Eowyn Ivey really is the most exceptional writers, gifted at exploring flawed humanity and the occasional beauty that it brings. A magical and moving story of wonder, resilience and self-discovery set in the beautiful and terrifying Alaskan wilderness. A delight.

A novel beautifully atmospheric for the Alaskan wilds, like Ivey’s previous novels, however also drawing quite heavily from fairy and folk tales to deliver a fantasy element, which I wasn’t expecting to find here. I really loved Ivey’s last novel, To The Bright Edge of the World, which was a historical fiction story about a pioneering couple - an explorer who goes into the unknown and his photographer wife who stays at home but makes her own history - and when I saw this book was also based on Alaska I was excited for something similar. This has the same wild outdoors present and Birdie is a little bit similar in some ways to the Sophie I remember, a little bit lonely out in a remote area; but it veers off quite early on into something mildly more fantasy. I really liked the characters so I kept on reading despite feeling slightly disappointed by that - the main characters are freespirited Birdie, a young single mum just trying to get by but in love with the wild - and her daughter, Emaleen, who is six and extremely imaginative. Birdie meets a quiet and unusual man by the name of Arthur and risks it all to move into the even more remote mountains with Emaleen and Arthur after a short romance. But all is not as it seems with Arthur. We also then at some point cut forwards to a much older Emaleen coming back to visit Alaska after getting a university degree in botany. I think Emaleen and the natural world of Alaska were my favourite things about this novel, I really enjoyed reading from her perspective, both young and old versions. I’m still not sure how I feel about the overall story but I know I didn’t love it like To The Bright Edge.

My thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher, Tinder Press, for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I finished this book a few days ago, and have been struggling as to whether I should give feedback. I can’t work out if this book wasn’t great, or if it just wasn’t for me.

First, Ivey’s prose is incredibly atmospheric - the feeling of being in rural Alaska was tangible. I’ve never been to a place that cold, but I could imagine the vast expanse of land covered in mosses, snow and trees easily. I was totally drawn into the atmosphere.

However, this story was comped to Beauty & the Beast and I believe that set it up to fail (perhaps only for me). Likening a book to a fairytale makes me have certain expectations of the story, and this book teased me into thinking I would have that pay-off. Ultimately though - and I refuse to post any spoilers - this did not happen.

I truly feel like the book was let down by its blurb. Beyond the Beauty & the Beast non-comp, I also feel like I was misled into thinking that the book “belonged” to Arthur & Birdie when in fact it belonged - at least equally - to Emaleen.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House & Ivey for the opportunity to read & review Black Woods, Blue Sky prior to its release.

First off, Eowyn Ivey writes beautifully about the nature and landscape of Alaska. I can’t fault her on that front and would 100% read a non-fiction nature book by her if she chose to write one.

A life in Alaska means always being prepared to meet a bear. Encounters are peppered throughout the story leading up to the reveal. It makes total sense to create a myth around a bear in this land. A story about what happens when humans step into the territory of another species, one who has no choice but to co-exist. The strength is in the bear’s story, but most is from the perspective of other characters, and I was disappointed it didn’t explore that side more. What would it be like to exist trapped between two lives, doomed to hurt or be hurt?

I loved The Snow Child, but Black Woods, Blue Sky failed to make the same mark. The characters felt a bit basic. Birdie is your stereotypical uneducated, single mother, who likes to drink and party with the guys, while neglecting her daughter. There was zero chemistry between her and Arthur, making me feel she was just moving in to avoid rent and responsibilities. I didn’t really care about what happened to her.

There isn’t much mystery about what’s going on. In The Snow Child you were left wondering what was real, but there’s no such ambiguity here, even if it tries to make Emaleen question what she saw. The fact that Warren spells it all out quite early on, takes away any doubt.

It’s being pitched as a Beauty and the Beast retelling as well, which leads the reader to assume certain things. It’s honestly not the same story, more very loosely inspired and given an Alaskan twist. Birdie doesn’t meet a beast. She meets a quiet and awkward man who keeps to himself, for good reason. She inserts herself into his life, and only finds out the truth when it's too late.

