Willa of the Wood

Willa is a thief who robs day-folk (people) because her padaran (chief) tells her that people are super wealthy and don’t need what they have. Willa’s people live inside the mountain in caves and are dying. Their way of life and interacting with nature is also being lost, but Willa can still blend into her natural surroundings and control vines/trees because her family still follows the old ways. She’s cast out as a traitor but makes friends outside the clan who replace the family that she has lost.

The descriptions in this book are amazing, and I could really picture everything in my mind. Unfortunately, some of it is really gruesome, and the description might make it way too intense for younger readers. The story includes murder, children being taken from their families and starved (some to death), a mother drowning, a grandmother being beaten to death, plus lots of descriptions of fights and animals caught in traps. But if you love action and interesting storylines, you will not be able to put down this book.

I think the author wanted us to think about how we are not just affecting the animals and the environment by the way we live and use land, but also affecting the people that lived there before us. It made me think a lot about how we see other people before we know them, but mostly it’s just a really engrossing adventure, and if you aren’t squeamish you will love it!