I should have known better to ask for this one. I wasnt a fan of The Hazel Wood nor am I of coming of age. I'll have to be more careful in the first future.

As with most books on NetGalley, this book is a great read. Captivating and intriguing. Thematically beautiful. Gorgeous writing.

I received this as an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

If I could, I would have given this a 3.5 but I rounded it up to a 4.

This was a really cool concept for a book but it took me awhile to get into it, and even then, I’m not sure how attached I am to the characters. It takes place on a post apocalyptic earth after humans have discovered what really happens when we die. After tunnelling through the earth, and slicing through the veil to reveal the beyond, total chaos has ensued and utterly destroyed the concept of religion as we know it. Then there’s a series of wars, and voila, a couple hundred years later, we have the setting for our story.
There are a few main characters, primarily a brother sister combo, Mika and Seycia, accompanied by your not so friendly demon, aka the Savage, aka Haben. After being targeted by the governing general Simeon, Seycia is sacrificed to the demon and ends up in the underworld, while her brother Mika remains up top with the humans. Each fight their own battles from their own realms with some very interesting consequences.
I’m thinking this might turn into a series because it was left a bit open ended with more questions and possible chaos. If there is another book, I’d definitely check it out.

I re started this book several times, but I couldn't connect with the story or the style. However, the ideas were interesting and I'm sure it was just a matter or likes. It may have been the wrong book for me.

This book had a unique premise, it was a tad bit slow at the beginning but swept me up soon enough and kept me in it's grip well until the end. I would recommend it to other fellow fantasy fans in a heartbeat. Thank you for allowing me to read and hand sell this title.

This story takes place in Khronasia, a war-ravaged, post-apocalyptic land with two different kinds of people. There are the Khronasians, and the Coalition. MC Seycia is. Khronasian, while her nemesis, Simeon, is a general of the coalition.
A lot of drama happens and Seycia winds up dying and leaving behind her brother Miko. She meets a beast in the underworld called Haben who turns her into something other. Not quite human, not quite demon, and bound on a mission to destroy the soul tree of General Simeon.
Back home, Miko stumbles into a group of Khronasians that treat him like a king and call him The Lasting Light.
More drama happens.
I don’t know... this book has such glowing reviews and I’m going to be honest here and say that I don’t get it.
A lot of it was confusing. The characters were interesting enough, and the whole concept seemed promising, but it just sort of fell short of my expectations.

3.5 stars

This is a fantasy novel that counts with its own mythology, a lot of action and a small dose of romance, so I highly recommend it. Although I feel that from the middle to the end the rhythm becomes slower due to the parallel plot that arises -I was not particularly interested in it, to be honest-, The Phantom Forest has a fascinating and addictive start. The characters are well built, they have virtues and flaws, but what I want to highlight the most is the original and rich world that the author has created. It is based on really interesting legends, not to mention that several fantastic creatures appear and that is a plus. I admit that that the love story felt a little bit rushed to me; however, as this novel is not intended to revolve around a love plot I don’t think it’s a major problem. The ending actually surprised me and now I want more! According to the author, this story is meant to be a trilogy, but currently she has no other publication contracts. I hope you give this novel a chance, since this dangerous adventure through the Underworld between a human and a demon is worthwhile and is a breath of fresh air to the genre of Young Adult literature.

After a worldwide catastrophe, the Veil that connects the Earth with the Underworld became visible in the sky. Civilization has taken a step back in history, leaving aside technology and luxuries and returning to its rudimentary and superstitious beginnings. Seycia and her brother are inseparable since their parents died, but one day she is chosen as human sacrifice in her village and is offered to The Savage, the demon that crosses the Veil and takes a soul to the Underworld. The problem is that Seycia does not die when she crosses the Veil and now Haben, the demon, does not know what to do with this strange and stubborn human. What if they allied against a common enemy? What if she is not as kind and he is not as wicked as they believe?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down once I started to read it. That doesn't happen all the time and I wasn't familiar with this author before I started to read it.

