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Book Review: Don’t Let the Forest In

Rating: 3.5 stars

Once upon a time, Andrew had cut out his heart and given it to this boy, and he was very sure Thomas had no idea that Andrew would do anything for him. Protect him. Lie for him. Kill for him.

High school senior Andrew Perrault finds refuge in the twisted fairytales that he writes for the only person who can ground him to reality―Thomas Rye, the boy with perpetually ink-stained hands and hair like autumn leaves. And with his twin sister, Dove, inexplicably keeping him at a cold distance upon their return to Wickwood Academy, Andrew finds himself leaning on his friend even more.

But something strange is going on with Thomas. His abusive parents have mysteriously vanished, and he arrives at school with blood on his sleeve. Thomas won’t say a word about it, and shuts down whenever Andrew tries to ask him questions. Stranger still, Thomas is haunted by something, and he seems to have lost interest in his artwork―whimsically macabre sketches of the monsters from Andrew’s wicked stories.

Desperate to figure out what’s wrong with his friend, Andrew follows Thomas into the off-limits forest one night and catches him fighting a nightmarish monster―Thomas’s drawings have come to life and are killing anyone close to him. To make sure no one else dies, the boys battle the monsters every night. But as their obsession with each other grows stronger, so do the monsters, and Andrew begins to fear that the only way to stop the creatures might be to destroy their creator…

From beginning to end, Don’t Let the Forest In is a book that had me hooked, eager to know what would happen next. In particular, what drew me to reading this book was the horror that was unfolding, combined with its setting at an academy for wealthy students. I also enjoyed it due to the monsters coming to life were from fairytales that Andrew came up with that Thomas drew. While I feel like there’s never any real explanation given as to why these events unfold, I enjoyed reading about it all to find out what would happen next. There’s just something about monsters coming to life from stories people have written that always draws me in. And this book was no different.

What Don’t Let the Forest In also did well was incorporate themes into the book that connected to what was going on in the story. These themes can be seen throughout the story through Andrew’s character as he struggles to fit in at school and deal with his mental and physical health issues, along with everything that has changed upon his return to school. Even though Andrew wasn’t my favorite character in this book (I’ll discuss that later), I found myself still hoping for the best for him, as he went through a lot in this book.

I also enjoyed the little snippets of the fairy tales Andrew had written that were incorporated at the beginning of chapters, and the pictures of the monsters Thomas and Andrew encountered. I felt like seeing these in this book allowed me to imagine what Andrew and Thomas were dealing with at Wickwood Academy. But it also helped me relate to these characters, as I found I was able to relate to Andrew through his telling of dark fairytales. If anything from reading those little blurbs, I found myself wanting to read the stories Andrew writes to find out what happened in them.

With Don’t Let the Forest In, what I didn’t particularly like was the lack of character development and details in the story. When reading this book, I felt like there was no character development for Andrew at all. Yes, he eventually gets to a point where he’s able to deal with the monsters on his own. But when it comes to everything else that happens in this book, he acts like he can’t deal with anything. And there’s never any discussion around why his character acts this way or anything in the story that explains it. It makes it hard for me to like his character because there’s no growth for him in this book. What also bothered me was the lack of details regarding why these monsters existed to begin with. I figured that as the story went on, there would be an explanation here for why these monsters exist. But if there is one, I didn’t see it because it felt like they just suddenly were at their school. Both these things bothered me as I felt like I was reading a story with missing information that I would’ve liked to have to get more insight into the story.

What I also didn’t like with this story was the sudden twist added to the story and the ending. I felt like the sudden twist that was added to the story didn’t do much other than add shock for the reader and cause Andrew pain. It was also something I felt like was easy to tell had happened, considering how little the character involved was actually in the story. While it did make me feel sorry for Andrew, I felt like it didn’t add anything to the story here for me, other than explain why this character wasn’t as heavily involved in this book as I was expecting her to be. As for the ending, like several of the books I’ve read this year, it was an open ending. And like I said before with previous reads, I don’t mind open endings, but with the way this story was written, I felt like the way it was left made me feel like this story didn’t have a happy ending for these characters. With this book, all I can truly imagine is a grim ending for these characters, which wasn’t at all what I was hoping for.   

