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  • After the Forest

  • Written by: Kell Woods
  • Narrated by: Esther Wane
  • Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
  • 2.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

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After the Forest

Written by: Kell Woods
Narrated by: Esther Wane
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Publisher's Summary

After the Forest is a dark and enchanting fantasy debut from Kell Woods that explores the repercussions of a childhood filled with magic and a young woman contending with the truth of “happily ever after.”

Ginger. Honey. Cinnamon. Flour.

Twenty years after the witch in the gingerbread house, Greta and Hans are struggling to get by. Their mother and stepmother are long dead, Hans is deeply in debt from gambling, and the countryside lies in ruin, its people starving in the aftermath of a brutal war.

Greta has a secret, though: the witch's grimoire, secreted away and whispering in Greta's ear for the past two decades, and the recipe inside that makes the best gingerbread you've ever tasted. As long as she can bake, Greta can keep her small family afloat.

But in a village full of superstition, Greta and her mysteriously addictive gingerbread, not to mention the rumors about her childhood misadventures, is a source of gossip and suspicion.

And now, dark magic is returning to the woods and Greta's magic—magic she is still trying to understand—may be the only thing that can save her. If it doesn't kill her first.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

©2023 Kell Woods (P)2023 Macmillan Audio

What the critics say

"This wonderful, well-woven story is so rich and affecting you can't help but savour every single sentence. With characters that leap off the page, worldbuilding that immerses you completely, and a perfectly paced plot, Woods's clever retelling of the popular Hansel and Gretel fairy tale succeeds in giving us something novel and authentic."—T.L. Huchu, USA Today bestselling author of The Library of the Dead

“A dark and wondrous tale. Utterly enchanting.”—Kate Forsyth, bestselling author of The Crimson Thread

“This is utterly captivating novel blends folklore and European history with themes of family discord, trauma and self-discovery. . . Dark as molasses and dripping with witchcraft, love and magic gingerbread, After the Forest is the fairytale retelling of the year.”—Lauren Chater, bestselling author of The Winter Dress

What listeners say about After the Forest

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Ableism

Not a huge fan of the story, and there’s some ableist villainization that made me very uncomfortable.

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