This book was recommended on Bookstagram and I was immediately intrigued by the concept of the mysterious dark forest and mythical creatures. This book is a fantasy classic and had a big influence on the fantasy genre; it even won the World Fantasy Award! It sounded right up my alley, but sadly did not live up to my expectations.
Mythago Wood follows the story of Steven Huxley, who returns to Oak Lodge, his family home, after being injured in the war in 1945. Steven’s brother, Christian, now lives at the lodge after their father, George Huxley, died. George had spent most of his life obsessively studying Ryhope Wood, a ‘wildwood’ or ‘primary oak wood’ situated on the outskirts of the lodge in Herefordshire. Steven makes it clear from the beginning of the story that he believes his father’s obsession with the wood tore apart the family and drove his father mad. Soon after returning to the lodge, Christian disappears into the wood, prompting Steven to start reading his father’s work in order to discover what may have happened to his brother. He comes to know about Guiwenneth, the girl who becomes to love interest of the story, and also learns about the ‘mythagos’, mythical creatures generated from the minds of those living close to the wood. “The Mythagos grow from the power of hate, and fear, and form in the natural woodlands from which they can either emerge…or remain in the natural landscape.” (Page 52)
The story started off interesting. I liked the strange atmosphere of the woods and the specific descriptions of local plants that showed Holdstock did his research. The structure of the book was straightforward and clear, the various settings were vivid and the detailed worldbuilding had a lot of potential. Despite this, there were several pitfalls throughout the book.
The most disturbing of these was the representation of the woman characters. The two most prominent women in the book were Guiwenneth, the Celtic warrior princess, and Kushar, the life-speaker of the Shamiga woodland tribe. Both were poorly depicted and, while early fantasy is infamous for its lack of strong female depiction, this book took the cake by far and here’s why:
Guiwenneth is described as being sixteen or seventeen, with many childlike characteristics: always giggling, innocent and small of stature. This didn’t sit well, as the male protagonist was many years her senior and continually described her sexuality and her ‘sexy’ animal-like aroma (Page 97). He quickly fell in love (or lust?) with her, and his entire attraction to her was based on her childlike nature. The other two Huxley men were also attracted to her, despite all of them being much older than her. Many other reviewers described Guiwenneth as being a typical ‘manic pixie dream girl’ (coined by Nathan Rabin): a quirky, ‘free’ female character with a troubled past, present mainly to guide the male protagonist and remind him of the values of life. Furthermore, even though Guiwenneth was introduced as being powerful, being a warrior princess, Steven had to come to her aid on several occasions—it’s the premise for his whole venture into the woods! Kushar, the second female character, was also 11 or 12, and appeared fully naked in the book, the author even describing various aspects of her nude body. This felt unnecessary and was very disturbing.
Another aspect of the story I struggled with was the many complicated and constantly changing names in the book. While I don’t usually mind fantasy names at all, in this case, some names would be mentioned with many page gaps in between, and I’d have to page back to check who the person in question was. Sometimes the character would be called by a whole different name than the one I’d come to know, and I’d have to guess who this name was implying.
Lastly, while the world and myths were very interesting, the way these elements were presented could have been done better. I was often confused, sometimes being fed too much ‘mythological’ exposition that hadn’t been explained yet (through George’s diary entries), or that could have been explained more effectively through showing instead of telling.
While I believe this book had its place and time, and I’m sure there are others who would enjoy it more than I did, I would rather recommend a book like the Dark, Dark Woods on Wattpad for those who want a fantastic dark woods fantasy. You can read it at this link: https://www.wattpad.com/story/269950595-the-dark-dark-woods.
I’d have given Mythago Wood 3.5 stars, but the problematic female representation made me bump it down to 2 stars.
Maan Atelier 