I was quite the fan of Tucholke's debut The Boneless Mercies and very happy to receive a Netgalley of Seven Endless Forests.

Unfortunately, (this will not be reflected in my rating) I had a real fight on my hands to read the e-ARC I received. I know it will be corrected for final publishing but what I got was almost entirely incoherent due to formatting. Random numbers, a total mishmash of font sizes and a large header in the centre of every page really dragged me out of the experience. Nevertheless I persevered.

The first thing to strike me about the book was the sentence structure. All were short and fragmented which meant the narrative felt very choppy to begin with.

I enjoyed the little nods here and there to the characters from The Boneless Mercies, now spoken of as legends. It ties together the world Tucholke has created nicely.

Told in first person, past tense we follow the story of Torvi the Vorse- tracking the Fremish Wolves across the lands in search of her abducted sister Morgunn.

Various characters weave in and out of Torvi's journey, but I didn't find that any of them made a lasting impression.
One of the best qualities in Tucholkes debut The Boneless Mercies was the endearing bond between the characters but in this novel I found them to be lacking.
What could have been emotional scenes were let down by the lack of ground work in character relationships early on. Not only is there insta-love but just instant feelings in general. That said, Gyda's arc does go a way toward redeeming the shallows of other characters.

I also found there to be very little risk considering the swathes of different enemies and dangers described on the quest ahead. Our party of adventurers glide through the lands with minimal conflict, more often friendly assistance. This is very much a rainbows and sunshine story.

I mostly focused on the world building, and that I cannot fault. I really enjoyed the descriptive settings and the different clans and culture across the Seven Endless Forests. Tucholke writes magic and mysticism beautifully.

The story is enjoyable, themes of friendship, sisterhood and loyalty feature heavily.
Seven Endless Forests feels like it should have been an epic, but instead is a patchwork of people, places and quests that never delves deep enough. A stone skimming the surface.

I didn't read The Boneless Mercies and - my bad - I didn't know this was a companion book. There were a few times when I didn't completely get the references to places or fantastic aspects of this story. At least, I personally felt like I was not able to grasp everything. It has a very slow pace, it's really descriptive and I often thought about giving up. Nevertheless, it's beautifully written and it was the only reason why I kept going. Nothing happens for big part of the book, often it's lots of story telling and you kind of lose track of the main plot. At 60% the story finally gets going but it became super weird - like the mushroom scene. Also, I didn't get lots of King Arthur vibes, not sure if this can be really considered as a retelling.

I absolutely adore the author's writing style, it was vivid and poetic and everything I love about writing. That, and the stunning cover art immediately caught by attention and drew me into this book. However, while the story itself stated strong and had a fascinating premise - I adore Arthurian myths and retellings - but I felt as though it became a bit more muddied especially towards the end, and as such lost its flow.

“If adventure comes my way, I will run to greet it. I will grab the world by its leash and make it heel.”

I feel pretty conflicted about this one. The prose was intoxicating. It was honestly poetic and beautiful, which is something I loved about Boneless Mercies. And I liked Torvi, the main character. She’s obsessed with fairytales and stories, and models herself off the characters that she loves. I think a lot of readers feel like that about their favourite characters, and it made her super-relatable. The side characters were a lot of fun too. Ink, Madoc and Sven and her arrows were all lovable, and I adored the relationship between Torvi and Gyda.

Unfortunately, the plot of this book didn’t land with me at all. I read the entire thing because of how beautiful the prose itself is, Tucholke has a way with words that means I’ll still go out of my way to pick up anything she writes, but Seven Endless Forests just didn’t work for me. I loved the breadth and variety of the lore being included, but there was just too much crammed into every page. It felt to me like a series of RPG side-quests all crammed into each chapter to cover as much ground as possible. I liked the idea of every character having their own quest, and the implication that everybody’s a hero, but when we saw every single one crammed into 368 pages, it felt like nothing had enough time to get any depth. And because the quests had to be resolved so quickly to move onto the next character’s quest, everything just felt a bit convenient. Deus ex machina’s everywhere. It really was beautifully written, but I wasn’t invested in anyone’s story and if the writing wasn’t so gorgeous, I probably would have DNF’d it.

