I also appreciated the ways in which the book elaborates upon Rossetti’s poem. For example, Rossetti gives us only the ominous verse: “We must not look at goblin men, / We must not buy their fruits: / Who knows upon what soil they fed / Their hungry thirsty roots?” In The Sisters of the Winter Wood, the sisters discover that the goblins are indeed nourishing their fruit trees through sinister means. The Goblin men still call out their iconic refrain of “Come buy, come buy.” And single lines from the poem become full plot points in the book. The most obvious example is the slightly Jewish-ified versions of the sisters’ names: Lizzie and Laura become Liba and Laya. The things I loved most about this book were all the clever little tie-ins to Rossetti’s poem. At the same time, members of the town begin to go missing and a strange band of traveling merchant men arrive to hawk their irresistible fruit. To make matters worse, the girls will have to navigate these strange changes alone, while their parents leave town to visit Tati’s dying father. Liba is horrified at the thought of turning into a big, hulking bear like her father, but more terrifying is the possibility that her flighty younger sister will fly off to join their mother’s swan family. But it turns out that Mami and Tati have been concealing a much bigger difference: they are shapeshifters. Their mother is mocked by their Jewish neighbors for being a convert, while their father prefers to only associate with the few fellow Hasidim in town. Liba and Laya have always known that their family was different. I always love a good fairy tale retelling, but this is one of the most creative examples I’ve ever encountered that both truly honors the source material and also uses it to say something new. Set in an Eastern European shtetl, Rossner’s story is a particularly clever retelling of one of my favorite poems, Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market,” that blends in Slavic folklore, Jewish traditions, and historical elements. “Come buy! Come buy!” While I don’t recommend that you hearken to the call of goblin men, I do highly encourage you to come and buy a copy of the debut YA fantasy novel The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner. Paula Cappa on Folk Horror in Literature.TheGothicLibrarian on Folk Horror in Literature.victoriagrimalkin on Folk Horror in Literature.The Quiet Stillness of Empty Houses Review.Review of Book of Night-Crime and Shadow Magic.

Sisters of the winter wood review