The Edge Chronicles: Beyond the Deepwoods, by Paul Stewart, Chris Riddell
Book Review by Jeff Edwards
Have you read this book?
Twig grew up among the woodtrolls, and it's the only home he's ever known. But one night, Twig learns the reason why he's so different from his brothers and sisters: He isn't a woodtroll at all. His mother explains that she adopted him as an infant after finding him wrapped up in a shawl at the foot of her treehouse. And so, after this revelation, Twig sets off into the Deepwoods to find out who he really is and where he belongs.
In Beyond the Deepwoods, Paul Stewart creates an intriguing world called the Edge, and Chris Riddell brings that world and its inhabitants to vivid life with his pen-and-ink illustrations. But the book's episodic narrative quickly becomes tedious: In each chapter, Twig finds himself in trouble, and then either escapes or is rescued.
Although published by an imprint of Random House Children's Books, the novel seems unnecessarily mean-spirited and violent, and is hardly appropriate for all ages: Twig's journey is truly harrowing, with plenty of "crunching of bones and slurping of blood." Parents who are considering the book should know that within the Deepwoods lurk vile creatures such as the flesh-eating bloodoak and the leathery-winged rotsucker - and each tries to consume Twig in its own disgusting manner. That's not all: When Twig wanders into a lullabee grove, he thinks he is watching his mother being murdered; later, one of Twig's friends is torn apart and eaten alive by dozens of tiny, ravenous wig-wigs.
In Beyond the Deepwoods, a character says, "If you stray from the well-trodden path, then tread your own path for others to follow." But Stewart and Riddell blaze no trails here. Despite an abundance of unusual and imaginative characters and settings, the underpinning of the book is still just the story of an adopted child who comes of age and embarks on a journey of self-discovery: an overly familiar, archetypal tale that we've read too many times before.
In Beyond the Deepwoods, Paul Stewart creates an intriguing world called the Edge, and Chris Riddell brings that world and its inhabitants to vivid life with his pen-and-ink illustrations. But the book's episodic narrative quickly becomes tedious: In each chapter, Twig finds himself in trouble, and then either escapes or is rescued.
Although published by an imprint of Random House Children's Books, the novel seems unnecessarily mean-spirited and violent, and is hardly appropriate for all ages: Twig's journey is truly harrowing, with plenty of "crunching of bones and slurping of blood." Parents who are considering the book should know that within the Deepwoods lurk vile creatures such as the flesh-eating bloodoak and the leathery-winged rotsucker - and each tries to consume Twig in its own disgusting manner. That's not all: When Twig wanders into a lullabee grove, he thinks he is watching his mother being murdered; later, one of Twig's friends is torn apart and eaten alive by dozens of tiny, ravenous wig-wigs.
In Beyond the Deepwoods, a character says, "If you stray from the well-trodden path, then tread your own path for others to follow." But Stewart and Riddell blaze no trails here. Despite an abundance of unusual and imaginative characters and settings, the underpinning of the book is still just the story of an adopted child who comes of age and embarks on a journey of self-discovery: an overly familiar, archetypal tale that we've read too many times before.
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