Reviews

The Woods by Harlan Coben

lynxman_44's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.25

mikec363's review against another edition

3.0

First Coben book I’ve read. I guess I need to give it 3 because I read it in less than a week so it held my interest enough. The problem is that it just gets more and more absurd and significantly worse as it progresses. The tone is all over the place, the dialogue is ridiculous, gratuitous pop culture references, and none of the characters ever just get to the fucking point. So much unnecessary stuff could have been edited from this. Also, the main character will go from loving family man and old flame to smug asshole with no rhyme or reason behind it. Again, not an awful book but a very flawed one.

clsears's review

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

mega_randomer's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

ink_squid's review against another edition

3.0

Many groans amidst a readable story

babychreez's review against another edition

3.0

3.75 stars. Rounding down because some (okay, A LOT) of the writing was crass, the dialogue was super cheesy and unrealistic, and I just don’t think it’s a 4-star book. However, I quite liked the plot! This was a fast, fun read that I did, overall, enjoy!

jonnyfive's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

3.5

micpickle's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

5.0

ihateprozac's review against another edition

4.0

3.5 stars. I watched the Polish Netflix adaptation before reading this so there wasn't a lot that could take me by surprise, but I still enjoyed reading this and seeing the similarities and differences. I will never be able to go past a story of an unsolved summer camp murder!

It was really interesting seeing the differences between Coben's New Jersey setting and the Polish adaptation. There was some very curious

Spoiler

KGB stuff

that just had a completely different tone and was so ????? in this setting.

This was my first Harlan Coben and while I wasn't enamoured by the dry ass male protagonist, I'm keen to try some of his other work.

shannonreadstheworld's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25