THE RED GROVE by Tessa Fontaine is read by Erin Moon and is an atmospheric suspense coming March 13th.

Luce was born in this magical place where they say no harm can come to a woman, deep in the Redwood forest. Her aunt Gem, in a perpetual semi-comatose state, and little brother Roo are strangely left when Luce's mother Gloria goes suddenly missing. Luce begins to ask some questions about this home of hers, and discovers answers that may threaten not just herself but the entire community.

I really enjoyed getting taken down this slow burn. The build was steady and I kept wondering what this magical force was. I won't give anything away, but the process of revelation was well done.

The narration kept the underlying tension as the story went from Luce's narrative back to the beginning of the fabled community. I was fascinated to see how trauma and violence leave scars through time.

Thank you to @brilliancepublishing & @netgalley for this fascinating audiobook! I am excited to see what Fontaine does next!

I wanted more from this book, it was partially there, but didn’t fully deliver the emotional aspect. The Red Grove is a society in the forest where women can go to be away from men who harm them. The narration by Erin Moon was fantastic and she did a great job portraying the different timelines and different POVs. The storyline was easy to follow, and it was well written. As much as I wished there was more emotion in the story, I did think that each of the characters were well developed. The ending I thought was just OK but could have been better.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this audio.

I really wanted to like this. It started off great then it kinda went blah for me.

The unique plot of this book was so refreshing! I love multiple timelines/povs but they can be very tricky to pull off. However, Tessa Fontaine executed it flawlessly! The female characters were filled with "girl power" vibes that played beautifully to the overall storyline. I love a strong female lead in a novel. The narration, which can make or break an audiobook with this type of layout, was phenomenal and made it easy to distinguish between the timelines/povs. This book gave me Weyward vibes and I dare to say if you loved Weyward you will love The Red Grove. There was only one issue I had with this book, and that is the fact that I figured out the ending early and wasn't really surprised. The great thing is that even though I nailed the ending, I still thoroughly enjoyed the ride!

2.5 stars rounded up

I am still uncertain how I feel about this book. The Red Grove is horror adjacent/suspense that is supposedly feminist? The thing is, there are a few moments in the book that read as trans-exclusionary, but given the ending I'm also not sure what to make of that. And the book simply doesn't give the reader enough to go on to be certain what the intent of those elements is. I'm also not clear on how we are meant to interpret the ending.

The Red Grove is about this community where women supposedly can't be harmed for mystical reasons. It's intended to be a sort of utopia and haven from things like domestic violence. We follow a dysfunctional family including a psychic in a coma, her twin who supposedly interprets her comatose visions, and the twins two children- a true crime obsessed teen girl and a young boy. But then she disappears...

The writing is fairly engaging and there are creepy elements that work. But ultimately it's hard to talk about this one without spoilers, so warning that the rest of this review will be spoilery...

_______________________


So obviously men are not the only people who can enact harm on women, even if they are the statistical majority of perpetrators. The whole premise of this place is that women are safe from men. Except that the ending is all about the harm women can do to each other. I'm not sure how to read that.

Is this supposed to be raising an alarm about misandry? Commenting on the fact that violence can occur in queer relationships? (this seems tangential to the plot, but maybe part of the point) And the trans-exclusionary elements aren't commented on or part of the perceived problem with this place. The happy ending is that they let a minority of men have input. Is this feminist? I'm really not so sure. This isn't a bad book in terms of writing, but I nearly DNF'ed it a few times and I'm left feeling unsettled about the author's intent. And regardless of intent, I don't love that there are TERFy elements left unchallenged either overtly or subtly. The reviews for this are largely positive but also vague about the ending. I hope this review is helpful for people wondering if they should continue. I can't tell you what to do, but I can say I found the ending unsatisfying. The audio narration is great though. I received an audio review copy via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. I had a hard time staying interested and some parts were a little bit out there. This was not quite what I was expecting after reading the summary.
The narrator did do a good job though.

I wish I had enjoyed the entire story as much much as I enjoyed the last quarter.

I suppose I was dismayed by the simplicity. The Red Grove felt more like standard thriller fare, while I had anticipated powerful social commentary on violence toward women. What did exist within the storyline regarding that topic felt rather forced and lacking in nuance. There was some fact dropping, as well as limited illustrations of the community inhabitant’s past experiences, but it all felt relatively superficial. I know you may be sick of me writing “as a survivor,” when criticizing books of this nature, but when you carry personal experience into your reading, you do want to see that experience accurately and profoundly illustrated. So, as a survivor, I had hoped for something more complex. As a woman who has researched this topic for years and has spoken to a multitude of female victims, I felt frustrated by all The Red Grove lacked.

I was also expecting something more lyrical. There were a few lovely lines, but it wasn’t maintained throughout the prose. While I know plain writing can still convey a meaningful story, this one remained uncomplicated and that storytelling style did nothing to boost my satisfaction.

Had I gone into this expecting a more straightforward thriller, perhaps I would have appreciated it more, although I think the middle would have felt dull to me either way. I loved the concept, and I did feel satiated by how the mystery unraveled. Those factors did, at least, keep me from hating the novel.

I am immensely grateful to Brilliance Audio and NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.