My Five Word TL:DR Review: I think I misled myself

To be fair to the author, I will immediately hold up my hands and say that my own secret wishes and desires led me a little down the garden (or forest) path with this particular book.  I’ve already read a couple of books by this author and really enjoyed them and so, basically, when I saw this book (with that cover) my tiny little brain went into overdrive and frankly pulled a number on me. What I was really wishing for was a blood soaked retelling of the Headless Horseman’s story – and let’s be clear here – this is certainly the right author to give us that book.  I wanted to return to Sleepy Hollow and for Henry to give us a blood curdling shock or two.  In actual fact this doesn’t promise to be a retelling at all but a continuation of the  original story – so there you go, my bad.  I also confess that given the month of October, Halloween approaching, and all things creepy generally pervading the air like a virus, yes, I wanted a good dose of the chills – again, my expectations kind of got the better of me in that respect – so, my bad, AGAIN.

So, the above confessed, the air cleared, I can say that I loved the storytelling voice here, I really like Christina Henry’s style.  But, and of course there was going to be a but, this one just didn’t really work for me and I can’t help feeling all naffed off (much more than the actual story warrants) because I feel like a retelling of Sleepy Hollow could have been so good, particularly in the hands of this author, and so now I feel kind of cheated.

As I said, this is a continuation from the grandchild of Brom Bones, Ben Van Brunt.  Ben and her friend frequently play in the woods surrounding the village until one day a body is found, the hands and head are missing and this gruesome discovery is then followed by the finding of another, similarly mutilated body.

Ben has always had a love of the woods, she imagines herself to be watched and almost protected by the idea of the Horseman.  This is oddly out of sync with the rest of the village who fear the forest and are still deeply suspicious.  There’s very much a ‘small village’ type of mentality shrouding Sleepy Hollow, it hasn’t moved forward with the times and is still cloaked in mystery.  Outsiders don’t seem to stick around and there is an overall feeling of sadness that seems to permeate the place.

Like I mentioned above.  I did love the writing here.  I got a good feel for the place and the people.  There’s a constant yo-yo ing of affection between Ben and her grandparents as each of them seem to vy for attention.  Ben adores her grandfather, partly because (I think) he feels so big and strong, people defer to him naturally and he also makes Ben feel accepted just as she is.  Basically, Ben wants to be a boy, and this is a theme that plays a large role in the story here but, personally, I’m not sure it was really well explored and I’m struggling to define why that is.  I guess, at the end of the day, it feels like there’s more telling than showing and in some ways it feels like the emotional side of the story overshadowed all the other aspects.  It just feels out of balance somehow or as though the author maybe lost focus with too many different ideas trying to fill a relatively small space.

In terms of the overall plot and the eventual reveal.  I’m sorry to say that my overall feelings were ones of confusion and disappointment.  There is more than one monster in these woods – imagine that, it could have been so good – but, the final reveal felt a little lacklustre.  I don’t want to give away any spoilers here which is why I’m struggling to make my feelings clear but I guess overall I think both ‘monsters’ fell a little flat.

I think I’m going to end this review here.  My ideas are a bit of a mess and I’ve had a real dilemma writing this review, rewriting it a couple of times already, so I’m going to call it a day and quit now.

Basically, I think my own ideas got in the way of this story’s success.  I wanted something that was never actually promised and so ultimately I was disappointed.  If you fancy a continuation of the legend of Sleepy Hollow this might be just what you’re looking for.  Unfortunately it didn’t work it’s magic on me although I love this author and will very much look forward to her next book.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 2.5 of 5 stars