The Wolf and the Woodsman: A Novel

Written by Ava Reid

Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld

In the vein of Naomi Novik’s New York Times bestseller Spinning Silver and Katherine Arden’s national bestseller The Bear and the Nightingale, this unforgettable debut— inspired by Hungarian history and Jewish mythology—follows a young pagan woman with hidden powers and a one-eyed captain of the Woodsmen as they form an unlikely alliance to thwart a tyrant. 

In her forest-veiled pagan village, Évike is the only woman without power, making her an outcast clearly abandoned by the gods. The villagers blame her corrupted bloodline—her father was a Yehuli man, one of the much-loathed servants of the fanatical king. When soldiers arrive from the Holy Order of Woodsmen to claim a pagan girl for the king’s blood sacrifice, Évike is betrayed by her fellow villagers and surrendered.

But when monsters attack the Woodsmen and their captive en route, slaughtering everyone but Évike and the cold, one-eyed captain, they have no choice but to rely on each other. Except he’s no ordinary Woodsman—he’s the disgraced prince, Gáspár Bárány, whose father needs pagan magic to consolidate his power. Gáspár fears that his cruelly zealous brother plans to seize the throne and instigate a violent reign that would damn the pagans and the Yehuli alike. As the son of a reviled foreign queen, Gáspár understands what it’s like to be an outcast, and he and Évike make a tenuous pact to stop his brother.

As their mission takes them from the bitter northern tundra to the smog-choked capital, their mutual loathing slowly turns to affection, bound by a shared history of alienation and oppression. However, trust can easily turn to betrayal, and as Évike reconnects with her estranged father and discovers her own hidden magic, she and Gáspár need to decide whose side they’re on, and what they’re willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Jun 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9780062973153

Ava Reid

Ava Reid was born in Manhattan and raised right across the Hudson River in Hoboken but currently lives in Palo Alto. She has a degree in political science from Barnard College, focusing on religion and ethnonationalism. 

Reviews for The Wolf and the Woodsman

[Alexandra Viczina · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't feel like I have thoughts coherent enough for a review but PSA: some of the Hungarian name pronunciations in this audio version are NOT a definite, proper guide. The narrator did quite a good job, but a few names were off.

[Sarah Ridgeway · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Wolf and the Woodsman is a beautiful story with a rawness of emotion rarely seen in a debut novel (or any for that matter). Reid’s prose style is lyrical but with a keen edge. She tells a story of prejudice, pride, and love: romantic, of self, and familial that will speak to women of all ages. I couldn’t imagine a much more gorgeous debut. There is so much in this story. And though it’s ending is a bit unfinished and brilliantly bittersweet, I cannot imagine it differently. This is a fairytale of an allegory that is lush, dark, determined, and that will absolutely break your heart, while putting it back together at the same time. There’s a bit of Evike in every woman, unsure of herself and sometimes feeling like less but with a fierce fire underneath burning for the chance to prove she can be who she wishes to become. The best stories are the ones that teach us a bit about ourselves we may not have seen without it’s mirror.

[Isabelle M T Brehmer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I first found it to be a three star but I kept thinking about it from time to time and it grew with every month that passed after reading. Then I read A study in drowning which was a five star. Realised I was just unfamiliar with her way of writing. It's a solid 4 star book!

[Vivien Simó · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Honestly i did not finish listening to this book when i first tried years ago, i forgot why. Now i can not decide if it was the book itself that i had a problem with, or the butchered hungarian words bothered me too much. ?
I am hungarian but sometimes it took me several minutes to figure out what gibberish names the narrator is saying ?

[tornadox-962417 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Evike, a wolf-girl, is chosen to be her village's sacrifice to the Woodsmen. After some disasterous incidents, she is forced to work with her enemy to survive.

Re-tells and re-imagines Hungarian folklore, Jewish history, and the religious politics of the Byzantine Empire in a Hungarian-inspired world filled with magic. So much storytelling!

[Lucia Garcia · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Too much religious fanaticism for me.
I kept losing track of what was happening with all the guilt, and praying and sin. I only kept reading for the small nuggets of magic, those were fun.

[Amy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyable listen, nice combination of folklore and traditions set into a fantasy realm.

[Aspen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such an emotional, amazing book!! Loved all the myths women’s throughout

[Stephanie Krellwitz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well-written and well-narrated, this book was full of action, magic, and love

[Valery Bolliger · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A cool mix of fairy tale, epic and fantasy.
Enjoyed it very much!

[Judith Maynard · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good story. Narration raspy, unable to discern difference between characters. Hard to follow due to narrators voice. Will avoid her if n future.

[Renee · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Bad plot, bad dialogue, bad characters, good meditation on stories.

[Abby Hanson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I feel like it was pretty good the magic system didn’t make a whole lot of sense and I wish they would’ve gone deeper with some of the magic that was really cool. I liked the characters, though the main character was pretty much the best. I really liked the ending as well.

[ZizaCal · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A magical blending of fantasy and mythology presented in Ava’s skillful voice. I loved everything about this book from the magic to the romance. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys rich language and an imperfect protagonist.

