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We Are All Ghosts in the Forest
When the internet collapsed, it took the world with it, leaving its digital ghosts behind – and they are hungry. Former photojournalist Katerina fled the overrun cities to the relative safety of her grandmother’s village on the edge of a forest, where she lives a solitary life of herbal medicine and beekeeping.
When a wordless boy finds her in the marketplace with nothing but her name in his pocket, her curiosity won’t allow her to turn him away. But haunting his arrival are rumours of harvest failure and a rampant digital disease stirring up the ghosts, and the mood in the village starts to sour.
Accused of witchcraft, Katerina and Stefan escape into the forest, searching for his missing father and the truth behind the disease. If there is a cure, Katerina alone might find it, but first she must find the courage to trust others – because the ghosts that follow her aren’t just digital.
When a wordless boy finds her in the marketplace with nothing but her name in his pocket, her curiosity won’t allow her to turn him away. But haunting his arrival are rumours of harvest failure and a rampant digital disease stirring up the ghosts, and the mood in the village starts to sour.
Accused of witchcraft, Katerina and Stefan escape into the forest, searching for his missing father and the truth behind the disease. If there is a cure, Katerina alone might find it, but first she must find the courage to trust others – because the ghosts that follow her aren’t just digital.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published November 7, 2024
11 people are currently reading
740 people want to read
About the author
Lorraine Wilson
9 books49 followersWriter, biologist, photographer, herder of cats, drinker of tea. she/her.
A conservation scientist and third culture Scot, I live by the sea writing stories influenced by folklore and the wilderness. My books have won two SCKA awards and been finalists for British Fantasy Awards, the Kavya Prize and the Saltire Book Award, and longlisted for the British Science Fiction Awards. I have also won a British Fantasy Award for short fiction.
I have been stalked by wolves and befriended pythons, run the Rewriting The Margins mentorship scheme for marginalised writers, and can be found at https://linktr.ee/raine_clouds.
IG: @raine_clouds_writes
A conservation scientist and third culture Scot, I live by the sea writing stories influenced by folklore and the wilderness. My books have won two SCKA awards and been finalists for British Fantasy Awards, the Kavya Prize and the Saltire Book Award, and longlisted for the British Science Fiction Awards. I have also won a British Fantasy Award for short fiction.
I have been stalked by wolves and befriended pythons, run the Rewriting The Margins mentorship scheme for marginalised writers, and can be found at https://linktr.ee/raine_clouds.
IG: @raine_clouds_writes
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
October 20, 2024
So what happened when the internet collapsed? The answer to this question cannot be found in this book. And that’s one point why this book is such a great read. It’s not ‘this happened and then that happened and now this and now the world is we know it is gone for good’. On the contrary. The story of Katerina, and why she’s living in the forest as a healer, unfolds slowly but starts with the strange event of her meeting a boy who doesn’t speak, but gives her a note in which she is begged to take care of him. And how can she refuse? After all, taking care of people is what she does now.
This slow but captivating story is wonderfully written and the atmosphere reminded me of stories by Katherine Ryan Howard, Diane Cook and even Diana Gabaldon. Told in broad strokes but with an absolute eye for detail, you can almost smell the forest, the trees and the animals. A lot is being said without using too many words; there are no ready-made solutions for what happened to the world so people have to adapt – which is harder for some than for others.
The kind of book you’ll want to read more than once.
Thanks to Solaris and Netgalley for this review copy.
This slow but captivating story is wonderfully written and the atmosphere reminded me of stories by Katherine Ryan Howard, Diane Cook and even Diana Gabaldon. Told in broad strokes but with an absolute eye for detail, you can almost smell the forest, the trees and the animals. A lot is being said without using too many words; there are no ready-made solutions for what happened to the world so people have to adapt – which is harder for some than for others.
The kind of book you’ll want to read more than once.
Thanks to Solaris and Netgalley for this review copy.
April 16, 2025
Yes, it took me a long time to read, but it was better for the slow reading. I started out listening, and while the narration was good, I needed to pay closer attention and I wanted the option to reread passages and absorb them more fully, if I wanted. There are many beautiful sentences and profound ones that needed more space. I bought the hardcover and am glad to give it a place on my shelves.
If introspective and slow minimal plot are your thing, you will enjoy this book. I did! Regardless as to whether the basic premise that when the internet breaks down its contents appear in the world as “ghosts” has any grounding in reality or not, (likely not, I should think), does not make the issues explored any less compelling. The characters in this book are lovingly fleshed out, including the cat, the bees and the tunic full of pockets full of just the right things.
I’m going to search out more books by Lorraine Wison, because I love her style.
If introspective and slow minimal plot are your thing, you will enjoy this book. I did! Regardless as to whether the basic premise that when the internet breaks down its contents appear in the world as “ghosts” has any grounding in reality or not, (likely not, I should think), does not make the issues explored any less compelling. The characters in this book are lovingly fleshed out, including the cat, the bees and the tunic full of pockets full of just the right things.
I’m going to search out more books by Lorraine Wison, because I love her style.
August 16, 2024
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this. If you're expecting a fast-paced book with ghosts and a plague, you're going to be sorely disappointed. Instead this is a beautifully written book about acceptance, kindness, grief and family. It's a slow-burn book that doesn't go out of it way to explain anything so if you like everything in a neat bow this will not be the book for you but if you want a book brimming with emotion then look no further.
I really enjoyed this. If you're expecting a fast-paced book with ghosts and a plague, you're going to be sorely disappointed. Instead this is a beautifully written book about acceptance, kindness, grief and family. It's a slow-burn book that doesn't go out of it way to explain anything so if you like everything in a neat bow this will not be the book for you but if you want a book brimming with emotion then look no further.
April 10, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this before publication (November '24).
We Are AllGhosts In The Forest by Lorraine Wilson.
I struggled initially with the book, for the first few chapters I didn't have a clue what was happening, and while I was aware it was describing a time following a digital apocalyptic event, one that has left the contents of the digital world to roam the world as ghosts, I felt a little more early description would have guided me into the book more easily. Everything seemed very random with no lead-in.
However once the book found its feet, I was gently and slowly hooked in.
Katerina is, for the reason mentioned above, now living in her Baba's (Grandmother's) house, somewhere in the Baltics. She is fully self-sustainable, living in a world with no internet or phones, and the world for her is her smallholding and the few people she lives close to. She is an herbalist and healer and travels to other towns nearby to trade her medicines and creams for necessities. For reasons that become evident later in the book she is loathe to get close to people, and only wants to focus on keeping her part of the world safe and looked after.
She returns from one of her trips with a mute teenage boy, he has a note from his Father asking Katerina to take care of him, she does not understand why he would have chosen and trusted her but it is not in her nature to turn him away, she ropes him in to help her. Katerina can communicate via scrying and can see his Father is unwell and needs help, but she has to decide what is the safe thing to do as there is a digital virus that could threaten their people and crops.
I did have to suspend belief initially however the further I read, the more the book felt in tune with the state of our world. We are slowly destroying the planet with seemingly no real intention to scale back with our damaging behaviours and our increasing reliance on digitisation is frightening, what would happen if that were to suddenly not be there?
Katerina and most of the characters are back in tune with the land and its inhabitants, and it is abundantly clear that if were able to heal the land then it would repay us in spades.
