Forest of Souls (Shamanborn, #1)

Sirscha Ashwyn comes from nothing, but she’s intent on becoming something. After years of training, she plans on challenging her rival for the position of the queen’s next royal spy, but she’s forced to abandon her plan when shamans attack and kill her best friend Saengo.

And then Sirscha, somehow, restores Saengo to life.

With her mysterious ability uncovered, Sirscha is summoned to the domain of the Spider King—the only person powerful enough to control the haunted Dead Wood that separates the kingdoms and, ultimately, enforces peace. But the Spider King’s hold of the Dead Wood is weakening, and he needs Sirscha to use her newly awakened powers to obliterate the bloodthirsty forest. As war looms on the horizon, it’s up to Sirscha to learn what she can do and who she can trust before time runs out.

Rating:

Many thanks to The Royal Polar Bear Reads and Page Street Kids for an ARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review and for inclusion on this blog tour. Quotes are taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.

Listen. Have you seen that cover? There’s no way I could not read this book because, one, Asian-inspired dark fantasy and, two, there’s a hella fierce-looking woman on the cover, and that’s basically my brand at this point. Other than, you know, dragons … which this almost has in the form of drakes and such.

Forest of Souls is an Asian-inspired dark fantasy with a deliciously creepy atmosphere, some serious sibling bonds that are to die for (maybe literally), and an ending that makes me question my ability to build a time machine, because 2021 is too darn far away.

I admit that the beginning was a little slow for me to get into, and I kept waiting for something to happen. It didn’t take long for the first fight scenes, and that’s something that’s done really well in this book: the fight scenes. Oh my gosh. So if you have trouble getting into this, I’d recommend giving it an extra chance, because when things pick up (not too far in), they pick up.

Lee creates a world that is lush, vivid, and every bit as black as my soul, and I am HERE TO STAY, I tell you.

Okay, who here is surprised that I want to escape into a world with a murder wood that will straight up eat your face and then absorb you into it? No one? Because I am so here for this.

The book is just full of really vivid descriptions of a world that was as beautiful as it was dark, and I loved traveling through it.

It’s not just the wood, though that’s obviously a big selling point for me. There are moments that seem gorgeous, which puts them at such a juxtaposition to the stark reality of a freaking wood that devours people’s souls. Again, totally want to say just how much I love that.

I had no idea what to expect for this world going in, but it is dark, so I was really happy with that. Not so dark that you devolve into a pit of despair and existential crisis, but dark enough to give you chills in the middle of summer and make you thankful to live here. Now that’s a powerful sort of feeling.

This world is just full of legend and history and political strife, and it feels lived in.

You know how cozy things get when they’ve been lived in for a while. That’s the best way I can describe this book. The whole world was just so easy to fall into and explore. The history isn’t crammed down your throat, but you discover it piece by piece, and each little nugget just adds to the overall picture.

The world just happens to be filled to the brim with magic, too, in the form of different types of wenders.

Think Avatar the Last Airbender, but with more options and higher stakes. There’s firewenders, earthwenders, waterwenders, airwenders, and lightwenders, and within those are even more categories of different abilities people have, not to mention the ones who manipulate shadows. I loved this system for magic, and I’m so intrigued about what these shamans will do in book two!

There’s actually no romance in this book, which is a breath of fresh air for YA. Instead, the focus is on the deep sisterly bonds between Sirscha and Saengo, who are basically found family for each other.

And can I just say yes? More of this, please. All of this. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good romance in my fantasy as much as the next person, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: not every book needs to have a romance. It was perfectly reasonable for there not to be one here, and even if one develops in the sequel, it’ll be fine. The focus for this book is on Saengo and Sirscha and what they go through together, and a romance would’ve just detracted from that.

Sibling bonds and found family are two of my favorite tropes, and this book basically has both, as Sirscha and Saengo consider each other sisters, even though they’re not related by blood.

Like sisters, their relationship isn’t always sunshine and roses. It very much reminded me of Frozen in the dynamic (and I loved it there, too), where the two girls have to decide just how far they’re willing to go for each other. Over the course of the book, their relationship changes, and they have to redefine what this means for their future, and just every bit of this was so much yes. This is definitely a dynamic I love.

The characters were a little hit or miss for me. The ones I loved, I loved. The rest, I was a bit indifferent towards.

It should come as no surprise at all that I loved Theyen, the intelligent, arrogant noble who also happens to be skilled in battle (because sword fights are sexy).

I also loved Kendara, Sirscha’s trainer, and Prince Meilek, but for different reasons. And also kind of the same reason. They both have layers, and I haven’t quite figured them out yet, so they’re both puzzles for me to solve. I’m so freaking curious about Kendara and her past, specifically. As for Prince Meilek … he has his surprising moments, but he seems almost too good to be true, so I’m looking forward to what the rest of the series holds for him.

Where I really struggled, though, was with Saengo. Despite seeming like she would be almost a secondary protagonist in this, and despite the rather important role she plays in both the story and Sirscha’s life, I felt like I didn’t know her at all. She gets a lot of screentime, so to speak, but it’s all inconsequential screentime. Basically, she’s there to support Sirscha, and her entire character almost becomes relegated to this support role, rather than having her independent personality shine through. I really hope to see more of her in the next book, because she seems like she has the potential to be a really complex and strong character, but she hasn’t quite reached that stage yet.

Sirscha is a strong female character, no doubt about that, but she also suffers from a lot of universal emotional struggles, and this was so refreshing.

Don’t get me wrong, I do love self-assured, confident, strong female characters, but … not all of them, yeah? There’s something extra beautiful about the fact that Sirscha can take down two men without breaking a sweat, thanks to her training, but she still suffers from existential crises. This really made her character so much more real and deep to me, because everyone has their doubts, and her emotional struggle was just so poignant.

June 22nd
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✦ Prin @ Princess and Pages
✦ Jon @ Wander with Jon

June 23rd
✦ Donna @ Biblioxytocin
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June 24th
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✦ Sammie @ The Bookwyrm’s Den

June 25th 
✦ Anjedah @ Bookriot
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June 26th
✦ Munayda @ Nanacosis
✦Ruthsic @ YA on my Mind