Dark Woods, Deep Water by Jelena Dunato is a dark fantasy story that centers on three main characters and how they all, by entirely different circumstances, become embroiled in a life or death struggle with servants of the Goddess of Death.

My broad thoughts on this book is that it feels like a snapshot of a larger world. That works both for and against it, as this particular story feels much too short and much too focused on the wrong things but is still very compelling and engaging.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book with the cursed castle and the Goddess of Death, however I was left wanting more on all accounts. The first third of the book was spent entirely on building up the backstory of each of our main characters, which would have been fine in a book at least double in length, but here it felt like a dire waste of pages, especially since two of the three POV characters felt very… generic. The first, a spoiled lady who is given over to an unwanted marriage after a failed elopement with a charming lord, and the second a poor young woman willing to cheat and swindle to make her way through the world. The third POV, the secretary to a prince who fought the goddess of death and won, had the most potential but the fewest scenes.

While I liked all three of these characters, even Elisya in her own way, I did not need a hundred pages (of a 300 page book) dedicated to how they got in their situation. Elisya’s story felt especially egregious as it was so very… again, generic. Her entire backstory of falling in love with the wrong lord and squandering the chance to be well-married could have been distilled into a single concise chapter instead of the three or four we were given.

Alas, the pacing meant that we did not even arrive at the castle until the midpoint, and the story arc, which we are given to believe is the whole point of the book, regarding the cursed castle and the fight against the servants of the goddess of death, felt exceedingly underwhelming as a result. We are given a very vague notion as to how the curse began, but not the particulars, despite a POV character being responsible for touching off events.

The climax itself had promise, but again felt too focused on the wrong aspects. We are given tantalizing tidbits of lore about Prince Amron and his relationship to the pantheon of gods who oversee this world, and then the book is over.

That being said, after sleeping on it, I think its “snapshot” feel does do this book some credit, because I would very much like to read more stories in this world. The lore we did get was delicious and fascinating, and I would definitely read an entire book about Amron. I just wish that more care had been given in cultivating the story of this book rather than just the characters.

All told, I am giving Dark Woods, Deep Water three stars.

I was initially drawn to this book because of the mention of it being Slavic folktale inspired. I don't normally read horror, but this had more of a Gothic horror feel than it did the fairytale vibe I was expecting. All that being said, I still was not disappointed in it. I loved the multiple points of view, and the introduction with Ida had me hooked from the first chapter. The twist ending is clever and well done. The only complaint I have with the story is it feels like it could have been fleshed out more with backstories.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy!
This fantasy, Slavic folklore-inspired novel has a great premise. Three strangers find themselves together in a creepy castle in an enchanted forest. Their destinies are intertwined by familial relations and an old curse brought on by the Goddess of Death, Morana. Their journeys start in different places, their stories set in motion by a series of unfortunate events. When they find themselves in the decrepit castle and its everchanging labyrinth of corridors, one has to die for the others to live. Will the chosen one break the curse?

Dark Woods, Deep Water is told in three POVs. First, we meet Ida – a young trickster forced to fight her way from the hands of her mentor Dr. Bellemus. After trading herself to a group of young men, she ends up helping them rob the owner of the castle. Then we meet Telani, a secretary to Prince Amron of Larion. Prince Amron is the king's uncle, and he is on a mission to retrieve Raden, a boy with the gift of divination, who is a threat to the king. Once they had taken the boy, they lost their way in the forest in a snowstorm. And finally, we meet Elisya, the girl whose unfortunate love affair led her to the son of the castle's owner. What is the string that ties them together, and how will their fates mesh together? Does Morana have the answer?

The first half of the story was truly promising. While the pacing was slow, I was intrigued to see where the story goes. Dunato introduces us to these compelling characters, slowly building up the world and crafting a crescendoing atmosphere until Elisya finds herself inside the castle. The overall atmosphere is adventurous, and the fantasy storytelling is strong. I liked how Dunato uses Croatian words like gospodar (lord), gospa (lady), and vlastelin (landowner) as titles for characters. There is a lot of exposition in the first couple of chapters as we navigate the rich world of a variety of characters and their relations. Ultimately, few of those characters remain relevant.

