Book Review: Into the Forest: Tales of the Baba Yaga edited by Lindy Ryan

 

From the publisher:

Deep in the dark forest, in a cottage that spins on birds' legs behind a fence topped with human skulls, lives the baba yaga. A guardian of the water of life, she lives with her sisters and takes to the skies in a giant mortar and pestle, creating tempests as she goes. Those who come across the baba yaga may find help, or hinderance, or horror. She is wild, she is woman, she is witch—and these are her tales.

Edited by Lindy Ryan, this collection brings together some of today's leading voices of women-in-horror as they pay tribute to the baba yaga, and go Into the Forest.

My Thoughts: This is an interesting anthology. They come at it as if Baba Yaga is a kind of being as opposed to only one witch. The foreward by Christine Henry is interesting regarding this.

There are 23 stories in the anthology. Some I liked better than others, but as I rated all of them I was pleased to find that most of them fell into the 4 and 5 out of 5 star range. There was only one story that I gave a 3 to and that was  because while pretty much well written, I kept waiting for the action to start.

The short story,"Last Tour into the Hungering Light" by Gwendolyn Kiste I loved for among other things the language and imagery. A few stories had Baba Yaga posing as the witch in Hansel and Gretel. These were interesting. I liked the one where the Baba Yaga is slightly morally ambiguous and one of the bad guys is a parent. There are other stories that are definitely straight up horror for things like depiction of cannabalism. The blurb from the publisher states that sometimes Baba Yaga is a help. While this is true, there is always a price. Sometimes the price wasn't clear until after the protagonist received the aid. Other tales tackled the hut and its origins. And one story has Baba Yaga as a romantic interest. All together, these tales make for interesting and entertaining reading.

Into the Woods was released November 8th, 2022 from Black Spot Books. I received a copy of this book as an arc from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own. Overall, I would rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. The stories are interesting and imaginative. If you enjoy witchy tales and fairy tales, I think you should check out this book.