Rating: 
Summary: A truly great read
Review: A lovely blend of magic myth and mystery. This is one I can recommend even to my non SCI-FI friends.
Rating: 
Summary: A review from Folk Tales On-Line Magazine, March 1999:
Review: Books are letters from the author to the reader. In the case of Terri Windling's The Wood Wife, the letter is a love letter, a breathtaking yet gentle missive of affection for many things: the art of English illustrator Brian Froud; the Sonoran desert of Arizona; faery beliefs and Native American myths; and the odd enigmatic culture of the city of Tucson. Windling's passion for her setting and subject shine through like the clear golden sunlight of the desert, and somewhere along the way, she tells a fine, fine story as well, full of twists and turns and filigreed with love. ....Windling keeps a tight grip on her tale as mystery transforms into fantasy, and reality widens to accommodate it. But in an era where most fantasy authors believe "why use 300 pages when 900 will do?" (Tad Williams, are you reading this?), Windling never wastes a word, never meanders down a diversion. The result is a novel with an edge like a well-forged blade that will leave you breathless and satisfied. The final unfolding of the plot is magnificently complex, and the climax is bracing and worthy of the name. The Wood Wife has the makings of a classic, a book that is passed from friend to friend. I can give it no higher praise. -- Folk Tales On-Line magazine
Rating: 
Summary: A new entry to my list of favorites
Review: For a book that's supposed to target high school age readers, I got no sense of that whatsoever with this. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy stories that are aimed at younger readers, but this tale is told with a mature voice and a graceful power that kept me entranced throughout, and had me going back to reread many of the passages. I finally finished this not long before writing these impressions, after spending five days with it, and perhaps the best thing I can say about The Wood Wife is that I didn't want it to end, and that I won't be reading another book for at least a few days. I want to live with the mood and the feel of it all for a little while longer. I wouldn't mind a few more novels of this caliber from Terri Windling.
Rating:
Summary: A new entry to my list of favorites
Review: For a book that's supposed to target high school age readers, I got no sense of that whatsoever with this. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy stories that are aimed at younger readers, but this tale is told with a mature voice and a graceful power that kept me entranced throughout, and had me going back to reread many of the passages. I finally finished this not long before writing these impressions, after spending five days with it, and perhaps the best thing I can say about The Wood Wife is that I didn't want it to end, and that I won't be reading another book for at least a few days. I want to live with the mood and the feel of it all for a little while longer. I wouldn't mind a few more novels of this caliber from Terri Windling.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant weaving across the worlds of everyday and magic
Review: From the very beginning you know you are going to be walking between the worlds. Terri Windling writes as though she has done this herself, as though the many coloured land is as much home as the Sonora dessert or the Dartmoor in Devon, England. Her knowledge of faerie lore is vast and well integrated. It moved me to my core, I felt so at home in the world she presents. It was one of those books where you linger over lines as you come to the end in the hope that you won't ever have to finish it. The penuiitmate chapter slightly lets the rest down for me, perhaps because I feel I couldn't have done what Black Maggie does. But I'm sure many other women would, so don't let that put you off reading it. The magic is real and truly portrayed. The feelings and relationships of the cast are alive, you can be one of them, be there with them. The descriptions of the dessert make me feel I'm there - and I've not yet been in this life. I know Dartmoor very well, I was born there, so I can understand her descriptions of this very well. I'm also a Celtic shamanic practioner and find her weaving of Celtic lore and relating it to Navajo lore is very good. It makes you understand the one-ness of everything. This book has just gone to the top of my pile of things to be rescued if the house caught fire. It lies next to "Left Hand of Darkness". Do read it, if you love magic you'l love this. Terri Windling is a craftswoman and storyteller.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written novel that works on several levels.
Review: I devoured Windling's novel at one go. Windling's weave of magic and realism works powerfully on many levels. Where she uses myth and magic to tell a fantasy story, the magic is fresh, original and compelling. She also uses myth and magic powerfully as a metaphor for art, passion and love. The two uses interweave seamlessly. There are a couple of points where she drops the ball. Her characterisation of a couple of minor albeit critical characters (in particular Juan) is weak. We never really know why he made the choice leading to the ultimate conflict that he did. Which is why I give it 4 instead of 5. But, all said, it's a small complaint for such original and compelling writing.
Rating:
Summary: magic realism in the southwest
Review: I did not initially like this book, I found it to be "difficult" and a bit awkward, but it bothered me and so I reread it again. The use of Native American mythic characters meshed with celtic ones was at first hard to accept, but then I realised that the telling phrase was that ALL cultures have basically the same myths, just filtered through different geographic settings and histories.I found the characters of the trickster, the rabbit girl et al to be almost more "real" that the so-called real people. Maggie Black and her exhusband, especially were just too "hip" and unrealistic for me, altho I liked the other characters. And I found the mystery behind the dead poet and his artist lover to be intriging and well handled.A lot of references to the surreal art movement of the 30's and 40's and Brian Froud's as well added to the atmosphere. Her descriptions of the Arizona desert are excellent. I highly recommend it, a blend of art and poetry set in the southwest.
Rating: 
Summary: Good introduction, disappointment for fans.
