as someone who’s been more or less in a constant state of mourning since 2011, and has finally found someone or something that strikes the same complex and beautiful chords in my heart, i’m overjoyed by this revelation and i can’t fucking WAIT for what she does next. This will be a short review, not just because Silver in the Wood is a scant 100 pages, but because the novella is so wonderful I see no need to ask you to read more of my words when you could be reading Emily Tesh’s instead.

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh - Publishers Weekly Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh - Publishers Weekly

Here were the songbirds and ravens and solemn wide-winged owls, shy deer and burrowing rabbits, fox and badger and snake, beetles and moths and midges, all the things that were the wood, that lived each in their own way under the shelter of the old oak. A story of secrets, reflection, and rebirth drew to a close with one of the most gorgeous endings I've ever read. The novella is also a supernatural mystery about a young man taken by a wicked forest creature and a pair of monster hunters saving England from chaos and evil.Here were the songbirds and ravens and solemn wide-winged owls, shy deer and burrowing rabbits, fox and badger and snake, beetles and moths and midges, all the things that were in the wood, that lived each in their own way under the shelter of the old oak. He thought of four hundred years repairing and re-repairing that roof; of scrubbing out the floors, fixing the doors and shutters, planting and replanting his little garden.

The Greenhollow Duology - Emily Tesh

Eventually, though, Silver’s frequent visits lead to the unearthing of old secrets that Tobias hoped would remain permanently forgotten. Pearl graciously crawled into his lap and butted his hand with her head to indicate he might have the honour of petting her.He’s not a people person and he keeps to himself – which is simple considering he can refocus the woods around him to keep people away. So yes, danger lurks, hungrily seeking its next victim, and this is all about sacrifice, renewal, and redemption.

Review: “Silver in the Wood” by Emily Tesh – Punk-Ass Book Jockey Review: “Silver in the Wood” by Emily Tesh – Punk-Ass Book Jockey

Thank you, said the young man, and once Tobias had taken it off him—it was a damn good coat, even Tobias could tell that, the kind so perfectly tailored it required a servant to pour you into it and peel you out again—he saw that his new guest really was soaked through. World Fantasy Award winner Tesh (the Greenhollow duology of novellas) jumps from quiet fantasy to ambitious sci-fi in her raw and action-packed full-length debut.Tobias had thought and thought about it, for four hundred years, until he’d reached the conclusion that Fabian must have loved him, after all, in his own way. Come to think of it, this experience may well be at the root of the many stories people tell about magical forests. Silver is also a lovely character with his earnestness and eager curiosity and they make a very sweet couple although I would have liked it if their relationship had had more time to develop.

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh | Smart Bitches, Trashy Books Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh | Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

He knew it the same way the woodsman knew it, because he knew trees: but he also knew it with the knowledge of the Wild Man of Greenhallow, who felt every slow green beat of the forest's heart. Somewhere in Greenhollow there is a cottage home to Tobias Finch, unbeknownst to the outside world as the Wild Man gracing storybooks and myths. His past is a delicate and best-forgotten topic; his present is occupied with the caretaking of the woods, which become a perilous place for humans in the summer. Four hundred years while his cottage grew around him like a tree growing its rings; Pearl’s mother and grandmother and great-great-great-grandmother all the way back to the cat who’d ambled around Greenhallow Hall when Fabian had been its master; four hundred years of the wood, and barely a soul passing through the whole time. Tobias is a cypher as a character, an archetype more than flesh and blood, and curiously passive about all the massive changes that are happening in his life.

I’m so happy to have read Silver in the Wood, I just know it’ll charm a ton of other readers out there! It could be seen like a loose m/m retelling of the Green Man myths, so it's fitting that this is a story about rebirth and reawakening, not only of nature after spring but of people after toxic relationships. In England (and some other places) there's an old lore about a figure known as The Green Man, who is a forest spirit or wood deity of some form.