DNF at 19%. It was so hard to get into, it definitely was all over the place. I had really high hopes for this book. I do love the cover however. That's one positive!

Rating 1

With amazing world building and a split-POV plot that engaged readers with both characters, The Phantom Forest is an interesting and enthralling new fantasy novel.

The Phantom Forest is a really creative look at both a dystopian Earth and the after life. Unfortunately I felt kind of out of my depth and confused throughout the first third or so. Although the lore is really in-depth I thought it wasn't explained too well until about halfway through. In addition, there was a lot of "telling" not showing which I detracted from the unique world.and premise. Hopefully if there's any additional novels those aspects improve so the creativity can really shine!

This is definitely not the kind of thing I normally read but I really enjoyed it! I’ve been wanting to read some more horror-y books for a while (even though this isn’t really horror).

The components were beautifully crafted with all the creatures and characters - all unique and incredible ideas, especially the sisters, who I loved!
I’m guessing there’s going to be a sequel? And I’d definitely read it when it comes out!

Seycia's father told her this story as a child -- a story of the most holy place in the Underworld, The Forest of Laida, where all souls go to rest before embarking on a new life. But Seycia's father is dead now, and his killer has put a target on her back.

After being chosen for her village's human sacrifice ritual, Seycia is transported to the Underworld and must join forces with Haben, the demon to whom she was sacrificed, to protect the family she left behind from beyond the grave. In this story of love, survival, and what it means to be human, Seycia and Haben discover that the Underworld is riddled with secrets that can only be unlocked through complete trust and devotion, not only to their mission, but also to one another. - Goodreads

*sigh* 

*sigh*

*LE SIGH* 

I had high expectations of this book. I am thinking some of the creepiest sentences, settings and characters are going to come out of this book but instead I got a punk ass demon who doesn't have a backbone and a main character who is completely full of herself, that when I hear her voice in my head, all I hear is a grown woman whining about how she is the chosen one and you are not. 

But let's start off about what I liked, which was the setting. Although not creepy at all, the imagery was very clear. It completely draws the reader in and is filled with promises of the worst evil to come. But that didn't happen. 

As the imagery is the only thing I fully enjoyed about this book, I have to stress that the author wanted these demons to be humans that have simply lost there way and forgot who they were and who they could have been. This took the creepy-ness way out of the book. 

Seycia AND her brother are just uninteresting whinny and the most unfortunate batch of heroes that world has to offer. The book is told through both their point of views, so you get a little break within tone. However, while Seycia is the I am not going to think things fully through because I am the great one, her brother is the I am too scared to do anything on my own and need all the help I can get AND STILL and still whine about it. 

I loved the idea of there being a tree that allows people to come back to life and that I fully supported Seycia's mission to protect her family. But you can't talk about the Underworld and everyone is pretty much human. 

This book wasn't for me. But going through Goodreads, I see it is for a lot of other reads. Would I recommend this? I honestly don't think I would even knowing that there are some readers who would enjoy it. 

1 Pickle

This book suffered from a bad case of telling-not-showing. (Spoilers ahoy). We're told that Heban and Seycia develop feelings for each other but I have no idea why. We're told the three women, Dhov's sisters, are amazing but they seem pro forma. We're told about the rebellion but we don't see it grow or feel the details. Seycia gets dropped into Antenor by the Soulless to rescue Heban but it seems incredibly improbable that Dhov wouldn't show up to gloat at her. Miko loses his replacement grandmother after a day, when it barely feels meaningful, and his rebellion friend after they've exchanged like 2 sentences. Why didn't he stay with Beli... for like 3 weeks or 3 months? Seycia could have stayed with Heban longer so that would feel more realistic and the connection Miko feels to the rebels would be earned.

I think the book would need to be about 200 pages longer to do all the plotlines justice, or a few plot threads would be to be cut. There's no depth or richness here.

Also the setup for a sequel is annoying.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and Inkshares for the ARC in return for an honest review.

