Beyond the Deepwoods by Paul Stewart

The basics

Title: Beyond the Deepwoods

Author:

Series: The Edge Chronicles #1

- The Curse of the Gloamglozer (2001)
- The Winter Knights (2005)
- Clash of the Sky Galleons (2006)
- Beyond the Deepwoods (1998)
- Stormchaser (1999)
- Midnight Over Sanctaphrax (2000)
- The Last of the Sky Pirates (2002)
- Vow (2003)
- Freeglader (2004)
- The Immortals (2009)
- The Nameless One (2014)
- Doombringer (2015)
- The Descenders (2019)

Add it: Goodreads

Goodreads Summary:

Abandoned at birth in the perilous Deepwoods, Twig Verginix is brought up by a family of woodtrolls. One cold night, Twig does what no woodtroll has ever done before – he strays from the path.

So begins a heart-stopping adventure that will take Twig through a nightmare world of fearsome goblins, bloodthirsty beasts and flesh-eating trees. Can he discover the truth about his past?

Read a full summary of Beyond the Deepwoods by Paul Stewart below. I loved this series when I was younger and I’m slowly making my way back through it as part of a lengthy reread. If you can’t remember what happened in Beyond the Deepwoods and you need a refresher, then you’re in the right place.

What happened in Beyond the Deepwoods?

  • Twig is a strange looking Woodtroll and has always been picked on by his peers. He bumps into a sky pirate in his village, who offers him a job. Spelda, Twig’s mum, outright refuses and the sky pirate leaves.
  • Spelda is super worried that the sky pirate will return and take Twig anyway, so she sends him to Cousin Snetterbark’s house. Spelda warns Twig to not stray from the path, but Twig is a bit rubbish with instructions and he becomes lost.
  • It’s quite the adventure, let me tell you.
  • First, Twig bumps into a halitoad, which tries to eat him. He runs off and comes across a slaughterer called Gristle Tatum. She’s currently being attacked by a hover-worm, so of course Twig saves her.
  • Gristle Tatum was unfortunately bitten and she starts to swell and fill with air. Twig hangs onto her, and the pair float above the treeline. They are eventually rescued by a group of slaughterers, who shoot them down and cure Gristle from her ailment.
  • Ma-Tatum gives Twig a hammelhorn waistcoat for saving her daughter. Twig is happy and wants to stay with the slaughterers for a bit, but some randomer tells him to leave and head back to the path.
  • Twig wanders about and finds himself in Lullabee Grove. His mother is there, and she leads him further into the woods. Then she is killed.
  • Turns out that what he thought was his mother was actually a skullpelt pretending to be her. It was about to eat him when a Caterbird saved him. The two now share a bond, which is nice.
  • Twig continues to wander through the woods. Vines attack him and he’s almost eaten again, but thankfully the waistcoat provides good protection.
  • Twig then comes across some gyle goblins and ends up in their colony when he’s hunting for food. Twig finds himself in the Grossmother’s kitchen. She tries to boil him (accidentally, we think) and when she serves this food to the other gyle goblins, they accuse her of trying to poison them.
  • The gyle goblins rebel and stuff the Grossmother down the garbage chute. Twig escapes during the chaos.
  • Twig finds a banderbear who’s suffering from toothache. He helps the bear and the two hang out. The banderbear shows Twig how to find food.
  • Unfortunately, Twig’s good luck and happy times don’t last, because the banderbear is attacked and eaten by wig-wigs. This was probably one of the more traumatic moments of my childhood to be honest.
  • Twig is now alone again. He’s curried away by a rotsucker and has to escape. He falls from the sky and is rescued by a goblin.
  • Twig bumps into another girl, this time she’s a termagant troll called Mag. He follows her and is kepy by Mag as a pet. It’s really uncomfortable, especially when she turns into a real troll and tries to kill him. Apparently the adults don’t like pets.
  • Twig is able to escape, and he shortly sees a sky ship fall from the sky. He goes to investigate and meets the sky pirates who fell. Coincidentally, the captain is Cloud Wolf and it’s the same sky pirate from the beginning.
  • Cloud Wolf admits that he’s Twig’s real father. He’s a mess though, and leaves with his crew while Twig is sleeping.
  • There’s a massive forest fire and Twig has to flee. He ends up at the Edge.
  • There Twig meets the Gloamglozer. In a massive twist, the Gloamglozer is what has been helping Twig escape from all his incidents and move along through the Deepwoods. The Gloamglozer assures Twig that he is special, and offers to make him a gloamglozer too. It holds out its hand.
  • Twig reaches out, possibly because he has no other choice, and the Gloamglozer drops its hand and throws Twig over the Edge.
  • Then the Caterbird shows up again and rescues Twig. It takes Twig to the sky ship, the Stormchaser, and Twig is reunited with his bio-dad. Cloud Wolf promises to train Twig and that he will never leave him again.

That was our recap of what happened in Beyond the Deepwoods by Paul Stewart. Check out our recap list for more plot summaries, and if you can’t find what you need you can request a recap here!

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