Review: Drowned Country

Name -Drowned Country

Pages -176

Author -Emily Tesh

Publisher -Macmillan/Tor-Forge

Genre -High Fantasy, Gothic fiction, LGBTQ

Rating -4.5/5

ISBN -9781250756602

Review no. -43

Synopsis -

Drowned Country is the stunning sequel to Silver in the Wood, Emily Tesh's lush, folkloric debut. This second volume of the Greenhollow duology once again invites readers to lose themselves in the story of Henry and Tobias, and the magic of a myth they’ve always known.

Even the Wild Man of Greenhollow can’t ignore a summons from his mother, when that mother is the indomitable Adela Silver, practical folklorist. Henry Silver does not relish what he’ll find in the grimy seaside town of Rothport, where once the ancient wood extended before it was drowned beneath the sea—a missing girl, a monster on the loose, or, worst of all, Tobias Finch, who loves him.  

Review -

'Drowned Country' is the sequel of  'Silver in the Wood' and the second and final book in the Greenhollow Duology. The previous book had seriously blown me away and I was kinda reluctant to even start this book because I knew it would be a powerful read (the first book gave that away). Like the first book, I didn't have words to review this one and I took a break from book reviewing for a whole month just to get past the dreams and illusions and the spells that Emily Tesh had cast upon me. I never thought that a duology of 100+ pages novella could do this to me!

The 'Drowned Country' takes up months after 'Silver in the Wood' ended, and unlike the previous novella, we follow Henry Silver in this one. Henry, the new face of the Greenhollow wood, is in depression, sulking and moping, after the dissolution of his relationship with Tobias. Until, his mother, Adela Silver comes to the rescue and gets him to help her investigate on the paranormal case of the disappearance of a young woman named Maud Lindhurst. And the hard part is not the investigation itself, but it was the fact that it meant working with Tobias Finch, who is acting as stoic as ever. And that's were the awkwardness starts. 

The setting is mystical and eerie. It takes a while to fit in pace with the story. Even though I keep comparing this book to the previous one, I feel that both were drastically different. This is more fast-paced, action-packed and has more romance than the first one. We also get to know more about Henry Silver in this one.

Overall, I feel that this book is the perfect end to the duology. I had my hopes really up after finished 'Silver in the Wood' and I was not at all disappointed on reading this. I highly recommend this duology to all the fantasy fans and I am pretty confident that Emily Tesh is an author to look out for in the future.