Overall, though, I enjoyed reading Don’t Let the Forest In because of the horror in the story and getting to see these monsters brought to life. Also, incorporating a little of the fairy tales Andrew writes and having pictures of the monsters was a nice touch that I enjoyed and wanted to see more of. I just wish there had been more with regard to character development, the twist in the story, and the end of the book, as those were the things in this book that I didn’t particularly care for when  I was reading this. But I still enjoyed it and recommend Don’t Let the Forest In to anyone who enjoys horror stories that take place at an academy.     

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Book Review: Where He Can’t Find You

Rating: 4.5 stars

From USA Today bestselling horror/thriller author Darcy Coates comes the chilling legend of a monster no one can escape.

DON’T WALK ALONE, OR THE STITCHER WILL FIND YOU.

Abby Ward lives in a town haunted by disappearances. People vanish, and when they’re found, their bodies have been dismembered and sewn back together in unnatural ways. But is it the work of a human killer…or something far darker?

DON’T STAY OUT LATE, OR THE STITCHER WILL TAKE YOU.

She and her younger sister live by a strict set of rules designed to keep them safe―which is why it’s such a shock when Hope is taken. Desperate to get her back, Abby tells the police everything she knows, but they claim their hands are tied.

DON’T CLOSE YOUR EYES, OR THE STITCHER WILL REMAKE YOU.

With every hour precious, Abby and her friends are caught in a desperate game of cat and mouse. They have to get Hope back. Quickly. Before too much of her is cut away. And before everything they care about is swallowed up by the darkness waiting in the tunnels beneath the home they thought they knew.

From beginning to end, Where He Can’t Find You was a thrilling read that I couldn’t put down as I wanted to find out what happened next to the characters within its pages. It tells a very creepy story that I could easily see haunting many people’s dreams as I myself got goosebumps from reading it.

The story told in this book is very chilling and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed reading this book because of the abnormal things that would happen when one of the people who lived in this town disappeared. Whenever someone was taken by the Sticher, there were always signs and as a reader you get to see them in the story. And I loved it because I felt like it added another layer to this book. The amount of detail the characters go into making sure they don’t become one of the people who goes missing by establishing rules for themselves with regards to the Sticher was also an interesting tidbit in this book to see. 

I also enjoyed that the setting of this story takes place in a small mining town as that adds even more elements to the story. I feel like this especially added another layer to the plot in Where He Can’t Find You because the main characters in the story along with all the other inhabitants already had a sense of who was involved with these disappearances. You could see it from the way the characters in the story act when it comes to him from them immediately putting distance between themselves and him whenever he’s nearby to people in the town leaving him offerings outside his home in the hopes that it will stop them from becoming one of the people who goes missing.

What I especially enjoyed about reading this book was the detail put into telling this story. For example, when talking about events that happened in this town in the past, usually they encompassed a chapter and were from the perspective of the person relaying the event. And I found those chapters particularly enjoyable for me to read because I felt like along with getting more information about the Sticher, I felt like I was learning a little more too about the character who was talking about what happened. It was another layer of the story being told here that I found I appreciated as it gave me more knowledge about the small town these characters live in and what all they’ve had to do to survive in this town.

If I had to choose anything with Where He Can’t Find You I didn’t particularly enjoy it would have to be lack of character development with these characters. I feel like from the beginning to the end of this book, Abby, Hope and their friends don’t really go through any development here. The events that happen in this story just happen to them and I feel like these events could’ve easily happened to anyone else in the town as none of these characters’ personalities changed or anything when reading. A perfect example of what I mean by this pertains to the new girl who moves into their town, Jen. She has absolutely nothing to do with the events going on in the story other than her and her father moving to this town. Yet I feel like she takes it upon herself to get involved with the group of characters in the story that we interact with even though she truly has no reason to. Especially because up until a certain point in the story, she believes the other characters in the story are just trying to scare her because of her being new in town. She doesn’t believe any of the things going on in the book that the people in town tell her are real but then ends up helping Abby and the rest of her friends with helping get Hope back.   

