J.A. Ironside's Reviews > The Drowned Woods

Audio ARC provided by NetGalley

Audio review: Great narrator - always nice to have the Welsh names and words pronounced correctly! But also brought nuance to the characters.

Main review: Really enjoyed this retelling of the fragmentary tales of 'Welsh Atlantis'. (Celtic mythology is rife with sunken lands btw - there's one off the coast of Ireland, Lyoness off the coast of Cornwall and various other mysterious lost lands in both Arthurian and Celtic myth.) The main thrust of this story is about acceptance and belonging - both finding a place where you fit in and learning not to run away from everything for fear of losing it. The main character, Mhair is a water diviner with power over water. Diviners are sought after and owned by the corrupt king, and just to muddy the waters further (haha) the king's spy master is a thoroughly morally grey father figure to Mhair, who is somewhat lost in her own life and never stays in one place for long. Added to the crew is Thane, a man with a fair folk gift on him. Anyone who knows anything about the Tyllwyth Teg will know how that's going for him. This is a quit fantasy story in many ways but I appreciated its examination of friendship and personal responsibility, and I loved the setting and the Welsh mythology.