Fantasy for fairy tale lovers

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes, it made me cry. But I'm not going to tell if those were happy tears or sad tears. Listen for yourself.

Any additional comments?

If you see any of my other reviews, you’ll start to notice a pattern. I read other reviews. Well, I skim them. I browse through them before and after I’ve read/listened to a book. Sometimes, when I’m in the middle of reading, I go through them again wondering if anyone has had the same thoughts that I’m having.

I don’t remember why I picked this one. Probably because I’m DIY renovating and love to listen to books while I work. This was free with Kindle Unlimited with narration.

Reading the blurb, I’m like others who thought The Woodcutter is something that it’s not. (Of course, now I want to write the book I was expecting and random thoughts keep popping into my head about that!)

Other reviewers also mentioned the writing style. It does feel like Kate Danley hasn’t found her own voice. It feels as if she’s borrowing a voice. My suggestion is to listen to it. All the old fairy tales are dry, emotionless things to which you have to add your own responses. Listening to the narration really brings The Woodcutter to life. Although I wasn’t very fond of Sarah Coomes’s voice, she really adds something to the story.

Maybe because I’ve read all those stories in their various forms and I’ve analyzed them for a thesis I could recognize them easily and nothing was confusing. I felt like I’ve been in that forest before and I was returning to a place I called home for a little while. (Also watch, Into the Woods: Stories just seem to revolve around a forest. I remember when I first read Grimms back in high school, I wondered briefly why the characters didn’t run into each other. They were all talking about the woods. They all went on a quest or got lost or whatever didn’t involve staying home.)

What makes The Woodcutter interesting for me is that his character is the wise helper found in many of the fairy tales. He never intervenes. He does his job perfectly allowing the fairy tale to play itself out.

Other reviews complain that the characters are not filled out. In fairy tales, the story is about the plot and the lesson. We don’t need a road map into the hearts and minds of every single character. The Wolf is bad. Red Riding Hood is innocent and naïve. Cinderella lived through a horrible period before meeting her prince. In the original story, we never know why the Evil Queen wanted Snow White dead, other than the fact that she was Evil and jealous. Seriously, Maleficent cursed Sleeping Beauty with death because she wasn’t invited to a party! We don’t bitch at the Grimms for lack of character development.

The main character, the Woodcutter is the one we need to care understand. And I found that I did.

This is a neat place to visit. Let your mind go and just listen. There are a lot of things happening here, but it really is all tied together. If you can follow Game of Thrones (the book, not the show), this is easy peasy. Especially if you’ve already read and re-read all the fairy tales you can get your hands on.

My suggestion as with all things: listen to other opinions, but if you’re interested in something, delve into it yourself and make your own opinion. The Woodcutter is completely worth reading.

When I sat down to write this I didn’t know what I was going to say. The only thing that I could come up with was that it made me cry. And all I thought to write was True love conquers all…true love comes in many forms. It’s the purity of the love that makes it magic.

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Give it a chance! i Entertaining and imaginative!

I didn't know what to expect as I was reading the first chapter. But the author creates a world where the characters from the fairy tales we grew up with interact in unique and unexpected ways. The Woodcutter is on the archetypal hero's journey: think Odysseus meets The Hobbit! It's really kind of fascinating!

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Every fairytale covered..but what was the point?

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Time is not an issue for me so I did listen to the whole book because of the narrator; and I had forgotten the plots of most fairy tales and wanted to brush up on them for story time with children. Otherwise it would not have been worth the listen time. However, I don't think I am the target audience, so perhaps if you were a teenager it would be.

Would you ever listen to anything by Kate Danley again?

Yes, The tone of the book is over dramatized in my opinion and never settles into something "comfortable" (and not to argue with myself, but perhaps that's because the editors wanted to convey the dangerous nature of fairy tales? Don't know, but a whole book in danger mode is overdone) . But the narrator does an excellent job at conveying emotion and range, and her tone is comfortable to listen to.

What does Sarah Coomes bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I would not have read the book, so Sarah Coomes made it bearable. After awhile, I forgot what the heck the woodcutter was doing. As soon as one issue is resolved he stumbles into two more fair tale plots. It's as if the author was compelled to cover every fable ever written weather it furthered the plot or not.

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Ended well

really did not care for this story, was such a terrible Mish mash of various fairy tales that made little sense. Only came together at the end but otherwise throughout the story very fragmented so difficult to get through

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A Good Story to be Told

If you could sum up The Woodcutter in three words, what would they be?

Classic Storytelling

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Woodcutter?

The Woodcutter keeps the peace between the fairy realm and the human realm. He comes upon a body and knows that something is very wrong so he takes his ax and goes into the woods to right whatever has upset the balance.

Evil queens, false princesses, a fairy dust harvesting business.... things are not okay in the realm.

Reviews are all over the place for this novel. I fall mostly on the side of the positive. Danley's narrative distance seems to bother some people — while the novel stays with the Woodcutter, the story is told from a storyteller narrator. There is a clear difference between the character and the narrator, even if the narrator is not in the story. Although we get in his head, the thoughts aren't expressed in the Woodcutter's voice and I'll hazard a guess that those who disliked felt put off by the narration style even if expressed differently, i.e. not having fully realized characters, etc.

I'll disagree in that I found I sympathized with the Woodcutter, cheered for him, was disappointed when he seemed to be loosing. I liked Jack, and a felt horrible for the pixies. No, I felt nothing for the evil queen, yet I had good image of who she was. One dimensional, yes, but it fit the story - this was a fairytale, closer to a true folktale than perhaps most other 'retellings' and 're-workings'.

Daniel uses the devices of folktales and fairytales - repetitions, the power of names, the deals and word-games, the power of love and decency, all to an enjoyable effect. Danley has taken tales we know well - Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Three Billy-Goats Gruff etc., and mixed them with lesser known stories, and tossed in a little mythology to boot, and then managed to created a cohesive story that wasn't about any individual fairytale, but about how a world maintained a balance between forces. And when that balance was tipped enough, how it cascaded towards destruction. But the grace of the good storytelling here was the Woodcutter's own story. His love, his world, and what he would do to set things right.

The Woodcutter isn't perfectly executed, but it works more often than not. It takes a certain amount of patience to adjust to the style and to understand the world of the novel — again something that some readers may not have because we are now used to a certain styles of narration and this feels like a throwback. There was a point when I found myself just enjoying being told a story. Yes - the adage 'show don't tell' is probably something critics will toss around as a weakness because Danley doesn't always do that, but again, I think here it works.

And strangely, by telling the story, Danley paints a wonderful portrait of the world with her words. There are moments of true poetry. Moments that made me stop and go back to hear it again. Color was huge in the story and Danley used it masterfully at times. Again, fitting considering the material she was working with. Sometimes it is good to just be told a good story.

The narration worked and the story may work best as a story being told. Coomes voice did a good job a creating characters recognizable by her tone, inflection, accent and rhythm.

2 personnes ont trouvé cela utile

Intriguing shift of folktales into Crime-Fantasy

Where does The Woodcutter rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Ranks right up there due to the perfect match between the story and the narration by Sarah Coomes. We set high standards for those who tell fairytales to adults, and this narrator exceeds them.

Any additional comments?

Delaney lights up images from the folktales and fairy tales we have heard, then moves us to the viewpoints of different characters than the heroes, all the while weaving an overarching narrative that is disturbing and redemptive.

In the spirit of constant renewal of oral narrative, the author skillfully draws us into the battle between good and evil by activating connections between folktales, crime and substance abuse. While The Golden Compass places Dust at the centre of its sci-fantasy, Delaney deepens the narrative by re-appropriating pixie dust as the substance of harvesting and abuse.

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Too Much Crammed Into One Book

Struggled to finish this one. The author tried to fit too much into the book, making it hard to follow. Plus, the world the author created was bound by strict laws/rules of nature and the way things are ...until it suddenly wasn't. Very confusing. Would not recommend.

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Grimmly Twisted

If you liked the twists that Gregory Maguire put on classic fairy tales (eg Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister, Mirror-Mirror, etc.) or The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly, you might also enjoy this twist-up of fairy tales.

Unlike the Maguire books, in particular, in his story, many (all?) of the Grimm fairy tales are part of the larger story - and twisted. A fun read/listen.

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All the elements

Of our best loved classic fairy tales re-imagined...
The underlying rules, the roles played by each character now bent to a new tale. A lush and lyrical fairy tale that will have lovers of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson nodding to themselves as they recognize the scraps used the make this lovely quilt.

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ReaderCutter

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

if you don't fancy yourself a critic ... and like the idea of hearing fairy tales again...then a clever rambling story combined with a terrific narrator made this a favorite listen ... and not at all ironically, great to fall asleep to !

Who was your favorite character and why?

the narrator

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no

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