The second half was a bit disappointing and underwhelming. The setting shifts to the inside of the castle's walls. In the castle, the three main characters face immense darkness, rot, and utter deterioration, disguised under the veil of the curse. Instead of seeing the true nature of the building, they see astounding decor, tables covered in food, and winding corridors. I was not as intrigued by this part of the story. It felt as if the story's focus shifted into uncharted territory. By the end of the story, Dunato loses her voice and leads her characters astray. In contrast to an ambitious start, the ending is abrupt, weird, and unfitting.

A ageing soldier devoted to his lord, a young lady about to lose her illusions, and another young woman who’s never had many illusions to lose, all find their way to a path in the woods leading to a castle whose inhabitants may not want them to leave, in this Gothic, medieval-inspired, Eastern-European fantastic tale.

This book confused me, but I don’t think it’s the author’s fault at all. The story is split into three different perspectives, and you’re given little time to find your bearings before things start taking a dark turn for the characters. While this type of opening won’t bother many readers used to plot-based fantasy & science-fiction, it made things a little difficult for me, who tend to prefer character-based stories that take their time establishing the stakes & world-building.

That being said, I really enjoyed the snippets of folklore interspersed throughout the story. I would even have enjoyed a bit more, but I appreciated the fact that the author rooted her novel in this fictional, yes, but quite realistic world. It is a dark one, I must insist, especially in terms of sexual violence (see the content warnings).

The blurb was slightly misleading because what it describes doesn’t happen before you’re about one third into the story, which added to my confusion. There was also a timeline thing that wasn’t clear, but I loved the way each character has a different experience of time passing. The way we saw some of them through the eyes of the others was also very well done in my opinion. This novel really delivered on the structure with different strands slowly getting braided together, which is a feature I really love in books.

On the whole, I remain quite confused by this book and would be hard pressed to recount the narrative in detail, but I’d recommend it for fans of G.R.R. Martin looking for a Gothic and folkloric touch.

CW: rape, sexism, violence (sword fights), mention of fatphobia.

Dark Woods, Deep Water is a dark fantasy with Slavic folklore elements. It’s the story of a cursed castle and three travelers brought together one ill fated night. How do their stories intertwine and will they be able to escape the enchanted castle with their lives?

I loved the folklore elements and seeing how the stories of the three characters we were following interconnected with each other. As the story goes on and the reader starts to realize what is happening and how the pieces come together the tension builds. Once we are at the castle and everything comes in to play it’s really satisfying.

In some ways I wish it went further into the folklore because it was so interesting but perhaps it’s best left mysterious. The cursed castle and its haunting vibes were everything, very dark fairytale core aesthetic. How the stories interconnect could have the potential to be a little confusing but I loved how the pieces came together like a puzzle and seeing the big picture made me want to read it again.

I think if you’re into dark fantasy or love folklore and fairytales this is a perfect autumn/winter read as the nights get longer and cold winds start to blow.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Fans of gothic fiction and folklore, unite! This book has the perfect combination of eerie gothic and fairytale gone brutally wrong.

This is a story set in the deep woods of a remote forest, in an enchanted castle that preys on unwary travellers. If that’s not enough to hook you in (it was enough for me!), one terrible night, three people who never should have met find themselves trapped in the enchanted castle. Their destinies entwine, and as dawn approaches, the castles riddles become clear- if they are to escape, one of them must die.

Are you kidding me!? SOLD.

The characters were very interesting and it was perfectly gothic and dark. I loved the setting and the story was well told. I really enjoyed the pacing and the ending was my favourite part. Not because it was over, it was just a really great ending!

I didn’t like the timeline and, although necessary, the jumping around with dates really threw me off and dissociated myself from the story a bit.

I would definitely recommend to readers who love this grimdark, gothic fantasy style. It definitely lives up to the genre and delivers.


Thank you to NetGalley and Ghost Orchid Press for sending this book for review consideration! All opinions are my own.

This book is billed as horror, which I don't think is entirely accurate; it's more of a dark fantasy. As a dark fantasy, however, it's quote enjoyable. I think the structure used wasn't the best for the story (we don't reach the titular dark woods until the halfway point) and some of the supporting characters could have been fleshed out better. But overall, it was an enjoyable read.

