Book Review: A Dark and Wild Wood by Sarah Nicole Lemon

As my New Year's Resolution, I decided that 2026 was going to be the year that I read more horror books. In order to do that, I started looking for lists that put together every horror release title for the year. I'm almost two thirds of the way through the list I found, looking month by month at every synopsis and adding each book that interests me to my want to read list. That was where I had first heard of the book A Dark and Wild Wood by Sarah Nicole Lemon. The synopsis mentioned Bluebeard and a woman with magic that becomes an apprentice to Lord Death and I thought, SOLD, and immediately added it to my wish list. When it became available for review, I leapt at the chance to read it. I've read several books already using the story of Bluebeard, some better than others, but the idea behind this one intrigued me. How would it work in the point of Bluebeard, the women in his past, that sort of thing? I'm happy to report that Lemon worked the story into something unique, something that yes, used Bluebeard, but the important story was the young woman, her magic and who she becomes by the end of the book and it was wondrous to behold that transformation.

A Dark and Wild Wood follows Salomé, a young woman with the ability to see ghosts and who possesses a magic that she can't necessarily control. Raised by a hedge witch in the woods who was burned at the stake, she entered a convent with her sister, Rochelle, until her sister was taken by a creature in the woods. Determined to find a way to save her beloved sister, Salomé leaves the convent and her journey begins. Salomé first finds herself in a brothel but after an accident, she is forced to leave the village and enter the woods, where she encounters Lord Death. Lord Death takes Salomé into the woods where his manor is, a place that looked like it was in ruins until suddenly it transforms into a home filled with locked rooms and strange things. Lord Death makes Salomé his apprentice, promising to teach her how to use her magic. But as things continue and Salomé starts to learn more about her power, she starts to understand more about the deal she has made and who it is that she has sworn to serve.

In terms of writing, Lemon has a way with words that seems to cast a spell, weaving images in your head of a young woman with so many trials she had to endure all the while seeing ghosts all around her. The writing was dreamy, almost romantic, but the book started with a big disclaimer in the first chapter, explicitly stating that this was NOT a love story, and I loved that point by the end of the book. I'll admit, as I was reading this story I was getting a little frustrated with the main character and the love interests until I remembered the lines from the first chapter and I stopped in my place and thought, that's right, this isn't a love story, so where is this going? After that, the tension felt more palpable, more of a razor's edge that the story was walking because I knew where it was going to lead but the hows were still being discovered and I was waiting with almost bated breath to see how it would unravel. The elements of horror are subtle, shown with the dead that haunt the world that Salomé can see, their detail chilling enough linger in the reader's mind long after the story has moved on to other scenes. The worldbuilding worked, the settings, the characters, everything had a place, an explanation, a tale to draw from and build on and everything works to create a fantastic tale. 

The world felt well-developed, reminding readers enough of a classic, historical setting, a place filled with suspicion and superstition. We see the narrow minded people who killed Salomé's adopted mother because they called her a witch, we see the hypocrisy of the people in charge of the church when Salomé and Rochelle are entered into a convent. As the story moves, Salomé is able to see many different sides of the people around her, and this insight helps in filling in the world and the tensions in it. As the tale progresses, readers learn about the missing women and the way the villages deal with it also colors the world, showing how it seems to little affect the majority but greatly worries the women and Salomé's companions in the brothel. Once the story focuses on Salomé and her apprenticeship with Lord Death, readers know enough about the world to see the freedom that Salome now has and how she wishes to keep her new life. This also works to fill in the the shades of the gothic romance with Salomé isolated for a lot of the story, living in a house that has its own magic that she needed to be wary of lest it manage to do something to her, all the while with her inner turmoil at her relationship or lack thereof with Lord Death. At the same time, Salomé is determined to find out what happened to her sister and her wish to keep the women she knew safe from danger is something that hangs over her head. The world-building shows us that in the end, these women only had each other to depend on and that if there would be a solution, Salomé would be the one to find it.

As for characters, I ended up loving my dear Salomé. This was a woman who managed to come back time and time again from horrible circumstances and still managed to come out, dare I say, better each time. It takes grit and determination and strength and a whole lot of just plain stubbornness to do what Salomé did in this book. As I went through all of this with her, I would grumble at her, I would want her to remember certain things but I knew this woman was intelligent, she would figure things out and she did. Her growth was amazing and that ending, it was everything I would have wanted to happen, it made me grin and cheer a little because yes, I can be a little spiteful but hey, sometimes these characters deserve a little malicious justice. Salomé was sour and she had sass and it worked for her, for her station in life, for getting her to where she wanted to be. The little seen of Rochelle, her sister, was enough to show that the sisters were different but that they cared for each other and Salomé's determination to find her fits as a driving force for the character.

As for Lord Death, Lemon kept two sides of the character, the mystery of what the work of Lord Death entailed and the teacher who was going to help Salomé learn how to harness her power. The balance was kept, keeping Salomé working hard to accomplish what he wanted of her, showing what turned out to be the push and pull of a toxic relationship. Each time Lord Death spent time on the page with Salomé, we as readers were left on the edge of understanding exactly what Lemon was doing with the character until the end, when the reveals of everything started to dismantle what we thought we knew. It almost felt like a lot of the relationship was built on the ideas that Salomé had built up in her head about Lord Death as opposed to actually spending time with him. Because of that, Salomé was able to dismiss a lot of questionable things when they didn't fit the narrative she had built in her head. It's easy to convince yourself of something when you desperately want it to be the truth. In the end, the story depends on Salomé and her development, and she was enough to keep me caring about her until the end of her story and beyond.

The only issue I had was with the pacing. Sometimes the book felt like it was spinning its wheels, showing us Salomé in the chateau and her trying to master her magic with her thoughts focused on impressing Lord Death, becoming important to him, indispensable in a sense. These scenes started to feel a little repetitive, especially as more reveals started to come to light in the book. I wanted Salomé to keep her focus, to listen to the warnings she was given but she tended to brush concerns aside in her focus on Lord Death. Life in the chateau seemed to exist on a separate timeline with only the occasional mention of how many months it had been since Salomé had left behind the brothel. As a result, I'm not sure how much time passes in the story, whether it was weeks or months or even a year. As Salomé masters her magic, I wanted to the pace to pick up, for her to confront her situation head on and demand answers from Lord Death but it still took time for her to finally have the pieces fit together. It's a minor quibble, nothing to really detract from the story, but it does bear mentioning for people looking for a faster paced read when this has a slower rhythm to it.

By the end of the book, I thought this was a strong addition to the books that use the tale of Bluebeard, and one of the better ones that I've read in some time. It's also a strong gothic romance addition. I can also see how it made onto a list of horror releases of 2026. Read this book if you like Crimson Peak colored with the shades of Bluebeard.

Rating on my scale: 9 Stars. This is honestly a very respectable read that has given me a new author to pay attention to and read the rest of their work. I still have a question or two that I would like more information for and maybe a little more time with the ending after it took time to get there. Still, I greatly enjoyed this book and I'm sure all the gothic romance fans out there will do the same.

My thanks to Netgalley, Avon and Harper Voyager and Sarah Nicole Lemon for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.