[Eva Brugnettini · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

NA, tons of worldbuilding and mythology from eastern Europe, probably Ukrainian, as the writer is of Ukrainian origin.
A wolf-girl with no magic is bound to the woodsman who is to bring her to the king.
They'll see and fight monsters in the woods on the way to the capital.
Meet Yehuli, Yuvvi, Prinkepatrios, war, some really graphic violence, magic works with self harm, cool dark atmosphere

[Rachel Warner · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A true gem of a book. The plot gets a bit slow at points, but the ever-winding story always pulls you back in. Beautifully told legends interwoven within the characters and their story.

[Marise Ramos · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

started reading this 4 months ago but paused for a while because i wasn't really feeling it. i revisited it today but eventually decided to throw the towel in about halfway through chapter 8. i didn't want to rate this since i dnf it but i want to leave a comment which i can't do here without a rating. so since i have to, i'd say it's 2 out of 5 stars.

i did enjoy the lore/world-building, the stories about gods that the mc tells were interesting. and i liked the allegory on religion being used as a supremacist tool for oppression. i certainly thought this had a lot of potential at first. but the further i went into the story, the less interested i become. because other than those two thing i mentioned, i haven't find anything else commendable about this story, enough to make me want to stick around.

my main issue is with how the narrative is treating as though gáspár and his people's views and behavior towards évike's people is on equal playing field as her community's fear (and contempt) of the woodsmen and the king. it is *not*. it just isn't, they literally want the genocide of her community when her people just want to be left alone to live their lives freely just like everybody else. which is why i don't get how évike somehow got past all that to already be entertaining thoughts about how attractive gáspár is so soon into the story, and for them to already have had sex only a bit after that. maybe it's my demi ass tying attractiveness to a person's values but this just doesn't seem to be something one can simply look over?

also i know i'm supposed to believe that despite their glaring differences of starting on opposite sides of a major conflict (more like being part of an oppressed group vs being an active agent of oppression, really), they do have similarities of being ostracized within their own communities. and that this is somehow significant enough for them to be able to build understanding and even trust off of. but i'm just not convinced when gáspar refuses to even recognize that he comes from a place of privilege. yes, his father being vile to him and his community looking down on him just because of his lineage aren't right. but it's not in any way similar to how the rest of the kingdom treats évike's people as rabid beasts needing to be put down. and the way he constantly acts as though she doesn't know anything just because some important information were available her until recently is so asinine. her distrust of him comes from a very real and valid place, meanwhile her treating as though she's the dirt beneath his shoe is entirely wrong and comes from lies made up by people like his king of a father. and i don't appreciate what the narrative has been trying to do with this.

p.s. comparing this book to naomi novik's spinning silver and katherine arden's the bear and the nightingale (both my all-time favories!) is certainly... a choice. whoever came up with that idea doesn't know what they're talking about.

[Charity · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

*stares at book*
I...just...don't ...... Know how to feel about this one.

Was it bad?? No, I like the all the stories in it and how she chops her finger off.

But it also didn't really stick with me. The ending was kind of meh. Like I get we all want something different, but it was like ?? Where's the rest? Is there one after this??

[Genevieve Methot · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Uggh. The main character spent most of her time feeling sorry for herself and had this weird sexual spiteful energy toward Gaspar that just struck me as self-indulgent and childish. I forced myself to finish this one. The beginning was really good but it just kept getting sillier and sillier. Can’t believe how much “woe is me-ing” the main character did. I don’t recommend.

[bibliovermis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There were a lot of red riding hood/wolf/woodsman books this year! While I enjoyed the fantasy stuff, the romance seemed kind of half baked and far too much of a young adult dramafest for an adult book.

[sennebec · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The best kind of dark and gritty with a strong feminist thread.

[jmchshannon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid is a very detailed but rich story that involves Slavic and Jewish mythology. Pagan, non-magic Evike finds herself teaming with her worst enemy, only to discover the enemy is someone else. Enter intrigue, danger, torn desires, obligations, found family, and one woman who has to discover who she is to protect the ones she loves.

[carolesrandomlife · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book! Every once in a while you stumble upon a special kind of story that completely transports you to a different world. I almost felt like I was living in the book with the characters while I read this amazing story. I cared about the characters and wanted to see things work out for them. I found the book impossible to set aside once I started reading and thoroughly enjoyed the entire reading experience.Évike lives in a pagan village where the women all have some kind of power, all of the women except for Évike. The Woodsmen come every few years to claim a girl for the king’s sacrifice and the village sends Évike despite her lack of power. She has already lost her mother to the Woodsmen and feels very betrayed to be sent to her death by her village. Things don’t go well on the journey to the capital and Évike is alone with only a one-eyed Woodsman who is so much more than he seems. Gáspár is the rightful heir to the throne and is facing his own set of challenges.I loved the way that this story is told. It was a dark fantasy filled with vivid imagery. Évike and Gáspár get to know each other and learn about each other’s world through the stories that they share. Évike has a lifetime of stories that she has heard time and time again growing up in her pagan village. I loved experiencing the lore of her community through these stories and it was great how they were relevant to the things they were experiencing. Gáspár had his own stories to tell. I loved the connection that these two form during the time that they spend together.Once they make it to the capital, things heat up and there were quite a few surprises. I loved getting the chance to see how some people lived within the city. I also thought that the politics of the city added a lot to the story and there were some pretty big surprises along the way. I had no idea how Évike and Gáspár would successfully navigate all of the obstacles being placed in their path.I would highly recommend this book to fans of fantasy. I should probably note that this is an adult fantasy with a fair amount of violence and sexual content. I found this book to be incredibly well-written and filled with plenty of excitement and even a bit of romance. I will be first in line to read more of Ava Reid’s work in the future.I received an advance review copy of this book from Harper Voyager.

