A Girl Walks Into the Forest

odd as usual

Reading the reviews and having a beautiful cover. I thought this was going to be a great book. Unfortunately, this wasn't what I had thought. The first few chapters were good and then it started to go south. There wasn't really much character building or development and the language/grammer was off putting.

Very good story, def tough topics, thank you for the adventure.

Valla has been chosen by the Count to be his bride. With visions of beautiful gowns and ladies in waiting in her head she sets out with her brother Gavril and his wife Maksi through the Gottyar Forest, a place crawling with things better left alone. The first night staying in the forest Valla is attacked, her beauty destroyed, the one thing that she was sure to keep her in the Count's good graces. Upon arriving at the camp of the Count Valla discovers two things: 1. She has been lied to, he is no fairy tale prince, but a cold-hearted small man who treats Valla and everyone around him as an object. And 2. The loss of her beauty is a small thing compared to the horrors that await her once she arrives at his castle.Omg given the actually really very tame in comparison to the book Dear Reader note at the beginning I was not expecting this to go as sideways as it did as quickly as it did. That being said this was one absolutely fantastic ride!Valla is an interesting character to say the least. Quite honestly, there are a few times when I don't really buy anything she's selling. Especially when it comes to Yulnia, she is just as unhinged as her brothers, and try as she might Roux never truly establishes Yulnia as the victim, actually quite the opposite. Valla uses this as well, she knows Yulnia is not well, there's just no way she can't, and yet she pushes her time and again. As far as I'm concerned Valla got her killed and she was well aware of that. But honestly, I don't think that Valla was ever really right either. There's something off and wrong about her from the very beginning, I mean if there was anyone who you'd have pinned as going on a murderous rampage pretty much from the beginning it's her, no interference from Baba Yaga needed. And again Roux never really sells it that she's ever truly affected by any of this pretty privilege that she goes on and on about. Valla actually seems to take advantage of it more than anything to be able to get away with things she wouldn't if people were around her more. Now, yes I know this all sounds like a ton of complaints. They aren't. I'm not sure Valla was supposed to come across as a victim, victimized certainly, but Valla needed to be just a little twisted to do what she ends up doing. Trying to take some perfect goodie two-shoes character and turning her into a monster would have taken way more work and way more sadism in a book chock full of it.Leonid (the Count) and Ermo are sadly just kind of standard run-of-the-mill absolute psychopaths. Make no mistake they are twisted spoiled rotten children who do things because they can. There's nothing truly inventive or unique with them and that's okay. What I did find interesting, what I *loved*, is every time, every single solitary time there is a reference to why they are the way they are it's their Dad's fault. And ya wanna know what you never really find out? What their dad did. Starve your wife? Dad's fault. Keep your dads freaking corpse at the dinner table? Dads fault. Give people to some quack dr to torture? Dads fault. Do we ever hear what dad did? Nope not really. And Gods this is so important, possibly the most important thing in the whole book; when you live in a cycle of abuse it is so *easy* to blame the previous gen that taught you while never taking stock of the fact that you are an adult and you are in charge of yourself. Growing up in abuse is no excuse to perpetuate the cycle. Period end of story and for that alone I applaud this book, an absolutely ingenious little phrase added that unless you've been there you probably wouldn't catch it.I really love how this ultimately ends up as a circle of violence from abuser to victim and how the victim is both the bad guy and the good guy. Incorporating Baba Yaga as the first victim of this incredibly twisted family was another stroke of genius. Baba Yaga is not inherently bad nor is she inherently good and to make her the protector and the monster at once I found to be a perfect use of the Baba Yaga character in terms of feminine rage. Valla as Baba Yaga gets to unleash a rage that is primal but not just her own, its the forests as well, its all of the victims in this family's 200 year history, its as close to the anger of the gods as you can get and yet allows us to hold on to some of Valla's humanity. It's not just her, these people are an affront to humanity, abominations, a blight as Yulnia so aptly puts it and Valla/Baba Yaga has been given a blessing to destroy them. It's bloody. It's unhinged. It's Glorious.Truly this was just an amazing little read. Don't get me wrong it was twisted asf on so many freaking levels but omg it was worth it. Highly recommend!As always thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Children's Books.

Thank you Harper Collins for the arc via netgalley. This was more than a fantasy. It was also a horror mixed with folklore. I could not look away. Every reveal was shocking and horrific. Satisfying end.

I normally love Madeleine's books and was excited for this new book. But I did not care for this one at all. I barely could finish it, barely could get into it and the a lot of the names of the characters threw me off. I only finished the book to know how it ended.

Beautifully written, the prose is bleak, brutal, and full of magic. Valla overcomes what she has learned, what she has been trained for all her life, and finds out who she really is. This book is full of rage and hope. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Talks about the importance of nature.

I did enjoy this book, but I DNF'ed because it's not for me. I'm not sure what I expected with a genre categorization of "fairy tale horror" but it apparently was not "fairy tale horror". Madeleine's vibes in this book are great! There is that eerie folklore feel that you can feel right from the beginning. I enjoyed the unexpected twists and turns that mess with your mind. I'm just not a horror girlie, and we were falling very much into that category about the place where I stopped.I do think a lot of people will really enjoy this book. Like I said, I just don't really read horror novels. But you'll love this book if you like creepy forests, "wtf is going on" vibes, and female rage.

