The Butcher of the Forest is a novella by Premee Mohamed.
Finished on: 21.9.2025

Plot:
Veris Thorn has grown up next to the forest and she, like everybody else who lives there, she knows that you do not go into the Elmever forest, ever. But the Tyrant who has taken over their land doesn’t know that, and neither did his children. What he does know, though, is that Veris is the only person ever to go into the forest and come back out with another child. So he sends her in to get his children back. Veris only has a day to complete the task.

The Butcher of the Forest is a beautifully written, evocative and very creepy horror novella that gives us basically a fairy tale in all of the senses of the word. I loved it.

The Butcher of the Forest was the first thing by Premee Mohamed I read, but I am sure it won’t be the last. Because it gave me pretty much everything I love in books rolled into a neat little package.

First, there is the fact that Veris is a grown, adult woman and I am hungry for fantasy stories that don’t star teenagers. I don’t mind reading them every once in a while, but the older I get, the more I want stories about people who are older than twenty, or even older than – gasp – thirty. Veris is settled in her skin, she knows herself. I adored this, and I really liked her.

Second, The Butcher of the Forest reads like a fairy tale in many ways. It’s also a tale of the fae, although the latter are not the fairies we are used to getting, neither the cutesy ones, nor the strangely beautiful ones. We are getting just the nightmare parts here, and damn, they are effective. That is the third thing I love: good horror.

Fourth, there is surprising complexity in this one. For all its archetypical feeling, Mohamed continuously subverts the purity of those types, adding layers in her characterization of everybody that surprised me time and again.

Finally, it’s just really excellently written. The prose is striking and fluid, each word seems to be in just the right place. It makes me almost wish that it had been more than a novella, but I have the sneaking suspicion that it is the perfect length to do what it sets out to do. Though I wouldn’t mind a sequel, and the ending leaves plenty of opportunity for that.

Summarizing: really, really great.