I read all of The White Forest, hoping that it would redeem itself, because it is well written. It did not. The characters, the plot, the premise did not inspire a "willing suspension of disbelief," without which a story simply remains implausible. For example, I did not
…more believe in the characters or care about them: The narrator, Jane, has a mean streak. She is set up in the book as a saint or saviour figure. Gradually, she discovers her identity and fulfills her destiny as a powerful goddess. Her "friends" Maddy and Nathan are untrustworthy and the three use each other for their own means. The villain, Ariston Day, wants to free London from corruption by breaking down the boundaries between human-constructed reality and an Empyrean level of nothingness (the white forest of the title), from which life originated. But instead, in the effort, he corrupts and destroys London's finest young men. Jane, aka the Red Goddess, prevails against Day in preserving the essential boundaries that protect human life. None of this was compelling. The story remained implausible and the characters indifferent. This book is just not my cup of tea. (less)