The Waking Forest

The Waking Forest

By Alyssa Wees
Narrated by Katelyn Levering
Listening length 8 hours 22 minutes
Release date: March 29, 2023
My review 4 out of 5 stars

The waking forest has secrets. To Rhea, it appears like a mirage, dark and dense, at the very edge of her backyard. But when she reaches out to touch it, the forest vanishes. She's desperate to know more—until she finds a peculiar boy who offers to reveal its secrets...if she plays a game.

To the Witch, the forest is her home, where she sits on her throne of carved bone, waiting for dreaming children to beg her to grant their wishes. One night, a mysterious visitor arrives and asks her what she wishes for, but the Witch sends him away. And then the uninvited guest returns.

The strangers are just the beginning. Something is stirring in the forest, and when Rhea's and the Witch's paths collide, a truth more treacherous and deadly than either could ever imagine surfaces. But how much are they willing to risk to survive?

While I received a copy of this audiobook in exchange for a review, all opinions remain my own. Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape media for the opportunity to read this story.

The way this book started out, I never expected it to twist the way that it did but boy am I glad. It ended up being adventurous and magical and beautiful. I love how the author weaved in the element of anxiety, that even magical creatures can have it, that it affects them and they have to learn to live with it and manage it. Might have just been a small part, but as someone who deals with it on the daily, it was big for me. I loved the characters, the family. It all felt so very real to me. Even the magical part that is so very not real, felt as if it could have been, just lurking beyond our world. I love books like this, where we can set aside our perception of reality and pretend, even for just a little while, that magic might just really exist and how would that happen. This is just one of those possibilities.