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Author Interview: Joseph Chadwick — The Book Network

This was definitely a slow burner for me. The story itself is a journey & I took my sweet time reading it. I preferred the first few chapters & then the last third of the book - partly because I’m impatient & partly because I just wanted more to happen in the middle. However keeping true to the village of Bromsbury, a quiet/sleepy village, it would probably be weird if loads of events started occurring - right? Please do not hesitate to comment below if you liked my review or have any comments about this book😊 I was fortunate enough to be provided with an advance copy of The Briarmen from Crescent Swan Publishing in exchange for an honest review. As soon as I saw the blurb, I knew it had the potential to be right up my street. Historical fiction combined with elements of fantasy is something you don't often see, but something that I've often found works surprisingly well.The younger reader will be enthralled by the fantastic world, in the Woods beyond the Railway, that is discovered by Hamish & Penny, after Hamish is evacuated. The Briarmen are depicted in great detail, not as perfect creatures, but as a group that is determined to survive in a world that is threatening their very existence. In general, I enjoy works that have fantastic or otherwise speculative elements, while also being firmly rooted into the historical period during which they take place, and telling stories about the human condition. The Briarmen is a book that balances this well. Bromsbury and its inhabitants felt real, and after a few chapters I could forget I was reading and think I was there with them. Small details such as the fields, the school and the pubs made this feel like a real place, so it wasn’t hard to suspend disbelief when it came to the magical aspect of the book; the mysterious woods and the peculiar inhabitants. When Hamish Beasly is evacuated to the quiet countryside village of Brombury he is taken in by Mrs. Platts and her daughter Penny. At first Penny is far from happy with her new house guest, but after she and Hamish discover and befriend the Briarmen, four fantastical creatures living in the forbidden Woods Beyond The Railway, they are bound together through a shared secret. Then comes the Blitz, and with it rumours of a German plane crashing into the woods. This sparks concern from the village and puts Hamish and Penny’s secret at risk, a secret they soon find out is no longer their own... The only downfall, for me personally, is that it felt a little bit repetitive at times and the story became a little bit flat BUT that doesn’t take away how much on an incredible story this is. It transported me to a gorgeous childhood storybook but intertwined with SO many layers of character (SO CUTE) & plot development.

The Briarmen | The StoryGraph Reviews - The Briarmen | The StoryGraph

A wonderfully wholesome and nostalgic novel. This reminded me of stories I read as a child, of ‘The Secret Seven’, ‘Five Children and It’ and ‘Stig of the Dump’, I really enjoyed the familiar feeling it gave me. Having said that, the story was still new and very interesting, I wasn’t sure where it was going and I enjoyed the little mysteries in the novel too. The novel was cared about: the writing and the attention to the English language was cared about, book production was cared about, the genre was cared about. It was a book that was taken care of, and it paid off – I cared about the story. It made me feel warm and reminded me so much of the books I read as a child whilst being accessible to me now as a woman on my way to 30. Too, it made that woman legitimately emotional, that fully grown woman...I haven't read Narnia, but from watching the film's I get the same sense of escapism from the terrors of the time - the feeling of leaving behind strife for a time while surrounded by the magical. I would love to meet the Briarmen, and can really picture them hiding out amongst the trees. All the characters are so lovable - and to be honest I'd love more of their lives after the events in this book. Synopsis: “ When Hamish Beasly is evacuated to the quiet countryside village of Brombury he is taken in by Mrs. Platts and her daughter Penny. At first Penny is far from happy with her new house guest, but after she and Hamish discover and befriend the Briarmen, four fantastical creatures living in the forbidden Woods Beyond The Railway, they are bound together through a shared secret. Then comes the Blitz, and with it rumours of a German plane crashing into the woods. This sparks concern from the village and puts Hamish and Penny’s secret at risk, a secret they soon find out is no longer their own…“ This book reminded me a bit of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Book Thief due to its historical elements, particularly the way the war influenced children’s lives. The main character, Hamish, is evacuated early in rural Brombury which is largely untouched by the war; we, therefore, don’t witness gruesome details such as bombings, starvation, and ultimately death. But the shadows of the war are looming over the protagonists’ lives and often influence their actions. Penny’s father, a pilot, has gone missing before the events of The Briarmen even begin. His disappearance and her wish to protect what she has left is a major motivation for her actions, good or bad. Penny is a comparatively more proactive characters, whose choices seriously influence the novel. Sure, she’s often infuriating and profoundly flawed, often making terrible choices, but she’s also been through a lot, and the war often brings the worst out of people; the book is honest about that. She does get some significant character development later on, and overall, it felt like this was her story much more than Hamish’s. I’m not holding this against the book because I wasn’t really annoyed by Hamish. I understand that the one of the most tried ways to introduce a reader to a new world is through the eyes of a newcomer, like Hamish. I just believe the author is doing a better job writing flawed but memorable characters so this would be worth exploiting further in future works, rather than falling on the newcomer convention. At first Penny is far from happy with her new house guest, but after she and Hamish discover and befriend the Briarmen – four fantastical creatures living in the forbidden Woods Beyond The Railway – they are bound together through a shared secret.

The Briarmen by Joseph. A. Chadwick - Blogger Book review: The Briarmen by Joseph. A. Chadwick - Blogger

Please report metadata errors at the source library. If there are multiple source libraries, know that we pull metadata from top to bottom, so the first one might be sufficient.The one character that felt a little flat was Hamish. The first chapters, with his fear of the Gap, his complex feelings regarding his mother and the home he left behind, and his interest in the woods, seemed to be going somewhere, but these elements get a bit lost in the overall plot in in other characters’ development later on.