Theodora Goss will haunt you. I stumbled across her chapbook “The Rose in Twelve Petals” at Small Beer Press and bought it on a whim and I’ve been in her thrall ever since. In the Forest of Forgetting is her first book published and includes stories from the chapbook (worth getting for the poetry alone, not included in the book); a gorgeous collection of intricate, subtle work. Goss is a precise and elegant writer, with a gothic sensibility. It’s not mere pretty fairy tales however; her stories trip you up when you least expect it, leave an impact that stays in your head for days and weeks afterward. Her reworking of Sleeping Beauty in “The Rose in Twelve Petals” is one of the best, imaginative retellings I’ve ever read. “Professor Berkowitz Stands on the Threshold” and “In the Forest of Forgetting” have a surreal symetry; and her Hungarian roots lend a melancholic, mythic quality to her work in “Letters from Budapest” and “The Rapid Advance of Sorrow.” Miss Emily Gray is a deceptively genteel fairy godmother I look forward to seeing more of—Mary Poppins with a dangerous fae streak. Goss is going to be a major figure in the fantasy, interstitial field of literature and I can’t wait for more.