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Summerwood/Winterwood
Pray you never find your Summerwood, Grandfather had said. I’d found something worse. I’d found his.
In Summerwood, twelve-year old Rosalind Hero Cheung can’t wait to spend the summer in Toronto with her teenaged sister Julie and their famous author grandfather. Years ago Walter Denison wrote a series of bestselling children’s novels about a magical land called the Summerwood. But to Hero’s dismay, Walter is cold toward his granddaughters and Julie derides Hero’s hope that the Summerwood is real.
Nevertheless one day she and Julie stumble into the Summerwood. Ruled by the beautiful and enigmatic Lady of Summer, it is the idyllic fantasy land out of Walter’s books, complete with quaintly dressed talking animals. However, Hero discovers the Summerwood is far more sinister than Walter had ever let on. Julie is abducted and to save her life, Hero must find the Summerwood’s sacred winter stag. Hero quickly learns that setting out on a fantasy quest is far more prosaic―and terrifying―than she’d ever imagined, and there is a steep and bloody price to pay for being the hero.
In Summerwood, twelve-year old Rosalind Hero Cheung can’t wait to spend the summer in Toronto with her teenaged sister Julie and their famous author grandfather. Years ago Walter Denison wrote a series of bestselling children’s novels about a magical land called the Summerwood. But to Hero’s dismay, Walter is cold toward his granddaughters and Julie derides Hero’s hope that the Summerwood is real.
Nevertheless one day she and Julie stumble into the Summerwood. Ruled by the beautiful and enigmatic Lady of Summer, it is the idyllic fantasy land out of Walter’s books, complete with quaintly dressed talking animals. However, Hero discovers the Summerwood is far more sinister than Walter had ever let on. Julie is abducted and to save her life, Hero must find the Summerwood’s sacred winter stag. Hero quickly learns that setting out on a fantasy quest is far more prosaic―and terrifying―than she’d ever imagined, and there is a steep and bloody price to pay for being the hero.
500 pages, Paperback
Published September 17, 2019
2 people are currently reading
96 people want to read
About the author
E.L. Chen
12 books22 followersE. L. Chen is the author of Summerwood/Winterwood, Sweetside Motel, Slasher Summer, and One of Us Is Already Dead. She lives in Toronto, Canada with her son and many TBR piles. Find more about her at elainechen.com.
**Disclaimer: I resurrected this account to support my fellow writers, so everyone gets 4 or 5 stars.**
**Disclaimer: I resurrected this account to support my fellow writers, so everyone gets 4 or 5 stars.**
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 27, 2020
What would it be like if your Grandfather was a famous children's author who basically wrote a modern, Toronto-based version of the Narnia books called The Summerwood/ Winterwood series?
And what would happen if one day you found your own way in to that enchanted Summerwood world in the back of a closet in your Grandfather's downtown Toronto home? You went looking for it, because you're 12 and thought it would be cool to live with talking rabbits, friendly bears and raccoons?
If you're anything like Rosalind/Hero/Lindy ... it wouldn't actually be all that great. It would be terrifying, actually. PTSD-inducing. You'd be faced with the terror of the Dark Tower and the evil Queen Eris, bloated dragons and many-headed squirrels, while trying to make sense of the make-believe world that wasn't make-believe at all. There would be sacrifices made to ensure your safety, and nothing you thought you knew about stories and heroes would be at all like the actual thing. All your therapists for the rest of your childhood, would think you were just making up your experiences in The Summerwood to get attention or to lash out at your divorced parents.
They'd tell you the Summerwood was just a world made up by your Grandfather, that it wasn't real. But you'd know it was. Then when you're 16, desperate for some answers, you'd go back. Except it's not Summerwood anymore. It's Winterwood.
But is it the place that's changed, or you?
I really enjoyed this "modern messed-up kid knows Narnia isn't real, until it is" story. It's a fantastic inter-textual mash-up of fantasy, Shakespeare, hero quest, rite-of-passage/ coming-of-age YA novel set in urban Toronto and Kingston. I loved Rosalind/Hero/Lindy: she's funny, down-to-earth despite suffering horribly from PTSD after her battles in the Summerwood, and completely compelling. She's a smart, cool girl lost in a family drama, doomed to wander a fantasy world that becomes horribly real, but she knows how to pack for the trip (don't forget the necessities like tampons and protein bars).
No-one's journey to adulthood is simple, not in fairy tales and not in real life. The existential question at the heart of this story could very well be: what does a girl have to sacrifice, what part of her family drama does she have to kill and bury, to transform from child to adult?
If you like urban fantasy, YA, books that riff off other books, coming-of-age stories, plus adorable talking rabbits as best friends, you'll like this. Think Peter Rabbit in Narnia with a messed-up kid instead of Lucy, set in Toronto. It reminded me a little of the YA title, The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness, for the fantasy-in-the-midst-of-too-much-reality setting, and the cool, funny main character. Enjoy!
And what would happen if one day you found your own way in to that enchanted Summerwood world in the back of a closet in your Grandfather's downtown Toronto home? You went looking for it, because you're 12 and thought it would be cool to live with talking rabbits, friendly bears and raccoons?
