Book Review: Wood Angel by Erin Bow

Wood Angel by Erin Bow

Release Date: March 7, 2011 (UK)

Publisher: Chicken House Ltd

Rating: Enjoyable

Plain Kate lives in a time afraid of magic.

She has a gift for carving ‘lucky’ wooden-charms. Known as Witch-Blade, her unusual gift attracts dangerous attention in a place where witches are burned. When her village falls on bad times, suspicion falls on Kate. Scared for her life, she seeks the help of a mysterious stranger. 

In exchange for her shadow, the stranger will assist her, but Kate becomes part of a terrifying plan, darker than she ever dreamed.

First published in the USA as Plain Kate, this is the heartfelt story of an orphan ‘witch-child’ and her cat, caught in a time afraid of magic. - Goodreads Page

*Wood Angel is called Plain Kate in the US*


The story starts off by introducing the reader to Kate, and her village that seems to run into a lot of bad luck. Kate’s father falls ill and dies, leaving Kate an orphan with no where to go. Then, a mysterious man shows up and changes Kate’s world forever. And then all hell breaks loose. Okay, not really, I’ve just always wanted to say that.


After the first couple of chapters, the book really got into the swing of things. Things take off, and the plot becomes packed full of action after Kate gives her shadow to Linay. She then embarks on a mission with her wonderful cat Taggle to get her shadow back.


Kate is the only main character in this book, and pretty much all of it is focussed on her. And Taggle, of course. She has always been accused of witchcraft, due to the fact that she has one blue eye and one brown. In those times, this was seen as strange, and anything strange must lead to witchcraft, right?


Kate was a wonderful character to read about. She had been through so much in her short life, and yet she managed to stay strong and dedicated. At times, I did think that she was a bit too calm and collected, but that’s just Plain Kate! 


Linay was a very interesting villain. I actually found him to be rather creepy, but he also had a lot of reasoning behind his actions. He wasn’t just there to be there, if you know what I mean.


The writing had a very medieval feel to it and this took me a few chapters to get used to. It was a really beautiful writing style, and was a great choice for this book! The writing was just magical (see what I did there?)


Overall, this book is a deep and beautiful read. If you’re looking for something light-hearted, then you’re definitely looking at the wrong book! Oh, and I must add that the UK cover is stunning. It's really pretty, and sparkly!