Charlotte Kersten

“A Woodlands heart always finds its way home.”

Year published: 2018

Category: YA fantasy

CW: self-harm, discussions of suicide, suicidal ideation, disordered eating

Summary: Five years ago, Evelyn and Philippa Hapwell cowered from air strikes in a London bomb shelter. But that night took a turn when the sisters were transported to another realm called the Woodlands. In a forest kingdom populated by creatures out of myth and legend, they found temporary refuge.

When they finally returned to London, nothing had changed at all—nothing, except themselves.

Now, Ev spends her days sneaking into the woods outside her boarding school, wishing for the Woodlands. Overcome with longing, she is desperate to return no matter what it takes.

Philippa, on the other hand, is determined to find a place in this world. She shields herself behind a flawless exterior and countless friends, and moves to America to escape the memory of what was.

But when Evelyn goes missing, Philippa must confront the depth of her sister’s despair and the painful truths they’ve been running from. As the weeks unfold, Philippa wonders if Ev truly did find a way home, or if the weight of their worlds pulled her under.

My thoughts: This was introduced to me as “a Narnia fanfic about trauma.” That reduces things down quite a bit, but there might just be a bit of truth to it, too. I definitely liked some things about this, but a few other elements dragged it down, particularly the ending.

One of the strongest elements is the relationship between Phil and Ev, especially how it shows that their codependence does neither of them any good. Phil blames herself for so many things while she totally absolves Tom; she holds herself totally accountable for her sister’s fate without acknowledging that Ev has autonomy too. At the same time, Ev simply does not understand how much her sister does for her while thinking that she drove her away.

Evelyn bounces back and forth between trying to settle into life in England and despairing/totally giving up in a way that feels like a genuine depiction of someone having good days and bad days in their struggle with grief and depression. That being said, I did feel that both Ev and Phil felt fairly one-note in their struggles and I didn’t get a strong sense of who they are outside of those struggles – yes, we know that Evelyn’s heart belongs in the Woodlands and Philippa feels responsible for her while hiding behind a facade of control and put-togetherness! It’s perfectly fine for a book to be very slow and introspective, but I think ideally a book like that should have lots more depth to the characterization and less mere repetition.

The little romance plots with vaguely nice and ceaselessly patient men didn’t really do anything for me and don’t change much for the characters either. My other main critique besides everything about the ending is that the idea of the Woodlands being a safe haven from World War II is totally undercut by the way that war is either brewing or actually happening while they are there. The kids have to do horrible things like kill people and barter their lives in marriage…this is totally subjective but it never quite made sense to me as an analogy for their security from the traumas of WWII because of this.

My biggest issue by far was the ending, though. I think it would be much stronger altogether if it ended on an ambiguous note with them never finding Ev or having her return and find a way to live past her loss. As it stands, Evelyn finds her way back to the Woodlands and Philippa is going to move on with her life, and it all just feels so incredibly…simplistic and pat after what this book is meant to be a complex exploration of grief and loss and the complexities of struggle. It just felt extremely cheap to me