CHAOS WOODS
From the Chronicles of the Ever-Guise series, volume 1
by Scott T. Barnes
In Barnes’ dark YA fantasy novel, a magical artifact causes trouble for a teenager and all the other residents in her mountain town.
A private auction occurs at a tavern after hours in the town of Harlech. Telyn Brower, who works there with her twin sister, Cressida, secretly watches as the sale turns volatile, leading to a few deaths. She recovers the auctioned item in the confusion—or part of it, at least. The Ever-Guise is a magic-infused mask that defies Cornic Empire Rules, one of which states that humans, like Telyn, aren’t allowed to “own magic.” This directive doesn’t apply to the nonhuman magic-wielding “flacks” in Harlech, such as the sheep-headed cornics that control the town. Telyn confides in her pals Caitlin and Hosh, and the three agree to use the wish-granting mask judiciously. But when things don’t quite go as planned, they risk drawing unwanted attention—namely from the auction winner, who believed that he was getting every piece of the Ever-Guise. When someone else gets hold of the mask, Harlech becomes a much more dangerous place; one of Telyn’s loved ones will likely be sentenced to slavery. To earn money and try to set things right, Telyn and her friends brave the Chaos Woods, which are filled with trees that make magic “go awry.” The woods are also the home of such otherworldly sites as the rumor tree and the golden pool, and many people who’ve ventured into the area have never returned.
Barnes’ novel, which kicks off a prospective series, moves at a leisurely pace. Along the way, it features several set pieces that feel like wholly developed stories on their own. At one point, for example, Telyn, who wants to research the Ever-Guise at the flacks-only Library, must first help a flack get her name on the humans-only Dating Chart. These subplots unfold in an unforgettable fictional world that teems with effervescent characters. Some of the best scenes in the book involve Telyn with Caitlin and Hosh, whether they’re working together or bumping heads over their wishes’ unexpected drawbacks. The flacks have delightful variety, from reptilian trogos and aquatic condas (with “billowy head[s]” that Telyn initially mistakes for hoods) to tylwigs that “turn water into ice in their bellies.” A “pattern witch” named Rayvn, who’s essentially an anthropomorphic cat, nearly steals the book. Her friendship with Telyn sharpens an understated theme of discrimination, with Telyn realizing that not every flack is someone to hate or fear. Despite the novel’s epic length of more than 700 pages, its timeline is relatively short; Telyn is still a teenager by the end, but she gets plenty of time to evolve: She’s burdened with regret, believing that she’s at fault for Harlech’s recent predicaments, but she also learns to forgive. The final act picks up steam as she teams up with an unlikely and not especially trustworthy ally and takes on a daunting foe. A superb denouement ably sets the stage for a second series installment.An absorbing, character-driven YA tale of camaraderie and redemption.