
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?
This book provides examples of:
- Achilles' Heel: Most creatures in the forest each have one, and they are each listed in the book.
- Body Horror: The trolls Samuel Blink stays with share a single eyeball between them.
- 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.
- Their Name Really Is "Barkeep": 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.
- Pardon My Klingon:
- The troll swearword "flenk".
- Also "Stinkymudfungle".
- 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.
