What was left of the decaying ceiling and walls was held aloft by the ancient, massive woven-stick sculptures of giant trees, the columns of their trunks soaring upward to spreading canopies above. The walls of the great hall rose up all around, vast expanses of dark brown woven sticks reaching to a large gaping hole broken to the sky above. The hall had been built for many thousands of people to gather here, but far fewer than that remained. Willa looked up, beyond the throng of the Faeran that surrounded her, toward the ceiling. "She was part of this clan, and it was part of her, as inextricable as root and soil. The home of Willa's clan, and her abilities, reminded me a little bit of the world in Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Green Sky trilogy. She knows little about the "day-folk" (homesteaders), but much about the problems that have arisen within her clan over her lifetime. She can ask a tree for help as she climbs, and find branches bending to help her. She can change skin color, and blend in with the forest.
But unlike most of the jaetters, Willa possesses ancient abilities once common among her people. She's been trained to be a jaetter, which is basically a thief, stealing money, food, and artifacts from the humans who are starting to populate the area. She lives with her clan, most notably her grandmother, Mamaw, deep in the wood. Willa of the Wood is set in the same Great Smoky Mountain region as Beatty's Serafina series (see reviews here and here), but features a brand new protagonist. It is suspenseful, beautiful, and thought-provoking, while featuring unique and memorable characters. Honestly, not many books are capable of making me stay up late to finish these days, but this one did.
Willa of the Wood by Robert Beatty is the first book that I've felt compelled to review in quite some time.
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