What the Woods Took coming December 10, 2024 from Wednesday Books; 336 pages
Content Warning: Gore/violence, mentions of sexual assault, substance abuse, mention of suicide, death/harm of a child
About the Author: “Courtney Gould writes books about girls, ghosts, and things that go bump in the night. Her debut novel, The Dead and the Dark, came out Summer 2021 from Wednesday Books and won the Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Fiction. Her second novel, Where Echoes Die, hit shelves on June 20th, 2023 and her next YA novel, What the Woods Took, is forthcoming in Fall 2024. Her writing is featured in Indie Bestselling anthology The Gathering Dark and in the forthcoming The House Where Death Lives. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing, Publishing, and Marketing. She now lives in Salem, OR where she continues to write love letters to small towns and haunted places” (Bio from author’s website).
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Devin is a stubborn girl who has been trapped in the foster care system all her life. She awakens one night to find two men kidnapping her and taking her to the woods, along with a troubled boy named Ollie. When they arrive, they are met with three other delinquents and two eccentric camp counselors, only to learn that they are now part of a developmental therapy and rehabilitation program that will have them spend fifty days hiking in the Idaho forests. However, when the group of teens later discover that the counselors are missing, they are left to find their way out alone. While Devin tries her best to escape the woods, she must combat her growing feelings for a lazy lavender-haired girl in the group, as well as mysterious visions of people from the group’s past.
This is the first novel by Courtney Gould I have read, and I was excited to finally jump into a thriller novel for the Halloween season. I am happy to say that I was not disappointed in terms of spooky visuals and nail-biting mystery, despite having a few issues regarding how the character’s trauma, and in some cases deaths, were handled. Gould is a fantastic suspense writer. I found myself having to take breaks while reading at night because of the disturbing scenes she wrote, which was exactly what I was looking for! The mystery and horror vibes were met with the eerie Idaho woods setting. Devin has a lot of influence and agency throughout the novel and grounds the story, but unfortunately the book has a second point of view from the perspective of Ollie, who has a far less compelling romance and backstory that dilutes the primary plot with his unnecessary inclusion. I also found some of the character’s traumas to not be explored as deeply as they could have been, but the queer romance featured in the novel was deeply satisfying. Gould has a clear interest in portraying realistic LGBTQ women, and it truly shines in this book. Although the ending of this story left me a little too satisfied and the characters too triumphant, I found it to have some interesting explorations of trauma, while also being a love letter to creepy paranoia-fiction.
What the Woods Took releases on December 10, 2024.
Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and Wednesday Books for sending us an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change before final publication.
Jenica Delaney, Pine Reads Review Writer