The White Forest: A Novel

Fantastical and haunting, from the start THE WHITE FOREST has me riveted to the page. I can't tell if our narrator is out of JANE EYRE or THE TELL-TALE HEART, but her measured description of her strange world has me captivated. Jane is a contradictory mix of petty emotion and open-hearted loneliness, making her grateful and jealous of the attention of her friends. Even more intriguing, her otherworldly gift seems both dangerous and innocuous, linked both to her mother's death and a meaningless presentation of colors and sounds when she touches certain objects.

The mystery of THE WHITE FOREST unfolds on so many different levels. At the present day, Nathan is missing. Below that lurks the secret of Jane's gift and how it relates to both Nathan's disappearance and Jane's future. And then deeper still, simmering in the background is the complex alchemy of these relationships; Jane and Maddie and Nathan meshed together in friendship, jealousy, and attraction. I could never tell if the cynical way Jane views her value to Maddie and Nathan was realistic or not, and that tension as much as any other kept me reading for clues.

Though many elements of THE WHITE FOREST remind me of other books and movies that I've enjoyed (THE HISTORIAN and Pan's Labrynth to name two), Jane herself is a singular experience. Other characters in THE WHITE FOREST comment on her strange charisma, how she isn't as plain as they first thought. This never comes across as the romance trope of a plain heroine who doesn't realize how beautiful she is, or only her true love sees her inner beauty. Rather, even on the written page Jane seems both muted and mesmerizing. Her narration is almost deadpan, but the circumstances of her story reveal very strong emotions. I can't even say that I liked her, and certainly much of her actions aren't admirable in the typical "heart of gold" sense. She can be cruel, she feels the seduction of weilding power over another, and her attachment to Maddie and Nathan is almost smothering. At the halfway point I couldn't see any happily ever after for Jane, or even predict where this story's strange magic would take me, but I didn't need either of those things to keep me riveted to the page.

THE WHITE FOREST isn't the usual thrilling, sexy urban fantasy, but I love it all the more for being something rarer. Jane manages to be magnetic and fascinating without being charming, she drew me into the mystery of her circumstances without being predictable, and the pathos of the story is certainly one of foreboding and dread without ever dipping into melodrama or horror. A captivating ghost story, a gothic to curl up around and savor, I enjoyed slowing down and immersing myself in this strange, dark world. As the story spirals further and further outside human experience, I found myself no less affected. An "ever after" of silence and peace, is that happiness?

Full review to follow. ( )

Even minor failings in the writing could have turned it into a confusing mess of a slog, but Adam McOmber has proven himself more than capable of writing a complex, detailed novel. It is a novel of transformations and obsessions and relationships that delved into the strange and went much deeper than I thought it would. It takes a little while to get there, but The White Forest revels in the weird. it is an astounding debut from a talented and skillful author.

http://epbth.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/the-white-forest-adam-mcomber/ ( )

This book was, well, different. Something about it pulled me in and devoured my attention. With the sudden disappearance of Nathan Ashe, his close friends, Maddy and Jane are on a mission to find him. In the process they discover more about Nathan and his cult involvement that included Jane and her curious abilities. Jane can be very relatable as someone who is much the introvert, and sort of a third wheel. Her understanding of her past and her future becomes essential in truly discovering and utilizing her "talent."

"Only Nathan and Maddy knew my secret. I was familiar with realms of the unnatural, for I myself was an unnatural. Not a monster in appearance; I look like other young women, though perhaps not as primped and manicured. But I wasn't the same as other girls. My friends believed I was sick or gifted. Either way, I was unfortunate. Something entirely new upon the earth." (24)

For some reason I wanted to not like this book, and I felt like at any moment I would become uninterested, but for some other reason I was intrigued and wanted to know more about the book. The plot was different from anything I've ever read. With a wonderful writing style, I appreciated the author's research and translation of that era's conflicts, technology and refinement. It's Victorian allure and gothic paranormal attributes took my imagination on a grim flight to a place of mystery and transcendence.

First Line: "When nathan Ashe disappeared from the ruined streets of Southwark, I couldn't help but think the horror was, at least in my part, my own design." (1)

Last Line: "Yet the child herself was silent and lovely upon the earth." (303)
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Quotes

"When Nathan began to change, everything was thrown off balance. We lost our careful orbits and began to fall." (2)

"'The only way to cure a city,' he said, 'is to make it stop being a city.'
'And what do you expect that to look like?' Maddy asked.
'A garden,' Nathan said, 'untouched by human hands.'" (19)

"If my friend hadn't come into my life, perhaps I would have remained that melancholy creature who walked in shadows, keeping balance between earth and aether merely by existing. But being drawn out of Stoke Morrow had changed me. The flesh and blood part of me had grown strong. I'd learned to love the world, to love the people around me. I'd become almost human for a time." (292)

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I was optimistic about this book from reviews, blurbs, and the cover, but I read the first 15 pages and was not drawn in at all. May return to it at a later date, but most likely not.

Actual rating: 3,5 stars.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I started reading this novel. I requested it because I love stories that are set in Victorian England and this one in particular seemed mysterious and intriguing.

After reading the first halve of the book, I was a little confused and stuck. This book is so beautifully written, something I’ve been missing in a lot of YA books lately, but the story seemed to drag on. We got little bits of information about what happened before Nathan disappeared by means of flashbacks. But we also know there’s still a lot of the truth hidden, that Jane is keeping something from us, readers.

The second halve of this book was just an explosion of action. All the secrets that lay hidden for the first halve of the book were now revealed and they give an amazing spin to the story. Jane goes through such a transformation and begins to see all the things I noticed in the first half. She awoke, and boy, she's awesome!

The Heath makes a haunting, beautiful setting for a story that explores the boundaries of human knowledge and gives an appealing explanation for the unknown, that goes beyond the things we can wrap our heads around. (Was there anything before the universe came to exist? Is there something else beyond this universe? Do gods exist?). It’s a breath of fresh air amongst the tidal wave of paranormal YA novels overwhelming us lately.
This is an imaginative and original story and it certainly deserves 3,5 stars, even though the first halve was rather slow. This is a story that will stay with me for a long long time.

This is the debut novel from Adam McOmber and I see a very bright future for this author. He has a beautiful writing style and knows how to create an amazing story. I'm already looking forward to his next book!

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Thanks to the publisher and the author for giving me the opportunity to read this book. This book was provided to me through NetGalley. ( )