Book Review: The Story Collector by Evie Woods
Rating:3.75⭐
With elements of historical fiction, folklore magical realism and contemporary love story, The Story Collector by Evie Woods is a beautifully written novel.
Christmas Day, NYC, 2010: While waiting to board a flight to Boston to spend the holidays with her sister’s family, Sarah Harper is intrigued by a newspaper article on the ‘lore of a beautiful hawthorn tree in County Clare, Ireland. On an impulse, she decides to hop on a flight to Ireland and eventually ends up renting a cottage, Butler’s Cottage, in the same vicinity as the tree. Sarah is dealing with the collapse of her marriage and grieving a personal loss and hopes to find solace in the quiet setting of the cottage amid the beautiful surroundings. While exploring the area, she comes upon an old diary from 1910, belonging to Anne Butler. From Anne’s diary, Sarah not only learns about Anna’s family and her dreams and the history of Thornwood House, the ruins of which are still standing, and local folklore but she also gets to know about American researcher Harold Griffin-Krauss, who engaged Anna’s assistance to interact with locals for his thesis on the fairy faith in Celtic countries. As the narrative progresses, Sarah finds herself motivated to find out more about Anne and is inspired by her story to take stock of her own life and embark on a cathartic journey of healing and hope.
The prose is elegant and the author writes with compassion and emotional emotional depth and a keen sense of time and place, deftly weaving past and present timelines into an engaging narrative. I loved the vivid setting and appreciated how folklore and stories of na Daoine Maithe were incorporated into the narrative.
The present-day story is told from Sarah’s perspective, with Anne’s story revealed through her journal entries interspersed throughout the narrative. Both Sarah and Anne are well-fleshed-out characters and I enjoyed getting to know Harold (whose character was inspired by American anthropologist and writer W. Y. Evans-Wentz). I wish the narrative had included more stories from his research. The secondary characters were also well thought out and I loved how the author depicted life in a quiet Irish village one hundred years apart. I’ll admit that I enjoyed the past timeline more than Sarah’s story. The romantic track in the present timeline felt unnecessary and wasn’t entirely convincing. I wish we had gotten to know more about both Anne and Harold (I prefer showing to telling). The past timeline was rushed toward the end and left me with a few unanswered questions. However, I did like how the author brought everything together and the ending, though bittersweet, was satisfying.
This is my second Evie Woods novel (I also enjoyed The Lost Bookshop) and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.
Many thanks to HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for the digital review copy via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Christmas Day, NYC, 2010: While waiting to board a flight to Boston to spend the holidays with her sister’s family, Sarah Harper is intrigued by a newspaper article on the ‘lore of a beautiful hawthorn tree in County Clare, Ireland. On an impulse, she decides to hop on a flight to Ireland and eventually ends up renting a cottage, Butler’s Cottage, in the same vicinity as the tree. Sarah is dealing with the collapse of her marriage and grieving a personal loss and hopes to find solace in the quiet setting of the cottage amid the beautiful surroundings. While exploring the area, she comes upon an old diary from 1910, belonging to Anne Butler. From Anne’s diary, Sarah not only learns about Anna’s family and her dreams and the history of Thornwood House, the ruins of which are still standing, and local folklore but she also gets to know about American researcher Harold Griffin-Krauss, who engaged Anna’s assistance to interact with locals for his thesis on the fairy faith in Celtic countries. As the narrative progresses, Sarah finds herself motivated to find out more about Anne and is inspired by her story to take stock of her own life and embark on a cathartic journey of healing and hope.
The prose is elegant and the author writes with compassion and emotional emotional depth and a keen sense of time and place, deftly weaving past and present timelines into an engaging narrative. I loved the vivid setting and appreciated how folklore and stories of na Daoine Maithe were incorporated into the narrative.
The present-day story is told from Sarah’s perspective, with Anne’s story revealed through her journal entries interspersed throughout the narrative. Both Sarah and Anne are well-fleshed-out characters and I enjoyed getting to know Harold (whose character was inspired by American anthropologist and writer W. Y. Evans-Wentz). I wish the narrative had included more stories from his research. The secondary characters were also well thought out and I loved how the author depicted life in a quiet Irish village one hundred years apart. I’ll admit that I enjoyed the past timeline more than Sarah’s story. The romantic track in the present timeline felt unnecessary and wasn’t entirely convincing. I wish we had gotten to know more about both Anne and Harold (I prefer showing to telling). The past timeline was rushed toward the end and left me with a few unanswered questions. However, I did like how the author brought everything together and the ending, though bittersweet, was satisfying.
This is my second Evie Woods novel (I also enjoyed The Lost Bookshop) and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.
Many thanks to HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for the digital review copy via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
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