These Silent Woods, by Kimi Cunningham Grant
These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Gorgeous setup, then a miraculous theological derailment
Wow, didn’t that blurb read great? And it started off well enough in the woods where Cooper and his daughter have been hiding for years. The atmosphere felt genuine and plausible, the prose was smart and elegant, the characters endearing – what could possibly go wrong?
Cooper especially, and Finch to a lesser extent, live a tense but ultimately peaceful life: they hunt and gather, roam through the wilderness, and they do so frequently, extensively, and repeatedly. Yes, some of these excursions bring new information, but did we really need to hear about the “King of Trees” and each of its manifold brethren?
Well, yes, I felt bored with large parts of this novel, but then it got worse: A certain character is introduced, and suddenly, drastically, the story springs into action. What ensues is completely unbelievable and seems to be the author’s traditionalist theological fantasy, dressed up as a plot.
With our brave heroes’ minds already addled by all those worries, everyone and their crow seems to find god and work themselves up over that. I’m an anti-theist but I can tolerate some fantasy/faith-based subtext in my books, but here it felt less like character development and more like a theological requirement, to a degree that repulsed me.
The finale abandons the “silent woods” for the comfort of a pulpit. A metaphorical angel arrives just in time, deus ex machina, to salvage the plot, ensuring the author’s spiritual fantasy remains intact. It’s a cliché resolution that swaps genuine character consequences for a tidy, miraculous bow.
Two stars out of five.