I did feel sorry for poor baby Arthur, stolen from his mother by well-meaning people who thought they were doing the right thing. Perhaps this is the crux of the book. Birdie should be allowed to raise her child even if onlookers think she’s doing a bad job. And there’s no point in trying to tame a wild thing.

Emaleen was around five or six for the majority of the story, and I personally dislike adult fiction from a young child’s point-of-view, so this definitely took away from some of my enjoyment. However, she’s an antidote to her doesn’t-give-a-crap mother and important for the ending, which I’ll admit was incredibly moving.

I'm sure others will get a lot more out of this book than I did. It would certainly raise some questions for a book group to discuss.

🐻 Black Woods, Blue Sky • Eowyn Ivey 🐻
★★★★

Read if you enjoy:
🐻 Literary fantasy
🐻 Magical realism
🐻 Beauty and the beast stories
🐻 Explorations of motherhood and freedom
🐻 Surviving in the wilderness

Birdie is a single mother to Emaleen, and although she loves her, sometimes she wants to break free of the chains of motherhood and the judgments of her parenting in the small Alaskan town she lives in. When she’s switched over to the day shift after an incident, she meets Arthur, recluse with a jagged scar down his face, who only speaks in the present tense and seems to represent everything Birdie wants: freedom. Birdie and Emaleen go to live with Arthur in his isolated cabin and discover that he’s keeping impossible secrets.

“For good and bad, though, we are each bound to our own character.”

There are no bad characters in this book, only bad decisions. But Birdie comes very close to being a bad character. I got frustrated with her, to be honest, being an irresponsible mother who puts her own needs and desires before her child’s. But as the story progressed and the consequences of these choices become clear, I was moved to tears. I thought that this was a beautifully written parable with haunting undertones and an atmosphere that is nostalgic and suspenseful all at once. Marketed as a Beauty and Beast retelling, this is no romance like many other retellings before it. Instead, this is a plot concocted of magical realism, saturated with Alaskan wilderness, and relies heavily on allegory and readers subjective interpretations. I feel like this book will stick with me for a long time.

Having absolutely loved The Snow Child, I was so excited for this book and my goodness, what a triumph!
Described as a reimagining of Beauty and the Beast, this is such a heartwarming, beautiful story, full of love and hope. The Alaskan landscape comes alive on the page and you can truly imagine yourself there in the mountains. My heart broke and soared so many times for Birdie, Arthur and Emaleen, and yes, there were tears at the end. I loved them all. Anyone who carries that child’s innocence, imagination and belief in a little bit of fairytale magic within them, this book is for you. It’s a book that is going to stay with me and has certainly set the bar high for the rest of this year.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for a review.

I feel very privileged to have travelled in Alaska and seen brown bears on Kodiak Island and I really loved this haunting and unsettling book with its themes of all types of love and survival in a harsh Alaskan environment. The author's beautiful writing managed to entwine fairy tale with human feelings and failings and I have to admit I was surprised to be quite so moved by the ending.
Thank you to netgalley and Headline for an advance copy of this book.

This was a haunting book and beautifully written. It is loosely based on the Fairy Story, Beauty and the Beast. I found it a slow burn but one in which the premise was enough to draw me back to find out what was going to happen next.

Free-spirited Birdie and her daughter Emaleen move to a cabin in the Alaskan wilderness with a man Birdie knows little about ignoring local rumours and clues to his identity.

The tale unravels and it is Emaleen who learns first what's really going on but who trusts her mother and who has known mostly kindness from Arthur. We get to see all sides of the story and the relationship that is formed between not only Birdie and Arthur, but also between Emaleen and Arthur, which results in her returning to the Alaskan wilderness to seek him out again later in life.

The descriptions of Alaska are wonderful and you feel like you are transported there by the author's writing.

It is a moving story and the end had me in tears.

Black Woods, Blue Sky is a loosely based retelling of Beauty and the Beast brought to you by the author of my favourite book, The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey.

