#ifanna

Despite the slow start (things don’t really begin moving until about Chapter 10), The Drowned Woods was still a nice casual read over a weekend. I believe it’s a stand-alone novel, and because of that, it left a lot to be desired in terms of world-building and the characters. In this sense, it could be compared to another heist novel, Six of Crows, which features a myriad cast of characters and an extensive world that feels full and fleshed-out even without its companion novel Crooked Kingdom. The Drowned Woods only features three POV characters (Mer, Fane, and Ifanna), but they don’t feel entirely whole or complete. This could obviously coincide with the constraints of a stand-alone novel, however, so I can’t fault Jones too hard for this. The flashbacks and information given are just enough to understand the characters, but not much deeper than surface-level (again, this could be due to constraints, though). 

The twist was nice but not anything shocking or unexpected. Again, this could be attributed to story constraints and how little time we spent with the characters, especially Mer and Renfrew’s relationship, which was told a lot more than shown. I did love Mer’s choice at the end, though, and her relationship with Fane. I wish we had gotten a bit more Mer and Ifanna, especially since Ifanna came into the game later than everyone else, but their history was enjoyable as well, and I loved Ifanna as a character. The lady of thieves (and, of course, Trefor the corgi) owns my heart.