Horseman — by Christina Henry — A New Take on the Legend of Sleepy Hollow

 Author Christina Henry is not new to new takes on classic characters from classic tales of horror and fantasy. She's brought to life many stories that reflect inspiration from Alice in Wonderland, to The Little Mermaid, to Little Red Riding Hood and more. Horseman is my first read from Henry, and its story builds from the classic Sleepy Hollow tale.

Cover image courtesy of Berkley publishers

I was excited to read it. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving was required reading for young students born and raised in rural Central New York, but you don’t need to read it to be prepared for this story. Still, it doesn’t hurt to read the original first. Horseman takes place a generation later, where we meet an ancestor of the original characters, 14 year old Ben, who is being raised by their grandparents from the original story.

Main character Ben is a new teen who was born a girl but identifies as a boy. As you can imagine, this doesn’t sit well with the townsfolk of the late 18th/early 19th Century. Nor does it sit well with Ben's grandmother, Katrina Van Brunt—a key character from the original tale. Grandpa Van Brunt, or Brom Bones as he is known, is absolutely fine with it because young Ben reminds Brom of the son he lost—also Ben's father. As young Ben deals with identity, an old evil returns to the town—one that feeds on children by taking their heads.

I thought that author Henry’s folkloric take on the monster in the woods—the kludde—was well done, and the relationship between Ben and their grandparents was well developed. But I didn’t fully connect with the gender identity thread of the story. Ben’s struggle for acceptance was hit and miss for me. Sometimes the issue felt forced, yet sometimes it felt like the topic wasn’t full of enough depth. 

That having been said, I do appreciate its inclusion in the story. Women living as men did indeed exist in our long ago history, and I think it's important to recognize that. Henry's attempt to tackle the concept is a noble one, but the approach felt a bit blunt and modern within the context of the timeline, if that makes sense.

I’m not going to share spoilers, but there is also some villain monologuing that was a little bit annoying, and I wish that the villains had more dimension to them. But the story as a whole is quite clever and worth the read if you were ever a fan of the original tales of Sleepy Hollow.

Check out the links if you’re interested in the read: 

at Amazon       at Barnes and Noble       at Bookshop.org