As well as The Snow Child I adored To The Bright Edge of the World. Both books captured my imagination and sucked me into the plot. Unfortunately, this book didn’t hit the mark for me.

I couldn’t gel with Birdie who came across as a self-centred, egotistical woman who, although being the single parent to her six-year-old daughter, Emaleen, gave her little consideration in the way she lived her life. I’m not saying she didn’t love her daughter but she came across as being second in Birdie’s life to Birdie herself.

When Birdie meets recuse and private Arthur she can’t help herself but be drawn to him as she needed to know what he was hiding even though everyone who knew her told her to stay away from him.

In Eowyn Ivey’s previous books we meet characters who have a big heart and whose thoughts are more for those around them than themselves, but not this time and that is a shame. Plus, the Alaskan landscape has come across strong in previous books but lacked somewhat in this one.

Overall, I was really hoping to adore this book but instead found it an okay read which took me far longer than usual to get through I’m sorry to say. 3.5 stars

Oh this book! Stunning writing, an Alaskan setting, with a gorgeous mix of contemporary social commentary and folklore. Finding your true self, parent/child relationships and exploring how nature can be both beautiful and brutal.
I loved every moment of this story.

An interesting, modern fairy tale set in beautiful Alaska. The descriptions of the Alaskan wilderness are stunning and you can easily be transported right there thanks to the evocative descriptions. I was lucky to visit Alaska and this book really makes me want to return. It is not my usual genre but I loved the story. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Black Woods, Blue Sky is both magical and also strongly rooted in the reality of the natural world. Eowyn Ivey writes beautifully about the landscape, flora and fauna of Alaska and conveys the real wildness of the mountains. The story of Birdie’s attempt to create a more authentic, freer life for her and her daughter with Arthur is a powerful story of love and hope, even as it is not what she could ever have imagined.

‘Black Woods Blue Sky’ is one of the most immersive books I’ve read in a long time. It took me deep into the Alaskan wilderness , in a story that read almost like a fairytale. Birdie and her 6 year old daughter Emaleen have moved into a very remote cabin belonging to a man they don’t really know called Arthur. This man is odd, but Birdie believes he has their best interests at heart, and she is desperate for a new life. At first, they embrace the natural world and learn to live in harmony with their environment. But the woods harbour creatures that threaten their existence, and one of those creatures is closer to home than Bridie could ever have imagined.

I’ve always admired Ivey’s work. Her writing is unfailingly beautiful and at the same time so powerful:

“she might not have understood the gruesome particulars, but her subconscious had caught here and there - the calf bones under the bed, the days he disappeared into the woods without a pack or tent, the smell of his skin and the taste of his mouth.”

This novel is page-turningly good!

Black Woods, Blue Sky is a truly original fairy tale inspired novel set in the Alaskan wilderness. I say inspired rather than retelling because the novel is original enough to stand on its own merits: someone could read it without realising it was based on Beauty and the Beast and still have everything make sense. Young mother, Birdie, is struggling to make ends meet as a waitress in rural Alaska. When she falls for the mysterious recluse, Arthur, she takes herself and her six year old daughter, Emaleen, to live in a remote cabin in the wilderness.

I enjoyed The Snow Child by the same author and this new novel absolutely lived up to my expectations. It read as part love letter to the Alaskan tundra, part tragedy, part story of survival and resilience. It's difficult to review without giving away a major early revelation: since the blurb chose not to reveal it, I won't either. But suffice to say, the plot went in a very different direction than I expected and result was a strange, sad, beautiful story.

All of the characters felt complex, vivid and real but especially Emaleen. It's difficult to write from a child's point of view while being both realistic and compelling, because children perceive the world in a way that's often difficult for adult writers to pull off. Eowyn Ivey absolutely nails it with Emaleen: she felt not just like a convincing six year old but a brave, smart, imaginative and supremely likeable one.

Black Woods, Blue Sky was probably my favourite read of 2024. While I've read a lot of great books this year, BWBS is the one that's stayed with me the longest.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, in return for my honest review.

