What a bleak, harrowing world, when fear becomes currency, and the creature that protects you, the Saint, demands it as tribute. We’re immediately immersed in a society shaped by dread, where the Saint of Fear feeds off the terror of its people to keep the corrupted forces of the Ether at bay. It’s a twisted kind of safety, one built on sacrifice, and that burden is shouldered almost entirely by women. Fear becomes not just emotion, but obligation. Meanwhile, the men seem to have distanced themselves from the weight of that cost. What kind of community does that shape, when death is always near and fear is your only worth?

The world is only a couple of centuries old, birthed from a rupture that brought with it the Hexenwald, an overwhelming force of corruption and cruelty. In this world, Ilse stands apart. She knows she has no fear. And in a society that measures value by how much fear you can offer, she is... lacking. Unworthy. Or so she believes.

What follows is a journey of self-discovery rooted in rich lore, magical unease, and a darkness that is both external and internal. Ilse is a compelling character, not because she is fearless, but because her desires reach beyond simple survival. Her love for her sister Thea brings emotional depth to her journey, showing us that fearlessness doesn’t mean heartlessness.

This is a story that asks: Can we find fear? Should we? And as we walk beside Ilse, we experience grief, joy, love and perhaps most powerfully, courage. Season of Fear is a dark and fantastical tale about what makes us human, and what we're willing to endure for the ones we love.

A special thank you to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Christy Ottaviano Books, and NetGalley for the advanced digital copy; All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

From the beginning, this book grabs you and pulls you in by its teeth. We are introduced to Isle, a girl who is different from everyone else in her village. Monsters plague their village and they rely on the Saint of Fear to help protect them. He feeds off their fear. Isle is the only one who has never felt fear.

I loved the themes explored in this book. Misogyny, sisterhood, magic, fear, love, & how women can fight back against oppression. The more I heard about this village, the more I hated it. The women put themselves in front of a monster and beg for its help with their fear. The men just stay behind and are barely seen in this book except for Hans. Hans is the perfect himbo boy. I loved how much he loved Thea. Speaking of Thea, the love between her and Isle was beautiful. Sisters in every way. While their mother was hot and cold for me, I’m glad they had each other.

The sapphic angle this went was interesting. Ash was a good character with her brother and it again shows a great strong sibling bond. There is so much sadness and agony in this book and the plot twists just kept coming. I didn’t expect anything that was happening. I also didn’t expect how gory and dark this was going to be. I loved it. The images were actually gruesome. I enjoyed this book a lot and you want to read something on the horror spectrum with fantasy/folklore elements I highly recommend!

Ilse was born without fear. The women of her village are called upon to sate the appetite of the Saint of Fear who protects them from the dangerous monsters of the Hexenwald. When the time comes for her own Rite where she will offer her fear to the Saint, Ilse worries she will be discovered as a fraud and banished from the village. But the Saint offers her a reprieve: Ilse must find her fear in thirty days, or he will kill her sister Thea.

Frightened villagers chase Ilse into the Hexenwald where she is joined by Thea’s husband, Hans. Together, they seek answers and a way to save Thea. But on their journey, Ilse makes a series of shocking discoveries about why she is so different from the other women of her village.

I was excited by the plot’s potential from the outset. Season of Fear starts out with a great scene and a truly intriguing premise. Unfortunately, I found my interest waning for the following ¼ of the narrative. Things pick up after they’ve been in the Hexenwald for a while, but there were still pockets where the action lagged for my taste.

This book has so much in its favor – saints, monsters, creepy forest, a twisty plot, and LGBTQ+ rep. But I found it hard to connect to the main character. Perhaps it was her lack of fear making her seem a bit distant, but I also felt she showed a lot of self-doubt for someone without fear. As we follow Ilse on her journey of self-discovery, I kept finding myself more intrigued by the other characters. There are so many great hidden secrets that Ilse discovers along the way, but I just felt there was a disconnect between the character’s emotions and the heaviness of what she learns.

Thank you to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for providing the e-arc for my honest review.

From the opening scene, I was pulled into the world and its machinations. A forest, full of dark creatures ready to prey on the nearby village. A ritual, where all women scream out and give their fear to protect their village. A Saint of Fear, feasting upon the fear in exchange for defending them.

Poor Ilse Oldenwald, fearless and unable to produce any fear. When it is her turn to perform the Rite with the Saint of Fear, she fails and is given 30 days to discover her fear within the dangerous forest of Hexenwald or lose her beloved sister.

Each character is graciously fleshed out and unique - I continued to discover slivers of their personalities ingrained within their words and actions throughout the story. The plot flowed smoothly, no slow/fast dichotomies of length. I eagerly wanted to know what would happen next. And oh - the Bavarian folklore-inspired creatures and characters!

A timeless tale of women's sacrifice and the world that influences and molds them, and the bravery in choosing to remain true to who you are, no matter how different you seem.

I gobbled this book up!

What I Enjoyed:
- complex, intricate characters who believably live within the story's crafted world
- Bavarian folklore-inspired creatures and environment
- a wonderfully told plot with no broken tangents or unresolved threads

Thank you to the author Emily Cooper, NetGalley, and the publisher for an eARC!

Like others have said, this book did take a while for me to warm up to and it's a bit of a slow burn but I really enjoyed it!

Season of Fear was haunting and beautifully written. It did take me a minute to get into, but once things picked up I was hooked.

This hauntingly gorgeous novel centers around courage and sisterhood. I found that the main character, Ilse, was a strong and personable character that made me want to keep reading and never put this book down. The ways in which she grew as a character through the tribulations she faced during her quest to find the key to her problem was inspiring. Sisterhood is a key factor into how the plot is able to move forward and strengthens not only our main character but many others. The courage of many women throughout this book was so amazing to read, as well as the courage to push against the patriarchy. I found the relationship between our main character and her love interest to be heathy and a true show of how love can help one to prevail. Overall, if you are a fan of horror novels with a quest then this book is for you. The author uses great imagery to describe every scene and the different horrors that are faced in each chapter.

A feminist dark fantasy with lyrical prose is what you will find in Season of Fear. The forest lurks between the liminal spaces of your soul's greatest fear. What is the difference between bravery and God status? That is the type of forest of dark wonders you experience in this debut.
The dialogue and diction are concrete and creative in this young adult tale. A perfect stepping stone for feminist literature that poses questions of the human condition. Are the monsters the energy we summon between the forest trees? The forest is alive and it has a message to bring in this one.
This feels like an even darker The Grace Year meets Mean Girls with a dark fantasy twist. Sapphic relations? Hell yes! Wish this was longer to flesh out relationships even further. Tackle the rot season in the forest this fall. Thank you, Net Galley, for this advanced copy! This was an eerie page turner with twisted turns.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC. 

This book was a little hard for me to get into at first, but I really started liking it once the plot picked up a little. The writing was beautiful, very dark fairytale. 

This story was a lot more sad than I expected it to be. Maybe bittersweet is a better word for it. 

Emily Cooper created a beautifully dark world with a beautiful message behind it.

Ilse has always felt out of place in her village where women's fear is harvested by the Saint of Fear in exchange for keeping the villagers safe from monsters that attack from the forest. Why? Ilse doesn't feel fear. In order to save her sister from the vengeful Saint, Ilse must travel into the forest to find her fear. What she finds instead shocks her and gives her the power to save her sister herself.

The world building in this?!? INSANELY good!! A beautiful story with a lot of focus on how women tend to be used. It’s dark and the premise itself is one I haven’t seen previously. The forest is horrifically scary. This even has sapphic romance within it. What more could one want.