I also feel like there’s a lack of explanation with certain things that happen in the story too. Even with all of the details as a reader I get about the Sticher, I feel like there are some things that weren’t fully explained. The best example that comes to mind for me is Abby and Hope’s mom in the book. While reading Where He Can’t Find You, she acts really unusually in the very beginning of the book, and there’s no real explanation for this given to us. I know it more than likely has to do with the disappearance of her husband and the strange things going on in the town, but it never gets fully explained from what I recall. And then in the end of the book, there’s a bit about her that we get where she basically starts to act normal again after what transpires with her children. And that’s basically all we get when it comes to her character in the story, which bothers me as I felt like we would actually get more from her as to why she acts the way she does in the beginning of the book.

As a whole though, I enjoyed reading Where He Can’t Find You. It was the perfect creepy book for me to read as I enjoyed the storytelling within its pages and felt like the setting of a small mining town was the perfect backdrop for the events in the story that transpired with these characters. Highly recommend for those who enjoy spooky books and that describes what happens story wise very well as you will not be disappointed with this one.    

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Book Review: The Resurrectionist

Rating: 4 stars

In the tradition of The Alienist and A Love Story, a decadently macabre, dark, and twisty gothic debut set in 19th century Scotland – when real-life serial killers Burke and Hare terrorized the streets of Edinburgh – as a young medical student is lured into the illicit underworld of body snatching. Historical fiction, true crime, and dark academia intertwine in a harrowing tale of murder, greed, and the grisly origins of modern medicine for readers of Lydia Kang, ML Rio, Sarah Perry, and C.E. McGill.

Edinburgh, Scotland, 1828. Naïve but determined James Willoughby has abandoned his posh, sheltered life at Oxford to pursue a lifelong dream of studying surgery in Edinburgh. A shining beacon of medical discovery in the age of New Enlightenment, the city’s university offers everything James desires—except the chance to work on a human cadaver.

For that, he needs to join one of the private schools in Surgeon’s Square, at a cost he cannot afford. In desperation, he strikes a deal with Aneurin “Nye” MacKinnon, a dashing young dissectionist with an artist’s eye for anatomy and a reckless passion for knowledge. Nye promises to help him gain the surgical experience he craves—but it doesn’t take long for James to realize he’s made a devil’s bargain . . .  Nye is a body snatcher. And James has unwittingly become his accomplice.

Intoxicated by Nye and his noble mission, James rapidly descends into the underground ranks of the Resurrectionists—the body snatchers infamous for stealing fresh corpses from churchyards to be used as anatomical specimens. Before he knows it, James is caught up in a life-or-death scheme as rival gangs of snatchers compete in a morbid race for power and prestige.

James and Nye soon find themselves in the crosshairs of a shady pair of unscrupulous opportunists known as Burke and Hare, who are dead set on cornering the market, no matter the cost. These unsavory characters will do anything to beat the competition for bodies. Even if it’s cold-blooded murder . . .

Exquisitely macabre and delightfully entertaining, The Resurrectionist combines fact and fiction in a rollicking tale of the risks and rewards of scientific pursuit, the passions of its boldest pioneers, and the anatomy of human desire.

I received a digital copy of this book through the publisher on NetGalley for an honest review.

This book was an intriguingly interesting read to me. From beginning to end, I was captivated by the story told within this book’s pages, wanting to find out what was going to happen next to James and Nye. While I felt like I didn’t really know too much about either of them as I feel like this book’s focus is more on the events that transpire than character development, the story within The Resurrectionist was an enjoyable one for me.

What also helped draw me into the story here is the setting of this book. It takes place during a different time in Edinburgh when the world didn’t have the advancements in medicine and science that we have today. Back when there weren’t enough dead bodies to study in medical schools, they had to rely on body snatchers to bring fresh corpses to be used for scientific study. I felt like with The Resurrectionist, I was very easily swept into this time period with James as he talked about his experiences at his college and the private school he ended up attending. I felt like I was right along with James as he discovered the underbelly of life as a body snatcher and as the stakes in his life kept getting more and more dangerous. This book essentially drew me in through its descriptive storytelling when it comes to the world around James and his mates.