Review: I had been so excited. I love mythology and folklore. I generally like Terri Windling's projects. That said, I don't allow these facts to cloud my reading of a new work. This story has some truly intriguing glimmers, and is hung on a soulful frame capable of exhibiting much more. For an introduction to mythic fantasy, _The Wood Wife_ might be a good choice. I would also recommend it for a younger reader exploring similar themes. However, for someone well read in this realm, whose expectations match the promises made by the awards, tantalizing blurbs and Windling's clout, you might be sorely under-whelmed. I felt the mystery of _The Wood Wife_ loose. Three stars are probably generous. Surprise/suspense is rendered minimal from the start unless the reader is unfamiliar with fantasy or mythic concepts. Some characters lack polished development or voice. In a few cases, this adds to a disjointed style that could have been avoided. For instance: the Alders are underwritten and unnecessary. What purpose they serve could have easily gone somewhere else, and probably would have broadened another facet as a result. I felt I heard the author's voice too often. Whether true or not, this quality took me out of otherwise engaging moments. Perhaps, when the stories that were to become this book existed in their first incarnation, Windling had hoped to express a blend she perceived in Froud's work (which they were to accompany). Even if that supposition's so (I don't know), I think it got in the way of a fully realized story once Windling started crafting a self-standing novel. The dropping of "Celtic" flavor into a predominantly southwestern tale comes off less like a sincere, naturally occurring merge and more like an author's fear of stepping out of familiar territory. I have seen _The Wood Wife_ referred to as "modern fantasy". This term is blandly broad enough to mean anything. I'm not sure you could put this book in the urban fantasy category, either. Outside the world of the extraordinary, the book's ordinary world isn't ordinary *enough*. This is purely subjective, but it again served to take me out of the story. I won't mention specifics, but amazing things that happen to an unbelievably romantic life are not as effectively dramatic as amazing things that happen to a normal guy on a normal day in a cheap sandwich shop. With the story as a whole not quite being romance, not quite clearing the rank of mystery, and not quite realistic enough for urban fantasy, the structure was ultimately too weak to hang my high hopes on.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting Tale That Captures The Sonoran Desert
Review: I have been to Tuscon only once, but Terri Windling's tale brought the Sonoran desert town and its surrounding mountains back to life, stirring reminiscences of the sparse yet magical landscape in which the ever-sprawling and ever-growing urban, and thus increasingly incongruous, city is nestled. Through her words I was again able to travel the streets and canyons of Tuscon and the Rincons, experiencing the heat and dust of summer and sandy, dry washes, seeing again the stately, suggestively sentient assembly of saguaro, the ephemeral, blood-red blooms of the ocotillo. And, yes, viewing the saguaro one can truly believe Maria Rosa's bedtime story that at night, when no one is looking, the saguaro gather to dance. In the imagination, Terri Windling has beautifully and magically captured the Sonoran desert with her prose. While I in part agree with M. Weaver's demanding yet incisive observations, I cannot concur with the harshness of his final ranking and conclusions. True, the book is to a degree somewhat loose of structure, with elements, such as the characters of the Alders, Angelina and Isabella, Tomas only partially realized, seeming to drift in and out of the narrative as needed, their roles only hinted at and never fully realized or completely integrated. The relationship and purposes of the mages, as well as certain other magical elements, are hinted at, but as often as not never clearly revealed as to their true import upon events, remaining as incompletely visible as the spirits seen in the smoke of Tomas' or John's vision fires. And the death of one of the minor spirits at the end seems largely extraneous. But the author has successfully recreated the mystery and underlying magic that should be sensed by anyone walking the arroyos or mountains surrounding Tuscon, a presence felt but eluding exact perception. Perhaps, as in the best of poems that Windling exalts and draws upon in her narrative, meaning is meant to remain elusive, multifaceted and open to interpretation, echoing rather than stating. I don't believe it was the author's intention to define her realm of "fairy," thus demystifying the world of the spirit, as to provide with beauty a glimpse of its mystery. In this she is entirely successful. I feel, despite the truth of many of M. Weaver's criticisms, that the reviewer has perhaps turned too academically critical an eye at this work, creating categories---"urban fantasy," "Celtic" versus "southwestern" mythology---that ignores much of the emotional and magical tone that uplifts this novel from the ordinary fantasy however one wishes to define or classify it. The author's prose is sure, descriptively beautiful, and obviously heartfelt. If one is willing to suspend for a moment one's often overly analytical eye, and simply experience the story as it unfolds, sharing more in common with narrative folklore than the rarified or intellectual aims of literate fiction, recognizing the inherent simplicity present in traditional folklore regardless of any psychological or symbolic message often disguised beneath, I believe the reader will discover a wonderful and delightfully recreated version of the modern day fairy tale that captures both the tone and intention of its original antecedents. Nor is this work without its share of hidden import or meaning. Highly recommended and well deserving of its awards---even acknowledging M. Weaver's criticisms, four and a half stars.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful!!
Review: I have never read "urban fantasy" before, but the moment I picked this novel up, I fell in love. Windling's portrayal of the southwest and its desert painted a clear picture in my mind and now I have a yearning to go there. I always imagined this area to be dry, sandy, with cacti and rattlesnakes, but she made me feel that something spiritual can be found there. I recommend this novel to anyone interested in fantasy, mythology & southwest literature.
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