Before the Forest

After The Forest #0.5

by Kell Woods

Kell Woods returns to the world of her bestselling novel, After the Forest, weaving a dark and lyrical standalone, spoiler-free backstory for a young witch at the siege of Breisach, years before she became notorious for her gingerbread cottage... and her appetite.

Author's Note: This story contains descriptions of domestic violence, sexual assault, animal harm, and cannibalism.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fairy Tales, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Retellings, Horror

31 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 14, 2024

Reviews

[Esta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good villain origin story, and if you're curious how the witch from Hansel and Gretel went from baking cookies to... well, baking kids, Before the Forest has got you covered.

It’s based on The Brothers Grimm’s The Juniper Tree, and if you thought the original tale was brutal, this wartime historical fantasy is even gnarlier. It crams every single possible trigger warning you can think of—domestic violence, sexual assault, animal harm, murder and cannibalism—into 30 pages or so, which is a wild achievement in itself.

If you like your fairytale retellings dark, this one is about as pitch-black as it gets, and I love what Kell Woods has done with it. This is a standalone, spoiler-free prequel to After the Forest .

Highly recommend—mind your triggers though!

Available to read on Reactor (Tor).

🔹🔹🔹

Building a gingerbread house and snacking on wayward children is a big red flag, but I'm still intrigued to find out how the witch from Hansel and Gretel got to that point.

[Nika · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

We are in Breisach in the 17th century. The war that has been raging outside for some time is getting closer. The imperial city is under siege. We follow a young woman as she tries to survive the hostility of the war, the excruciating hunger, and the brutality of her husband. As the story progresses, the atmosphere becomes darker and bloodier.
This is a grim short story that may make you feel uncomfortable. The themes involved are definitely disturbing. The narration is intense. It is no surprise that hunger and fear can push people people to the edge. Still, reading some of the details can give you goosebumps.
More by accident than design, our heroine changes her own life and the lives of those who share a roof with her.

I will leave you with a chillingly revealing quote:
"By November, the bodies of the city's living have become the graves of the dead."

Many thanks to my friend Esta for bringing this story to my attention!

[Lois Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story is more grimdark than (dark) fantasy. Then again, some of the origins of fairy tales were cautionary tales. This short story, which is based on elements of military history, demonstrates what happens when entitlement and abuse becomes the microcosm of the macrocosm. Readers learn how and why the Witch became the Witch who built a gingerbread house to lure children so she could eat them. This is a story about different types of survival and the circumstances and the consequences of survival. Unfortunately, there are several parts of this story that are still ongoing in the real world in modern society.

I’ve been waiting for the “right time” (a.k.a. “free time”) to read the author’s debut novel, “After the Forest.” The novel takes place after the events of the story everyone is familiar with; however, readers are treated to this very believable and very spoiler free short story which serves as the prequel to both the book and the fairy tale. In other words, the story everyone knows is what’s in between the short story and the novel by the same author. I’ll be reading the novel sooner rather than later!

This short story is available to read for free on Reactormag.com (formerly Tor.com).

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What a great little short story! I had a blast returning to fairytale Rhineland in this dark origin story of the witch from Hansel and Gretel and in some ways, a retelling of The Juniper Tree. 🌳

The story follows Junia, a young girl who finds herself an orphan and in the care of her uncle Johannes and his son, Cord. Sadly, her good days are long behind her when Johannes dies and Cord takes over. Physically and sexually abused by her cousin, Junia has to learn to survive while literally being used as a slave to Cord’s workplace and her growing family; all this while also trying to survive a siege of the city. 🏰

Woods does a fantastic job keeping the creepy and dark elements of German folktales while still providing a wonderful space for female characters to shine. I honestly loved Junia’s descent into wickedness and honestly wish we, the readers, got more than 31 pages of plot. 🥲

The short story is easily accessible on Reactor and I HIGHLY suggest every who has read After the Forest to read it, and even those who haven't gotten to Woods' debut yet, this is still worth your time as it is considered a prequel of sorts! ❤️

[Chanel Chapters · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

Grimdark origin story of the Gingerbread-house witch.
Beautifully written, devastatingly brutal. Do note the trigger warnings.

[Marijana☕✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evo šta se desi kad ženi ubiješ mačku...

Juniper Tree  je možda i najmračnija bajka braće Grim i upravo je njene motive Kell Woods iskoristila za prequel njenog romana After the Forest , koji me oduševio pre nekih godinu dana, a Before the Forest je samo potvrda da se Kell Woods razume u bajke i da ume da ih piše. BtF je villain origin story o kojoj ne bih previše otkrivala. Reći ću samo da je postignuta idealna mera za kratku priču da bude interesantna, poučna, jeziva, informativna i psihološki potkovana. 

[owlette · Rating 4 out of 5]

[added supplemental reading 2024-12-01] I don't usually read short stories outside of collections and anthologies, but an episode about short stories from the podcast Our Opinions Are Correct has encouraged me to sample online magazines like Reactor (plus, I couldn't resist the beautiful non-AI generated illustrations). This is my first foray into Tor.com's original fiction.

Aside: I found "Hansel and Gretel" listed as a climate literature in Smith College's Climate in Arts and History website. Apparently, this 19th century fairy tale was inspired by a major famine that we now understand was caused by the Little Ice Age. I won't spoil why I'm mentioning the Grimm Brothers' story or the famine, but I recommend checking out the link after reading Woods's story.