[whiskeyinthejar-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

2.5 starsI received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. “The Woodsmen,” she gasps. “They're coming for you.”When the Woodsmen came for Evike's mother, the seer Virag took her in, now fifteen years later, Virag is facing her mother's fate. Evike is “barren” she has no ability for the three skills, forge metal; flame; and healing, blessed from their god Isten, so in order to save Katalin, the young seer, Evike is being sacrificed to the Woodsmen. Evike's village and people are called pagans, since they believe in the old and many gods, while most of the four regions of Regorszag have become followers of the Patrifaith and believe in only the Godfather of life and Godfather of death. A bargain was struck that every couple years, a wolf-girl (named for the wolf capes they wear to denote they can do magic or one of the three skills) must be given to the Woodsmen and brought back to the capital city of Kiraly Szek and the King. This assures that the pagans can live in peace without fear of attack. Even though Katalin has bullied Evike her entire life, Evike still goes to the Woodsmen to save her village. The women and girls all have two faces---the wolf's and their own.Using and incorporating Hungarian and Jewish folklore, The Wolf and the Woodsman, was a fantasy that suffered from some pacing problems in the first half but had an ending that will lock reader's into the world. This is told all from Evike's point-of-view, she's twenty-five years old but aside from the, very, macabre folklore told throughout the story, a talk of her sexual past, and a short sex scene, I thought she and the Woodsman captain, that turns out to be the protagonist with her, Barany Gaspar, and the story overall, read like a young adult fantasy. I know this is being marketed as adult because of the all the content warnings (the author has listed them all) but I was a little disappointed that I don't think these twenty-five year old characters felt older than seventeen. “Te nem vagy taltos,” he manages, eye wide as he takes in the sight of me, chestnut-haired, unmasked. You are not a seer.“Te nem vagy harcos,” I shoot back between ragged breaths. You are not a warrior.The beginning ushers you into the world with heavy utilizing of the folklore and generally worked to set the world but then the first half has Evike and Gaspar going on a journey to capture a turul, a magical bird, that Gaspar thinks will help his father retain his power in the face of Gaspar's half-brother Nandor, who is trying to take the throne from the father and the true born prince, Gaspar. This journey worked to bond Evike and Gaspar together but the outcome ended up making the whole journey feel mostly pointless and it really slowed the pace down. If you can make it to the second half, especially the last 20%, the pace picks up as we spend time in the capital city and the political intrigue and religious allegory give the story more promise. If I cannot be Vilmotten, my belly bright with Isten's star, perched in the highest tree branch, perhaps I can be something else. Perhaps I can be the favored of another god.Antisemitism, ethnic cleansing, and religious zealots and warning against them becomes the clear message that this story is trying to warn against. The way even “good” people's actions can help and hinder these movements and the question of sacrificing one for the greater good, gave the second half greater weight for me. Evike and Gaspar on their own, along with a handful of other secondary characters, were never fully flushed out for me, the folklore and outside messaging eclipsed them, making the parts of the story adequate but the overall story greater to me. I would tell adults to read this for the fantasy aspect but I don't think I would say read this for the romance, there's a developing romance between Evike and Gaspar, but, except for that one quick sex scene, their emotional connection read more young adult to me and the most important point, they get a more ambiguous happy for now. For all that I railed against her, she loved us all more than she loved any one of us, and much more than she loved herself.The first half was slow for me but I found this to have some invoking macabre scenes, fantastical folklore, and allegory that made the second half more appealing in it's messaging.

[verkruissen · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was so freaking good! Seriously, everyone should read this. If you were a fan of Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver or Katherine Arden's "The Bear and the Nightingale" then this is a must-read!The story is about a woman named Évike. She has been raised in a village of women who have the power to heal, forge, or see the future. They are known as wolf girls. Even though Évike was born from a woman with a gift, Évike has none and is considered an outcast and bad luck. So when the Woodsmen come for a "wolf girl" to bring to their king, her village betrays her and gives Évike up instead.Her journey to the city is tragic and all except herself and the handsome one eyed woodsman survive the journey. This turn of events has them depending on one another more and more and their feelings for each other are becoming harder to hide. Her journey to the city of the king and a hope to find her Jewish father are filled with mythological stories that are beautifully told. I absolutely loved this book. This may be my favorite book of the year so far. :)