Review: Eyes of the Forest – April Henry (Square Fish, $24.99)

'Eyes of the Forest' author April Henry.

Seventeen-year-old Bridget is a huge fan of fantasy writer R.M. Haldon, the author of a series which bonded her to her mother through the worst moments in their lives. A chance encounter gives Bridget the opportunity to become Haldon’s researcher, her excellent eye for detail enabling him to fact check and ensure continuity in his epic Swords and Shadows series. The world awaits the last book in this series, but Haldon has yet to deliver and is way over deadline. So far, so meta-literary.

You may be thinking that this plot might be riffing off George R.R. Martin and his seemingly lackadaisical attitude to giving fans the next Game of Thrones novel, or off Patrick Rothfuss, whose fans feel they have been waiting for the third instalment in The Kingkiller Chronicle forever. You’d be right. April Henry has her writerly tongue firmly in cheek as she describes Haldon, a brilliant recluse with a love for fast food and staying firmly within the alternative reality inside his head.

Eyes of the Forest by April Henry.

The plot of the novel revolves around the kidnapping of Haldon, or Bob, as he is known to those closest to him. Superfans are getting desperate for the next story, and Bob soon finds that he’s locked in a room, chained to a treadmill desk, ordered to get that story written… or else. Because of his reclusive behaviour and recent aversion to answering his publisher’s emails, no-one really misses Bob. His salvation relies on Bridget - but she doesn’t know that yet.

The book is structured in chapters told from the perspective of Bridget, Bob, the kidnapper, and, occasionally, Bridget’s friend Ajay, who is looking at the situation from the point of view of one only recently acquainted with the Swords and Shadows series. We enter a world of uber-fans, LARPers (Live Action Role Play for the uninitiated) and the dark web, where one man who writes stories has attained a mythical status that makes his life no longer his own.

The pace moves at a gallop, the tone light even during the most menacing scenes. Bridget is herself a consciously-written trope - the feisty flame-haired heroine - and the author sets everything up neatly, with no unnecessary padding. Eyes of the Forest - the name of both this novel and Bob’s novel within the book - conveys the power of story and how much the world invests in it, and the way in which a writer who has had success unleashed upon him becomes vulnerable to the expectations of his readers.

This was a wildly entertaining novel, aimed at a young adult audience of those about 13 years old and up, and actual adults who love a good yarn.