Willa is a young night-spirit jaetter of the Dead Hollow clan of the Faeran, an orphan and a sort of New world fairy? She’s also a woodwitch with the ability to talk to trees and plants and some animals, and she can change skin color like a chameleon and blend so that she can hardly be seen among the flora of the forest. Jaetters are thieves who come at night and steal from the day-folk for the benefit of the ruler of Willa’s clan, the paderan. Faeran believe in the guideline that “there is no I, only we”, but Willa is an individual. She escapes from the confines of her dictatorial clan life, but she finds that life without the clan is lonely and purposeless. So, most of the book is about Willa’s search for home, community, and family.

Who’s editing the books these days, anyway? Willa of the Wood tells a good story, set in the Great Smoky Mountains, with atmosphere and suspense and compelling characters and a touch of Americana (Cherokee characters, the mountains, panthers and otters and other animals native to the area). BUT there are some obvious glitches that a good editor should have noticed. The first paragraph of chapter 33 repeats the action in the last few paragraphs of chapter 32, as if the reader is picking up on a serial installment of the story. Why? None of the other chapters have this repetition (that I noticed), and it was disconcerting.

Then, there were niggling little questions I had as I was reading. The miller, Nathaniel, says he earns his living from the mill, taking one bag of cornmeal for every ten that he grinds, but no one ever comes to the mill to have their grain milled. And most of the time Nathaniel is absent from home, anyway. How can he run a business when he’s gone half the time and has no customers? And how many children were there in the underground prison? It seemed as if there were lots, more than Willa could visit or free, on multiple levels. Then, the story said that she freed only 23 or 24 children. What happened to the rest of the children? And why did the Faeran let the girl stay with her baby brother?

There were more questions I had as I read. Some were resolved; others were not. I can see how this fantasy fiction would appeal especially to children who live in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee or South Carolina. Or those who like stories about communication with animals. The entire book is rather dark and melancholy, with themes of cultural annihilation, cruelty, power-grabbing, and greed. But, as I said, it may appeal to some readers. I thought it was OK, but I was kind of glad for the happy-ish ending. If it’s the first in a series, there wasn’t enough there to draw me back for a second go-round.

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This book may be nominated for a Cybils Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.