The Forest of Stolen Girls

Great story about family, unsolved mysteries, and history. Beautifully written.

Toward the end of my time in college, I took a class on Southeast Asian history that focused on China, Japan, and Korea. I loved it, but it was pretty bare-bones considering it was an intro elective anyone could take. To get more, I’d have needed to change my major or get to more concentrated history books on my own time. One thing that class never covered? The kidnappings of girls to serve as tributes and brides, which is the horror at the center of The Forest of Stolen Girls.Min Hwani and her younger sister Maewol were found unconscious in a forest on the island of Jeju when they were younger and it was the catalyst for their family falling apart. While Hwani and their renowned detective father left for the mainland, Maewol stayed on the island to be a shaman’s apprentice. But now their father has disappeared after returning to Jeju to investigate the many missing girls of the island as well as what happened to his daughters five years before.Hwani is armed with her father’s fire-damaged notebook, everything she ever learned from him about investigation, and a disguise as a man that she quickly discards. Everyone on Jeju is already aware of who she is, she just needed it to get to Jeju. The tension and sense of setting is utterly excellent.The sibling relationship between Hwani and Maewol is a fraught one thanks to the forest incident and their father’s favoritism toward Hwani, but the novel sees them slowly cross the divide back to one another. Maewol’s memories of what happened, her skills as a shaman’s apprentice, and her position within the community make her an asset to the investigation.Just as much as this novel is about finding out who the mysterious figure in the white mask is, what happened to the girl found dead in the same forest the girls fell unconscious, and finding the father who went missing himself while looking for thirteen missing girls, it’s about rebuilding bridges with family. They’re surrounded by hopeless people and even corrupt people, but even after the events of their childhood and their father’s imperfect parenting following their mother’s death, Hwani and Maewol are sisters through and through.It’s toward the end when The Forest of Stolen Girls falters a bit. Hwani has been characterized throughout the novel as very smart, but after poisoning herself once and learning someone poisoned her father as well, she accepts drink when she visits someone she suspects was behind the disappearances and deaths.Naturally, they poison her and she nearly dies. It seems inconsistent with her previous characterization, especially given everything she has learned and been through during her investigation. You just don’t accept food or drink from a suspect without having seen it prepared right in front of you.A solid mystery novel set outside the Western world and the modern day, The Forest of Stolen Girls is a peek at one country’s history and a practice they’ve since abolished, though it’s by no means extinct across the world. Bride kidnapping isn’t even extinct in Southeast Asia. China’s one-child policy has created such a shortage of young women in the country that thousands have been kidnapped from other countries to be married to Chinese men.

While I found the writing technically very beautiful and vivid, overall this wasn't quite working for me. I loved the theme of this story, about empowerment and finding your own way. The atmosphere was great. There was this nice sense of foreboding hanging over everything from the beginning, and the story wrapped up in a very satisfying way. Unfortunately, I felt like the pacing was kind of holding the story back. It was quite slow and often very boring. There were several instances where I tripped over some of the terminology because I didn't know what the words meant and the author didn't offer any context for them a lot of the time. I looked up a few terms, but sometimes that didn't help either, and I just gave up after a while.I blame myself, but I went into this book thinking it was horror with a historical setting. It's actually historical fiction with some darker elements. The tone was mostly kind of sad, which worked well for the story. It just wasn't what I was expecting, and I think my expectations let me down more than anything else. I'm 100% to blame because I didn't pay attention to the genres this was listed under. I saw the cover and thought it sounded interesting, and it was interesting in places. Unfortunately for me, I don't read a lot of books like this and can't really appreciate it.

The Forest of Stolen Girls is a very well written story of missing girls, a family divided, trouble between sisters and finding one's way through lies to the truth. The story flows nicely and with ease, making the pages turn. I do think this reads as a younger YA, so it has a broader range of audience. It is also what I would call a modern historical. It reads like a modern story, but is set in 1426 Joseon (Korea). The way the author incorperates cultural references makes the story not only authentic but a fun learning experience. I had no issues understanding the references within the story and looked them up afterward to make this interactive. The plot is really great and I loved how the story starts out simple but as the main character, Hwani, discovers more, the story complicates. As she changes her limited view, she learns that things are not always as they seem, nor as simple. The progression of the plot and the development of the characters makes this a must read. Older readers and adults might find the mystery on the simple side but that doesn't take away from the enjoyment of the story. I am beyond pleased to have had this experience and look forward to more from this author.

Our main character, Hwani, along with her sister, are found unconcious the forest and their father goes in search of what happened. Other girls have also gone missing, with some never returning.In the novel, Hwani is our main narrator, who goes on a journey to solve the mystery of the forest and her own family. The narrator and the story are all engaging and keep you flipping pages. I liked the mystery and the bit of horror built into not knowing what is happening. Overall, I liked the story and the twist in setting and time period.