TLDR:

Brom successfully wrote a dark tale in both the point of view of "Slewfoot" and Abitha. Along with the magical story, you read a wonderful tale of a woman finding herself and exercising her agency.

I strongly recommend this book if you don't mind some gory elements but as for pure horror, I personally didn't think it was scary.

I never heard of Brom. The only reason I heard of this book was because of its recent release in a Twitter post. The cover art was beautiful and then I realized it was the author himself that drew it! A quick google search later, I learnt that Brom was an artist--a very good one!--and an author.

I was curious to see if his writing was just as good (and also wanted to see the art that goes along with his books) so I picked up Slewfoot.

What I Loved

• The characters were written so well. In particular, Abitha is a wonderfully written female character that I had no gripes with. She felt human, had flaws, and actually suffered consequences for her actions.
• The setting of a 1666 Puritan village. Oh how different a life during that time was! Brom made it so easy to imagine what a life during those times was in Sutton, a village filled with god-fearing men and women.
• The art (which includes the cover). As I've come to learn, Brom is a talented illustrator. The images of the wildfolk are so creepy! In my case, the art does make the book a little creepier once you can imagine the characters as he does since whatever I pictured first was nothing of the sort.
• Abitha's journey. Without going into too much detail, Abitha's journey was actually interesting given the Puritan 1666 setting. Women back then did not have much say into things so when her hardheadedness presented itself, it actually was refreshing to see how guilty she felt when she realizes that she is not only putting herself in danger but her friends.

What I Disliked

• Very minor gripe but I wished the art of the characters wasn't just all in the middle of book but actually spread throughout the book as the characters are introduced. There was one portrait of a character who had not been introduced yet and for the longest I had my own images of the others until I got to the portrait section. I just think it would have been cool to see the images after their introduction.

Final Thoughts

The book is great. The art is great. If you don't mind some gory details and want to read about a women's journey of self discovery, I strongly recommend this book.  The Puritan village of Sutton and it's people also gives interesting insight of what was so scandalous back then (a lock of hair out of your bonnet? Scandalous!)

If you are a true horror fan who lives to be scared, I don't think this will be the right book for you. I don't read many horror books but in this one, I didn't get scared at all.

Pick it up if you can!