Uptown Oracle Reads… Through the White Wood

Through the White Wood
Jessica Leake

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Katya’s power to freeze anything she touches has made her an outcast in her isolated village. And when she loses control of her ability, accidentally killing several villagers, she is banished to the palace of the terrifying Prince Sasha in Kiev. At the castle, though, she is surprised to find that Sasha is just like her—with his own strange talent, the ability to summon fire. Instead of punishment, Sasha offers Katya friendship, and the chance to embrace her power rather than fear it. But outside the walls of Kiev, Sasha’s enemies have organized their own army of people who can control the very earth. Bent on taking over the entire world, they won’t stop until they’ve destroyed everything. Katya and Sasha are desperate to stop the encroaching army, and together their powers are a fearsome weapon. But as their enemies draw nearer, leaving destruction in their wake, will fire and frost be enough to save the world? Or will they lose everything they hold dear?

This book encapsulates Slavic folklore and is done in a way which shows off these creatures and stories in a still familiar way. Whilst we’re introduced to lesser known folklore like Rusalka, they’re woven in with enough detail for you as a reader to understand them, without too much info dumping.

I love the magic system in Through the White Wood and especially how Katya has to learn to let go of her fear, and learn to wield her powers. As a whole her character is extremely reserved towards her magic – which can get annoying at times. This is purely because some situations were made worse by her lack of action.

However I loved her relationship with Elation, her eagle as well as the love for her parents throughout. The relationships she formed with Sasha and other secondary characters were also intriguing and helpful to better understand each of the characters.

Overall I found the pacing to be slow, although very fairytale like in places. This could be good or bad, depending on what you prefer – but I found that I liked the slow pace as it allowed better exploration of the magic used, the folklore pieces introduced and the relationships and characters involved. On the other hand, I found this way of telling a story sometimes distanced you from what was happening – and so, like a fairytale, you weren’t as invested as you assumed a happy ending.

However, I found the focus on Katya to be… a strange choice for this story. The main conflict in this story is war, a war in which Katya has no real part in and which she doesn’t really care about until quite far into the book. She does change her mind quite far in, but it feels so dependent on her love interest which puts me off.

The romance plotline as a whole wasn’t the best – although my own personal preference for fantasy books is to not have a heavy romance sub-plot. I disliked it heavily because for all intents and purposes Katya was taken prisoner to serve with her powers. For most of the story she hates her powers, can’t control them, and doesn’t particularly want to control them either – until she’s thrown into a romance where he changes her mind. The power dynamics of the relationship were also heavily one-sided.

Re-introduction of characters loved in Beyond a Darkened Shore was a welcome addition – although not totally a surprise. I won’t spoil anything but it was done in a very method way which was both integral to this story, without discounting BaDS or altering these characters in any way. Despite the differences in folklore being used in both books, they fit together well.

These are companion books, and I definitely feel that you can read Through the White Wood as a stand-alone without reading Beyond a Darkened Shore. But you wouldn’t get the little easter egg of the characters. On the other hand, you could for sure read this book and then want to know more about these characters and read the other. However it did feel a bit different to Beyond a Darkened Shore but I could never quite put my finger on why it did. This may make it harder to read the other way round, but it’s up to individual preferences.

Leake is amazing at writing characters who struggle with being themselves, and the inclusion of a mentor character to help overcome this struggle. Both Through the White Wood and Beyond a Darkened Shore show that we don’t need to go through these struggles alone – a wonderful moral through the stories being told.

Ultimately, I enjoyed the book as whole, especially the folklore and magic inclusion throughout. I’m sure we’ve not heard the last of Leake and her folklore based stories, and I’m excited to continue reading more from her.

Positives

• Magic system
• Slavic folklore

Negatives

• Sometimes slow pacing

I received Through the White Wood by Jessica Leake from the publisher via Edelweiss. This is an unbiased and honest review