will thoroughly enjoy Whisperwood.

Whisperwood is out in hardcover, paperback and digital formats on 11 July.

Many thanks to Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for the digital proof. All opinions are my own.