When you've loved a book and you discover that there is a companion novel set in the same world as that book you obviously have to read it. But Seven Endless Forests was like going to see a band that you really love, only to discover that their new album isn't anywhere near as impressive.

Tucholke is a real poetic master. Her writing is the epitome of atmospheric and is absolutely the reason I persisted with a book that I was otherwise finding boring. Seven Endless Forests is marketed as a retelling of sorts of Arthurian legend (seems to be a popular trend right now!). And much like some of the other Arthurian retellings of late, this one doesn't really have that something special which makes it stand out from the heavily saturated crowd and it has only an exceptionally tenuous link to the legendary tale (although there is some extracting of weaponry).

I didn't really mind that this wasn't much of a retelling, and was instead more of a rescue mission for a girl trying to find her kidnapped sister. But I really struggled with the way the story was told and with the sluggish pacing. The majority of the book feels very much like a collection of stories shared around a campfire, switching between past and present often in a series of old wives tales passed between the characters. This makes the story hugely uneventful - nothing happens really and when it does it's fleeting and just an action point to change the scene a little bit. If it wasn't for the nods to The Boneless Mercies or the great writing I would have given up.

I think in order to enjoy this book you would need to be prepared to become immersed in the atmosphere and whimsical world without expecting any emotional connection or character input. Might work for some people, but didn't work for me.

ARC provided from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Seven Endless Forests is an imaginative and gorgeously written story set in the same verse as Tucholke’s previous novel, The Boneless Mercies. While that book left me with mixed feelings, this novel worked so much better for me and it was such an enjoyable reading experience.

The novel follows Torvi and her younger sister Morgunn, as they try and deal with their new normal after their mother and the rest of their household, pass away at the hands of a devastating plague. While one threat has just passed, a new one comes to their door, in the form of a wild band of Wolf priests, led by the fearsome Uther. When Morgunn is taken, Torvi will do anything to find her sister again, embarking on a rescue mission, which turns rapidly into an incredible adventure where magic, lost riches, friendship and love awaits…

One of my favourite things about this book was the incredible world building. While there definitely are a lot of names, places, and terms in the novel, I loved how well realised and how immersive it was. In particular I liked the concept of the seven forests, with their own specific legends and bands of different travellers with their own codes of honour, history and stories. All the lore worked seamlessly together to form an impressive tapestry. The novel features some references to existing Norse mythology as well as Arthurian legend but there is plenty which is all uniquely Tucholke’s own. I also enjoyed the fact that there was a quest element to the book which felt very reminiscent of classic high fantasy, very Lord of the Rings-esque and I am so here for it.

As well as the world building, I thought the characters were interesting and the theme of friendship as well as finding your own path was brilliant. I found Torvi to be a great protagonist and the biggest reason for me was that she’s not the archetypal hero in many ways. Reading her progression and finding herself as well as forming a family with individuals who believe in her was so satisfying. This is made even more impactful due to the fact that Torvi was told her entire life, that she wasn’t destined for greatness or adventure, like her sister Morgunn, whom her mother favoured. The secondary characters are intriguing and add a lot to the story, I especially loved the little family that Torvi forms with Gyda, Madoc, Stefan and Ink.

One thing I will mention is that this book is more about the journey and the growth of the characters than shocking twists and turns or even the end destination. I feel like it’s more concerned with telling an interesting story, which is successfully done, but if you’re looking for something a bit more fast paced or more cut and dry in a sense, this may not be the book for you. I feel like this has a traditional, fairy tales of yore sort of vibe, there’s loose ends and feels melancholy at times but it just contributes to the overall tone so well.

Overall, Seven Endless Forests is an enjoyable addition to the Y/A fantasy genre and I would definitely recommend it to readers who enjoy quest driven stories, with strong supporting characters and atmospheric writing and world building.