What I also enjoyed about The Resurrectionist along with the setting of the book is the story itself. The plot was fast-moving, with conflicts occurring every so often with James and his companion Nye. The story of James being in debt when he finally found somewhere he belonged and doing things most people would find morally questionable, to his life as a body snatcher, to the discovery of a group of people who are a threat to what James and Nye do, to their lives being in immediate danger when they become involved with Burke and Hare. It kept me on the edge, continuing to read to see what would happen next to James and Nye and how this story would conclude. Especially knowing what I do now that some of the characters in this historical fiction novel are based on real people and real killings that have taken place. Knowing that now intrigues me enough to want to learn more and see how events in this book connect with the true crimes committed by Burke and Hare.

Another piece of The Resurrectionist I enjoyed was seeing the relationship between James and Nye. Since there isn’t a lot of character development in this book, I was interested in their relationship because I wanted to see how it would develop. And while the direction it takes doesn’t surprise me, I wanted to see more of it unfold than what as a reader I get.

As a whole, I did enjoy reading this book. However, if there was anything with it I didn’t particularly like it would be lack of character development and information. I feel like this book does a marvelous job of describing the events that happened from James’ point of view. As a reader, I get a good sense of what the world he lives in is like and what his life is like as a body snatcher. But that’s it. I feel like there’s a lot that happens in the story with these characters but there’s a minimal amount of character development with them. I also feel like this book does a wonderful job of giving us the events that happen but feel like at times I wanted more information when something happened as a lot of the conflicts that occurred were resolved pretty quickly. I felt like there could’ve been more here in this story than what was given, but enjoyed what I read, nonetheless.The Resurrectionist is an enjoyable read that I highly recommend. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, true crime, medical crime, and anyone who likes a story that takes place near an academic institution. The Resurrectionist was published on December 24, 2024 for those interested in reading this book.

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Book Review: Perfect Girl

Rating: 3 stars

Jessa has been raised to be the “perfect girl.” She is unfailingly polite, never rocks the boat, and always follows the rules―no matter what. Her friends love to give her a hard time for being such a goody two-shoes, but Jessa likes it this way. She knows what’s expected of her, and she’s happy to be the person her parents (and society) want.

When a freak storm takes out the power during a sleepover at Jessa’s creepy, old house, things go south before the pizza gets cold. Her friends are at each other’s throats, unexpected guests keep showing up (some more welcome than others), and it’s not just her brother serving up jump scares. A killer looking for the perfect girl has targeted Jessa, and she’ll have to reject everything she’s been taught if she wants to keep herself―and her friends―alive until sunrise. Who knew perfection could be so dangerous?

I received a digital copy of this book through the publisher on NetGalley for an honest review.

Perfect Girl was a simple read that I enjoyed. It’s a young adult thriller about teenagers spending the night together when the power goes out and chaos reigns. I enjoyed it because it wasn’t too difficult to read.

I also enjoyed the before-and-after chapters. These chapters were interesting because they gave me, as a reader, insight into aspects of the story that I didn’t expect to read. I also enjoyed the setting of the story in Perfect Girl because it felt like just the right atmosphere for the story to take place in. This story’s thriller and spooky aspects were great, too, because I felt like I was reading the perfect book for a night in.

However, there are several things about this book I didn’t quite enjoy too. For one, I felt like the main character in Perfect Girl Jessa was too boring. When I first started reading this book, I wanted to get to know her and her friends but as the story went on, I found myself more interested in learning more about her friends than I did her. It was like she was too much of a goody-two-shoes to the point where her choices in the story were a detriment to her and her friends. A lot of the story, I found myself more frustrated with her character than anything because of how stressed she was about the simplest of things.

Speaking of characters, I felt like the characters in this book were one-dimensional. There was also very little character development in Perfect Girl because the only time Jessa does something outside of her normal behavior is close to the end of the book when she and her friends are in immediate danger. For most of the book though, I felt like I knew what was going on before Jessa even though I wasn’t the one anything was happening to. I don’t know if it was because there were moments in the story where events started becoming too predictable that I already knew what was going to happen. Either way though, finding out who was behind everything Jessa and her friends experienced in this book wasn’t too much of a surprise to me because I had a feeling pretty early on. Luckily, it didn’t take away from me enjoying this book as it allowed me to see how the characters responsible caused the events that happened in this book.

