Butcher of the Forest

Premee Mohamed

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ash.reads.horror • Apr 21

It’s time to dive into what I’m reading this week! And for some fun, I wanted to give one sentence reviews of what I read last week! Starting with last week...

🎣 Hooked by Asako Yuzuki— ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5– A fantastic, if slightly long, tale of obsession and loneliness in Japan.

🧈 Butter by Asako Yuzuki—⭐️⭐️⭐️.5– A delectable tale of the pleasures of food.

🌳 The Butcher Of The Forest by Premee Mohamed—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️—A stunning dark fantasy perfect for fans of Alice In Wonderland and lovers of dark woods.

This Week...

😈 Dark Is Where The Devil Comes by Daisy Pearce—Carrying this one over into this week! Absolutely loving it. Giving me Malevolent vibes.

🌺 Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier— doing this one as a buddy read with a friend! A classic I’ve wanted to read for awhile now!

🪦 Odessa by Gabrielle Sher— A historical fiction tale of Jewish Folklore, dark magic, and resurrection. Will be buddy reading this one with @mother.horror either this week or next week!

👿 Fiend by Alma Katsu—A rich family holds a devilish secret.

Currently Reading

I’m currently reading two books. One as an audiobook and one as an ebook.

Butter by Asako Yuzuki-- The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer, and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story.

There are two things that I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine
Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in the Tokyo Detention House convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, whom she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination, but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew, and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a master class in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii, but it seems that Rika might be the one changing. Do she and Kajii have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of a convicted con woman and serial killer—the “Konkatsu Killer”—Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance, and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.

Hooked by Asako Yuzuki-- Eriko’s life looks perfect—from her prestigious job at a Japanese trading firm to her spotless apartment and devoted parents. Her newest project, to reintroduce the controversial Nile Perch into the Japanese market, is as ambitious as she is. But beneath her flawless surface lies a consuming loneliness. Eriko has never been able to hold on to a real friend.

Enter Shoko: a popular lifestyle blogger whose work Eriko follows obsessively. Shoko lives a life of controlled chaos—messy apartment, take-out dinners, a kind, easy-going husband. She writes about daily contentment, though her fractured relationship with her father gnaws at the edges of her happiness.

When Eriko orchestrates a “chance” meeting with Shoko, the two women strike up an unlikely connection. For a fleeting moment, Eriko believes she’s finally found what she’s always longed for. But as her fascination turns to fixation and Shoko’s carefully balanced life begins to dissolve, both women are pushed to breaking points neither of them saw coming.

What I Plan to Pick Up

The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed-- A world-weary woman races against the clock to survive a deadly forest in this dark, otherworldly fairytale from Nebula and World Fantasy Award-winning author Premee Mohamed.

At the northern edge of a land ruled by a merciless foreign tyrant lies a wild, forbidden forest ruled by powerful magic. Veris Thorn—the only one to ever enter the forest and survive—is forced to go back inside to retrieve the tyrant's missing children. Inside await traps and trickery, ancient monsters, and hauntings of the past.

Dark Is Where The Devil Comes by Daisy Pearce-- The woods are known as the place to avoid. What goes in, doesn’t come out.

Hazel has been gone from her small hometown of Idless in the English countryside for years. Now returned in the wake of a traumatic divorce and crumbling personal life, her simple plans are to lay low at her parents’ vacated house, reconnect with her prickly sister Cathy, and slowly get back on her feet.

She's his captive but something has come home with her. Cathy is surprised when Hazel doesn’t show. Their relationship strained from a fallout half a decade ago, she didn’t expect them to get back into a sisterly rhythm…though she hadn’t counted on Hazel bailing, either. But something isn’t adding up. Other people in town whisper of a threat that can’t be shaken. The woods are known for being restless. And Cathy knows the old saying.