Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish that other bloggers are welcome to join in, to create Top Ten lists on varying topics. This week it’s Top Ten Books With X Setting and we’ve chosen Woodland!

Paein

1 The Darkest Part of the Forest

by Holly Black

I had to include this because it’s set in a forest (obviously) and I love it! It’s a tale of a town that is situated right on the edge of Fae inhabited woodland. The townfolk and the Faefolk have an uneasy aliance and they ilve as well together as humans and Fae ever do. This story involves many trips into the woodland and perhaps some of the woodland even taking trips out…

2 Prince Caspian

by C S Lewis

When discussing this post, Ms4Tune listed The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, but I wanted to include Prince Caspian instead. Not as well known and horrifically mutilated by Disney (What did you do to Peters character you fiends?!) I felt it needed some love. When the Pevensies return to Narnia they find it much changed. There is forest where there should not be forest and gorges where there should not be gorges and they spend much time trying to get themselves found. This particular woodland is perceived as cursed and haunted! A fantastic type of woodland.

3 Princess of Thorns

by Stacey Jay

Sleeping Beauty’s daughter is fighting for her throne. She’s found herself some help and they’re travel through dangerous woodlands on their way to their goal. But her help has and issue of his own and has happened to mistake Aurora for her brother.

4 The Shadow Queen

by C.J. Redwine

This is a Snow White retelling and her adventures in the woodlands around her kingdom as she tries to stay out of the way of her evil stepmother. She finds all sorts of adventures there as well as a rather handsome huntsman…who also happens to be a prince.

5 Poison Study

by Maria V. Snyder

Many of these books involve some kind of woodland, but I’ve chosen this one because the woodland here plays a key role in Yelena’s forming of her deepest friendships. These people are all fantastic and their adventures in these woodlands make them a strong team.

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Ms4Tune

6 Wild

by Cheryl Strayed

Wild is the story of Cheryl Strayed’s journey along the Pacific Crest Trail. Cheryl treks through a number of different wooded areas and gives you a very in depth description of the forests and woods around her. Wild starts with an extract of how Cheryl loses her shoe over the side of the mountain she has just climbed and watches it sail through the air before disappearing into the forest below. It’s a very emotional and shocking read. Some people have found it self-centred but for me, I found it inspiring, she had an idea and stuck to it. I wish her luck in the rest of her life.

7 Uprooted

by Naomi Novik

Uprooted was an amazing book that I read last year. The village where Agnieszka grows up is right on the edge of a dark and dangerous wood, a wood full of ‘malevolent power’. The wood in this book has a mind of its own and the villagers fear it. It’s wonderful, beautifully written and creepy as hell.

8 Hansel and Gretel

by Neil Gaiman

As we all know Hansel and Gretel get lost in the woods one day and stumble across a little cottage. I love the illustrations in this book. They are stunning! Lorenzo Mattiotti really captures the dark and scary woods, enhancing the fear you feel from Hansel and Gretel. Great book!

9 Nightfall

by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski

Marin’s Village is like Agnieszka (from Uprooted) it’s situated on the edge of a large forest. The children are warned not to venture to far into the woods but no one says why. There’s an air of mystery about the woods in this book and you have to wait a long time to find out why they are so dangerous.

10 Queen of the Tearling

by Erika Johansen

This book isn’t set specifically in a wood but it does start in one. Kelsea has spent her whole childhood hidden away from the world, in the depths of the forest. It’s dark but Kelsea knows so much about the forest that she doesn’t fear it. I’m so excited for the final book in this series! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this odd, magical future that feels like the past! I also like how brutal the world is.