Mohamed excels at telling the stories of ordinary people trapped by dark forces, and she infuses these characters with astounding tenderness and compassion. The Butcher of the Forest shows exactly why Mohamed is one of fantasy’s rising stars.
Fast-paced, tense, fantastical and uncanny, The Butcher of the Forest is a perfect mix of horror and fantasy ... It’s Mohamed’s beautiful prose and endearing characters that make this a powerful story.
A precise and atmospheric novella ... Mohamed’s forest is an eerie, alien place, hauntingly atmospheric, and never to be trusted. Mohamed is often elliptical about its dangers and its horrors, her lucid prose conveying more by Veris’s reaction to her encounters than by plain description, though the description is frequently elegant ... The Butcher of the Forest is a compelling and effective story. It has layers, and depth, and feeling.
An enchanting, bite-size adventure ... This tense quest through the eerie and atmospheric forest propels the story forward at a breakneck pace. Though the page count doesn’t leave much room for character development, lending the cast a flat, fairy tale-like quality, it’s easy to buy into the high stakes.
