soph's Reviews > North Woods

‘North Woods’ is a fascinating and unique novel, with a structure that links short stories by their shared location. The use of nature writing further accentuates the themes of life and death, intelligently mapping the extended life of the woods and house itself over the centuries of human experience described within.
This book did not start out well for me, probably due to its chronological structure and the use of era specific language; immediately it felt jarring and forced but the further in I got, the more enchanting this book became.
It’s strange and eccentric, with themes that border on supernatural, and is truly genre defying in that it could be described as historical fiction or magical realism, but doesn’t fit perfectly in either of those categories. The writing is very clever and engaging, I very much recommend pushing through the initial chapters to get to the real depth of the book.