#kamilla benko

[tenshichan1013]

frozen 2 forest of shadows paperback edition 

[person-of-indeterminate-size]

Reviewing Every Frozen Novel No. 1

Forest of Shadows:

This book starts out very strong but loses it's footing after the first few chapters. The writing in Forest of Shadows is meant to appeal people between the ages of to 10 and 12. There is nothing inherently wrong with the writing, it's just very predictable and the characters don't feel completely accurate to their movie counterparts. Where this book really shines however is with its set pieces. There are some very visually interesting scenes in this book that feel right at home in the Frozen universe, even if the characters do not. As well the action scenes felt exciting and there is a horror motif that was very refreshing for this franchise. Overall Forest of Shadows will scratch that itch if you're jonesing for another adventure in the Frozen franchise but really isn’t anything beyond that. It’s good.

Click Keep Reading for the in depth Spoiler Review

[SPOILERS] 

[SERIOUSLY COMPLETE AND TOTAL SPOILERS FOR EVERYTHING IN THIS BOOK]

The opening was very very good. Starting later that night when Anna and Elsa were 5 and 8 felt off putting in a good way. Having Anna’s parents there in her room sleeping alongside her to protect her and acting very sweet and nice to her felt unsettling, because you know the decisions that they had just made earlier that night. The wolf worked metaphorically as a representation for Anna’s fears. Having been unconscious of the events of that night I thought that her fears somehow knew subconsciously what had happened. She is playing with Elsa when suddenly, Elsa is gone and replaced with the embodiment of Anna’s insecurities which is what will hunt Anna down and destroy her. However it is later revealed that the wolf, even back then, was not conjured by Anna but by Elsa, who accidentally did an inception and implanted her fears into Anna's dream because she was repressing them. The wolf worked well as a metaphor for Anna’s fears but it works even better as a metaphor for Elsa’s. Elsa’s fear of being a monster that will only hurt Anna was born that night and continued to grow as she did. However the wolf stopped appearing in Anna’s dreams as Elsa learned to repress her fears (not good). Anna and Elsa’s relationship felt good in the first few chapters but as Elsa kept getting annoyed with Anna and Anna kept feeling too insecure to talk to her sister I felt more and more annoyed with their characters. Everything in this book could easily have been solved if the two just talked to each other; a trope that's common in a lot of fiction so generally couldn’t be faulted too much but this does take place after the events of Frozen 1. Their inability to talk to each other felt completely out of character. It didn’t help that the overall plot didn’t add anything new to their characters. It basically rehashed Frozen 1 again but with some details changed. Elsa accidentally threatened Arendelle with magic and the characters climb a mountain to talk to someone they believe can fix it, stopping at Oaken's on the way, then cross paths with magical creatures who send them back down the mountain in the false attempt to stop the problem when the actual solution is the true love between Anna and Elsa. True love being the answer is already what the characters learned in Frozen 1. The events in Forest of Shadows supposedly take place 5 weeks prior to Frozen 2. However, where the characters are at, emotionally, in Frozen 2 feels wildly disconnected to this book. One of the failings of this book was that Frozen has always been about Anna AND Elsa. I think this book would have been much improved if we had seen things from both of their perspectives. Not just Anna’s. I do like a lot of what this book does. The Nattmara felt powerful and frightening. It was a very creative creature. I liked many of the scenes in this book. Everything up to the Earth's giant passage under the fjord was great. I especially liked Anna and Elsa’s horse ride/SoYungs Blight encounter and the bold horror scene in the castle. The stand out scene in this book for me was The Ice Skating Scene on the river. It was a very clever set piece and Anna and Elsa actually talked to each other about how they were feeling. The magic in this book felt somewhat generic, and not from the Frozen franchise. The beginning of this book was very strong but the book overall got weaker over time. 

Some missed opportunities: 

The townsfolk should not have immediately woken up from their nightmares after the Nattmara was defeated. Instead they should have needed medicine. Specifically: Hot Chocolate. It felt like it was going to happen. They had set up that mint helped heal the animals somewhat and that when Anna and Elsa had nightmares that their parents would give them Hot Chocolate to help. Because the Nattmara's nightmare sleep was caused by Elsa it should have definitely been the cure. Like it felt so obvious to me but they never even resolved the mint thing.