Wonderfully dark tale of travellers trapped in a cursed castle. The mystery developed slowly and it took some patience for all the stories to connect, but when they did, ther was a really rewarding "aha" moment.
The three narrators were all unreliable, flawed and completely human and despite their faults, I rooted for them. My favourite was Telani, though, because I love the "one last quest" trope and old soldiers who know more than they reveal.
The ending was heartbreaking and satisfying, but it left me wanting to find out more about the characters.
Overall, a great read.

Part of me wishes I had read this book in the winter instead of in high summer -- it would have been easier to get lost in the snowy woods and decaying castle halls. However, the other part of me thinks I would have been hard-pressed to be drawn into the story even if my surroundings matched the mood. The world-building isn't especially strong, with more time devoted to characterizing the present location then placing it in the wider society. The characters, with the exception of Telani, weren't especially likable, even if I could sympathize with Ina and her actions near the end. Elysia got the short end of the stick POV wise and felt designed to be disliked, which always irks me when instead the author could have given her the chance to grow. There was a brilliant opportunity for female friendship and mutual development between Elysia and Ina that never manifested, instead bringing out the more negative aspects of their respective personalities. This reflects my biggest criticism, which is that I feel like none of the characters did any growing over the course of the novel. The events of the story feel like something that happened to them rather than something that changed them in any meaningful way. I firmly believe than in any good story a character has to end the book in a different mindset than how they started, and this development was nowhere to be seen.

Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC!

I love books that feel like you’re stepping into a folklorish tale told by the fireside. That’s exactly what this felt like.

There was a big AHA moment when it all came together how all of the POVs intertwined and that was a satisfying moment. The author has such a simplistic but poignant way of describing things that I really enjoyed.

Only criticism was some details about the old gods and especially Tellani’s POV were confusing, but overall it was a good book :)

I found this book hard to get into but I firmly that's just because I wasn't in the right mood to read it. The author clearly has a talent and I would be interested in rereading this novel in the future.

I enjoyed this book! The elements of Slavic folklore made this more interesting to me, and I enjoyed the three different POVs. I found Ida's most interesting and Elysia's the least. The beginning was a little slow, but I enjoyed the world building and the increasingly creepy atmosphere.

Didn't love the two backstories, you choose her childhood just tell me which it is. Hate Elisya from the getgo. I know Ida is just trying to survive but she is not particularly likeable. However if the author was meaning to make them that way, it is unique. Telani is... fine? I do not dislike him or have any affection for him. Timeline is confusing because of the multiple POV's and at first it seems like these are happening concurrently but that was a mistake on my part. Also the climax and ending was confusing. I have no idea what happened.

This was overall enjoyable. The three point of view are distinct enough, with characters with diverse motives and histories. The worldbuilding has some interesting points, with the backround of slavic folklore and a nicely gothic atmosphere. I wish we had more development or informations, in a way I felt like it wasn't enough for me.
I had a hard time to connect strongly with the charecters (less so with Telani), wich, since I am a character driven reader, made the read a bit tedious sometimes. Ida is on the more gey character side, wich I thought I would enjoy a lot. Unfortunately, it didn't. Elysia was my least like character, but it didn't really bothered my read.
Overall, I like the story enough to pursue my reading, but I felt a bit out of tension quite regularly. Having a different structure might have helped this lack of tension, since the characters are well build. The ending, touhg, is interesting !

I really ended up loving Dark Wods, Deep Water by Jelena Dunato.
I originally wanted to read this book as the premise sounded amazing and that cover is stunning!
I'm so happy I did as this book was just so good!

The writing was beautiful and atmospheric and I really loved the elements of Slavic folklore.
I found it worked really well!
The book did start quite slowly but I found that I liked that as it let me get to know the characters.

I really did love this book so I definitely highly recommend it!
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Dark Woods, Deep Waters is a dark fantasy novel with an intriguing premise but suffers from poor execution. It is a story about three POV characters from differing backgrounds being drawn into a cursed castle and set against each other with potentially deadly results. It's meant to be a character driven tale of poor choices made in good faith. It's a fantastic concept from which to grow a dark fantasy, however the choices made by the author I believe undermine this intent.

