Wildwood
Colin Meloy
 In Wildwoods backstory, Alexandra is exiled from South Wood for "criminal black magic" to the no man's land of Wildwood. In revenge, she plots to kill every living thing in The Wood. She strikes a deal with Prue's parents, who are desperate to have a child. Alexandra promises to use magic to help them conceive, but in return they must give her their second child. After Prue is born Alexandra spends the next ten years raising an army of coyotes. She then causes Prue's parents to conceive a second child, Mac. Her plan is to make a blood sacrifice of Mac to Wildwood's Ivy, a dangerous, supernaturally invasive plant. This will give her control over the Ivy, allowing her to choke all life in The Wood. When Mac is one year old, Alexandra sends crows to kidnap him. Prue is in a park with Mac when crows swoop in and carry the baby off. Prue goes after Mac, followed by her classmate Curtis. Prue does not want Curtis along, but before she can send him back, they are separated while fleeing from coyotes. Curtis is captured and taken to Alexandra, while Prue rides a mail truck to South Wood. There, Prue finds a Kafkaesque bureaucracy and dysfunctional government. Police state tactics and paranoia over foreign threats are used to keep the regime in power. Prue eventually meets the Crown Prince Owl Rex, of the Avian Principality, who reveals how Alexandra came to be exiled, and suggests Prue cross Wildwood and seek help from the Mystics of North Wood. Meanwhile, Alexandra is flattering Curtis with a fancy uniform and commissions him into the coyote army as an officer. In a battle against bandits Curtis destroys a howitzer by dumb luck, becoming a coyote war hero in the process. He then stumbles upon Mac in Alexandra's headquarters and she reveals her plan to sacrifice the baby. Alexandra offers to share the power with Curtis, but he refuses and is imprisoned with some captured bandits and treasonous coyotes. Prue flies to North Wood on the back of an eagle sent by Owl Rex, but is shot down by a coyote archer. She is found by Brendan, the Bandit King, who offers to help. However, they are captured in a coyote attack and Brendan is imprisoned with Curtis while Prue is taken to Alexandra. Alexandra promises her that she will find Mac, convincing Prue to leave The Wood. In prison, Curtis reveals Alexandra's plan and then leads an escape, gaining the trust of the coyote and bandit prisoners. Prue returns home, and learns of her parents' bargain with Alexandra. Realizing that she was tricked, she decides to return to rescue Mac. Back in the Impassible Wilderness, Prue travels to see the Mystics in charge of North Wood. Meanwhile, Curtis and the other escapees rejoin the bandits and set out to stop Alexandra. Prue alerts the North Wood Elder Mystic, Iphigenia, to the danger and the citizen militia gather farming implements and kitchen utensils for weapons and march south. Prue rides her bicycle ahead and convinces the bandits to join forces. Just as the sacrifice is about to occur the armies meet in an Ivy filled ruin. Brendan gives a speech to inspire his forces, christening the combined army the Wildwood Irregulars. A raging battle ensues, and the Wildwood Irregulars are near defeat. As Alexandra prepares to carry out the sacrifice, Iphigenia confronts her. Curtis and the remnants of the army make a final push, expecting to be cut down, when above them the sky is filled with an army of eagles from the Avians. The battle turns against the coyote army and Iphigenia uses her control of plants to make the tree boughs snatch Mac from Alexandra. Brendan shoots Alexandra with an arrow and the Ivy consumes her. The victorious Wildwood Irregulars regroup and press on to the gates of South Wood and demand that the corrupt government resign. As a new, peaceful order begins among the factions of The Wood Prue and Curtis part ways as new friends, she goes home and he remains behind to start a new life as a bandit.