Frances Hardinge and Emily Gravett's companion novel to Island of Whispers, The Forest of a Thousand Eyes, is an equally imaginative, visceral, and striking middle-grade illustrated novel.
The Forest is alive and hungry. Feather and her people live "within the stronghold of the Wall," a massive stone structure built to keep the villainous forest out. Over time, "the green... found weak points in the Wall and tore its way through them." Now, people only venture out of their "half-ruined" home under strict conditions. When the impossible happens--a new person appears and steals a precious tool--Feather does the unthinkable and chases him out beyond the Wall and into the Forest.
Gravett returns to her signature style of soft lines and shaded illustrations, all composed here in grayscale and green. The Forest of a Thousand Eyes, tinged with eco-horror, hinting at a dystopia, and suggesting a brighter future, examines what it means to survive and build community even in the darkest of times. --Kyla Paterno, freelance reviewer