I really enjoyed this book! I read it in one sitting. I liked the setting and magic system, and I really liked the mc. I was happy that things didn’t get tied up too neatly in the end. Looking forward to the next one!

*Spoiler free, 4.75 stars*

As someone who's not the biggest fan of spiders (I would say I don't like them but I want to respect them), I was very excited for a book with a spider plot in it. Ever since I saw the cover, I've wanted to read this book. I mostly knew that there was a Spider King and that's basically it. But that was enough to make me want to read it! Trigger warnings: gore, body horror

I don't know why, but I was surprised when I fell in love with this book. But it's SO GOOD. A lot about it surprised me and most of those things I was surprised that I was surprised. The point is, this book is incredible.

This book was so much more horrifying than I thought it was going to be. It was horror elements and wow, does it seriously lean into them. Lee's writing digs it's claws into your gut and twists. There were multiple times where I was just horrified at what happening, but in the best ways. There's a lot of gore and body horror sometimes, but I can't help but be in awe in how it was executed.

It's dark and it's  She's also a genius at creating a quiet air of uneasiness. The quite parts were some of the best. The parts where you know something is inherently wrong, the parts where something is right off in the corner of your eye, where something is scuttling past you. It was amazing. Seriously, there's a scene towards the end that leans on the quiet tension. The whispers and the tiredness. It doesn't have to be explosive to land an impact. It was just so incredibly well done.

I also really, really loved Sirscha. She's stubborn and she's proud and she wants to be seen. But she's also scared and doesn't quite know where she fits. She made for an incredible narrator.

Her emotional development kind of snuck up on me. It wasn't bad at all. Sure, I would have liked for it me to woven in more throughout, but it kind of works in how this book is laid out. There is so much happening that the little seeds being planted and blossoming later works well. Plus, it lands close to home for me and it was just something that made my heart glow a little bit.

There's also a top notch female friendship! Saengo might be kind of a minor character, but I sure did love her a whole lot. I also loved every single other character. They added so much depth and they were all incredibly unique.

This book doesn't hold back any punches. There's tons of sword fighting and it's brutal. Sometimes the things that happen feel like you yourself got punched. There were multiple times where my eyes just shot open and I had to just stare at the page for a bit.

The writing felt a bit weird at times. I had to fall into the rhythm to it before it stopped feeling a bit off. But once I did, everything flowed really well!

This book also doesn't have a romance, which is something I really liked. There were multiple times I thought something might come up, but it really did focus on the plot and everything that was happening.

I also really liked the world. I couldn't quite get my head around the politics and the makeup sometimes, but I feel like that's because Sirscha was kind of removed from it. This world was incredible, but Sirscha has her own things to worry about. I really liked how she couldn't do absolutely everything. She was fighting for what she could control and left the other things to other people. It allowed the world to grow in a really cool way.

The magic system, along with the Dead Wood, were seriously amazing. Just, I feel like this book just scratched the surface and I can't wait to know more. The Dead Wood is terrifying. The magic system holds tons of secrets related to the Dead Wood. AND IT'S JUST REALLY REALLY GOOD.

Just, this book surprised me. I love Sirscha and I love the magic and I love the world and darkness to it. It's a book that leaves you craving more. It's really, really good!

Forest of Souls is a magical fantasy story about female friendships and finding the power within yourself. I especially enjoyed the rich world-building and strong characters.

The story is enchanting and beautifully written with a pretty intriguing magical system inspired by shamanism.

Sirscha is an amazing and powerful lead who becomes a royal spy despite her odds.

If you have a sweet spot for medieval times and Asia inspired fantasy worlds than this book will be your new favorite read in 2020.

I DNFed at 34%, approximately page 136.

This book reads like a rough draft. I really wanted to like it. The premise was promising and sounded like it would be a darker ya fantasy with some political intrigue and interesting magic, but it’s just bad.

The world building is sloppy. Politics are handled clumsily and situations broken down into simplistic reasons. It’s explained in the beginning of the story that the shamanborn suddenly became oppressed because one accidentally killed the previous king, queen, and others while also killing himself, unless it’s revealed later on to be different, this was said to be a complete mistake with the shamanborn losing control of their magic. And because of this, the princess who ascends the throne decides to enslave and execute an entire people group. There’s no explanation given as to why this happened or how other than “thus sayeth the Queen.” There’s no talk of riots or people standing up against this injustice. It just happens and everyone is OK with it for some reason.

There are dragon-like creatures in this story and they are described—and I wish I was kidding when I say this—by their scale color and the fact that they wear saddles. Are they winged or ground-dwellin? Bipedal or not? No explanation is given for at least 50 more pages where it is casually hinted that they are bipedal. Up until this point, all you know is that the main character’s dragon-beast is green and has a saddle on its back.

