The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones | Book Review

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The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers on August 16, 2022
Genres: YA Fantasy, LGBT, Romance, Retelling
Pages: 352
Format: Hardback (OwlCrate Edition)
Source: Purchased

Content Warnings: Death, Grief, Murder, Blood, Kidnapping, Drowning, Torture, Suicidal Thoughts
Rating:

Once upon a time, the kingdoms of Wales were rife with magic and conflict, and eighteen-year-old Mererid “Mer” is well-acquainted with both. She is the last living water diviner and has spent years running from the prince who bound her into his service. Under the prince’s orders, she located the wells of his enemies, and he poisoned them without her knowledge, causing hundreds of deaths. After discovering what he had done, Mer went to great lengths to disappear from his reach. Then Mer’s old handler returns with a proposition: use her powers to bring down the very prince that abused them both. The best way to do that is to destroy the magical well that keeps the prince’s lands safe. With a motley crew of allies, including a fae-cursed young man, the lady of thieves, and a corgi that may or may not be a spy, Mer may finally be able to steal precious freedom and peace for herself. After all, a person with a knife is one thing…but a person with a cause can topple kingdoms.

The Drowned Woods is a fantastical retelling of the myth of Cantre'r Gwaelod, a legendary sunken kingdom that is not Cardigan Bay in west Wales. The earliest account of this legend appears in the Black Book of Carmarthen in which it is said Maes Gwyddno was lost to the sea when a well-maiden by the name of Mererid allowed the well to overflow due to negligence. It's this version of the legend that Lloyd-Jones pulls from, following our main character Mererid "Mer" who is not a well maiden, but a water diviner on a quest to find her freedom.

As with most Welsh folktales, Lloyd-Jones's retelling is fantastical and dark, filled with magical creatures, gruesome deaths, unseen betrayals, and ultimate sacrifices all with a touch of romance (Mer is bisexual). Lloyd-Jones does an excellent job weaving realism and fantastical elements together in this high-stakes, fast-paced retelling. I thoroughly enjoyed her world-building and character development, particularly that of Mer and Fane, a fae-cursed young man who joins Mer's company as the hired muscle with his corgi Trefor. What I loved most about both of these character's story arcs is that you don't get their life story all at once. It slowly unfolds, being told in both the present and the past, allowing the reader to form a deep bond with both characters. This adds a bit of mystery to them, especially Fane whose story takes much longer to unfold.

What bumped this book up to a four-star read for me was the heartbreak I felt multiple times throughout the story, especially with Gryf, one of the motley crew seeking to topple Cear Wyddno, and my inability to see the twists coming. Gryf's character is largely a mystery until the very end, and the conclusion of his story left me shattered. I'm talking put-the-book-down-in-the-middle-of-a-chapter shattered. Llyod-Jones did an amazing job of hiding each character's real motivations, and, as I said, I did not see any of the twists coming. Yes...twists as in multiple. I pride myself in being able to guess plot twists before they happen, but Lloyd-Jones left no crumbs, no hints, no foreshadowing, and I ate it up like candy.

Finally, The Drowned Woods is set in the same magical world as The Bone Houses which I read a couple of years ago. I went back and read through a summary to jog my memory of some important details and I am certainly glad I did because there is a significant connection between the two. I'm not going to give anything away because I want you to read it for yourself, but the connection is not required to understand either story. I will say The Drowned Woods happens before The Bone Houses, so if you want to read them in chronological order start with The Drowned Woods. Reading them back to back will make their connection much more obvious. If you have already read The Bone Houses, you won't see the connection until the very end, so don't waste your time trying to figure it out before the last part like I did.

My only beef with this book that prevented me from giving it a five-star rating is the repetition and stunted pacing. There were several times Llyod-Jones repeated herself within 1 or 2 pages of each other as if she hadn't told us some important detail before. This annoyed me. Furthermore, the majority of the book is leading up to the heist, with very little time being given to the heist itself. I would have enjoyed it more if the book had been a hundred pages longer. I don't mind longer stories if it means doing the story justice. This one certainly needed some more pages to do it justice.

Despite these qualms, I deeply enjoyed the story and may come back to it again in the future. Welsh folklore is unforgettably fascinating and Lloyd-Jones certainly did it justice.