First, I am not typically a fan of this genre. But I couldn't find the type of book I normally choose, so I saw this was a brand new release, and thought, "Why not?"From the first word, to the last, I was captivated. The imagination that it took to create the images in the forest simply amazes me. Valla, the main character, while seemingly sheepish outwardly- and, at first, vain - has a determination and grit that keeps her sane in this insane castle world of fantastical horror. While the world she was brought into as a bride to an unseen husband seems to become more and more morbid, and stranger by the moment, Valla keeps her wits and focus. This tale is about horror, lies, loss, and the power to prevail. It is a story of finding one's self and prevailing even when it seems impossible. Definitely worth a read!

The title, the art and the description caught me. I read casually and this book I finished in the span of a day. I wanted to know how it ended and the lore of the book and having grown up in nature itself definitely made me want to see it through. I had hoped for a satisfying ending and worried at the length but was not disappointed. Worth a read if you need a book to cleanse the pallet before your next series read.

The beginning was the strongest part of the book for me. It read like a truly dark fairy tale with a very strong Eastern European vibe throughout. Valla is a young girl sent off very far away, to marry a well off Count about whom she knows absolutely nothing about. Her journey is difficult, and her life becomes even harder once she's at the castle and sees what goes on in the castle.Once the truth behind the creatures of the forest is revealed to our young heroine, the book lost it's main appeal to me. Valla's strength came from her own drive to persevere, but the 'gifts' of the forest kind of made her gain power from an outside source (taking away some of her own agency). I would have preferred if she kept her humanity & worked alongside the forest to get rid of the Count and his people. Also, the character of her brother wasn't really utilized well in the conclusion of the book. I thought he would take a more active role in helping Valla, but other than one scene, he felt kind of forgotten by the plot.The folk horror vibes are STRONG here, and that is the best part of "A Girl Walks into the Forest", horror fans will especially love the battle at the castle (it weaves horror & action together really well).

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Madeleine Roux for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for A Girl Walks into the Forest coming out June 10, 2025. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.I really love this author. She writes a lot of different genres, which is fun. I love the mystery and creepiness of her stories. This was a really interesting plot. I thought it felt like old fairy tales. I really enjoyed the characters. I would definitely read more books by this author.

*4.5 stars*A Girl Walks into the Forest reminded me of our oldest fairytales, the ancient ones that were more bloody cautionary tales than princesses and happily-ever-afters. I believe that fantasy & horror are two sides of the same coin, and in A Girl Walks into the Forest, the author masterfully blended the two to make a truly unique story. This book was darker than I expected, especially from a YA novel; but it is so well-done. Come for the gorgeous cover, creepy forest, and enticing premise; and stay for the female rage. I loved this twisted horror fantasy, and I'm sure it will be a best-seller when it publishes this summer!Thank you to NetGalley & HarperCollins for the arc! All thoughts & opinions in the review are my own.

Uau. Do not quit this book thinking this is a Beauty and the Beast retelling or that the main character will remain weak, suffering the moods of the males around her. This one is zero to hero spectacularly with a great twist. It's dark and creepy. The author made me feel the forest, and made me feel the presence of that horrible character always sitting at the table... and more. Such a macabre novel and satisfying ending.

This book is THRILLING. The world created within its pages automatically feels ancient and real. It’s atmospheric and creepy. Strong visuals make you fear for the characters safety at almost all times. It is as relentless as it is unexpectedly beautiful. But there’s more here than your bog-standard young adult offering.As Roux puts it, this book is a “blood-soaked meditation on liberation.” I would go further to say it also illustrates the cost of divestiture from the systems that oppress, entrap, and limit us all from living truly free and in harmony with our world and exactly why we must pay that cost.Valla, the books’ protagonist, struggles against a fate that was decided for her, and she must face both uncomfortable truth and personal transformation to become something that cannot be contained by that fate. What she must do and change within herself to achieve that is the fun waiting to be discovered within.

I did ask the publisher if I could get an advanced review copy of this because I have enjoyed this author’s books in the past. I also was in the mood for a good horror story, and the books I’ve read by her in the past worked for me in that way. This is basically a Baba Yaga story, and I guess if I’d realized that, I might not have requested it, with my past experiences with that type of story. I did finish it in the end, so yay me for pushing through instead of DNFing like normally I would.It definitely has some horror in it, the woods, the Count and the castle she ends up living in. There the family is keeping their father’s corpse sitting in the dining room until a magician/magical person that lives with them can supposedly bring him back to life. The people in the family that Valla thinks might actually be on her side may not be, and those she is unsure of trusting in the end may come through. There are all kinds of creatures as well that are grotesque and horrifying. Not to mention things the Count does as a “gift” for his bride, and even things we learn later when she is fighting back that were done, definitely all count as horror.For me there was so much of the fantasy world in it, all the long descriptions, the things that take me out of the story. I get it, those are what you get in this type of story. But it makes it so slow for me to get through. Very slow for me to read, so much so that I was ready to take a nap after forcing myself to get through to the very end.All that said, if you enjoy that kind of fantasy world, that kind of descriptive horror story, this is probably a book for you. And you might enjoy it so much more than I did!