They should have mentioned a purple cape in the library of missing objects. 

Overall Forest of Shadows will scratch that itch if you're jonesing for another adventure in the Frozen franchise but really isn’t anything beyond that. It’s good.

P.S. Elsa becomes a full on superhero.

P.P.S. Like for real there is this sequence where Elsa is wielding an ancient/powerful sword while staring down a monstrously tall white wolf. Black sand is seeping off of the wolf because the wolf is literally made of nightmares. The two of them are facing off on a bridge, the sun is setting, Elsa’s cape is being picked up by the wind. The two story tall white wolf and the bridge are all that stand between Elsa and Arendelle because the protective Ice Dome that Elsa put Arendelle under has shattered and has become a broken/jagged wall whose shards lay about the ground, and I need fan art of this scene right now.

[snowflaketale12]

Made a poster edits for one of my favourite Frozen novel "Forest of Shadows" by Kamilla Benko...💙

I love this novel so much, it's the Frozen darkest novel for me and I found that the story was so intense, my heart beating so fast when Anna's having nightmares lmao 😂

I'd included some details like Aren's Revolute sword, and the riddle I love "Revolute = True Love", and the childhood memories that made them having nightmares 🥺

(And sorry I'd to AI the white wolf pic as I can't find perfect pic from Google 😅 ).

[vtgbooks]

kamilla benko the unicorn quest

[longsightmyth]

Bless Kamilla Benko for giving us some fuckin worldbuilding for the Frozen franchise in Forest of Shadows

[theobviousparadox]

Review: The Unicorn Legacy: Tangled Magic by Kamilla Benko

The Unicorn LegacyKamilla BenkoBloomsburyPublished February 27, 2024 Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads About The Unicorn Legacy: Tangled Magic From the creator of The Unicorn Quest series, a wondrous new series set in the magical land of Arden, full of unicorns and mystery! Magic pulses bright in Arden, a world where humans who craft magic have been at war and separated for hundreds of years. Now…

[my-davidoo7]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Frozen 2: Forest of Shadows.

[pureanonofficial]

FROZEN II: FOREST OF SHADOWS - KAMILLA BENKO

The sky was awake, and so was the forest.

[storiesworthtelling]

Ok. This book isn’t what I was expecting it to be. Holly cow; it’s quite dark for a middle grade. But damn I’m all in!

Quote:

“It’s a good thing it’s so dark ,” Olaf said from somewhere to Anna’s left. “If there are flesh-eating monsters down here, at least we can’t see them!” (Page 134).

[thepaige-turner]

The other day my family and I went to Disneyland (and it was my dad's birthday)! I forgot to go see Anna and Elsa, but that’s okay! Who's your favorite Disney Princess? 👑👗

[agardenandlibrary]

Okay, I will preface this by saying I haven't read this, merely heard of them through a friend:

Conceal, Don't Feel by Jen Calonita - which is meant to be an AU of Frozen where both Anna and Elsa forget about each other. It keeps shoehorning in Frozen the Movie lines when they make no sense.

And because I like to include good books when I can:

Forest of Shadows by Kamilla Benko - which bridges the gap between Frozen & Frozen 2 and was by all accounts a good time.

does anyone have any book recs for things like Frozen?

i'm in the mood to read about a snowy setting with a simple magic system. I'll tolerate a romance plot but I'm looking more for the magical vibes

and please don't rec me anything by Naomi Novik or Katherine Arden or Kirsty Logan - I've tried 'em, I don't like 'em. gimme something new-ish if you can

thank you in advance <3

[the-dust-jacket]

Happy National Unicorn Day!

(yes I will be celebrating any and all ridiculous holidays until further notice) 

[tenshichan1013]

frozen 2 forest of shadows

early birthday gift from @99884321

thank you so much for a wonderful surprise! *warm hug* 

[nananaheyanna]

For those who read the book Forest of Shadows, is this how they found their mother’s scarf?

Apparently there is this secret room in the book.

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Forest of Shadows | Author: Kamilla Benko | Publisher: Disney Press (2019)