Overall I would definitely recommend this book, however, be patient with the first few chapters.
We Are AllGhosts In The Forest by Lorraine Wilson.
I struggled initially with the book, for the first few chapters I didn't have a clue what was happening, and while I was aware it was describing a time following a digital apocalyptic event, one that has left the contents of the digital world to roam the world as ghosts, I felt a little more early description would have guided me into the book more easily. Everything seemed very random with no lead-in.
However once the book found its feet, I was gently and slowly hooked in.
Katerina is, for the reason mentioned above, now living in her Baba's (Grandmother's) house, somewhere in the Baltics. She is fully self-sustainable, living in a world with no internet or phones, and the world for her is her smallholding and the few people she lives close to. She is an herbalist and healer and travels to other towns nearby to trade her medicines and creams for necessities. For reasons that become evident later in the book she is loathe to get close to people, and only wants to focus on keeping her part of the world safe and looked after.
She returns from one of her trips with a mute teenage boy, he has a note from his Father asking Katerina to take care of him, she does not understand why he would have chosen and trusted her but it is not in her nature to turn him away, she ropes him in to help her. Katerina can communicate via scrying and can see his Father is unwell and needs help, but she has to decide what is the safe thing to do as there is a digital virus that could threaten their people and crops.
I did have to suspend belief initially however the further I read, the more the book felt in tune with the state of our world. We are slowly destroying the planet with seemingly no real intention to scale back with our damaging behaviours and our increasing reliance on digitisation is frightening, what would happen if that were to suddenly not be there?
Katerina and most of the characters are back in tune with the land and its inhabitants, and it is abundantly clear that if were able to heal the land then it would repay us in spades.
Overall I would definitely recommend this book, however, be patient with the first few chapters.
March 18, 2025
Slow and slightly meandering but lyrical and deeply thoughtful. Post soft apocalypse bucolic, almost fairytale like, story but with an underlying technological theme. Took a while to get into but was worth the journey through the forests and back.
Read
April 5, 2025SciFi and Fantasy Book Club Discussions:
First impressions (no spoilers)
Final thoughts (spoilers)
First impressions (no spoilers)
Final thoughts (spoilers)
February 24, 2025
A friend got me this book as a gift, mostly because the story takes place in, get this, Estonia!! So I was excited to see what I would be able to critique this time.
It's a really sweet novel about home, family, friendship and love. Unfortunately, though, the writing is so awful that it took me 200 pages (out of 400) to realise that. First of all, the grammar doesn't make sense half the time, which is frustrating. Second of all, the world of digital ghosts is introduced really badly. Having finished the book, I still don't really understand what they are and how they work but luckily, you don't really need to understand them, the aspect of the book world that is there solely to make it unique, to enjoy the good part of the story (the last 150-200 pages). Honestly, the book would have been a lot better without the whole the-internet-has-broken-and-now-we-have-all-these-pictures-and-videos-haunting-us shenanigans complicating it.
I got tired trying to format this review nicely so I'll just say what I think now. About it taking place in Estonia: it's okay, I suppose. Except I didn't really understand why everyone was Russian but I guess that could just be me.
Confusion: it took me 300 pages to realise that Nikita was Katerina's sister. I'm not Russian so someone smarter can tell me if I'm wrong but I've never ever heard of Nikita being used as a girl's name. It was so confusing to keep reading about this Nikita person that she misses and then about her sister whom she also misses, but then never being told why she misses this Nikita person? Like was he her boyfriend at some point? Was he her brother? Her father?
The characters: it seems that the author understands people well. The characters have backstories (at least the important ones) and to me it made sense why they acted the way they did (and especially once I realised Nikita is Triinu's sister). The last 200 pages were quite nice to read, partly because I'd gotten used to the bad writing, but mostly because I finally started to care about the characters. Unfortunately, understanding people isn't enough if your goal is to put that understanding into a book and you can't really write. A shame, I feel like this had potential.
It's a really sweet novel about home, family, friendship and love. Unfortunately, though, the writing is so awful that it took me 200 pages (out of 400) to realise that. First of all, the grammar doesn't make sense half the time, which is frustrating. Second of all, the world of digital ghosts is introduced really badly. Having finished the book, I still don't really understand what they are and how they work but luckily, you don't really need to understand them, the aspect of the book world that is there solely to make it unique, to enjoy the good part of the story (the last 150-200 pages). Honestly, the book would have been a lot better without the whole the-internet-has-broken-and-now-we-have-all-these-pictures-and-videos-haunting-us shenanigans complicating it.
I got tired trying to format this review nicely so I'll just say what I think now. About it taking place in Estonia: it's okay, I suppose. Except I didn't really understand why everyone was Russian but I guess that could just be me.
Confusion: it took me 300 pages to realise that Nikita was Katerina's sister. I'm not Russian so someone smarter can tell me if I'm wrong but I've never ever heard of Nikita being used as a girl's name. It was so confusing to keep reading about this Nikita person that she misses and then about her sister whom she also misses, but then never being told why she misses this Nikita person? Like was he her boyfriend at some point? Was he her brother? Her father?
The characters: it seems that the author understands people well. The characters have backstories (at least the important ones) and to me it made sense why they acted the way they did (and especially once I realised Nikita is Triinu's sister). The last 200 pages were quite nice to read, partly because I'd gotten used to the bad writing, but mostly because I finally started to care about the characters. Unfortunately, understanding people isn't enough if your goal is to put that understanding into a book and you can't really write. A shame, I feel like this had potential.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 20, 2025
What a beautiful and unique book!
December 4, 2024
Review originally on JamReads
We Are All Ghosts in the Forest is an amazing science-fantasy novel written by Lorraine Wilson, published by Solaris Books. A poignant story that refuses to hold the reader's hand, full of human element, and that throws us into a post-collapse world, which has some reminiscence of the COVID pandemic, and that takes you into an emotional journey, examining trauma, humanity and healing.
After the internet collapsed and leave its digital ghosts behind, Katerina moved to the safety of a rural village at the edge of the forest, living a solitary life helping her neighbours with her herbal remedies and beekeping; however, she was always deemed as an outsider for the others, tolerated but an outsider. But when she comes back to the village with a wordless child (Stefan), and their arrival is matched with rumours of bad harvest and a rampant disease, they are forced to escape to the forest in the search of Stefan's father, who might also have an answer to the new disease that is spreading.
Katerina's journey in this novel is not only a physical one, but also an interior one: if the world is plagued with ghosts, she harbours her own ghosts inside, and learning to trust in others will be needed to succeed. She's compassionate, and her own acts show the kindness, but fundamentally, she's a broken person; the journey with Stefan is what can heal her.
We can see the rest of the world as wary of strangers after the collapse; it's a hard world where people have gone back to the rural work, and their little stability is threatened by the digital ghosts and that new disease they don't know enough about (you can see the parallel with certain pandemic). Outsiders are never accepted in those small communities.
This is a story set in a collapsed world, not about the collapse. The world building is excellent, all painted through the marvelous Wilson's prose, which doesn't hold your hand, but which allows you to get a full image of this post-internet world. The pacing is relatively slow, which pairs excellently with the deepness of the plot.
