Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh
There is a Wild Man who lives in the deep quiet of Greenhollow, and he listens to the wood. Tobias, tethered to the forest, does not dwell on his past life, but he lives a perfectly unremarkable existence with his cottage, his cat, and his dryads. When Greenhollow Hall acquires a handsome, intensely curious new owner in Henry Silver, everything changes. Old secrets better left buried are dug up, and Tobias is forced to reckon with his troubled past—both the green magic of the woods, and the dark things that rest in its heart.
Our Discussion 💬
Short books make for short discussions! We agreed that novellas are inevitably too short for our taste. Silver in the Wood glosses over a lot in order to stick to its form (at least, it felt like that to us). We would have liked to read more about Tobias’ time away from the wood.
We appreciated that this is an openly gay storyline. Henry openly flirts with Tobias. (Even though Tobias doesn’t immediately recognize it – a realistic and painful depiction because of its relatability, lol). The world they inhabit doesn’t seem to require heteronormativity. There’s no indication that Henry’s behaviour is inappropriate. 🙌 It’s a historical fantasy world that’s the complete opposite of The Binding.
The characters break away from fantasy tropes in a refreshingly unique manner. For example, Henry’s mother turns out to be quite a different than what you might expect. Henry doesn’t fit into stereotypes of a gay man in a historical or fantasy novel. And while Tobias’ character is based in legend and folklore, his personality and relationships make him a stand out character.
It almost goes without saying that the cover art for both this and the sequel, Drowned Country, are stunning. We will probably read Drowned Country at some point. (I hoped we could read and discuss both, but it looks like months before we can get the sequel from the library.)
Final Thoughts 💭
We both gave this book ★★★½ . We’re not sure any novellas could garner a higher rating from us. We both prefer more fleshed out stories. But as a novella of this length can be read in one sitting, and the premise piqued our interest enough, we enjoyed Silver in the Wood for what it is.
Have you read The Greenhollow Duology? What’s your opinion on novellas?
I enjoyed this too but didn’t love it. The plot was just too meandering for me.
Yes, I felt the first part was strong enough but then there was a lot happening/jumping around in the second part…
As an enthusiastic short works reader, I‘m sad that you generally don’t enjoy novellas.
I think perhaps if I start viewing them as expanded short stories rather than stunted novels, I might enjoy them more 😉
And standalone novels aren’t stunted series anymore 🙂
Ah, but in that case I’ve always preferred standalones to series, haha. Apparently I really only want to read one thing – a solid standalone novel between 300 and 400 pages 😂
While LotR can be considered as a standalone instead of a trilogy, it doesn’t fit that range. Also, Le Guin’s works are either shorter or longer (The Dispossessed is exactly in that range). Your optimum is a harsh criteria to fulfill!
Haha, I’ve always thought of LotR (my favourite book) as the exception that proves my rule! While I won’t ignore books just because they’re outside of the range, I have found most of the books I like best fit in it.
I also have trouble connecting with novellas for the most part, unless they are tie-ins to more fleshed out works. Sorry this one didn’t work out too well for you
Ah well! I’m not too down about it because it only took an hour or two to read 😛 Your comment actually reminds me now of a post I wrote years ago about how I enjoyed novellas that were extensions of already-established worlds in novels… but I feel like I don’t see as many of those nowadays.
I love the idea of this feature. I keep giving my dad and bf books but can barely drag any impressions out of them.
This is gonna seem weird, but maybe read some short stories, and then novellas, in sequence, suddenly they’ll seem long!
Thank-you! It doesn’t seem weird – I was actually thinking that the other day: “Maybe I would appreciate novellas more if I considered them expanded short stories rather than condensed novels” haha 🙂
What a cool idea, a family bookclub! I thought the exact same thing of this book, loved the characters but it was altogether too short and rushed
Thank-you! 😊 Yeah, it makes me wonder how these novellas come about. Do the publishers pitch “Hey, can you write us a lil book”? Did the author actually conceive it as a novella? Who knows…
I’ve read some novellas that really did work for that length, but yeah, it might also just be less daunting than a whole book? I think this is this specific authors first book?