Travel time is a joke. There’s no sense of a grand world or land mass. Characters travel across cities and through whole areas in seemingly hours where I would assume the trip actually takes a few days.

The magic system has no rules. There are no explanations given as to how anything works or why. It’s simply is, and it has the feeling of a Sarah J Maas or DragonBall Z power level—the main character is special and will somehow get stronger and stronger to defeat whatever villain is the big bad. I’m all for the Chosen one and having overpowered main characters, but the power creep needs to be realistic and subtle, not all at once.

There’s also this bizarre habit where the main character continues to get out in situations where she interacts with people waaaaaaaay above her station, and the other person acts like it’s the most normal thing to casually chat about state secrets and political powers to a mere foot soldier in training.

Things are constantly being told to us. Conversations the main character has with others are simply summarized to us without us getting to see the conversation happen, but yet immediately after this little summary, the characters restate the entire conversation and add nothing more to it. It’s repetitive and pointless, feeling more like a waste of space than anything else.

Again, I really wanted to like this. It sounded really cool and like a fun read, but this is so poorly executed that I cannot continue reading this without getting angrier at the writing and poor plot.

Enchanting world-building, non-stop action, political intrigue, and dark magic make this book an absolute dream to any fantasy reader.

This hits somewhere between a 3 and 4 stars.
I think the world building was very solid, but the magic system was a bit too similar to other things I’ve read to be very captivating to me.
The plot and conflict was engaging and I was interested enough to WANT to know what happens, I liked the protagonist and her friend and their struggles but those seemed to be the only characters of note that didn’t go missing, leave, or get killed off. There wasn’t any romance in the book which was refreshing.
It was a solid, entertaining fantasy read but not amazing or show-stopping to me and there’s not really anything else that’s coming to mind for me to even say about it and I’m not sure if I’ll continue reading the next books.

<i>*This book was given to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review*</i>

So I really had to fight for this one, every time I downloaded it, it was scrambled. I emailed Netgalley and they just sent me instructions on how to download books, then I emailed the publisher (I really wanted this book) and after a few back and forth's, I got my hands on this gem. All of it was worth it, action, intrigue, complicated magic system, but my favorite was the friendship between Sirscha and Saengo. So great that the emphasis was on their friendship and not a romance! Can't wait to read the next installment!

I unfortunately can’t write a review on this book because I was not able to open it anywhere. When I tried to download to my kindle the file was messed up and it was almost like a tiny picture. Either way I’m still really excited about this book and can’t wait for its publishing dat so I can get my hands on it.

Intro is slow, worldbuilding is very good, but unfortunately I didn't find it captivating enough. I belive that also there should be some warning for arachnophobes at the beginning of the book or at the back cover.

I started writing this review as soon as I finished Forest of Souls but I decided to sleep on it- because I was a) confused, and b) torn between a rating. In the end I have to give it a 4/5, leaning towards a 3.9.

The first thing I have to say is that this was a beautiful and enchanting book. It read like a carefully crafted fairy tale that wrapped its vines so tight around you that you just had to finish it. The world-building was lush and on point, and the overall plot was very intriguing. I was fully prepared to fall hard for this book, and I did, for the most part.

Just a few things fell flat for me:

- after about 100 pages...it felt like not a whole lot happened. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading about Sirscha and Saengo reading books and roaming around, but it just felt very tame for about 200 pages.

- some characters motives could have been alluded to or explained in a better manner. The plot twists and the 'secret motives for the big bad's felt a bit lackluster.

- there were times I really was hoping that Sirscha would connect the dots (for example, she notices a detail earlier in the book. Later when something is revealed,that was foreshadowed by that detail, she doesn't even acknowledge that clue and instead comes off as if it was a big surprise) ...if that makes sense?

Now for the things I loved:

- hecka strong and empowering female friendship that is so so so good (I really do love Sirscha and Saengo)

- a YA Fantasy novel that isn't bogged down with unnecessary romance

- Asian inspired world and characters (because I can't be the only one tired of the same old white Ya Fantasy)

- The Sisters (such a cool and well thought of concept, would have loved to see/learn more about them)



All in all, this book will be a hit and I guarantee many readers will fall in love with it.

Well done to Lori M. Lee, I look forward to reading your other works that are to come.

I really loved this book! I hate that I read it so fast and now its over. This book was on the top of my reading list for the year and it did not disappoint. The plot was super interesting and I know the teens at my library will love this book. I will be purchasing this book for my libraries YA collection.