Book Review | The Forest of Moon and Sword

Title: The Forest of Moon and Sword
Author: Amy Raphael
Illustrator: August Ro
Published: 7th January 2021
Publisher: Hachette Children
Genre: Middle Grade, Adventure, Fantasy

Rating: 3/5 stars

When Art’s mother is accused of witchcraft, she is determined to get her back – at any cost. A lyrical adventure with folklore at its heart, for fans of THE HOUSE WITH CHICKEN LEGS.

Twelve-year-old Art lives in a small village in Scotland. Her mother has always made potions that cure the sick, but now the townspeople say she is a witch.

One cloudless night, Art’s mother is accused of Witchcraft, arrested, and taken from Scotland to England. Art mounts her horse, taking a sword, a tightrope, and a herbal recipe book, and begins a journey through wild forests to find her mother before summer solstice, using nature’s signs and symbols to guide her.

On her journey, Art will discover what sacrifices she will need to make to be reunited with her mother – and to alter the fate of women everywhere. But will she reach her, before it’s too late? -Goodreads

Thank you to Hachette Children’s Books for sending me a proof copy of The Forest of Moon and Sword to read and review.

I was very excited for this book, a girl rescuing her mother during the witch trials of 17th Century Scotland is everything I love in a book! Sadly this book didn’t quite do it for me.

The novel is a short but action-packed novel which travels from Scotland to England with breakneck speed. The only problem with this intense speed is that everything feels extremely rushed. The journey across countries takes a few lines, and this was a disappointment to me. The novel is described as a journey, but we didn’t get nearly enough actual journey. The author flew through this, and then spent too long describing other elements that were not as vital. It didn’t take me long to read but I didn’t get any depth to the story either.

This novel is quite dark and tense throughout. The author has done a very good job of creating this tension and feeling in the novel. It added to the sense of danger and the general feeling of the characters.

Art is the main character of the novel, and she was a little one dimensional for me. We didn’t get much background to her, and very little actual personality was described to us. I didn’t get attached to any of the characters at all, even the bad guy felt a bit one dimensional.

Overall I thought this novel was ok, I liked the idea, and the writing style was good. Sadly the novel just didn’t contain enough content, and not enough character descriptions for me to love it.

Buy The Forest of Moon and Sword from Waterstones here