Into the Bloodred Woods by Martha Brockenbrough

Abstract

Reviewed by: Into the Bloodred Woods by Martha Brockenbrough Kate Quealy-Gainer, Editor Brockenbrough, Martha Into the Bloodred Woods. Scholastic, 2021 [368p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781338673876 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781338673890 $18.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 9-12 It begins with two sisters, one who spins gold and one who betrays her; then there is a girl, raised in the woods and protected by her mother’s lies; then an orphaned werewolf and his human sister, desperate enough to enter the nearby town and risk revealing his true nature; and finally, there is a dying king who splits his kingdom in two, bestowing half to each of his two children, which enrages his already sadistic son to horrific violence. The multiple threads come together when Albrecht, the prince turned king, leads his men to attack and burn down his sister Ursula’s land, forcing her and her people into the mysterious woods. Brockenbrough draws on the very darkest elements of fairy tales to offer up a truly irredeemable villain in Albrecht, who, in the book’s gruesome nod to Cinderella and The Dancing Princesses, gleefully peels back the skin of his fiancé’s feet—a bloody act that is only one of many. His villainy may lack subtlety, but character development isn’t really the point here; the cast is made up of familiar archetypes, reconfigured in a way that makes them all complicit with evil, underscoring the point that best intentions are more often than not fueled by selfish desires. Especially engaging is the book’s interrogation of Ursula, who finds her brother’s methods of control disgusting but who still adamantly believes in the inherent right of the royal family to rule. Even with an ending that sees most of the characters to safety, there’s a vaguely unsettling air in the book’s final pages; readers who prefer fairy tales more for their darker origins than their happy endings will want to wander in these woods. [End Page 88] Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois