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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Magdalena has come to live with her grandparents in the Pacific Northwest after a year-long stay at a Manhattan mental institution. The book gradually reveals, through Magda' journal writing, the reasons for her stay. She spends her days hiking in the nearby forest, where she meets a boy named Bo. Immediately, she feels a connection to him. She stops taking her meds (told later in the book why she was taking them) and starts to feel again. Then women start showing up dead in the forest and she hears murmurs about the mysterious drug dealer Doctor Goodnight and wonders if there is a connection between him and Bo.
This book was well-written and engaging, but it could have been more engaging if it were about 50 pages shorter. Very slow plotting in the beginning.
This book was well-written and engaging, but it could have been more engaging if it were about 50 pages shorter. Very slow plotting in the beginning.
I had a rare opportunity a few weekends ago – a return train journey, two hours each way, on my own. What bliss! I scanned my YALC 2019 haul to find the perfect read, and selected this one. I will admit that I didn’t choose this book myself. Rather, it was a mystery book from the MyKindaBook stall, all wrapped up.
On first glance, it wasn’t a book I would usually choose. I’m not one for mysteries or thrillers personally, but the book intrigued me and given that it fell into my hands, I thought I had best give it a go.
Suffice to say, I read it in that one, four hour train journey. In fact, I finished it an hour out of my final destination, which left me nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs and watch the Yorkshire countryside go by.
Magda is an ex-Gossip Girl type. Rich, beautiful, part of the perpetual motion machine that is a group of teenage girls in high society. Until, that is, the lie unravels and it all comes crashing down. Sent to live with her Grandparents following a breakdown, Magda is trying to reestablish herself as an individual once again, and in order to do that, she spends time out of doors, by a river reading. It’s during once such afternoon that she runs into – or rather, he runs into her – a strange young man called Bow, who has a secret he must keep.
I won’t spoil it, but the book is sensitively written given the deep subject matter. Aside from mental health, it also touches on abusive relationships (both romantic and platonic), and how your gut instincts should always be trusted!
A wonderful book and thoroughly engaging read – I’d recommend it to anyone!
On first glance, it wasn’t a book I would usually choose. I’m not one for mysteries or thrillers personally, but the book intrigued me and given that it fell into my hands, I thought I had best give it a go.
Suffice to say, I read it in that one, four hour train journey. In fact, I finished it an hour out of my final destination, which left me nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs and watch the Yorkshire countryside go by.
Magda is an ex-Gossip Girl type. Rich, beautiful, part of the perpetual motion machine that is a group of teenage girls in high society. Until, that is, the lie unravels and it all comes crashing down. Sent to live with her Grandparents following a breakdown, Magda is trying to reestablish herself as an individual once again, and in order to do that, she spends time out of doors, by a river reading. It’s during once such afternoon that she runs into – or rather, he runs into her – a strange young man called Bow, who has a secret he must keep.
I won’t spoil it, but the book is sensitively written given the deep subject matter. Aside from mental health, it also touches on abusive relationships (both romantic and platonic), and how your gut instincts should always be trusted!
A wonderful book and thoroughly engaging read – I’d recommend it to anyone!
I was provided an ARC from the publisher in exchange for a honest review.
Astonishingly terrible. The author’s writing was painfully basic to the point where I thought this was a new YA author (spoiler alert: she’s not) and the plot kept layering tropes that were not only moronic but potentially dangerous like encouraging pathological lying while vilifying mental illness, sexuality, and conventional medicine. It got boring rather quickly with the amount of unhealthy relationships and unbelievable plot lines in this book. Subpar “thriller” if you can even call it a thriller.
cw: vivid images of self harm, murder, death, mental illness, abuse, drug use and addiction, vilification of conventional medicine and prescription medication, gun violence, psychiatric hospitalization, hunting and killing of animals
Astonishingly terrible. The author’s writing was painfully basic to the point where I thought this was a new YA author (spoiler alert: she’s not) and the plot kept layering tropes that were not only moronic but potentially dangerous like encouraging pathological lying while vilifying mental illness, sexuality, and conventional medicine. It got boring rather quickly with the amount of unhealthy relationships and unbelievable plot lines in this book. Subpar “thriller” if you can even call it a thriller.
cw: vivid images of self harm, murder, death, mental illness, abuse, drug use and addiction, vilification of conventional medicine and prescription medication, gun violence, psychiatric hospitalization, hunting and killing of animals
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for gifting me with the e-ARC of this book.
I'm a big fan of YA thrillers so when I heard about this book I knew I had to read this. The whole story had be gripped and needing to know what happened next. So it's safe to say I wasn't disappointed with this book.
I feel so sorry for Magdalena, whatever happened to her at her old school in the city, the doctors just threw drugs at her and essentially kicked her out of the hospital, her parents are too embarrassed by her and ship her off to stay with her grandparents, and her grandparents want everything to look perfect, even if that means Magdalena being miserable pretending she's someone she's not. It's heartbreaking learning about why the doctors give up on her and why she ended up in the hospital in the first place. I like that we're not just told everything from the beginning, we slowly learn piece by piece throughout the book.
We meet both Rob and Bo pretty early on; Rob is someone Lena would hang out with when she used to spend her summer's with her grandparents and I don't like him from the moment he is introduced to us in the book. He's one of those guys who won't take no for an answer to get what he wants and what he wants is Lena, what makes it worse is her grandparents just encourage her to go out with him because 'it's the normal thing to do'. Bo is someone she meets while spending her time in the woods during the afternoons, she learns that him and his family live in the woods illegally, she promises to keep it a secret and they end up hanging out almost every day and getting closer.
Throughout the book, in the woods where Lena and Bo are hanging out in, bodies are being found and Lena makes it her personal mission to find out who has bee murdering women and dumping thir bodies in the forest. The ending of the book when she discovers who the killer is, and what happens after, had me so hooked I was literally moving my face closer and closer to the book until my eyes starting hurting and I realised how close to the book my face was - so safe to say I was hooked.
I would recommend this book but also note that there are some TW: suicide, drug use/drug abuse
I'm a big fan of YA thrillers so when I heard about this book I knew I had to read this. The whole story had be gripped and needing to know what happened next. So it's safe to say I wasn't disappointed with this book.
I feel so sorry for Magdalena, whatever happened to her at her old school in the city, the doctors just threw drugs at her and essentially kicked her out of the hospital, her parents are too embarrassed by her and ship her off to stay with her grandparents, and her grandparents want everything to look perfect, even if that means Magdalena being miserable pretending she's someone she's not. It's heartbreaking learning about why the doctors give up on her and why she ended up in the hospital in the first place. I like that we're not just told everything from the beginning, we slowly learn piece by piece throughout the book.
We meet both Rob and Bo pretty early on; Rob is someone Lena would hang out with when she used to spend her summer's with her grandparents and I don't like him from the moment he is introduced to us in the book. He's one of those guys who won't take no for an answer to get what he wants and what he wants is Lena, what makes it worse is her grandparents just encourage her to go out with him because 'it's the normal thing to do'. Bo is someone she meets while spending her time in the woods during the afternoons, she learns that him and his family live in the woods illegally, she promises to keep it a secret and they end up hanging out almost every day and getting closer.
Throughout the book, in the woods where Lena and Bo are hanging out in, bodies are being found and Lena makes it her personal mission to find out who has bee murdering women and dumping thir bodies in the forest. The ending of the book when she discovers who the killer is, and what happens after, had me so hooked I was literally moving my face closer and closer to the book until my eyes starting hurting and I realised how close to the book my face was - so safe to say I was hooked.
I would recommend this book but also note that there are some TW: suicide, drug use/drug abuse
4.5
WOW. When I saw this book in the store, something in me was like "you gotta read this." So I did. And truthfully wasn't expecting much from it. But I was blown away and actually really enjoyed this book.
First off, I loved how unreliable the narrator was. You never really knew what was true and what was in her head. Towards the end when everything started going down, I was even questioning what had actually happened. Legitimately sweating. That was so well done!
Secondly, the twists! It builds up the story for one outcome, I was stressed about it, and then it whips you around like a Rollercoaster. Never saw it coming. At all. And normally, cause I love this kind of stuff, I can pick up a little bit of it. Nope, not once.
I had a few concerns on how mental health and addiction was handled in this book, but they weren't massive concerns. Especially told through such an unreliable point of view. We are only being told things from Magda's perspective and from the beginning we know this is warped.
I'm definitely going to reread this one sometime soon.
WOW. When I saw this book in the store, something in me was like "you gotta read this." So I did. And truthfully wasn't expecting much from it. But I was blown away and actually really enjoyed this book.
First off, I loved how unreliable the narrator was. You never really knew what was true and what was in her head. Towards the end when everything started going down, I was even questioning what had actually happened. Legitimately sweating. That was so well done!
Secondly, the twists! It builds up the story for one outcome, I was stressed about it, and then it whips you around like a Rollercoaster. Never saw it coming. At all. And normally, cause I love this kind of stuff, I can pick up a little bit of it. Nope, not once.
I had a few concerns on how mental health and addiction was handled in this book, but they weren't massive concerns. Especially told through such an unreliable point of view. We are only being told things from Magda's perspective and from the beginning we know this is warped.
I'm definitely going to reread this one sometime soon.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the review copy. All opinions are my own.
I have been a fan of Josephine Angelini's work since her days writing the Starcrossed trilogy, and while this was a very different genre in comparison, it did not disappoint. I am so happy to have another story from her that I fell in love with!
Magdalena (who goes by both Magda and Lena depending on the situation that she's in) is a well-written and flawed antihero who spins a wonderful narration for this thriller. It's part psychological, part murder mystery, and all suspense. I couldn't put it down! I loved Lena's journey of discovery and acceptance, as well as her romance with Bo. I highly recommend you read this one, as well as the author's other series.
Buy, Borrow, or Bypass: If thrillers are your thing, then this has to be your next read and your next addition to your collection. I'm hoping to get a physical copy for my shelves soon. If you think you might not like it because of topics surrounding mental health, drugs, and blood descriptions, then either borrow or bypass this one. (This is not an exhaustive list of trigger warnings, just the ones that stuck out to me.)
I have been a fan of Josephine Angelini's work since her days writing the Starcrossed trilogy, and while this was a very different genre in comparison, it did not disappoint. I am so happy to have another story from her that I fell in love with!
Magdalena (who goes by both Magda and Lena depending on the situation that she's in) is a well-written and flawed antihero who spins a wonderful narration for this thriller. It's part psychological, part murder mystery, and all suspense. I couldn't put it down! I loved Lena's journey of discovery and acceptance, as well as her romance with Bo. I highly recommend you read this one, as well as the author's other series.
Buy, Borrow, or Bypass: If thrillers are your thing, then this has to be your next read and your next addition to your collection. I'm hoping to get a physical copy for my shelves soon. If you think you might not like it because of topics surrounding mental health, drugs, and blood descriptions, then either borrow or bypass this one. (This is not an exhaustive list of trigger warnings, just the ones that stuck out to me.)
Sometimes I read books with my daughter's small book club and this one sounded good. It was good and despite a few plot points that didn't ring true I enjoyed 'What She Found in the Woods' quite a bit.
Privileged Magda is recovering from quite the scandal and is out of posh NYC school. Her family ships her off to her grandparents' in Washington state and she's to focus on taking her meds, attending school, and volunteering at a women's rehab shelter. Of course there are potential love interests, dead bodies, and the considerable mystery of just what Magda did that was bad enough to blow up her life.
Journal entries reveal more and I was glad Magda was a complicated, at times unlikable protagonist.
Privileged Magda is recovering from quite the scandal and is out of posh NYC school. Her family ships her off to her grandparents' in Washington state and she's to focus on taking her meds, attending school, and volunteering at a women's rehab shelter. Of course there are potential love interests, dead bodies, and the considerable mystery of just what Magda did that was bad enough to blow up her life.
Journal entries reveal more and I was glad Magda was a complicated, at times unlikable protagonist.
What a crazy ride! Honestly I love this author and this was so different from everything else I’ve read from her. It was outrageous, but in a way that sort of worked because it was a full circle of crazy, in every aspect and I sort of love it for that. I’m sure it’s probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but the dark and twisty worked for me. Not to mention the bits of light, shall I say a rainbow ;) also worked for me.