We Are All Ghosts in the Forest is a highly atmospheric proposal, a great science fantasy that you will enjoy if highly affecting stories are your motto; an excellent novel that further proofs Lorraine Wilson's ability to craft amazing stories around humanity.
We Are All Ghosts in the Forest is an amazing science-fantasy novel written by Lorraine Wilson, published by Solaris Books. A poignant story that refuses to hold the reader's hand, full of human element, and that throws us into a post-collapse world, which has some reminiscence of the COVID pandemic, and that takes you into an emotional journey, examining trauma, humanity and healing.
After the internet collapsed and leave its digital ghosts behind, Katerina moved to the safety of a rural village at the edge of the forest, living a solitary life helping her neighbours with her herbal remedies and beekeping; however, she was always deemed as an outsider for the others, tolerated but an outsider. But when she comes back to the village with a wordless child (Stefan), and their arrival is matched with rumours of bad harvest and a rampant disease, they are forced to escape to the forest in the search of Stefan's father, who might also have an answer to the new disease that is spreading.
Katerina's journey in this novel is not only a physical one, but also an interior one: if the world is plagued with ghosts, she harbours her own ghosts inside, and learning to trust in others will be needed to succeed. She's compassionate, and her own acts show the kindness, but fundamentally, she's a broken person; the journey with Stefan is what can heal her.
We can see the rest of the world as wary of strangers after the collapse; it's a hard world where people have gone back to the rural work, and their little stability is threatened by the digital ghosts and that new disease they don't know enough about (you can see the parallel with certain pandemic). Outsiders are never accepted in those small communities.
This is a story set in a collapsed world, not about the collapse. The world building is excellent, all painted through the marvelous Wilson's prose, which doesn't hold your hand, but which allows you to get a full image of this post-internet world. The pacing is relatively slow, which pairs excellently with the deepness of the plot.
We Are All Ghosts in the Forest is a highly atmospheric proposal, a great science fantasy that you will enjoy if highly affecting stories are your motto; an excellent novel that further proofs Lorraine Wilson's ability to craft amazing stories around humanity.
March 17, 2025
This was a very pretty book that didn’t have enough substance for me.
I generally liked the way it was written. It was tonally consistent and the descriptions helped to build and flesh out the world around the main character and the way she saw things. I found the herbalism “magic system” and the setting very interesting: fleshed out enough that I felt like I understood the limitations but not so well-explained that it started to lose its mystery. I think in a book with a plot and characters I felt more connected to, the ghosts of the internet and hedge-witchery could have made a really impactful book.
Unfortunately, I felt like the plot, pacing and characters let down the interesting setting. The pacing was extremely slow, which I can deal with sometimes but it also felt repetitive and a little predictable. I never felt like the book was building towards anything I couldn’t already see, and I just wanted it to get on with things. This was exacerbated by the main character’s primary motivation being one of maintaining her quietly miserable status quo, and her primary emotional touchstone being shame. I don’t think that these are inherently bad traits in a character, but in Katerina did not feel to me like an effective protagonist. This was compounded when we found out her tragic backstory and the reasons for her guilt, and it really wasn’t that bad. It felt like the author wanted to write a character motivated by guilt but didn’t want to give her something actually bad to feel guilty about in case the readers didn’t like her, so chickened out.
Finally, I really don’t like books where fate, destiny, soulmates, etc are a thing that the characters have to interface with. And the connection between the MC and the mysterious man she dreams of felt far too close to lazy hand waving than anything i could take seriously. Especially when he has Saint-like patience with this woman who does little to deserve it.
Ultimately I don’t think I would recommend this book unless you particularly love stories about weird loners learning to let people in and you like a witchy, cosy atmosphere.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I generally liked the way it was written. It was tonally consistent and the descriptions helped to build and flesh out the world around the main character and the way she saw things. I found the herbalism “magic system” and the setting very interesting: fleshed out enough that I felt like I understood the limitations but not so well-explained that it started to lose its mystery. I think in a book with a plot and characters I felt more connected to, the ghosts of the internet and hedge-witchery could have made a really impactful book.
Unfortunately, I felt like the plot, pacing and characters let down the interesting setting. The pacing was extremely slow, which I can deal with sometimes but it also felt repetitive and a little predictable. I never felt like the book was building towards anything I couldn’t already see, and I just wanted it to get on with things. This was exacerbated by the main character’s primary motivation being one of maintaining her quietly miserable status quo, and her primary emotional touchstone being shame. I don’t think that these are inherently bad traits in a character, but in Katerina did not feel to me like an effective protagonist. This was compounded when we found out her tragic backstory and the reasons for her guilt, and it really wasn’t that bad. It felt like the author wanted to write a character motivated by guilt but didn’t want to give her something actually bad to feel guilty about in case the readers didn’t like her, so chickened out.
Finally, I really don’t like books where fate, destiny, soulmates, etc are a thing that the characters have to interface with. And the connection between the MC and the mysterious man she dreams of felt far too close to lazy hand waving than anything i could take seriously. Especially when he has Saint-like patience with this woman who does little to deserve it.
Ultimately I don’t think I would recommend this book unless you particularly love stories about weird loners learning to let people in and you like a witchy, cosy atmosphere.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
April 12, 2024
a thank you to netgalley and publisher for the arc of this title in exchange for an honest review.
Katerina was a photo journalist before the internet escaped its confines and digital ghosts started roaming the earth. Now she is a healer. She uses her grandmother's recipes for herbs to help her grandmother's small town stay alive after what you could call an apocalypse. They call Katerina a Strega because what she does seems like witchcraft and it doesn't help that she is not like them in appearance. Her father was from India so her skin is dark compared to theirs. When she went to a nearby village to trade she found a boy waiting for her with a note from his father asking her to look after him. Not knowing who Aleksander (the boy's father) is, she still takes the boy home with her to look after. The boy doesn't talk. But soon she receives messages and signs of flood, famine and danger coming. The bees keep warning her as well, that she must find the boys father. The ghosts of the internet are starting to become contagious and deadly. And prejudice causes a lot of strife.
I liked the concept of this book, but there is something about it that I would change in the advertising for the book. This is a book about prejudice and acceptance. Not really about the internet breaking free of its confines. It is about a kind and broken woman helping others when she doesn't have the world to give. Katerina is mother Teresa who speaks to bees and knows what plants can help people. She just wants to be accepted and she is turned away at every turn.
Katerina was a photo journalist before the internet escaped its confines and digital ghosts started roaming the earth. Now she is a healer. She uses her grandmother's recipes for herbs to help her grandmother's small town stay alive after what you could call an apocalypse. They call Katerina a Strega because what she does seems like witchcraft and it doesn't help that she is not like them in appearance. Her father was from India so her skin is dark compared to theirs. When she went to a nearby village to trade she found a boy waiting for her with a note from his father asking her to look after him. Not knowing who Aleksander (the boy's father) is, she still takes the boy home with her to look after. The boy doesn't talk. But soon she receives messages and signs of flood, famine and danger coming. The bees keep warning her as well, that she must find the boys father. The ghosts of the internet are starting to become contagious and deadly. And prejudice causes a lot of strife.
I liked the concept of this book, but there is something about it that I would change in the advertising for the book. This is a book about prejudice and acceptance. Not really about the internet breaking free of its confines. It is about a kind and broken woman helping others when she doesn't have the world to give. Katerina is mother Teresa who speaks to bees and knows what plants can help people. She just wants to be accepted and she is turned away at every turn.