As a whole, Perfect Girl is an enjoyable read. I recommend this book to anyone looking to read a young adult thriller story that you can get through really quickly as this book was very easy to finish reading. Perfect Girl was published on November 19, 2024 for those interested in checking out this book.   

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Book Review: A Place for Vanishing

Rating: 4 stars

A teen girl and her family return to her mother’s childhood home, only to discover that the house’s strange beauty may disguise a sinister past, in this contemporary gothic horror from the author of What We Harvest.

The house was supposed to be a fresh start. That’s what Libby’s mom said. And after Libby’s recent bipolar III diagnosis and the tragedy that preceded it, Libby knows she and her family need to find a new normal.

But Libby’s new home turns out to be anything but normal. Scores of bugs haunt its winding halls, towering stained-glass windows feature strange, insectile designs, and the garden teems with impossibly blue roses. And then there are the rumors. The locals, including the mysterious boy next door, tell stories about disappearances tied to the house, stretching back over a century to its first owners. Owners who supposedly hosted legendary masked séances on its grounds.

Libby’s mom refuses to hear anything that could derail their family’s perfect new beginning, but Libby knows better. The house is keeping secrets from her, and something tells her that the key to unlocking them lies in the eerie, bug-shaped masks hidden throughout the property.

We all wear masks—to hide our imperfections, to make us stronger and braver. But if Libby keeps hers on for too long, she might just lose herself—and everyone she loves.

This book was an interesting read to me as I wasn’t expecting this story to get as dark as it does. A Place for Vanishing has a lot of unique aspects to its story. There’s the house, which has a very dark history with the mystery of why people who live in the home never come out. The story behind these disappearances is very grim, not for the faint of heart and Ann Fraistat does a wonderful job painting a picture in intricate detail behind the history of the house. There’s also the characters in the story, from Libby with her bipolar III diagnosis, her younger sister Vivi and a neighbor a few houses down named Flynn who has a surprising connection to the house in more ways than one. At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the characters in the story. But as I kept reading, I found I enjoyed learning more about them as they explored the house and investigated the mystery behind the masks.  

When I initially started reading this book, I struggled as the beginning is very slow moving with building the plot and story. But as the story continues, it goes from slow moving to the plot picking up in ways I didn’t expect. I found this slow build in A Place for Vanishing I actually didn’t mind as the many twists and turns that occurred made up for the slow start. I think what helped was the horror elements throughout. Even though I don’t get scared easily, I found myself at times horrified by the turn of events in this book and continued reading to find out if things would get better. I’m not scared of bugs in the least but believe that if I had the experiences the characters had in this book, I definitely would become scared of them. And the house itself had enough intrigue that made me continue reading to find out what secrets this house had to hide.

Another aspect of A Place for Vanishing I enjoyed was seeing Libby’s character development. She goes from being the character in the story where her mother and sister Vivi had to be careful around because of her condition and the events that lead to them moving into the house to being the person who saves them all from a terrible fate. She goes through so much development in this book, and I enjoyed the way her personal struggles with her health were portrayed. While I don’t personally know anyone with bipolar III, it was great to see mental health representation in this book while everyone in the story is going through a terribly traumatic ordeal. And I love that she’s the one who ends up saving everyone in the story. I also enjoyed seeing the beginning of her relationship with Flynn and that this book didn’t heavily focus on as much as what was going on in the house.

Overall I enjoyed reading A Place for Vanishing as the author did a wonderful job setting the scene for the horrific events to come. While the story started off with a really slow start, once it picked up I had a hard time putting this one down. Highly recommend for anyone who enjoys reading horror as this book will give you some chills. However, anyone who doesn’t enjoy reading about characters dealing with mental health issues and books that mention suicide, doesn’t like horror, and is very easily creeped out by bugs, I would highly steer clear of this book as you more than likely won’t enjoy it quite as much.

Thank you so much for reading my review of A Place for Vanishing! If you liked this post, please check out other posts on my blog and leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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