[image description: The book cover for Into the Underwood: Maiden by J.L. Robertson. The background is black and there’s an outline of a castle, like a window, through which is the sky, trees, and an outline of the female protagonist who has curly hair and is wearing a dress.]
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: DOMESTIC ABUSE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, AND RAPE

Normally, I prefer to do spoiler-free reviews but in the interest of content warnings and giving an ethical heads up, that’s not really possible here. Thanks for understanding and consider your triggers before reading further!

Okay, so I got this book a while back (though it took me a while to get to it because my stack is massive and continuing to grow) and I was immediately intrigued by the premise:

Against the harrowing backdrop of World War II, a young seamstress' ability to bring embroidery to life exposes an unremembered past and unforeseeable future. Sylvia Taylor began her life following in her mother's footsteps, training to become London's next high-end dressmaker. But when a series of air raids send her back to her mother's home village of Lustleigh, she is immediately abducted by Der Erlkönig, the immortal ruler of the Underwood—a woodland kingdom of spirits and monsters. As Sylvia endures an indefinite term of servitude to settle a mysterious family debt, she meets Sasha, a famine survivor from the Soviet Union, with whom she begins piecing together dark secrets from her family's past.

For fans of lesbian heroines, fairytale retellings, and feminism, Robertson spins together the best elements of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Handmaid's Tale to tell a tale of self-determination and self-discovery that will keep you guessing until the very last page.

I was sold after hearing lesbian heroines and magical embroidery! I read a ton of queer books and when I’m not reading I enjoy doing embroidery, even though I don’t have time to practice the craft as often as I’d like. I’ve also been really into dark books lately, like The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas, so anything that’s got a dark or gothic element is going to hook me. All of which is to say, Into the Underwood: Maiden sounded right up my alley!

Into the Underwood is a fairytale retelling, so it makes sense to start with the fairytale being retold. Admittedly, I’m not super well-versed in fairytales beyond the typical Disney renditions but I don’t think that affects the enjoyment of Into the Underwood because J.L. Robertson does a really good job of weaving in parts of the fairytale in a way that adds context to the retelling without being distracting. I imagine, though, if you already know the story of Der Erlkönig, you’ll be even more delighted by Into the Underwood.

In case you’re like me and had no clue about the fairytale beforehand, a little background on “Der Erlkönig”:

• Originally a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Geothe, “Der Erlkönig” was written in 1782.

• The poem tells the story of Erlkönig, a supernatural king of the dark forest, who kidnaps children.

• The child who’s kidnapped in the poem is a boy, though in Robertson’s retelling the child is a girl. The young boy in the original poem is delirious and being carried by his father on horseback, likely to seek medical help, and in his delirium, the child hears the voice of Erlkönig. His father doesn’t see or hear the evil king. Erlkönig tries to lure the boy into coming with him willingly by promising him riches, fine clothing, and the king’s daughters, but the boy isn’t swayed. Erlkönig gets angry and takes the boy by force. When the father arrives at their destination, he finds that the boy is dead.

• Goethe’s “Der Erlkönig” was inspired by an even older Danish ballad, though Goethe’s version was more popular and became one of Goethe’s most famous works.

• If you’ve heard of “Der Erlkönig,” you might have heard the musical version. Franz Schubert set the poem/ballad to music in 1815. The composition is one of Schubert’s most famous and lasting works.

So there’s a little history lesson/additional context.

I’ve read fairytale retellings before, but I’ve never read anything like this. Everything about this book surprised me, from the setting to the characters to the keep you on the edge of your seat plot. I have a bad habit of predicting what’s going to happen next in novels, which doesn’t mean I can’t still enjoy the book, though it does make it difficult for me to be surprised. Reader, the element of surprise was at every turn, which made Into the Underwood feel especially fresh.

With a romance, there are two possible endings: happily ever after or happy for now. Since the novel ends on a cliffhanger, it’s clear this is going to be a series and the ending is a happy for now. In any romance, you expect the characters to have to fight for their love––and Sylvia and Sasha certainly do a lot of that. The depth of their affection is intense and moving. Their love is beautiful and worth fighting for.

My only issue with the novel is the pervasive rape and sexual assault of Sylvia by Der Erlkönig. I thought after the initial scene where it happens, that would be it, but it keeps on happening. While the regular rapes certainly add an element of urgency to Sylvia and Sasha’s fight for their love and the need for them to flee, which is one of the central themes of the novel, I would argue that the rape storyline wasn’t necessary at all and didn’t contribute meaningfully to the story. There are so many high stakes in the novel that it felt gratuitous to have rape after rape (and threat of rape after threat of rape).

Der Erlkönig needs to have an heir to save his kingdom. Okay, well, he’s already trapped Sylvia into indentured servitude and forced her to marry him and keeps her in a castle with monsters who want to kill her girlfriend, whom she’s forbidden to see. And every time she tries to escape, Der Erlkönig brutally beats and/or imprisons someone she loves. There are enough compelling reasons to make Sylvia vigilant and on edge without having rape or the threat of rape constantly being lorded over her.

I know Into the Underwood is going to be a series, but I don’t know much beyond that, like whether there will be two, three, or even more books. I have a hunch, though: Since this book is Maiden and given the cliffhanger at the end, I suspect there’ll be a second book titled Mother and a third book titled Crone. That follows the three figures in the neopagan female life cycle, also known as the Triple Goddess.

I get that if the series is to follow this path, then Sylvia has to become a mother at some point in the second book. And considering that she doesn’t want to be impregnated by Der Erlkönig, one can assume that any pregnancy of Sylvia’s caused by him would not be consensual. I understand that for this story to work, there’s probably going to have to be rape at some point, however, I wish that had been saved for the second book instead of being used repeatedly in the first.

I can handle one rape, I can even handle violence in a captive/prisoner situation like the one Sylvia is in, and I understand that characters are going to have conflict because conflict is central to stories. But I felt like there was enough conflict and tension in Into the Underwood: Maiden without rape that the story could have easily moved forward without it.

This doesn’t come from a place of being prudish, but as a survivor of sexual assault. (I managed to fight off the bastard before he did more than throw me at a wall and pin me there with his body while groping me.) I think about how traumatized I am by that experience and how visceral of a reaction I have to rape even though I haven’t myself experienced it that I tend to avoid books where there’s gratuitous rape. (No thanks, Game of Thrones.) I can handle books with one rape, but not repeated raping.

And thus, I have mixed feelings. I really liked everything else about the book except for that and I think the story is fascinating and the prose itself is poetically delicious. I even learned a handful of new vocabulary words because I had to google some things and I like books that make me smarter without making me feel like a complete dumbass in the process.

Perhaps I’m being unreasonable. Der Erlkönig is essentially the devil and deals with the devil never go right. I’ll leave it at this: the genre is dark fantasy and the operative word is DARK.

It appears the only place to get copies of Into the Underwood online (at least that I was able to find) is Amazon, which I don’t love. Consider asking your favorite indie bookstore if they can order you a copy somewhere if you’d like to buy this one.