Book Review: ‘A Dark Forgetting’ by Kristen Ciccarelli (fairy woodland romantasy)

I loved ‘The Crimson Moth’ and ‘Rebel Witch’ by Kristen Ciccarelli last year so I jumped at the opportunity to read ‘A Dark Forgetting’, a rework of Ciccarelli’s earlier novel, ‘Edgewood’. And I loved it.

Ciccarelli’s writing is so easy to read, it has an effortless flow to it, her worldbuilding is deep and thorough, and her characters are so easy to fall in love with. ‘A Dark Forgetting’ was no exception.

Sing us a song of the forest, of the Wood King who rules there, and the tithe he demands…

No matter how far Emeline Lark runs, the song of the forest reaches her, luring her away from her dreams of the stage and back to her small town and its superstitions.

But every superstition is rooted in truth, and when her grandfather goes missing Emeline will be forced to return to Edgewood and the forest beyond.

There, even Hawthorne Fell, a brooding tithe collector, cannot dissuade her from her path – a path that will lead her into the court of the fabled Wood King himself – and into a bargain with the deadliest price.

The atmosphere of ‘A Dark Forgetting’ was pitch perfect and reminded me a lot of the dark, damp, slightly rotten, portrayal of fae lands through the courts that featured in the early Holly Black novels that made me fall in love with fae novels. The threat of the Wood King was visceral and creepy, especially as he worsened under the curse of the woods. I really enjoyed the way that the curse and the threat of all of the creatures that live in the woods interact with the village of Edgewood wth the tithes and the legends of its peoples.

The cast of the the Wood King’s City were so vivid, full of life and depth and history, just as the residents of Edgewood are. I fell in love with Pa and Maisie and Tom and their stories too, especially in the way they all slowly but surely wove together. Emeline had so many connections on both side of the border and her pull between them felt like a genuine struggle.

I’ll be honest, though, I’d have chosen Hawthorne Fell every time. Ciccarelli’s romances are slow burn, but they’re deliciously slow burn. The longing and the angst is usually something I find missing in a lot of romantasy. I fell hard for their relationship and I was championing them from the very beginning.

I really loved ‘A Dark Forgetting’ and I can’t wait to see what Kristen Ciccarelli writes next.

Thank you to Magpie and NetGalley for the review copy.