NORTH WOODS (2023)

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Cool premise and concept. Regardless NORTH WOODS drowns under a weight of overwrought clumsy prose masquerading as summoning the sublime of nature, which it does not. DANIEL MASON trying hard is even worse than his inevitable failure; such is to be expected of a college professor moonlighting as an artist. Which he may be, but MASON's capabilities aren't really being shown off entangled in soap opera strings and romance. The humor is the worst. Most concepts are unbaked and do not manifest into anything meaningful. Small flashes of storytelling brilliance such as a moment involving a film reel are betrayed by the thesaurus beaten obstacle laden paths tread obnoxiously. And BTW this book isn't a finalist for an award at all, which I at first assumed. Why would I make that mistake.