Summary:
Drowned Country is the the stunning sequel to Silver in the Wood, Emily Tesh’s lush, folkloric debut. This second volume of the Greenhollow duology once again invites readers to lose themselves in the story of Henry and Tobias, and the magic of a myth they’ve always known.
Even the Wild Man of Greenhollow can’t ignore a summons from his mother, when that mother is the indomitable Adela Silver, practical folklorist. Henry Silver does not relish what he’ll find in the grimy seaside town of Rothport, where once the ancient wood extended before it was drowned beneath the sea―a missing girl, a monster on the loose, or, worst of all, Tobias Finch, who loves him.
THANKS MUCH TO THE FOLKS AT TOR.COM AND NETGALLEY FOR PROVIDING A COPY OF THIS FOR REVIEW PURPOSES, THIS DID NOT AFFECT THE CONTENT OF MY REVIEW IN ANY WAY.
Thoughts:
It’s not a huge secret that Silver in the Wood was one of my favorite reads last year. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw there was a sequel coming out! Oh, to be able to spend a little more time with these characters in this wonderfully magical world. Well, I’m happy to report that I wasn’t disappointed!
Drowned Country carries on the story of Henry and Tobias and picks up a few years after the end of Silver in the Wood. Overall this story is not only about love but about how to love. Falling in love is easy enough but what comes after is the hard part of being in a relationship–communication and care! It’s not enough just to love someone and this is a lesson that Henry Silver has to learn over the course of this story. First off, I love Henry. He’s so dramatic and full of emotions–quick to change mood but what he feels he does not feel lightly. He tends to throw himself into things body and soul, sometimes to his own detriment. Let’s not forget how he ended up in this position in the first place. And Tobias is as steady as ever, a perfect compliment to Henry. As much as I do love Henry, let’s face it, he done messed up here. And this book is Henry learning how love without selfishness.
In this story we get to spend a little more time with Henry’s mother Adela and I just adore her. She is so used to her son’s dramatics she has no patience for his behavior. She also knows just what to do to bring him out of his funk. Because he’s definitely been in a funk, hanging around a crumbling Greenhollow Manor like some sort of Miss Havisham of the woods. Even Bramble has had enough it. Luckily, Adela comes to the rescue and gets her son to help out on an investigation involving a missing girl. I can not express how much I love Adela, I only wish we could spend even more time with her, she definitely is a woman of many adventures and I’d be happy to read them at some point. But here we’re also introduced to a new character, Maud Lindhurst–a young woman who also likes adventures and stepping outside of society’s expectations for her. I’ll admit that Maud is a hard character to like as she comes off so single-minded here, but I love how perfectly capable she is! In a way this is her story and Henry is along for the ride (dragging a reluctant Tobias behind him). And it’s through her story and the world they discover that Henry begins to learn some truths about Greenhollow and himself.
I thought everything in this tied together really lovely. And the world here was once again filled with magic that has a terrifying edge to it that is just so perfectly evocative of the darker side of the Fae–loved it! 4.5/5 stars.
Way Too Fantasy 
I absolutely love the cover for this book! I’m glad to hear you enjoyed both this and its predecessor so much too. I will definitely be looking out for Silver in the Woods! 😀
The cover is gorgeous for sure. ❤
Silver in the Wood is fantastic and I highly recommend it, it's only 100 pages too so not a huge investment of time. 🙂
Oh not a long story at all! I will definitely grab a copy 😀
Yay!
Awww!! I love the fact that this one deals with the less talked about aspects of love – the not so beautiful ones! And damn! I love the cover too – soo much left to the imagination! I might have to pick this series up now, Lisa! LOVED THE REVIEW!! Awesomeee!! 😍😍😍❤️🌺
Yes, I love the cover so much. It’s a lovely follow up to one of my favorite novellas. Definitely recommend. 🙂
😍😍❤️
I’m so glad you loved this, I’ll be reading it later this month😁 And I love Adela too!
Hope you love it as well, Tammy! Looking forward to your review. 🙂
Glad you enjoyed this! I like that even though it’s a novella the author dedicated time to their relationship. Tor.com usually does very well with novellas.
I love Tor.com’s novella line so much.
It’s fantastic!
I really like Silver’s growth in this. And I adore Mrs. Silver too!! I seriously need a story about her too.
Yes! I would also like a Mrs. Silver story. Emily is going to be doing an AMA this week (maybe tomorrow?). You should stop by r/fantasy and ask her if she’s gonna write one. 😉
Oh man! I probably missed it. That’s pretty cool though.
Somehow I got busy and forgot about it too, whoops! But I was browsing it last night, it was a pretty good AMA. 🙂
I was awaiting your review for this one. I’ve only skimmed it for now because I would like to pick this one up but your rating is very encouraging.
Lynn 😀
I really loved it and I hope that you do too when you get to it. 🙂
I still need to write a review for this, but I read this one and Silver in the Woods back to back. They’re so freaking charming, aren’t they? I actually liked this one MORE than the first, which I wasn’t sure was possible.
I love your review of this! Henry was just great, wasn’t he? His overly dramatic tendencies just made me fall for him all the more (and reminded me just how young he really is, especially compared to Tobias! haha).
Charming is a really great way to describe them, yes. 🙂 I don’t know why but I loved the first one more, even though I also really loved this one and seeing Henry’s growth in it. (He really is young! And dramatic!)