It's interesting how opinions on this book are so polarized, but I guess I can understand why. It's a riff on the traditional fairy tales, and the writing style is a little abrupt at times, but it really tickled me in all the right places. You'll either love or hate this book. I loved it. ( )

This was a fun and zippy weekend read, meant for people who enjoy fairy tales and fantasy. Following two wars between power seeking humanity and the fae, the fae set up 12 human kingdoms to be ruled by those with a mix of faery blood. As long as 6 kingdoms are ruled peaceably, the fae agree not to destroy humanity. Watching over this arrangement is the Woodcutter, who lives in the neutral Wood, naturally enough, and is one with the trees. Mixed blood humans/fae continually wander into his Wood, driven by the magic present in the kingdoms, living out fairy tales and legends. So the Woodcutter does things like follow little girls dressed in red capes on their way to grandma's house, and sometimes he is able to save them from the wolf, and sometimes he is not.

But when Cinderella is found dead in the Wood without a mark on her, the Woodcutter senses something more sinister afoot. One of Odin's hellhounds is loose and taking the souls of rightful heirs to the kingdoms who have been somehow delivered into the Wood. The Woodcutter must uncover the plot, fight the evil Queen whose madness for power risks delivering all humanity to destruction, and save the magical beings who live in the Wood and the kingdoms from becoming enslaved in the illicit faery dust trade.

Scads of familiar fairy tales are incorporated into the novel, which is itself a fairy tale, warning of the dark side of human motivations and the bad ends to be found by pursuing them, and the saving benefits of true love.

The internal logic of the story is occasionally difficult to suss out, but the story flies by and kept me turning the pages with pleasure. ( )

Wonderful. Well-paced, subtle, adventurous. ( )

Okay. . . so I was a little on the fence with the narrative style for a bit. However. . . I had to read this book because any reimagining of classic fairytales is RIGHT. UP. MY. ALLEY. Danley does an amazing job of referencing most well known tales in addition to a few of the more obscure tales and some mythology thrown in for good measure.

The last three chapters though. . . . sobbed like a baby. ( )

This is like...   'How many fairy tales and folkloric things can you fit into 346 pages and still manage to create a well structured story?'

From 'Odin' to 'Sleeping Beauty', 'Jack and the Beanstalk' to 'Baba Yaga', and everyone in between, this is none stop from the first page to the last.   And somehow Kate has managed to make it all work in this wonderful story about a Woodcutter -- who doesn't actually cut wood.

If you like fairy tales, folklore, or are maybe looking for something different in a fantasy story, then i don't think you'll be disappointed with 'The Woodcutter'.

My first Kate Danley book, it won't be my last. ( )