This book had my attention since the very beginning! Liz Kerin does an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G job in her writing. The story building was unique as well as the character build and growth throughout the novel; the plot had me absolutely absorbed and I just couldn't put this book down. Every paragraph was written so eloquently, with a lot of details but not excessive amounts of information where the reader would get bored; just enough to appreciate the environment, the characters and the action. If Liz Kerin writes anymore novels, I would definitely read them based off of her style of writing alone.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with an e-copy!

WOW.
Just wow.
This book was so good I have no idea what can I possibly say about it.
It was so unique and so well constructed and the story was very well narrated, the world was fabulous and the characters blend in the whole thing just perfectly!

I just couldn't get into this. Although the story starts with a prologue clearly meant to generate enough curiosity to carry the reader through the initial part of the book, it didn't work for me. The writing was too clunky for the premise to win me over - or even for that fantastical prologue to interest me enough to want an explanation and/or find out what was going on. DNF.

DNF at 19%

I know I said I'd try to read a few more chapters (or even finish the chapter I was on tbh), but this book literally puts me to sleep, and I just can't lie to myself or to NetGalley any longer. I will not be finishing this.

This book feels like a mish-mash of everything that was popular in 2008-2011. It's got the demons from another realm from Angelfall and City of Bones. It's got the postapocalypse from The Hunger Games and Angelfall again. It's got the girl searching for her sibling from Angelfall /again/. It's got the angsty love interest with a tortured past from every single Beauty and the Beast retelling ever, of which YA is currently saturated.

In other words, it was generic af and offered me nothing I hadn't seen before, done infinitely better or at least marginally entertaining. I couldn't stand the repetitive and passive writing. The action sequences were dull and the sentence structure lacked pretty much any variety until I felt like a literal robot wrote this book.

The inciting incident, if you can call it that, was so hokey that I was actually baffled that it was in the book at all. Basically, MC Seycia and her brother are at the ritual sacrifice thing and almost get robbed but, while the entire community is chanting the ritual thing around her, this girl beats the crap out of the would-be thief, and then is like "wow, I wOnDeR iF AnYOnE NoTIcEd?"

And I also couldn't stand literally any of the characters, except maybe the Missing Sibling™ Miko, and only really because I got his perspective right before I decided to drop the book and he didn't have a chance to bore me to death yet.

The villain is laughably black and white, with only a little bit of depth that's quickly overshadowed by his cartoonishly evil actions and appearance.

But what bothers me the most is that the average rating is so high, and that the parts I found to be the worst are many people's favorites. It really makes me wonder if we read the same book.

A dystopian novel set in an alternative version (or possibly future version) of our world where humans have broken through the veil to reveal what happens in the afterlife. Demons are discovered as well as what happens to souls after death. It follows the stories of Seycia and her younger brother Miko, a demon named Haben and Simeon, a commander in charge of offering human sacrifices.

I could not describe this book as original. It definitely borrows from various of the recent female protagonist, YA dystopian novels. To start with, it reminded me of The Hunger Games, although that might have just been down the the older-younger sibling relationship in the book.

However I did really enjoy it anyway. I liked all the characters and felt invested in what would happen to them. I liked the worlds created, both the human and the demon ones.

I would recommend this if you enjoy YA fantasy and you want a fairly easy read.

This mashup of a post-apocalyptic world with an underworld was super intriguing at first, and I was invested in maybe...the first 1/4 of it, but unfortunately the main characters fell flat and I just couldn't found myself being invested in their journey. Haben, the human-turned-demon boy, was probably the most interesting of the three protagonists, and even then I didn't care too much for him and his blossoming relationship with Seychia.

The worldbuilding is definitely its biggest asset; the various details of the underworld are vivid and often genuinely creepy, and I wished that the entire book was set there (I mean, the idea of underworld soul trees is fantastic).

And the two villains (one human, the other a demon) overshadow Sychia, Miko, and Haben as the stars of the story. They're magnetic in a way that the protagonists aren't, and while I'll always love baddies that I can sink my teeth into, if I'm rooting for them over the heroes for no reason other than that they actually feel more three dimensional than the latter, that's a big problem.

Overall, the story didn't do much for me, but I can definitely see why others are enjoying it.