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Again, I’d like to open this post with a reminder that the Black Lives Movement is still going and still needs support and recognition! Happy Juneteenth! ♥

• This carrd: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ has a lot of informations and resources and is updated regularly! It also has info on Palestine, the Junk Terror Bill and Hong Kong. This has been updated to include info and resources about the Yemen crisis.
• ActBlue is a secure donation service that splits your donation to several different charities and organisations fighting against the injustice: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ab_mn
• https://petition.parliament.uk/ and https://www.change.org/ are sites to sign petitions.
• There are also lots of resources available on Twitter!

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On the 11th June I did the Book Scavenger Hunt and spoiler alert it – the book the game ended up picking was Beyond the Deepwoods; Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell.

Due to being in about a 2 month reading slump, it took me a while to eventually pick this up. I’m taking part in the KpopReadAThon and used this book for one of the prompts – and recently I had an urge to read and I leapt on it!

I said that I would do a review, so here it is! I tend to feel like my reviews aren’t that great, because words… 😂 I hope you enjoy reading nonetheless!

Goodreads Synopsis:

Abandoned at birth in the perilous Deepwoods, Twig Verginix is brought up by a family of woodtrolls. One cold night, Twig does what no woodtroll has ever done before – he strays from the path.

So begins a heart-stopping adventure that will take Twig through a nightmare world of fearsome goblins, bloodthirsty beasts and flesh-eating trees. Can he discover the truth about his past?

My Rating:

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading, but it certainly wasn’t all the twists and turns Beyond the Deepwoods ended up being. We meet such an array of interesting and well described characters and creatures. It was certainly a wild ride that Twig was on.

I do wish we were able to spend more time with certain characters, but they all played a great part in helping Twig’s character growth. The time frame within the book was also a little confusing. I honestly couldn’t tell you how long Twig spent in the Deepwoods from beginning to end.

Despite being a children’s book, Beyond the Deepwoods tackles some very mature themes of death, loneliness, abandonment etc. I grew up reading Darren Shan so I most definitely love authors who don’t talk down to children or coddle them. However, I will say maybe don’t give this to a sensitive child 😂 I’m 25yrs old and even I found the Banderbear chapter to be a lot! I looked up the age range for this book and I found two different ones: 11+ or 12+ for those interested in who the target audience is.

The book does seem rather step by step and almost episodic with each chapter generally having a beginning, middle and end. Due to this it did take a while for me to warm up to Twig, and I felt like I didn’t know where the plot was going or if there was a point to certain events. The ending did well in tying up certain plot points and giving more meaning to the feelings of Twig and the themes of the overarching plot.

The writing is wonderful and captivating. In fantasy the descriptions are key to immersion in the world and this book was great! There are many descriptions of nature, creatures, foods, sounds and tastes and they are all engaging. This would be a great book to read out loud!

And of course, Riddell’s illustrations elevated the descriptions. Riddell’s style is very recognisable and fits very well with this fantasy novel. At times I did wish their was some colour, but I’m still a huge fan of the black and white drawings. The details are fantastic!

All in all, this was a good book and thankfully it’s helped lift me out of my reading slump. And, I’d happily read another of the books set in this world 😀

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Thanks for reading! I hope you’re having a lovely day and staying safe ♥