The biggest misstep I think is that the castle at the center of this tale doesn't make an appearance until over halfway through the story. In fact the Dark Woods, and Deep Waters along with the castle take up the least amount of “screen time” of the whole book. The rest is taken up telling us the backstories of each of the POV characters rather than showing us which ends up giving the impression that everything interesting ends up happening off the page (the revolts, the shake up in kingdom politics, key manipulations of characters).

This trend continues within the castle itself where all the dark deeds and development of the curse of the castle – happen off page. The key manipulations of side characters – happen off the page. We're only told it totally happened in retrospect in order to justify the seemingly arbitrary and sudden bad choices of characters. Unfortunately, in the end, this way of story telling felt clunky and stole most of the surprise and satisfaction of any reveals because we somehow knew both too much and too little about the characters we were watching.

I feel like the story would've been better off starting off with Ida's arrival at the castle then revealing with flashbacks, supernatural errieness (especially with seer characters built into the story), and character actions slowly reveal the motivations and backstories of the characters. In some instances I feel like in poor Telani's parts – it would've been better served being told from either Prince Amron's or Raden's point of view instead as we would've had a bit more insight into choices that were made by either of them, and benefit as readers from their gifts of divination.

The last thing I would like to touch on is the treatment of both female leads. The reader is constantly told and has drilled into their heads just how pretty, attractive, and desirable both of them are. It is a core part of how their characters operate. This to a point makes sense given Ida's upbringing and Elisya's vanity. However, the author decides to show this as well, through the constant threat of rape, sexual assault, and harassment that is treated very casually and off handedly at several points in the first half of the novel that seems to have a heavily implied link to both their desirability and that's it. Although I think this off putting feeling is only heightened by my feeling that the first half of the story feels unnecessary as it is even without the frivolously used sexual violence.

Deep Woods, Dark Water I feel could be great if reworked and restructured to add real tension a fantastic story concept with a renewed and greater presence given to the cursed castle and the gods/goddess that are meant to haunt the story.

The cover drew my eyes to this dark fairytale and I did not regret my reading experience with diving into this whole new world. The three point of views were very well-written and immersive, as you truly get to be attached to characters like Ida and Telani who were my favorites amongst the novel. The folktale and slavic inspirations of the story were fascinating and left a deep impression on me. Overall, the story really matched my taste for fairytales with a hint of realism.

I give all my thanks to Netgalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest and truthful review.

Loved:

The gorgeous cover.

The folktale/ dark fairytale vibe of the story.

The differing narrators and timeframes.

The interesting world building and descriptive prose.

Disliked:

The Ending. The resolution for Prince Amron & Elisya didn’t seem fair after all their suffering. I wasn’t a huge fan of Ida and she got all she wanted, despite being a morally wobbly character.

The Backstory/stories. Who is Telani? How exactly does he meet Prince Amron?
What is the deal with the Prince and the Goddess? I would’ve liked to see the full legend or story of their encounter, and how he escaped death in the prologue. We get glimpses of it during the tale (the theatre troupe acting out scenes), but it feels like there’s supposed to be a prequel novella or something actually explaining this.
More detail on who Queen Orsiana was, why everyone admired her. What happened with the revolt in the kingdom, why did that happen?


Overall, I loved this story, but just feel like it’s not fully developed. More information would really complete it and add depth to the world and characters.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author & Ghost Orchid Press for a copy!

An eerie blend of dark gothic fantasy and Slavic folklore, a brutal tale set in world filled with morally grey characters and vengeful gods.

This-wow. Underwhelming. I found Ida very interesting when I started, though the story was extremely dull. I had no connection to it, as I didn’t feel it had any liveliness. I was bored. Elisya was an entertaining character for the first half, but my god the second half dragged on. The plot is confusing and honestly makes no sense. I hate that an author who I think can write compelling characters can’t put together an intriguing storyline. The whole time I had no idea where it was going. And Telani’s chapters were the worst of the three povs. If his hadn’t dwindled in the second half, I don’t think I would’ve been able to finish it. Though this book has a beautiful cover and an interesting premise, it isn’t a fun read. Very unfortunate. :(

The only light in the darkness of my disinterest, was Tinka. She was an icon; she was a legend.