A review by lauren_shilling
What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is my second five star read in a row! It's gonna make it into my top favorite of the year too. I'm gonna have to have a really good reading year from now on for anything to top this. This book reignited my love of thrillers, I swear. This book is so dark and twisted and creepy and it checked all of my boxes. There was only one plot twist out of the many that there were that I actually guessed going into it. I loved Naomi's character and how she was written. She was messy and she was so realistic and she was great. And I also desperately and thoroughly need to talk about Ethan. I don't even know how to talk about him. He gave me so much whiplash and the whole time I wanted to distrust him so badly but he was so disarming and so likable and I couldn't tell if it was sincere, but I so desperately wanted it to be, because he appears to be such a golden human being. I won't say whether or not he should be trusted or not, though. This book was so dark and so disturbing, and as someone who played a lot of make believe games with my friends when I was the age these characters were, this hit fears and terrors I didn't know I had. The plot twists were SO GOOD. Check trigger warnings though because it was a really dark book.
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