"There is a place you must never enter. It is a place where evil has many faces, and where creatures of myth live and breathe. And kill. It is a place beyond dreams or nightmares—a place that has so far been too feared to be called anything at all. Now, in this book, I will explain the unexplained, and give fear a name that suits it well. That name shall be Shadow Forest, and it will plant terror in your hearts."
Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest (also known as Shadow Forest) is a novel written by British novelist Matt Haig.
The book is about Samuel, regular, 12-year-old boy and his sister who goes to live with his eccentric aunt after his parents in a car crash.
His aunt's lengthy list of rule contain two that stand out in particular: do not enter the forest, and do not enter the attic. Naturally, this just stokes his curiousity. When he breaks the latter, he finds a book, called The Creatures of Shadow Forest, written by Prof. Horatio Tanglewood, describing supernatural, incredibly dangerous creatures within said forest.
The question is, why are they so dangerous?
Tropes
- Achilles' Heel: Most creatures in the forest each have one, and they are each listed in the book.
- Big Bad: The Changemaker.
- Body Horror: The trolls Samuel Blink stays with share a single eyeball between them.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: The Truth Pixie.
- Character Name and the Noun Phrase
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin:
- All the troll's names work this way. Any troll that is known for any particular thing is named after that. For example, the left head of a two-headed troll would be called "Troll-the-Left". A weaver troll would be called "Troll-the-Weaver". This creates problems, as there are many generic "Troll-Sons", "Troll-Daughters", "Troll-Fathers", and "Troll-Mothers", with only one family of them actually important to the plot.
- Also the Truth Pixie.
- Forced Transformation: Samuel Blink is transformed at one point into a rabbit by the Shadow Witch, who also transforms his sister Martha into a songbird.
- Their Uncle Henrik is also transformed into an elk-hound named Ibsen.
- Foreign Queasine: Reindeer soup and gjetost cheese, although there are a couple cases of them actually liking the stuff they try.
- Henpecked Husband: Troll-Father.
- Informed Obscenity: Stinkymudfungle!
- Magic Is Evil: Discussed, but not used.
- Pardon My Klingon:
- The troll swearword "flenk".
- Also "Stinkymudfungle".
- Sorcerous Overlord: The Changemaker.
- Taken for Granite: Trolls as a species turn to stone when they pass away.
- The Unpronounceable: There is a character named "Vjpp".
- Weakened by the Light: After being changed by the Shadow Witch, the huldre-folk become vulnerable to daylight, which evaporates their flesh and kills them.
