The Reading Frog (semi ia for a few days)’s Reviews > The Forest Bleeds > Status Update

I need to digest that ending before I can share any opinions, but my first instinct makes me want to rate this a 4.5 👏

RTC

All her life, she had been taught to be useful.

To see what she could do, what she could be for others.

But she had never asked the question—be useful to whom?

—Oh... 🥺 Yeah, ok...

"Reading is so relaxing" The fuck it is 😩 I'm here stressed out with my annotations looking like this:

"Vile!
Just absolute pure evil!
Kill him, please, I'm begging you!!"

Anyways, almost done with this book, but at what cost...

I'm having some complicated feelings about chapter 20, but maybe that is the whole point of it?

I tend to appreciate portrayals of imperfect victims, which is different from outright approval or romanticisation of certain dynamics or actions.

It all depends on which framing this author settles on, I guess 🤷 For now I'm just sad for our characters. Saige's confusion about it all is heartbreaking...

If they were the fighters, then Saige could be their martyr.

—Ok Neil josten 😭

That small-town community you hear about never applied to us. We were their pets. The nice little chinks, they called us, never mind that we're not Chinese. When we cleaned up nice, when we turned our tricks, people were fine. Look how nice the chinks are, not like those dirty other ones.

—I love the discourse on the "model minority myth". It adds a lot of context to certain dynamics

"He's fucking with the laws of nature (...) Trying to use what's not his to manipulate."

(..) spirit witches have boundaries, rules we live by. It all boils down to don't fuck with stuff outside your control." She glanced at Saige. "My guess is that Arius doesn't see anything as outside his control."

Saige's throat tightened. "No, he doesn't."

— I'm stressed for my girls!!! 🫡

Holy fuck... Chapter 15 is crazy??!! How do I even say anything about it without spoiling? 😭

Just know that it's been a while since I've read dialogue that made me feel just so, idk, wrong? I'm stressed out, creeped out and extremely worried about our characters. Get behind me, Saige!! 😭

"It was terrifying, the way Vaish could simmer like an open candle or blaze like a wild bonfire. Saige had always been scared to get too close, lest she get singed in the aftermath.

(...)

Saige wondered if maybe it was time for her to burn."

— Love that we got some homoerotic tension as a treat before it all probably goes to shit 🤷😚🤗

What in the Franz Kafka?? 🪳