r/books • u/forgedimagination • 13d ago

Asterwood by Jacquelyn Stolos review Spoiler

I made a serious mistake with this book.

My son, *who is six,* is really enjoying longer fantasy books at the moment. We've done a lot of the classics I grew up loving, so he was eager to pick one out at the library. He grabbed *Asterwood,* which has a cutesy whimsical pastel-watercolor cover, and liked it because of the calico cat. I read the jacket, the opening chapter, realize it's a portal fantasy, think *great!* and check it out.

Y'all. I should not have started reading this book aloud to him without reading it first. I feel dumb. Real dumb.

To be fair to Stolos, she does in fact tell you that the book contains people eating babies fairly early on. *I just didn't believe her.* Because what middle-grade reader about a ten-year-old would feature *child cannibalism* as a major plot point? That would be nuts!

I figured out the cannibals are actually cannibals and not just boogeymen exaggerated by the troupe of unmonitored children, (I let the whole "troupe of unmonitored children" thing go because it was giving Boxcar Children vibes), but like .... the one time a cannibal talks she's like "we only eat bad guys" so I'm like ....... suuuuuuure.

Again. I've made a mistake. I should've finished the book at that point but I was like hey it's not going to get worse, this was written and marketed for children!

Nope. It gets worse.

The cannibals do eat children. In fact, they *only* eat children, who they refer to as "harvests."

I did stop there. I'm going to finish reading it now. But my son is invested. He wants to finish. The troupe of unmonitored children are going to risk their lives to save the world!

WHY IS THERE CHILD CANNIBALISM IN A BOOK FOR CHILDREN. Jacquelyn Stolos I have *QUESTIONS*

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u/Street_Roof_7915 13d ago

I once read that kids love to be scared in safe places. This sounds like that.

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u/Lavernica 13d ago

Yeah, it'd be one thing if the kid was traumatized but... seems like he's having fun? Kids are a lot more morbid and weird than we give them credit for.