If you're anything like Rosalind/Hero/Lindy ... it wouldn't actually be all that great. It would be terrifying, actually. PTSD-inducing. You'd be faced with the terror of the Dark Tower and the evil Queen Eris, bloated dragons and many-headed squirrels, while trying to make sense of the make-believe world that wasn't make-believe at all. There would be sacrifices made to ensure your safety, and nothing you thought you knew about stories and heroes would be at all like the actual thing. All your therapists for the rest of your childhood, would think you were just making up your experiences in The Summerwood to get attention or to lash out at your divorced parents.
They'd tell you the Summerwood was just a world made up by your Grandfather, that it wasn't real. But you'd know it was. Then when you're 16, desperate for some answers, you'd go back. Except it's not Summerwood anymore. It's Winterwood.
But is it the place that's changed, or you?
I really enjoyed this "modern messed-up kid knows Narnia isn't real, until it is" story. It's a fantastic inter-textual mash-up of fantasy, Shakespeare, hero quest, rite-of-passage/ coming-of-age YA novel set in urban Toronto and Kingston. I loved Rosalind/Hero/Lindy: she's funny, down-to-earth despite suffering horribly from PTSD after her battles in the Summerwood, and completely compelling. She's a smart, cool girl lost in a family drama, doomed to wander a fantasy world that becomes horribly real, but she knows how to pack for the trip (don't forget the necessities like tampons and protein bars).
No-one's journey to adulthood is simple, not in fairy tales and not in real life. The existential question at the heart of this story could very well be: what does a girl have to sacrifice, what part of her family drama does she have to kill and bury, to transform from child to adult?
If you like urban fantasy, YA, books that riff off other books, coming-of-age stories, plus adorable talking rabbits as best friends, you'll like this. Think Peter Rabbit in Narnia with a messed-up kid instead of Lucy, set in Toronto. It reminded me a little of the YA title, The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness, for the fantasy-in-the-midst-of-too-much-reality setting, and the cool, funny main character. Enjoy!
October 15, 2021
3.5 stars, rounded up
It's really unclear to me if this book is actually one book or two. There are two covers and two titles, but seems to only come as a package deal, so I'm treating it as if it's one book rather than a duology.
And I'm glad that the book came that way, because if I had only read "Summerwood" and had to actually go out and get "Winterwood" I probably wouldn't have. "Summerwood" is okay. It's slow and the main character feels too immature at times, although maybe I'm just misremembering 12. I think the real problem is that the reader can clearly see when the MC is making the wrong choices, whereas I prefer books when you aren't sure yourself what the right choice is. Plot wise, it was reminiscent of "The Magicians" but not as good. The best parts were probably the story's imagery. Chen did a great job of creating creepy creatures and images that stuck with me. The disturbing dragon was the star of the whole first half, if I'm being honest.
However, I'm glad I kept reading because "Winterwood" was much better! The moral dilemmas were less clear cut and more engaging. It's not clear what the right choice is. The MC has aged since the first half and the plot felt much more comfortable with a teenager at the helm than a 12 yo old. And my favorite part: the book talks about trauma! There are therapists! And PTSD! Too many fantasy books ignore the effects of trauma on the characters and I'm glad that more and more books are making an effort to include mental health struggles in their books, not just as a tick-mark for increasing representation, but also as a way of increasing accuracy of the stories we tell. If seeing your friends die in the real world would mess you up, then the same thing should happen in the fantasy worlds we read too.
It's really unclear to me if this book is actually one book or two. There are two covers and two titles, but seems to only come as a package deal, so I'm treating it as if it's one book rather than a duology.
And I'm glad that the book came that way, because if I had only read "Summerwood" and had to actually go out and get "Winterwood" I probably wouldn't have. "Summerwood" is okay. It's slow and the main character feels too immature at times, although maybe I'm just misremembering 12. I think the real problem is that the reader can clearly see when the MC is making the wrong choices, whereas I prefer books when you aren't sure yourself what the right choice is. Plot wise, it was reminiscent of "The Magicians" but not as good. The best parts were probably the story's imagery. Chen did a great job of creating creepy creatures and images that stuck with me. The disturbing dragon was the star of the whole first half, if I'm being honest.
However, I'm glad I kept reading because "Winterwood" was much better! The moral dilemmas were less clear cut and more engaging. It's not clear what the right choice is. The MC has aged since the first half and the plot felt much more comfortable with a teenager at the helm than a 12 yo old. And my favorite part: the book talks about trauma! There are therapists! And PTSD! Too many fantasy books ignore the effects of trauma on the characters and I'm glad that more and more books are making an effort to include mental health struggles in their books, not just as a tick-mark for increasing representation, but also as a way of increasing accuracy of the stories we tell. If seeing your friends die in the real world would mess you up, then the same thing should happen in the fantasy worlds we read too.
October 22, 2020
I don't often abandon books, and I'm sad, as I loved the premise of this story. Over a hundred pages of dense, slow exposition and set-up is just too much for this story. There are moments that got me excited for the action to finally begin, only to hit another slump.
September 6, 2021
I love the story, it was entertaining all the way through and actually had me at the edge of my seat a couple of times!! This ya novel I feel shows perfect growth of our mc and in my opinion had a very meaningful ending.
February 5, 2021
I love the ending and the way the author was able to wrap it all up in an unexpected way. Definitely recommend reading, especially the second part (winterwood).
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews