Silver in the Wood is the first novella in the Greenhollow duology by Emily Tesh.
Finished on: 2.9.2022

Plot:
Tobias Finch lives a remote life in the wood, a wood he cares for, making sure that the supernatural is kept in check. One night, Henry Silver, who just bought the estate next to the wood, and the wood itself, ends up taking shelter in Tobias’ hut. Silver is curious, a student of folklore, and he keeps coming back to Tobias, inquiring about history and legends. But some secrets shouldn’t be uncovered.

Silver in the Wood is a beautiful novella, creepy and romantic, it strikes just the right magical tone for a story about a forest filled with melancholy and magic.

Silver in the Wood really had me in its grip. At first, the slowly growing relationship between Tobias and Henry, then the revealing of the dark secrets of Tobias’ past, and finally the danger in the end – it all works beautifully. It is also rather astounding how much Tesh manages to pack into the novella, how many different moods, both given how this is really not very long and how it still feels like a cohesive whole where everything fits together.

Tobias is a great character and Tesh really captures who he is in the parts she doesn’t say as much as, or maybe more than in the parts she does say. It really shows her strength as a writer. Henry seems the polar opposite but as we learn later, he may not be quite as different from Tobias than it seems at first. That being said, it is an opposite attracts story without the usual explosive dynamic in those stories, but instead a sweet and calm one.

I really devoured the book, and it was over way too quickly, so I’m glad that it’s only the first part of two. I can’t wait to continue with it.

Summarizing: absolutely wonderful.