After the Forest

Darci's Review

After the Forest is such a heartfelt and enjoyable historical fantasy by Kell Woods. The storytelling is so beautiful, portrayed through succinct but descriptive writing, while the characterisation creates such complex characters, making them feel as real as your hands turning the page. As far as usual fairytale retelling goes, this is a magnificently fleshed out world beginning post-Baba Yaga incident.

Woods’ creative plot and amazing world-building makes you fall in love with everyone introduced from Greta’s world, keeping you under her thrall until the final page. A stunning new novel from a creative Australian author.

Publisher's Reviews

The stunning historical fantasy taking the world by storm
'Ginger. Honey. Cinnamon. Flour.

A drop of blood to bind its power.

1650: The Black Forest, Wurttemberg. Fifteen years after the witch in the gingerbread house, Greta and Hans are struggling to get by. Their father and stepmother are long dead, Hans is deeply in debt from gambling, and the countryside lies in ruin, its people recovering in the aftermath of a brutal war.

Greta has a secret, though: the witch's grimoire, secreted away and whispering in her ear, and the recipe inside that makes the most sinfully delicious - and addictive - gingerbread. As long as she can bake, Greta can keep her small family afloat.

But in a village full of superstition, Greta and her intoxicating gingerbread is a source of ever-growing suspicion and vicious gossip.

And now, dark magic is returning to the woods and Greta's own power - magic she is still trying to understand - may be the only thing that can save her ...

If it doesn't kill her first.'

'Bewitching ... Woods is a powerful new voice in speculative fiction' Publishers Weekly starred review

'A clever merger of fantasy and historical fiction' Sydney Morning Herald

Author Review's

'Deliciously irresistible' Natasha Lester

'Historical fantasy at its best' Belinda Alexandra

'Utterly enchanting' Kate Forsyth