June 20, 2024
First things first – gorgeous cover. Even before reading the blurb, I was already caught, and after reading the book, I can come back and find delightful little details: the golden bees, the herbs, Orlando's adorable swishy tail. A cover does not a book make, but it's certainly a pleasure to have such gorgeous art wrapping another piece of gorgeous art.
Now to the content between the covers: nothing short of amazing. I have a fondness for dystopian novels, so you can imagine I've read my fair share. I was pleasantly surprised when I read We Are All Ghosts in the Forest and found a story that felt non-derivative: the refreshing feeling of reading something new, something I hadn't encountered before; of immersing in a completely new world. I imagine, of course, there are similar books out there, but this was my first of its type and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I won't tell you what We Are All Ghosts in the Forest is about because you can read it right up there in the blurb, but I'll tell you other details that might tip you towards reading it: it's not a story about a world gone haywire but a story set IN a world gone haywire. It's a story about certain people caught in events that feel way larger than what they can handle. It's a story about love, grief, and renewal, all in the middle of a world gone haywire. You can go into it not expecting hard Sci-Fi and brainy explanations of why things broke, but the story of someone finding a way to heal new and old wounds.
All in all, a lovely read, and one I hope to revisit eventually.
Now to the content between the covers: nothing short of amazing. I have a fondness for dystopian novels, so you can imagine I've read my fair share. I was pleasantly surprised when I read We Are All Ghosts in the Forest and found a story that felt non-derivative: the refreshing feeling of reading something new, something I hadn't encountered before; of immersing in a completely new world. I imagine, of course, there are similar books out there, but this was my first of its type and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I won't tell you what We Are All Ghosts in the Forest is about because you can read it right up there in the blurb, but I'll tell you other details that might tip you towards reading it: it's not a story about a world gone haywire but a story set IN a world gone haywire. It's a story about certain people caught in events that feel way larger than what they can handle. It's a story about love, grief, and renewal, all in the middle of a world gone haywire. You can go into it not expecting hard Sci-Fi and brainy explanations of why things broke, but the story of someone finding a way to heal new and old wounds.
All in all, a lovely read, and one I hope to revisit eventually.
June 29, 2024
Science fantasy reminiscent of Ursula le Guin
In the wake of a digital cataclysm, a rural village attempts to rebuild their lives but the past and its demons continue to haunt everyone, even as a new digital scourge remains at large.
This is a huge expansive world laid out in immaculate detail., world-building so subtle and so right that I kept recalling Le Guin's Always Coming Home. The central character, Katerina, is admirable, resourceful and clever, but her past has made her also prickly, suspicious and overprotective, a fantastic mix of qualities forced to look after others by design or by fortune. The other characters around her are a mystery to her, and us, and the unravelling of these multi-dimensional narratives is a sheer delight in the hands of Wilson's mastery.
A potent mix of dystopian science fiction, folklore and ecological fairy tale, I recommend this to anyone interested in great writing that answers some questions while leaving plenty of room for the reader's imagination. I also want to single out the excellent thread on othering throughout the book, and how Wilson has made her characters react, call out and tackle inhumane behaviour, while keeping the plot rattling along.
Possibly the best science fiction book I've read this year: five stars
In the wake of a digital cataclysm, a rural village attempts to rebuild their lives but the past and its demons continue to haunt everyone, even as a new digital scourge remains at large.
This is a huge expansive world laid out in immaculate detail., world-building so subtle and so right that I kept recalling Le Guin's Always Coming Home. The central character, Katerina, is admirable, resourceful and clever, but her past has made her also prickly, suspicious and overprotective, a fantastic mix of qualities forced to look after others by design or by fortune. The other characters around her are a mystery to her, and us, and the unravelling of these multi-dimensional narratives is a sheer delight in the hands of Wilson's mastery.
A potent mix of dystopian science fiction, folklore and ecological fairy tale, I recommend this to anyone interested in great writing that answers some questions while leaving plenty of room for the reader's imagination. I also want to single out the excellent thread on othering throughout the book, and how Wilson has made her characters react, call out and tackle inhumane behaviour, while keeping the plot rattling along.
Possibly the best science fiction book I've read this year: five stars
April 2, 2024
DNF at 10% / start of chapter 4.
The premise of the story sounded really intriguing to me and I found the title and cover drew me further in. Unfortunately, it was way too slow and too heavily character based for my own personal taste.
We learn from the book description that the modern day internet has collapsed and digital remnants or ghosts are left behind and they seem dangerous. However I feel as if the first part of the book should be setting the world up and explaining how it happened and the history of this huge life changing event and it doesn’t. The story brings you in without knowing this and mentions some vague notions towards the event without going into more detail. I was expecting a fast paced, exciting dystopian world and it doesn’t seem to be this way from the part I read.
If you don’t mind a much slower paced, character building story then you may enjoy it but this one just wasn’t for me.
Thank you to NetGalley for a chance to review the copy of the ebook.
The premise of the story sounded really intriguing to me and I found the title and cover drew me further in. Unfortunately, it was way too slow and too heavily character based for my own personal taste.
We learn from the book description that the modern day internet has collapsed and digital remnants or ghosts are left behind and they seem dangerous. However I feel as if the first part of the book should be setting the world up and explaining how it happened and the history of this huge life changing event and it doesn’t. The story brings you in without knowing this and mentions some vague notions towards the event without going into more detail. I was expecting a fast paced, exciting dystopian world and it doesn’t seem to be this way from the part I read.
If you don’t mind a much slower paced, character building story then you may enjoy it but this one just wasn’t for me.
Thank you to NetGalley for a chance to review the copy of the ebook.
May 17, 2024
Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read this before publication.
Unfortunately I had to DNF this at 12%.
I requested the book because it did sounds like a very interesting concept, and the cover made it look interesting and mysterious too.
But I feel like the first part of the book is a little confusing, and should explain what has happened and should explain the "ghost" concept more. I saw in other reviews the story is a little bit slow at first. With me personally, I need it to be a decent pace especially near the start to keep me gripped and willing to continue, but I dont think this met my expectation.
I have still given it 3 stars as the writing itself is still decent! just the pacing is a little bit off for me personally.
Unfortunately I had to DNF this at 12%.
I requested the book because it did sounds like a very interesting concept, and the cover made it look interesting and mysterious too.
But I feel like the first part of the book is a little confusing, and should explain what has happened and should explain the "ghost" concept more. I saw in other reviews the story is a little bit slow at first. With me personally, I need it to be a decent pace especially near the start to keep me gripped and willing to continue, but I dont think this met my expectation.
I have still given it 3 stars as the writing itself is still decent! just the pacing is a little bit off for me personally.
November 8, 2024
It’s clear from the beginning that there is a big, life-and-death plot on the horizon. There are dreams and portents and rumors aplenty. But even so, the first half of the novel is a fairly quiet one, with an herbalist going about her life making tinctures and remedies, caring for a scarred child on her doorstep, and dealing with a prejudiced and mistrustful town. This is an obscure comparison, and the books are written for very different audiences, but there were times in the first half where it reminded me of Wise Child, which I read this spring for the Druids square on last year’s Bingo board. For all the apocalyptic paranormal happenings, the first half of the story feels tender and grounded in a way that really drew me in despite the action itself developing slowly.
