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Book Summary and Reviews of The White Forest by Adam McOmber

The White Forest by Adam McOmber

The White Forest

A Novel

by Adam McOmber

  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • Readers' Rating (16):
  • Published:
  • Sep 2012, 320 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

In the bestselling tradition of The Night Circus and Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger, Adam McOmber's hauntingly original debut novel follows a young woman in Victorian England whose peculiar abilities help her infiltrate a mysterious secret society.

Young Jane Silverlake lives with her father at a crumbling family estate on the edge of Hampstead Heath. Jane has a secret - an unexplainable gift that allows her to see the souls of manmade objects - and this talent isolates her from the outside world. Her greatest joy is wandering the wild heath with her neighbors, Madeline and Nathan. But as the friends come of age, their idyll is shattered by the feelings both girls develop for Nathan, and by Nathan's interest in a cult led by a charismatic mystic popular with London's elite.

A year later, Nathan has vanished, and Jane is forced to untangle the events that led up to his disappearance. As a sinister truth emerges, she realizes that she must call on her dark gift – the only thing that can now save Nathan.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"McOmber creates a convoluted supernatural mystery that bombards the senses with rich dialogue and imagery; but the story’s flow is often lost amid lengthy explanations about motive and meaning, and the narrative may ultimately prove difficult for some to follow." - Kirkus

"McOmber’s debut is deliberately written and heavy with atmosphere, evoking the dark weight of doomed love as well as the spiritualist craze that fascinated so many Victorians." - Publishers Weekly

"In his clever and beguiling pastiche of a first novel, McOmber explores the nexus between the natural and the artificial, the intangible and the concrete in coal-fouled Victorian London.…Commandingly erudite and imaginative, McOmber meshes myth, the occult, and nineteenth-century technological advances in an uncanny and captivating gothic tale that aligns ancient mysteries with the startling revelations of newly harnessed electricity, and rigid social and sexual mores with epic yearning." - Booklist

"The White Forest drips with the dark and gothic chills of Victorian London. Adam McOmber will keep you up nights with this eerie tale that grafts mystery to myth. A spooky and original novel." - Keith Donohue, author of The Stolen Child and Centuries of June

"The White Forest reminds me of what I love about H.P. Lovecraft: Adam McOmber's imagery is so visceral and strangely real, and his story so inventive: a plain old narrative is hard enough to pull off on its own, but creating a whole new world within thereality of Victorian England? Wow." - Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish

"What other novelist could take a Victorian gothic setting, the most obscure elements of medieval cosmology, a sinister secret society, and an old-fashioned love triangle to produce, in tautly elegant prose, something so delightful and utterly unique? The White Forest is much more than a novel: it is a magic lantern, casting dark and flickering pictures from other worlds. I wish I had written it myself." - Camille DeAngelis, author of Petty Magic and Mary Modern

"Mr. McOmber's economy of words drew me in and kept me turning pages...The novel's gothic style only adds to the delicious tension of the story, and the reader can actually lose him/herself in the atmospheric telling of a tale that could very well be turned into a film." - Book Hog

This information about The White Forest was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Laura S.

A Gothic Romance!
I loved the character of Jane Silverlake and was fascinated by her strange powers. She is, at turns, sympathetic and frightening. Her relationship with Maddy and Nathan was equally interesting. Adam McOmber's depiction of Victorian London was just slightly to the left of reality...wonderfully strange and engrossing.

Mark O. (Wenatchee, WA)

A dark and otherworldly Dickens
I’ve wondered why Victorian England seems such a natural setting for fictional explorations of the darker and less traveled parts of our minds. The “White Forest” is a strong addition to this tradition, with the welcome haunts: old manor house on the moors, slums of London, madness and decadence). There is a fascinating and chilling cosmology, something truly “other.” This is preeminently a coming-of-age story, of three young adults and the bonding that can be more than friendship. The plot gallops along at horse-drawn carriage pace but there are lyrical speed-bumps, nicely written prose that many readers will stop to underline or highlight.

Erica Paulson

A Wonderful Read
The White Forest is a wonderful fantasy about a young woman who lives in the nineteenth century and has a secret power which she has lived in fear of sharing with anyone. I was moved my Jane Silverlake and her plight. I also thought the language of the book was beautiful. The story was a page-turner for me.

C.K.Dexter

Very well done
Don't usually take the time to write reviews, but was very impressed with this novel. Hard to believe this is a first effort. The language and the detail are excellent. Some of the reviews here have given details of the plot away, which I think is a shame. McOmber creates a creepy atmosphere that did make this book a page turner for me. Highly recommend!

Sharon P. (Jacksonville, FL)

The White Forest
What a good beginning: Victorian London, dank and foggy ;a young woman slowly recognizing her possession of mysterious powers ; the sudden disappearance of a handsome young man after a seance ; an unseen parallel world. These add up to a fascinating, if creepy , story with a surprise ending. Settle into an old easy chair in front of the fire, with a candle of course, and enjoy.

Joyce W. (Rochester, MN)

Potential never realized
This writer has a lot of potential. The White Forest is very readable; the setting is great. I could tell it wasn't my style of book but wanted to give it a chance. The ending was really disappointing. Nothing was really explained, and you really didn't know what happened to everyone. Too mystical for me.

...10 more reader reviews

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Author Information

Adam McOmber

Adam McOmber teaches creative writing at Columbia College Chicago and is the associate editor of the literary magazine Hotel Amerika. Stories from his collection, This New and Poisonous Air, have been shortlisted for Best American Fantasy and nominated for two Pushcart Prizes in 2012. Visit him at www.adammcomber.com

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More Recommendations

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