Reviews

This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer

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lori85's review against another edition

2.0

Author Jenny Kiefer is the owner of Butcher Cabin Books, a bookstore in Kentucky that specializes in horror and has a cool blood-dripping paint job, so I wanted very much to love this. Unfortunately:

1. Extremely shallow characters. Dylan is a popular rock climbing influencer whose inner monologue is all Imposter Syndrome. Luke is literally just her boyfriend who will be accompanying them with his dog

Spoiler

who survives

. That's it. No backstory, no sense of who he is otherwise or even any real reason given as to why a civilian is tagging along on an extended research trip. Sylvia knows about plants and stuff. Clay is an ambitious rich guy, which is the only characterization that actually goes anywhere, as

Spoiler

the valley preys on his arrogance and entitlement

. There is no reason to care about any of these people.

2. Supernatural element that's basically a melding of two incompatible types of horror.

Spoiler

The valley is a sapient entity that induces hallucinations, including repeating patterns, to disorient and manipulate its victims until it fully possesses them. Those are the ingredients of an [b:Annihilation|17934530|Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)|Jeff VanderMeer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1403941587l/17934530._SX50_.jpg|24946895]-style tale of the weird that slowly builds, as the malevolent forest twists the characters' desires and insecurities until they violently turn on one another. (Which is what happened with Clay and why he's the most developed of any of them.) But then Kiefer also wanted cannibal ghost slashers for some reason, and they completely take over the plot.

The result is the in-your-face absurdity of b-horror without the kitsch or camp that excuses the ridiculousness.

3. Pointless gross-outs and gore. Do we really need eight pages (I listened to the audiobook but this is the Kindle length another reviewer gave) of the perspective of someone being slowly cut open and torn apart?

4. Lastly: foreshadowing that's supposed to be ominous but is really just silly (e.g. quips about the diner being their "last meal"); forced, unnatural dialogue; spooky mystery setup that doesn't deliver on the spooky (nothing but

Spoiler

ghost slashing

here); and, most frustratingly, the 18th-century settlers seeking the Promised Land and failing because they didn't understand said land, the outsiders who laugh and dismiss the warnings of the locals, Dylan's desire to claim and name the rock formation - there is SO MUCH here that very blatantly ties into themes of colonization and the forced displacement of Native Americans but it is never, ever followed up on. I don't know, maybe there was Native folklore about this valley?

Spoiler

Maybe some of the ghosts could be Native?

Seriously, how does an author introduce and then ignore such an obvious tangent?

That being said, I did appreciate how Kiefer restrained herself on going overboard on the rock climbing and bogging the story down in too many technical details. She's a Kentucky rock climber writing about rock climbers in Kentucky, so that must have been tempting. There were also moments of genuine action and suspense. So in the end I do give this an extra star and hope to be able to visit her bookstore someday. Better luck on the next book.

gandygeorgia's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5. …Well that was a trip. I wish I could envision horror a lot better than I can. I just can’t see it in my mind how I think the writer wants it to be seen so that made me enjoy this less. But it was very good and I’d love to see it turned into a movie!

meganbharrison2's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

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

2.0

marrie_'s review against another edition

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dark sad 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

2.5

rknitss's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

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

2.75

So this book opens with the discovery of three strangely mutilated bodies. The majority of the book is actually the flashback to the camping/climbing/research trip of the four people (plus one dog) that went out and never returned. So we don't have a lot of tension as far as "will they survive this" it was just a matter of watching how it all went wrong. Then the book ends with a reiteration of the investigation into the missing persons turned dead bodies and that really killed all the momentum built up by the previous action packed chapters.

It starts out with vibes that reminded me of The Ruins by Scott Smith and for some reason I could not stop comparing the two which wasn't fair, this book is definitely it's own thing. Maybe it was the set up of loosely connected people headed out into a place that the locals fear? The poisonous forest that clearly warns any passerby's to beware? Something did it.

I was expecting more explanation for why the bodies were found in different states of decay and mutilation which we really don't get. I was hoping for a cohesive haunting which, again, we don't really get. The place is just evil and makes the people who enter act out in unexplainable ways.

The imagery saved this from being a flat two stars. Jenny Kiefer does an excellent job of describing the forest, the wall, the gore and the fear/confusion the characters felt. I just find I didn't care.

Content Warnings