The Otherwoods, bait and switch mglit on acceptance donned in a horror robe

I love going to a beef jerky store. Due to my high blood pressure, I can’t frequent them too often, thus, it’s great that they’re not on every corner. There is a beef jerky store in the area where we vacation and I go in there just to tease my senses. Imagine that your version of this story exists for whatever you like. However, on the next visit to the beef jerky store, all of the jerky has been replaced by different types of string cheese. The name of the store hasn’t changed, they’re still claiming to sell beef jerky, but the only product that they’re selling is cheese. The Otherwoods is selling cheese when it’s advertising beef jerky.

The book’s liner notes set up River, a kid who has been able to see ghosts since they were a young child. Various monsters are able to come and go through The Otherwoods and they have their sights set on River. One of the problems is that River is the only one who can see these monsters, thus, they seem crazy when they act odd when one of them is near. River has also developed a crush on Avery. They find it hard to make friends and when they finally make one in Avery it’s great, but short-lived as she’s dragged into The Otherwoods by a monster.

River summons the courage to go into the woods, with their cat, and hopefully rescue Avery. Once they’re there they meet the ghost of a Xavier, a young boy who has been trapped in the woods for years. They’ve been trying to move on to their next destination and with the help of River they just might be able to.

Based on that snippet the book is presenting itself as mglit that fits nicely in the horror or suspense genre. Being mglit, of course I expect there to be some teen angst, indecision and frustration that the characters are going through as long as they germane to what those ages experience.

The twist in The Otherwoods is that River has recently come out as non-binary. They see ghosts, yes, as a matter of fact, there’s a messy spectral dude that lives under their bed named Charles. However, the fact that River is non-binary and has recently changed their name to this meandering body of water is less of a twist and more of a major plot point as it factors into almost every page to some extent for the first half of the book. They’re frustrated and humiliated when a teacher deadnames them and refers to them by the name that they used to have before changing their identity. River didn’t have the confidence to let the teacher know that they had disrespected them and that they’d be reporting their insolence to the principal. Thankfully, Avery is in that class and corrects the teacher in that they used the wrong name to refer to them. Avery finds comfort in River’s strength as they can come out in a series of zeroes and ones because she is pansexual and wants to tell her/their parents.

Shortly after this, Avery gets taken into The Otherwoods by a monster. It’s in front of her mother and River, so they have no choice but to go get her and see if the crush is real or the verb form of what happens to Avery.

However, once they get into The Otherwoods the monsters are generic and almost exclusively referred to as a ‘monster’. The big bad is defeated when River visualizes the teacher who deadnamed them in place of what they see in the woods. If the plot were more interested in the monsters and the ghostly exploits then the book’s message would’ve gone further.

It’s a haunted forest with a force that allows ghosts to appear at a moment’s notice to do bad deeds. There are a lot of great haunting and age-appropriate scary things that could’ve happened in the book. Those instances could’ve co-existed with the book’s LGBTQ message. However, this is not that book. It tricks readers into opening it by giving them the false impression that it’s more about scares than it is about identity and affirmation. Of course, these characteristics have a place and a couple of kids in middle and high school are looking for them in their literature. However, tricking mglit horror readers into a book like this will do more of a disservice than the acceptance that they’re trying to achieve.

Once River and Xavier meet up it’s a series of minor quests that need to be accomplished to get to the big bad. It turns out that Xavier really can’t be trusted and is tasked with bringing one soul to the forest to be sacrificed. Can River be creative and brave enough to find a soul that can take their place?

As the book goes through its paces readers who came for the horror will see metaphors for LGBTQ acceptance everywhere there should be dead people. In my years of substitute teaching, I’ve only encountered two, two students who identified as non-binary or were very public in their preferred name. In both instances, I adhered to their wishes and called them what they wanted to be called. They both also had peers who were supportive and called them by their preferred names. I mention substitute teaching to emphasize that it’s different students and classes every day, which means it’s a massive number of students because I’m not seeing the same ones every day.

Unless you’re looking for a book on queer relationships or coming out as non-binary or pansexual you’ll be disappointed by The Otherwoods. It’s a cheese store with a beef jerky sign. If you’re looking for cheese or can see past the sign, c’mon in, otherwise keep on shopping for one with a sign that accurately tells what’s inside.

The Otherwoods is by Justine Pucell Winans and is available on Bloomsbury Children’s Books, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing.

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