Unfortunately, as that action developed, my connection to the characters and their concerns began to unravel. It’s not that I stopped hoping for their success—after all, saving the world is very easy to cheer for—as much as I began to feel more and more distant from the story. Part of this is likely down to taste. I am repeatedly on the record about disliking thriller plots, and the third quarter of this story reads a little bit like a frantic, extended chase scene, with dangers around every turn and a never-ending supply of magical devices at hand to turn them aside. The magical devices are well-established by the slower build in the story’s first half, but the changes to the pacing and the shift in focus to the specific ways in which the magics work both made the story feel less personal and more formulaic, even if they were well-supported by the novel to that point.
The final quarter of the novel combines the overarching threat and the small town interpersonal plot in a way that brings the story to a satisfying close, but so much hinges on whether the lead can put together the proper mix of herbs and magic that it still feels less grounded that what came before, even when returning to the interpersonal elements of the story. The story elements mix in a way that makes sense, but the resolution occupies an awkward in-between space between different types of fantasy stories—the magic doesn’t feel systematic enough to satisfy those who love novel uses of magic to defeat hard problems, whereas the resolution relies too heavily on quick-thinking application of magic to satisfy someone like me who is looking for a more grounded, interpersonal tale.
Ultimately, We Are All Ghosts in the Forest is an engaging read that is at its best when dealing with small town prejudice and the almost slice-of-life tale of an herbalist navigating a paranormal apocalypse. But the fast-paced save-the-world plot is a bit too neat and streamlined for my tastes, and there’s probably too much slice-of-life for readers looking for a magical thriller. It’s still a good read, but one that occupies an in-between space without an obvious major audience. The writing quality, the themes, and the carefully crafted setting will surely make this a favorite for someone, but it will need to be someone who is comfortable with a story that can slide back and forth between slice-of-life and thriller elements.
First impression: 14/20
Unfortunately, as that action developed, my connection to the characters and their concerns began to unravel. It’s not that I stopped hoping for their success—after all, saving the world is very easy to cheer for—as much as I began to feel more and more distant from the story. Part of this is likely down to taste. I am repeatedly on the record about disliking thriller plots, and the third quarter of this story reads a little bit like a frantic, extended chase scene, with dangers around every turn and a never-ending supply of magical devices at hand to turn them aside. The magical devices are well-established by the slower build in the story’s first half, but the changes to the pacing and the shift in focus to the specific ways in which the magics work both made the story feel less personal and more formulaic, even if they were well-supported by the novel to that point.
The final quarter of the novel combines the overarching threat and the small town interpersonal plot in a way that brings the story to a satisfying close, but so much hinges on whether the lead can put together the proper mix of herbs and magic that it still feels less grounded that what came before, even when returning to the interpersonal elements of the story. The story elements mix in a way that makes sense, but the resolution occupies an awkward in-between space between different types of fantasy stories—the magic doesn’t feel systematic enough to satisfy those who love novel uses of magic to defeat hard problems, whereas the resolution relies too heavily on quick-thinking application of magic to satisfy someone like me who is looking for a more grounded, interpersonal tale.
Ultimately, We Are All Ghosts in the Forest is an engaging read that is at its best when dealing with small town prejudice and the almost slice-of-life tale of an herbalist navigating a paranormal apocalypse. But the fast-paced save-the-world plot is a bit too neat and streamlined for my tastes, and there’s probably too much slice-of-life for readers looking for a magical thriller. It’s still a good read, but one that occupies an in-between space without an obvious major audience. The writing quality, the themes, and the carefully crafted setting will surely make this a favorite for someone, but it will need to be someone who is comfortable with a story that can slide back and forth between slice-of-life and thriller elements.
First impression: 14/20
November 19, 2024
Throwing the reader into an environment that has been decimated by the collapse of the digital world, We Are All Ghosts in the Forest tells the story of Katerina, who once a photographer, has moved into her grandmother’s old house following the plague that has changed her world forever. Now she spends her time talking to bees, cultivating her crops and being the local cunning woman.
Lorraine Wilson’s We Are All Ghosts in the Forest refuses to hold the reader’s hand and immediately plunges the reader into a world that has been decimated and lives in fear of digital ghosts and electronic infection.
Set in Estonia, the story harks back to the paranoia of the Covid pandemic and how we all feared the spread of a disease that rampaged across the world, the setting that Wilson sets her naturalistic tale in is one that has reverted back to a pre - modern world before the age of technology.
Gone is the stream of information that once inhabited our consciousness, with the internet now being something malignant and malevolent, spewing forth images, stories or songs that terrorise the inhabitants.
Slowly building the story, Wilson paints a vivid picture of a world that is now dark and foreboding. Nature has become something else and is a very vivid part of the story, interlacing and interweaving with the narrative at every juncture. Katerina, our hero regularly talks to bees to get information, and everything she does is governed by the natural world. And whilst there is the whimsical elements of nature, there are also the dark, fearful parts that haunt our dreams. Forests have returned to being dark and dangerous, and are living creatures that have incorporated the storybook darkness of fairy tales. Wolves lurk in the dark waiting to eat the unwary and the weather governs lives.
Throughout the book, Wilson creates a mesmerising tale of acceptance and kindness, as Katerina fights against prejudice at every turn. First for bringing a stranger into town in the form of a silent young boy who has mysteriously been told to seek out Katerina at a local market by his father who she has no memory of ever meeting. Secondly, for the colour of her skin, and finally for being conceived as something of a witch for abilities to cure with herbal remedies and her closeness to nature.
With her sumptuous prose, Wilson tells a tale that whilst dystopian, is in fact very prescient to the world in which we live now, where acceptance and kindness are in short supply and the world has become one of prejudice and fear.
November 6, 2024
Thank you to Solaris and Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.
TW/CW Child Abandonment | Death | Racism
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from We're All Ghost in the Forest when I picked it up. I have never read anything by the author before and I didn't look too closely at the synopsis. So I went in very blind. I think that worked out fine.
One of my biggest gripes often can be when books don't do much world building. I'm sure some will complain about the book not explaining how the internet broke and how it is possible that there are internet ghosts. But that isn't really what this book is about. And it takes a strong writer to not make me question about that. And beyond just that question, there is plenty of world building going around. I have a very good idea what the world is like at that moment and what the world was like before it happened.
It is not an easy world. They've reverted back to mostly rural and farming. There doesn't seem to be much technology, just whatever survived the breakdown, like the motor. But not only that reverted. Being different gets you marked as an outside. And not just her herbal skills make Katherina stand out. She is also (partial) Indian. She doesn't adapt to the town's way of things but prefers her own way. Which is strike 3 as far as they are concerned.
It took a little for me to get invested. I needed a little to get my bearings on the setting and our main character Katherina. But by the end I did truly feel for her and I loved her bond with Stefan. Also her bond with the autistic town girl. Katherina accepts her for who she is and it is only mentioned once that she is autistic.
A lot of the book is about finding a place to belong and about trusting others. About being able to let others in. About letting your prejudice fall.
TW/CW Child Abandonment | Death | Racism
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from We're All Ghost in the Forest when I picked it up. I have never read anything by the author before and I didn't look too closely at the synopsis. So I went in very blind. I think that worked out fine.