[Matilda (booksinwildplaces) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5.
Type: 📱 e-book.
Genre: dark fantasy novella.

Overall impression: a very dark fantasy novella that makes you sympathise with the witch in the gingerbread house. A perfect complement to After the Forest.

Best bits:
✅ The witch from Hansel and Gretel
✅ Fairytale retelling
✅ Strong female character
✅ Characters evoked strong emotions
✅ Dark themes (i.e. war, starvation, death of loved ones, cannibalism, consumption of animals i.e. pets)
✅ Fast-paced without sacrificing on world-building
✅ Happy-for-now (HFN)
✅ Aussie author
✅ Novella

[Mari Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darker than I expected. Much darker then After the Forest, but a good rounding out to the witch character.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a prequel to After the Forest and it was a villian origin story of sorts - i found it hard to place where we were initially and it was short and impactful! I like a little more detail so I wanted some more.

[Candace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this little backstory of a witch!

[Lissa Sloan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Junia is hungry—for peace, for choice, for escape. But since the death of her uncle, she must go without and satisfy the hunger of others. She cooks and bakes to feed the customers of the family tavern. And then, of course, she must also serve her brutish cousin, who is hungry for her. Things get worse as time goes on and the enemy army approaches, laying seige to her home. Trapped in an abusive marriage and struggling to raise two children she can’t bring herself to love, all Junia wants is freedom. But there is no escape from the city, and the food is running out.

In Before the Forest, author Kell Woods explores the horrifying conditions and desperation the townspeople suffered during the 1648 siege of Breisach. While this short story stands alone, it is a prequel to After the Forest, giving the witch from Hansel and Gretel an origin story. Like Woods’s debut novel, this story examines the consequences of trauma through a fairy tale lens. The tale reimagined here is one of the grimmest from the Brothers Grimm: The Juniper Tree.

The setting of a besieged city in which the innocent townsfolk suffer the privations of a war is a fitting one with which to explore The Juniper Tree’s themes of murder and cannibalism, and Woods marries history and fiction in shocking detail. When assault and domestic abuse are added in, Junia is all too believable as a woman pushed to the breaking point. Her story is a gut-wrenching read, the kind that had me whispering, no, no, in horror as I hung on every word. As a stark warning of the results of man’s inhumanity to man (and woman), Before the Forest is powerfully grim.

[Isabelle Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It kept with the feel of After the Forest and gave a good origin story to the villain of that book (or atleast one of the villains) but it lacked anything for me to grasp. I know it’s a very short story at under 30 pages and was a whole story but it just wasn’t for me because there wasn’t a lot to tie into the bigger story that made me read this one.

Now for the spoilers:

I enjoyed the tie in of the at causing the hardships that make a child eating witch but she clearly didn’t enjoy eating the kids so idk why she would have kept doing it which then doesn’t make sense (would have made more sense to eat terrible husbands! ) I would have also liked to see the book come into play and Liliane from the main book.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story. Kell Woods invites readers back to the enchanting realm of her renowned novel, "After the Forest," with a compelling and poetic standalone. Delving into the backstory of a young witch, Junia, amidst the siege of Breisach, the narrative unfolds transformative events leading up to her iconic gingerbread cottage era. The tale explores themes of domestic violence, sexual assault, animal harm, and cannibalism in a grim and imaginative setting.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty brutal and dark read, I didn't exactly enjoy the slow grinding down of the main character and didn't feel triumphant at the end, but I did really enjoy the writing style, enough so to make me interested in reading the novel that's part of the world this is from. Dark fairy tales are always interesting to me.

[luiloth · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://reactormag.com/before-the-for...

[Kathy Piselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story was so interesting to read right after reading After the Forest. Junia's challenges are similar to Greta's, but much more severe, and she ends up as the child-eating crone in the forest. As a well-written short story, it is deliciously creepy.

[Thaïsa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dark telling of how marital abuse, hunger, lawlessness of war and a city under siege, can drive a woman to do horrible things to survive, and actually had me feel some sympathy and understanding for the crone in Hansel and gretel

[whatskhemdoinghere · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 ⭐️

I just started After the Forest when I saw that it has a novella — a villain origin, apparently. So here I am and boy this 30-paged story had me reaching for the rosary. It’s dark and disturbing. I love it.

[vicki selina cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating

Once you start to read you cannot stop. I was drawn into Junia’s world and looked to her for a way out… wonderful storytelling. Deep rich imagery. Captivating.

[Shiva · Rating 3 out of 5]

A truly dark fantasy! It is scary and wye opening how people change and morals go out the window when it is all about survival.

[Ellen J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was uncomfortably graphic for me.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that was f'ed up lol. Murder, domestic/sexual assault, animal harm and cannibalism all in 31 pages! Based on Brother's Grimm Juniper Tree.

[Alma G · Rating 3 out of 5]

At 32 pages, this novella is tiny. It does flesh out the witches character and would be helpful to read first for those that haven’t read After The Forest yet.

[Amanda Ekstedt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a horror start to finish. Glorious.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was dark. But interesting as a villain origin story. I certainly felt for Junia. Mind the content warnings on this one.

[Christy Copeland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very grim short story about how the witch in the gingerbread house came to be.

[Martina (sith acolyte) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fucked up

[Azora]

Veeeeeery dark

[Şeyda · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 because the switch to witch happened all at once and didnt affect the story enough.