After having her father poison by cider and her brother kidnapped by The Man of Sap, teenage Catalina takes to the woods to both rescue her brother and defeat this mysterious tree man named Johnny. Along the way she comes across many supernatural beings and creatures, even the devil himself. Teaming up with a handsome, young Paul Bunyan, Catalina is determined to succeed or die trying. 

I was really intrigued by the title of this book along with the promise of American folklore. You really don’t get a lot of fiction revolving around Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed. I had high hopes when I applied for this ARC on NetGalley and to be completely honest, I was pretty let down by this story. 

I think Autumn Krause has beautiful prose and rhythm but the overall plot itself was lacking and many points of it felt unnecessary. I didn’t connect at all with Johnny and felt bogged down by his flashbacks. However, reading about Paul and Catalina running through the woods and meeting various cryptids wasn’t much better. This book is labeled as YA and horror. It’s feels like a slightly spooky mid level book. There really wasn’t a sense of suspense. Additionally, the pace in which the MC figured things was much slower than me, the reader. She has no idea of her familial connections to the situation.  

You’re telling me a teenager doesn’t know her father’s or grandmother’s first name? But does know her mom’s? There was also nothing really showing her connection to her brother. It was said many times but I didn’t feel at all emotionally attached to her finding him. The way the problems were solved in this book also felt much too easy and convenient. Maybe this would be interesting to a preteen but this held no value to me.