One of my biggest gripes often can be when books don't do much world building. I'm sure some will complain about the book not explaining how the internet broke and how it is possible that there are internet ghosts. But that isn't really what this book is about. And it takes a strong writer to not make me question about that. And beyond just that question, there is plenty of world building going around. I have a very good idea what the world is like at that moment and what the world was like before it happened.
It is not an easy world. They've reverted back to mostly rural and farming. There doesn't seem to be much technology, just whatever survived the breakdown, like the motor. But not only that reverted. Being different gets you marked as an outside. And not just her herbal skills make Katherina stand out. She is also (partial) Indian. She doesn't adapt to the town's way of things but prefers her own way. Which is strike 3 as far as they are concerned.
It took a little for me to get invested. I needed a little to get my bearings on the setting and our main character Katherina. But by the end I did truly feel for her and I loved her bond with Stefan. Also her bond with the autistic town girl. Katherina accepts her for who she is and it is only mentioned once that she is autistic.
A lot of the book is about finding a place to belong and about trusting others. About being able to let others in. About letting your prejudice fall.
February 14, 2025
The most beautifully written, incredibly boring book I've read in a long time.
Also: I had some issues.
It was riddled with moments when I questioned the world building (tea and rice? really? When coffee is a massive luxury? And not a whiff of any of the Eastern European foods (I am of Eastern European stock and three generations later we are still eating borscht).
Then there was Stefan. A mute boy does make for a very convenient Dr. Who Companion you can explain things to. But until very late on 'mute' also seemed to include no ability to write, no sign language and a structure that made him very dependent. He's thirteen not 8. Trauma shows in teens very differently to the way it shows in children.
I wasn't much impressed by Elizabeth (have I got that name right? ) another character who was constructed as dependent, this time due to her autism.
By which time I was starting to get very uncomfortable with the Special Saviour narrative, because Katerina is just all too bloody competent and clever and she has Magical Powers to Talk to Bees (think Granny Weatherwax).
And then in the end, the story is about enough to fill a novellette.
--
But like I said, line by line beautiful writing.
Also: I had some issues.
It was riddled with moments when I questioned the world building (tea and rice? really? When coffee is a massive luxury? And not a whiff of any of the Eastern European foods (I am of Eastern European stock and three generations later we are still eating borscht).
Then there was Stefan. A mute boy does make for a very convenient Dr. Who Companion you can explain things to. But until very late on 'mute' also seemed to include no ability to write, no sign language and a structure that made him very dependent. He's thirteen not 8. Trauma shows in teens very differently to the way it shows in children.
I wasn't much impressed by Elizabeth (have I got that name right? ) another character who was constructed as dependent, this time due to her autism.
By which time I was starting to get very uncomfortable with the Special Saviour narrative, because Katerina is just all too bloody competent and clever and she has Magical Powers to Talk to Bees (think Granny Weatherwax).
And then in the end, the story is about enough to fill a novellette.
--
But like I said, line by line beautiful writing.
September 4, 2025
This has been on my shelves way too long, and I am disappointed I took so long to get to it.
I absolutely loved the mysterious, folk lore vibes of this story. Both the characters and the atmospheric setting are beautifully written.
The fact that this is ultimately a dystopian read, this book holds vibes of a story routed in the past was cleverly entwined. The days of herbs, connecting with nature and cries of 'Witch' from the village folk, added a beautiful narrative to this story.
I enjoyed the way the story developed, the little twists of her sisters death, and Stefans mutism added to the story overall.
Such an interesting concept, digital ghosts following the collapse of the Internet.
This author has a very unique ability to create wonderful stories that combine the issues of today with hauntings of the past.
I absolutely loved the mysterious, folk lore vibes of this story. Both the characters and the atmospheric setting are beautifully written.
The fact that this is ultimately a dystopian read, this book holds vibes of a story routed in the past was cleverly entwined. The days of herbs, connecting with nature and cries of 'Witch' from the village folk, added a beautiful narrative to this story.
I enjoyed the way the story developed, the little twists of her sisters death, and Stefans mutism added to the story overall.
Such an interesting concept, digital ghosts following the collapse of the Internet.
This author has a very unique ability to create wonderful stories that combine the issues of today with hauntings of the past.
December 1, 2024
This book will stay with me a long time. It took me on a journey. At the start I was preoccupied with finding out what had happened. I was a bit lost in the middle section as this not my usual genre. The final third of the book had me completely hooked and the ending is very special, no spoilers. The themes of home, refuge, racism and bigotry are slowly introduced throughout the book. I will look for something else by this author.
June 18, 2024
That was a delightfully heart-warming story with an interesting and unusual premise - a world in which the internet has broken its bonds and infected the real world with ghosts. There's a lot to think about here so I may be back later with a more considered review, but my initial opinion is this is an excellent read and definitely worth giving a chance to.
September 10, 2024
Thank you to Solaris for providing this ARC!
Delightfully unsettling! Digital ghosts and very real infections. A cat that's not a cat but is so very much a cat ♥️ grief and loneliness and ties that bind! This book speaks to so much and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Delightfully unsettling! Digital ghosts and very real infections. A cat that's not a cat but is so very much a cat ♥️ grief and loneliness and ties that bind! This book speaks to so much and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
January 21, 2025
Captivated by the opening sentence, then immediately absorbed by the story and the unputdownable tension - along with, as ever - the delight of Lorraine's writing, this is a heart-stopping, heart-warming, magic tale, a very different genre from my usual reading, but up there with the very, very best, supplemented, as it is with ghost cats, birdsong and a variety of healing leaves.
dnf
July 30, 2024DNF
Thanks NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately it’s a DNF for me. Just couldn’t get into it.
Thanks NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately it’s a DNF for me. Just couldn’t get into it.
November 5, 2024
They were not ghosts, but the forest was not just a forest anymore and people had written far too many stories about wolves for them to be unchanged. You tell a thing it is hungry enough times, can you blame it for hunting? [loc. 2388]
Katerina, formerly a photojournalist, lives in her dead grandmother's house, near a small village in Estonia. The villagers think she's a witch (they're right) because she has a knack for herbalism, a talent for talking to bees, a coat whose pockets nearly always give her what she needs, and a ghost cat named Orlando. The forest is semi-sentient, and full of ghosts from the Crash -- when the internet collapsed in on itself, spawning infectious digital ghosts that might be fragments of birdsong, or a galloping horse, or sentient fungus. Or wolves out of fairytales, more intelligent and malevolent than their natural cousins.
The novel begins with Katerina returning to her village with a young boy in tow. His name is Stefan, and he's mute: he gave Katerina a note from his father (a man she doesn't know) asking her to take care of his son. Katerina teaches him to manage the basic tasks of the farm, and tries to find out what became of his father. Could he be somehow linked to the new and terrible illness that's killing travellers? And can Katerina -- with the help of the forest, and the bees, and even the ghosts -- find a cure for it?
This is a slow, dreamy novel, beautifully written and suffused with loneliness and mystery: it reveals its secrets only gradually. The characters seem defined as much as by what they've lost (Katerina mourning her sister, Jaakob trying to 'fish' for the ghost of his husband, Stefan missing his father) as by what they do. There is prejudice (Katerina, as well as being a witch and a traveller, is mixed-race) and xenophobia. The post-technological society that Wilson depicts is as mystical as it's practical. There is great power in stories, and in the ways those stories are told.
Pragmatic and practical, Katerina's inner conflict between her compassion and her fear of emotional connection is vividly depicted: I liked her interactions with the (sometimes prickly) villagers, and she won me over by sprinkling salt on Orlando the Ghost Cat, who turns black to soak up the heat of a stray sunbeam. 'Salt strengthens the signal... Or the current, if that’s how it works. Electricity, either way. Copper powder works better but it also lasts longer and then he starts shredding the rugs'. Definite pandemic vibes here, too, with the isolation and the constant threat of infection... A slow read, but a beautiful one.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK Publication Date is 07 NOV 2024.
April 4, 2024
Digital ARC received from NetGalley.
I requested this book because Lorraine Wilson's novella The Last to Drown packed a huge emotional punch for me. I finished and physically sobbed. I've never experienced such a strong emotional reaction to a book before. So going into this, I was expecting much of the same. Although We Are all Ghosts in the Forest didn't make me experience the same emotional connection (and it was never going to, the themes are different), it has the same slow, melodic character-driven pace. Wilson has a beautiful turn of phrase which verges on lyrical, and perhaps in some senses, nonsensical. In some cases, it blew me away, in others I just wanted her to be more literal. For both of these factors, the pacing and the prose, it won't be for everyone. You have to take your time to soak in the words, and honestly, I skipped some. I was too impatient. But the pay-off is there if you're willing to stick around.
We're introduced to Katerina, an outsider, finding her feet in a world post-crash, where the internet has escaped its binds and data has coalesced in the natural world as 'ghosts'. This premise really drew me in and the world building, having different types of ghosts, captured my attention. But, as I said, this book isn't about the plot, and more the character. We learn that Katerina has secrets, she carries the memories of her sister and mother as a burden. Her trauma is her own personal ghost that she needs to deflect, proving a bigger issue to her than the visible ghosts around her that she's immune to. When she is forced to offer a young boy protection, she faces the choice of letting down her guard and welcoming people into her life, or continue to keep her distant. I didn't understand the connection between Katerina and the boy's father, but his value is immense.
This story has belonging at its heart, demonstrating that people don't need to understand the struggles and history of a person in order to connect with them and make them feel at home.
"If you don't fit, you are always on the edges, and the people on the edges are the first ones to get shut out."
Ultimately, we are the same at our core, each with burdens, trauma, and struggles, and we should all try to be the best we can be, avoiding division, conflict and the marginalisation of people different to us. We are all ghosts in the forest.
I requested this book because Lorraine Wilson's novella The Last to Drown packed a huge emotional punch for me. I finished and physically sobbed. I've never experienced such a strong emotional reaction to a book before. So going into this, I was expecting much of the same. Although We Are all Ghosts in the Forest didn't make me experience the same emotional connection (and it was never going to, the themes are different), it has the same slow, melodic character-driven pace. Wilson has a beautiful turn of phrase which verges on lyrical, and perhaps in some senses, nonsensical. In some cases, it blew me away, in others I just wanted her to be more literal. For both of these factors, the pacing and the prose, it won't be for everyone. You have to take your time to soak in the words, and honestly, I skipped some. I was too impatient. But the pay-off is there if you're willing to stick around.
We're introduced to Katerina, an outsider, finding her feet in a world post-crash, where the internet has escaped its binds and data has coalesced in the natural world as 'ghosts'. This premise really drew me in and the world building, having different types of ghosts, captured my attention. But, as I said, this book isn't about the plot, and more the character. We learn that Katerina has secrets, she carries the memories of her sister and mother as a burden. Her trauma is her own personal ghost that she needs to deflect, proving a bigger issue to her than the visible ghosts around her that she's immune to. When she is forced to offer a young boy protection, she faces the choice of letting down her guard and welcoming people into her life, or continue to keep her distant. I didn't understand the connection between Katerina and the boy's father, but his value is immense.
This story has belonging at its heart, demonstrating that people don't need to understand the struggles and history of a person in order to connect with them and make them feel at home.
"If you don't fit, you are always on the edges, and the people on the edges are the first ones to get shut out."
Ultimately, we are the same at our core, each with burdens, trauma, and struggles, and we should all try to be the best we can be, avoiding division, conflict and the marginalisation of people different to us. We are all ghosts in the forest.
December 27, 2024
We Are All Ghosts In The Forest is a weirdly folkloric, tenderly poetic, multi-layered masterpiece of post-apocalyptic fiction. Lorraine Wilson has composed a modern masterwork that is as powerful in its gentleness as its wildness. She has tamed a peculiar kind of magic and imbued these pages with it.
The story takes place following an event where the internet has moved beyond the digital realm and entered our physical world — where ghosts of memes, recipe sites, Facebook profiles, and cat videos haunt the world as spectres that can possess people, cause sickness, and even bring about death. That’s the setting. It’s mystical, but absolutely clear and easy to picture, providing a wonderful playground to approach themes that stab at the heart of our relationship with the natural and digital world.
The way these ghosts latch onto nature is fascinating, creating hazards in woodland and untrodden paths, and this uncanny synchronicity between nature and technology is richly explored. There’s conflict and truth to be found in our dependence upon things greater than ourselves. For instance, Katerina is the main character who we find navigating this world, mixing herbs and tinctures to ward off digital ghosts. She talks to bees for guidance and seeks answers from fragments of the spectral internet — the equivalent of a Google search here takes the form of beseeching a ghost and interpreting cryptic answers. Is technology taking us over? Is it a sickness to our humanity? Is there a safe way to use it? There’s a huge amount of speculation here, but it doesn’t read like sci-fi or fantasy or anything in between. It’s literary folklore that resonates with modernity, and it’s absolutely breathtaking.
So now we’ve got the setting, let’s talk about the plot. It’s an outstanding example of a simple idea that’s done so well, it captures all sorts of nuance in the way it unfolds. The story follows a woman (Katerina) who finds a child to protect (Stefan). Reluctantly, she’ll be pushed to search for the boy’s father, who may have succumbed to a new form of disease caused by exposure to digital ghosts. Sounds straightforward enough, doesn’t it? But this is so much more than a search and rescue. The idea of otherness is expertly interwoven through the narrative. The way it feels to be an outsider — belonging, but never truly belonging — is expressed so well, it feels tangibly real. Katerina — who casts tinctures to ward off digital maladies — is a woman who’s accepted for what she can provide, but shunned for what she is. She’s not one of the locals in her village. She’s an interloper who straddles the line between being welcome and unwelcome. The way Lorraine Wilson brought a similar perspective to life in Mother Sea, her previous novel, was enchanting, but this isn’t a carbon copy repeat of the bubbling springs her readers have already swum. This takes us into fresh water, with greater depth and weightier resonance. There’s an assurance, confidence, and fearlessness about the writing here, and it’s spellbinding to behold.
Another familiar feature of Raine’s work is the slow simmer of a found family dynamic. This Is Our Undoing took us on a slow burn with a female protagonist who develops a closeness to a young, troubled boy. We see that play out here too, but this isn’t an attempt to replay the hits. There’s something unique and gratifying about the bond between Katerina and her new ward, as well as the journey they take together. The boy may be mute, but their progression towards accepting each other speaks volumes.
