Reviews with content warning for Vomit - This Wretched Valley

so this book was disgusting, very much gore and horror (not a bad thing if you're a lover of that!). It read to me like a teen scream, but there wasn’t any…satisfaction? the author was really great with description (as awful as the things she was describing were), but almost all of the characters were unlikeable and the general backstory was eh. the end was pretty disappointing to me. idk I feel like it had potential, but it lacked anything really special.

I almost wish we didn’t know what happened to them in the beginning, because it made Dylan’s end kind of anticlimactic

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promisesatsundown's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? No

5.0

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holly_pop's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Set in Rockcastle County, KY, this story of climbers who have scaled routes in Red River Gorge and PhD candidates from the University of Kentucky really appealed to me as a lifelong Kentuckian who has spent time hiking (not a climber!) in the area. It was fun to see references to the Gorge and Muir Valley, and to Miguel's and their delicious pizza. Even the dog's name (Slade) is a local reference. But you don't have to be a local to appreciate this book, which is filled with a pervasive sense of dread that escalates into terror and madness. I think humans as a species have an innate fear of the forest, no matter how much many of us might enjoy a fun camping trip or other outdoor recreation in the woods. Who knows what is really lurking among the trees? Who knows what is waiting for us in that dark and bloody ground? This Wretched Valley provides plenty of spine-tingling possibilities.

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thegayestghost's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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beastmomma38's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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megandherbook's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

For those that are interested in the curious cases that have an endless amount of conspiracy theories and/or love outdoor sports this book is for you.

Four people go on a climbing expedition, all go missing, and then 3 are found dead. The 3 bodies that are found are in such condition that medical professionals and investigators are both baffled. After years there is still no explanation and the fourth person has not been found. These four people are unaware of their fate as they excitedly hike into the woods in the spring of 2019. Clay is a geology student who is working on his PhD. When he finds a cliff in the Kentucky woods that is untouched he knows it’s the perfect location for his thesis. He gets together a fellow student, Sylvia, to be his research assistant, Dylan, an old friend that just got signed with a professional climbing company, and Luke, Dylan’s boyfriend and belayer (which is basically the person that holds the rope at the bottom of the cliff for the climber for those like me that don’t know climbing lingo). The trip starts out with everyone excited and eager and soon turns into a nightmare.

This was inspired by the Dyatlov Pass incident which is endlessly fascinating to me. Unlike the Dyatlov Pass incident while the professionals and the public in the book never learn what happened to these four people us as the readers get the full, terrifying account. I loved Jenny Kiefer’s writing. I am not an outdoorsy sportsman person and have never been climbing indoors or outdoors so I’m completely unaware of any aspect of the sport. But I ended up not only knowing so much more about climbing that I did before starting the book I felt like I actually climbed a mountain. The descriptions are amazing that you can tell the author has climbing experience. While it was amazing (and a bit scary) reading about the climbing excursion this also meant that the other more sinister events of the book are very detailed as well. It was easy to feel like I was losing my mind while reading.

By the end of the book I felt like some parts were a little bit overdone in the sense they felt like they dragged on for too long. However, overall, it is a great story and a great read. Highly recommend.

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