Book Review: WildWood Revisited by Cinasee Pollett

WildWood Revisited by Cinasee Pollett

Book Title: WildWood Revisited
Author: Cinasee Pollett
Genre: Historical fantasy
Published: May 22, 2023
252 pages
My rating: 5/5

“Angela scowled. If she’d heard the Laws of Literature once, she’d heard them a thousand times from her uncle—only first editions were Travellable, books had to remain open whilst Travelling, and plots must not be changed. She would remember them if she lived to be a thousand.”

Angela Graham is a Tome Traveler. She can enter any book she wants – as long as it’s a first edition. Her favorite novel, WildWood, would be the perfect escape from the harsh reality of life after World War I, if only its ending wasn’t so dismal. When she learns that someone has tampered with the book’s plot, she seeks help from the book’s reluctant author Aspen DeBryn to save her beloved woodland and its goblin residents.

WildWood Revisited is a perfect cozy and whimsical historical fantasy by debut author Cinasee Pollett. I read WildWood Revisited in 2023 when it was published (full disclosure: I formatted this book and was an ARC reader), and it was one of my favorite books last year. I was excited to read it again, and even more excited when I loved it as much this time as I did when I first read it.

The book is set in post-World War I London, and the historical setting is perfect for exploring the themes of loss and grief and literature’s gift in restoring hope. The text is full of historical easter eggs, and the author has clearly done her research on the time period – I admit going down a research rabbit hole to check whether commercial cat food really existed at that time. Apparently it did!

The cast of characters (including Keats the cat) is immensely lovable, the pacing is brisk, and the text is very readable – I breezed through this book! The book within book was well done, and both stories worked well on their own. I love the whimsical tone of the WildWood with its goblins, as well as the more sober tones of the war-torn London. This book made me laugh and cry, and I loved every moment of it.

My only issue was that I would have wanted the book to be longer – as Angela herself says in the book, “a reader never really wants a good story to end.” I wanted to get to know the characters better and spend more time with them. Uncle Clement’s storyline was wrapped up abruptly, and I’m not one hundred per cent sure how exactly he solved his problems. More closure to his story would have been nice, and I also would have loved to learn more about Aspen’s backstory.

After this second read, I was thinking whether Angela’s characterization could have been developed further as well. Despite losing both of her parents in the war, she seems to be coping fairly well, if we don’t count her trying to escape within the pages of a book. I suppose making her more depressed would have made the book’s tone too grave instead of the whimsical narrative that it is now, so I’m not overly bothered by her characterization.

If you love historical fantasy and wish you could travel into books, this is the perfect book for you. I can see myself rereading this again in the future. Definitely a five-star read, and I’m excited to read Cinasee’s books in the future!

If you want to learn more about Cinasee and WildWood Revisited, you can read her author interview here.