Oh, and just in case you weren’t convinced that this book is incredible, it also has a ghost cat as a pet sidekick, which is the dream feline for anyone with an allergy! I dare you not to fall in love with the cat. Seriously. You’re going to want one.
Ultimately, this is a novel that will appeal to fans of Lorraine Wilson. But it’s so much more elegantly crafted than anything she’s released before. This is a levelling up — an elevation that is guaranteed to satisfy existing fans and mesmerise anyone who hasn’t yet discovered this amazing author.
Quick disclaimer: don’t go into this book expecting explosions every few seconds or a barrage of pew pew pews or a litany of jump-scares. It’s ponderously, deliberately paced to allow you sufficient room to absorb the weight of every new detail. To say it is slow is to do it a disservice. To say it doesn’t get your pulse pounding isn’t quite right either. But be patient with the story, immerse yourself in it, and you’ll experience something that lasts a lot longer than a quick-fire thrill — something unforgettable.
We Are All Ghosts In The Forest is speculation for the heart. In the hands of someone else, this could so easily have been cerebral sci-fi, or fantasy horror, or it could have slotted into a much more clearly defined subgenre. Instead, this is a book that I’ve found impossible to quantify — it’s a human story about what it means to be connected to something else, be it a person, the natural world, or a digital one. It transcends convention to provide a unique experience that’s every bit as haunting as you hope it will be. It’s a song. It’s a poem. It’s a truth. It’s a life. It’s a myth. It’s a must. It’s amazing. A signature piece from a singular talent.
Lorraine Wilson has not just written a book, she’s produced a landmark of folkloric speculative fiction, provided an utterly captivating take on the post-apocalypse that redefines what sci-fi can be, and in doing so, she’s accomplished something remarkable. If this is a digital ghost, then it is quite welcome to possess my imagination. Listen to the bees, and they’ll speak of this story as honey for the soul. I suggest you sprinkle some salt to bring it near and welcome it onto your shelf as fast as you can.
And do try not to fall too head over heels in love with the cat while you’re at it.
The story takes place following an event where the internet has moved beyond the digital realm and entered our physical world — where ghosts of memes, recipe sites, Facebook profiles, and cat videos haunt the world as spectres that can possess people, cause sickness, and even bring about death. That’s the setting. It’s mystical, but absolutely clear and easy to picture, providing a wonderful playground to approach themes that stab at the heart of our relationship with the natural and digital world.
The way these ghosts latch onto nature is fascinating, creating hazards in woodland and untrodden paths, and this uncanny synchronicity between nature and technology is richly explored. There’s conflict and truth to be found in our dependence upon things greater than ourselves. For instance, Katerina is the main character who we find navigating this world, mixing herbs and tinctures to ward off digital ghosts. She talks to bees for guidance and seeks answers from fragments of the spectral internet — the equivalent of a Google search here takes the form of beseeching a ghost and interpreting cryptic answers. Is technology taking us over? Is it a sickness to our humanity? Is there a safe way to use it? There’s a huge amount of speculation here, but it doesn’t read like sci-fi or fantasy or anything in between. It’s literary folklore that resonates with modernity, and it’s absolutely breathtaking.
So now we’ve got the setting, let’s talk about the plot. It’s an outstanding example of a simple idea that’s done so well, it captures all sorts of nuance in the way it unfolds. The story follows a woman (Katerina) who finds a child to protect (Stefan). Reluctantly, she’ll be pushed to search for the boy’s father, who may have succumbed to a new form of disease caused by exposure to digital ghosts. Sounds straightforward enough, doesn’t it? But this is so much more than a search and rescue. The idea of otherness is expertly interwoven through the narrative. The way it feels to be an outsider — belonging, but never truly belonging — is expressed so well, it feels tangibly real. Katerina — who casts tinctures to ward off digital maladies — is a woman who’s accepted for what she can provide, but shunned for what she is. She’s not one of the locals in her village. She’s an interloper who straddles the line between being welcome and unwelcome. The way Lorraine Wilson brought a similar perspective to life in Mother Sea, her previous novel, was enchanting, but this isn’t a carbon copy repeat of the bubbling springs her readers have already swum. This takes us into fresh water, with greater depth and weightier resonance. There’s an assurance, confidence, and fearlessness about the writing here, and it’s spellbinding to behold.
Another familiar feature of Raine’s work is the slow simmer of a found family dynamic. This Is Our Undoing took us on a slow burn with a female protagonist who develops a closeness to a young, troubled boy. We see that play out here too, but this isn’t an attempt to replay the hits. There’s something unique and gratifying about the bond between Katerina and her new ward, as well as the journey they take together. The boy may be mute, but their progression towards accepting each other speaks volumes.
Oh, and just in case you weren’t convinced that this book is incredible, it also has a ghost cat as a pet sidekick, which is the dream feline for anyone with an allergy! I dare you not to fall in love with the cat. Seriously. You’re going to want one.
Ultimately, this is a novel that will appeal to fans of Lorraine Wilson. But it’s so much more elegantly crafted than anything she’s released before. This is a levelling up — an elevation that is guaranteed to satisfy existing fans and mesmerise anyone who hasn’t yet discovered this amazing author.
Quick disclaimer: don’t go into this book expecting explosions every few seconds or a barrage of pew pew pews or a litany of jump-scares. It’s ponderously, deliberately paced to allow you sufficient room to absorb the weight of every new detail. To say it is slow is to do it a disservice. To say it doesn’t get your pulse pounding isn’t quite right either. But be patient with the story, immerse yourself in it, and you’ll experience something that lasts a lot longer than a quick-fire thrill — something unforgettable.
We Are All Ghosts In The Forest is speculation for the heart. In the hands of someone else, this could so easily have been cerebral sci-fi, or fantasy horror, or it could have slotted into a much more clearly defined subgenre. Instead, this is a book that I’ve found impossible to quantify — it’s a human story about what it means to be connected to something else, be it a person, the natural world, or a digital one. It transcends convention to provide a unique experience that’s every bit as haunting as you hope it will be. It’s a song. It’s a poem. It’s a truth. It’s a life. It’s a myth. It’s a must. It’s amazing. A signature piece from a singular talent.
Lorraine Wilson has not just written a book, she’s produced a landmark of folkloric speculative fiction, provided an utterly captivating take on the post-apocalypse that redefines what sci-fi can be, and in doing so, she’s accomplished something remarkable. If this is a digital ghost, then it is quite welcome to possess my imagination. Listen to the bees, and they’ll speak of this story as honey for the soul. I suggest you sprinkle some salt to bring it near and welcome it onto your shelf as fast as you can.
And do try not to fall too head over heels in love with the cat while you’re at it.
April 21, 2024
What promised to be a really interesting concept unfortunately fell flat for me. With a dystopian story like this, the threat (in this case, the 'ghosts') should be clearly laid out early on for the reader. Even by the end of the book, I still wasn't really sure what this world-ending issue was or how it worked which made it difficult for me to connect to much of the story. It also wasn't entirely clear to me whether or not this was about magic or technology or supernatural elements so some parts of the book felt jarring and disconnected for me. The writing was beautiful in a lot of places though. Interesting idea but lacked execution for me sadly.
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