A Girl Walks Into the Forest by Madeleine Roux

Valla has been chosen by the Count to be his bride. With visions of beautiful gowns and ladies in waiting in her head she sets out with her brother Gavril and his wife Maksi through the Gottyar Forest, a place crawling with things better left alone. The first night staying in the forest Valla is attacked, her beauty destroyed, the one thing that she was sure to keep her in the Count's good graces. Upon arriving at the camp of the Count Valla discovers two things: 1. She has been lied to, he is no fairy tale prince, but a cold-hearted small man who treats Valla and everyone around him as an object. And 2. The loss of her beauty is a small thing compared to the horrors that await her once she arrives at his castle. 

Omg given the actually really very tame in comparison to the book Dear Reader note at the beginning I was not expecting this to go as sideways as it did as quickly as it did. That being said this was one absolutely fantastic ride!

Valla is an interesting character to say the least. Quite honestly, there are a few times when I don't really buy anything she's selling. Especially when it comes to Yulnia, she is just as unhinged as her brothers, and try as she might Roux never truly establishes Yulnia as the victim, actually quite the opposite. Valla uses this as well, she knows Yulnia is not well, there's just no way she can't, and yet she pushes her time and again. As far as I'm concerned Valla got her killed and she was well aware of that. But honestly, I don't think that Valla was ever really right either. There's something off and wrong about her from the very beginning, I mean if there was anyone who you'd have pinned as going on a murderous rampage pretty much from the beginning it's her, no interference from Baba Yaga needed. And again Roux never really sells it that she's ever truly affected by any of this pretty privilege that she goes on and on about. Valla actually seems to take advantage of it more than anything to be able to get away with things she wouldn't if people were around her more. Now, yes I know this all sounds like a ton of complaints. They aren't. I'm not sure Valla was supposed to come across as a victim, victimized certainly, but Valla needed to be just a little twisted to do what she ends up doing. Trying to take some perfect goodie two-shoes character and turning her into a monster would have taken way more work and way more sadism in a book chock full of it. 

Leonid (the Count) and Ermo are sadly just kind of standard run-of-the-mill absolute psychopaths. Make no mistake they are twisted spoiled rotten children who do things because they can. There's nothing truly inventive or unique with them and that's okay. What I did find interesting, what I *loved*, is every time, every single solitary time there is a reference to why they are the way they are it's their Dad's fault. And ya wanna know what you never really find out? What their dad did. Starve your wife? Dad's fault. Keep your dads freaking corpse at the dinner table? Dads fault. Give people to some quack dr to torture? Dads fault. Do we ever hear what dad did? Nope not really. And Gods this is so important, possibly the most important thing in the whole book; when you live in a cycle of abuse it is so *easy* to blame the previous gen that taught you while never taking stock of the fact that you are an adult and you are in charge of yourself. Growing up in abuse is no excuse to perpetuate the cycle. Period end of story and for that alone I applaud this book, an absolutely ingenious little phrase added that unless you've been there you probably wouldn't catch it. 

I really love how this ultimately ends up as a circle of violence from abuser to victim and how the victim is both the bad guy and the good guy. Incorporating Baba Yaga as the first victim of this incredibly twisted family was another stroke of genius. Baba Yaga is not inherently bad nor is she inherently good and to make her the protector and the monster at once I found to be a perfect use of the Baba Yaga character in terms of feminine rage. Valla as Baba Yaga gets to unleash a rage that is primal but not just her own, its the forests as well, its all of the victims in this family's 200 year history, its as close to the anger of the gods as you can get and yet allows us to hold on to some of Valla's humanity. It's not just her, these people are an affront to humanity, abominations, a blight as Yulnia so aptly puts it and Valla/Baba Yaga has been given a blessing to destroy them. It's bloody. It's unhinged. It's Glorious. 

Truly this was just an amazing little read. Don't get me wrong it was twisted asf on so many freaking levels but omg it was worth it. Highly recommend!

As always thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Children's Books.