Single mother Birdie decides she has had enough of living in the small town she calls home and takes her young daughter to live in the mountains with Arthur, a man who generally avoids being around people but falls in love with Birdie, a man with a secret that while known to some of the locals it is unknown to Birdie.
While the story is very slow and somewhat predictable it is beautifully written and it definitely draws you in.

Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey is a haunting reimagining of Beauty and the Beast, set against the stark, rugged backdrop of Alaska. The novel asks a profound question: can love truly save us from the darkness within ourselves?

Birdie, a single mother working at a roadside lodge, is doing her best to hold her life together. Between her unpredictable shifts, a daughter named Emaleen who tags along, and the emotional weight of a tough town, Birdie’s life is far from easy. But she finds solace in the quiet, enigmatic figure of Arthur Neilsen, a scarred recluse who lives alone in a cabin far from civilization. When Arthur saves Emaleen from getting lost in the woods, his presence enters their lives in a way that changes everything. His odd, measured way of speaking and his isolated life in the wilds of Alaska intrigue Birdie in ways she doesn’t fully understand.

Despite the warnings from those who care about her, Birdie moves with Emaleen to Arthur’s remote cabin, nestled in the vast wilderness beyond the Wolverine River. Life in this isolated setting is a far cry from what she is accustomed to—there are no roads, no electricity, and no contact with the outside world. Birdie brings her survival skills, a rifle, and a fishing rod, confident she can manage. But she quickly realises that surviving in the wilderness is far more complicated than she had imagined.

Ivey’s portrayal of Alaska is nothing short of breathtaking. The author’s descriptions of the landscape—the brilliant magenta of fireweed, the deep green of spruce forests, and the snow-capped peaks—are vivid and intimate. Even for readers who have never been to Alaska, there is a palpable sense of the land’s raw beauty and its overwhelming power. Ivey embraces the spirit of Alaska, making it a character in its own right, as essential to the story as Birdie, Arthur, and Emaleen.

At its core, Black Woods, Blue Sky is a story of love, transformation, and the human condition. Birdie’s journey, both physical and emotional, reveals the complexities of love and survival in an unforgiving world. The novel explores themes of loneliness, sacrifice, and the pursuit of something more meaningful—questions that resonate deeply, long after the final page.

This is a must-read for those who enjoy stories that combine a fierce love for the natural world with poignant, introspective narratives. Eowyn Ivey has crafted a deeply atmospheric and emotional novel, one that will stay with you long after you’ve closed the book.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

Because I loved The Snow Child, I thought I would love this book as much - unfortunately, it wasn't for me. The main characters didn't really grab me, and it felt less whimsical. Might be a me-thing, though!

Wow, what a story! Another stunning book by Eowyn Ivey. The descriptions really take you to the wilderness of Alaska and you could feel the remoteness and danger and also the beauty of the place. It maybe lagged a little in the middle and the story certainly was a lot more brutal than what I was expecting, but it was beautifully written and had a lovely ending.

I really enjoyed reading the story of Birdie and Emmaleen, set in Alaska. A dark, somewhat magical story based on mythological ideas that explore the idea that humans and bears were once one.

The only criticism I have, without giving much away, is that there is a gap in time, that felt like quite a leap.

Beautiful, vivid imagery to get lost in.

I haven't read The Snow Child, but the writing of Black Woods, Blue Sky was so beautiful, I have now ordered it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and Headline Books for an early copy of Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey.

What a book! I may have to reread it, or maybe listen to the audiobook when it is available as while I did appreciate the detail, prose, and descriptions of the Alaskan countryside I perhaps didn't absorb it fully due to being so caught up in the story, the love and foreboding of it all. I suspect it will be an excellent audiobook.

There was only a small cast of characters but each one was well-executed and I will miss them all, in different ways.

It is difficult to do a review for this novel, without giving anything away as it is a story that slowly releases its secrets to the reader and that is how it should be but if you loved The Snow Child then I feel I can promise that you will not be disappointed, I think it might actually be better!