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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a stunning debut from Fiona Barnett. The Dark Between the Trees is a masterfully crafted gothic-horror novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. The author expertly builds the tension throughout the story, creating a ghostly, unsettling atmosphere that will leave you feeling uneasy long after you finish reading.
The remote and dense forest serves as the perfect backdrop for the unearthly atmosphere of the novel. The dense, dark woods are a recurring motif throughout the story, and Barnett does an excellent job of conveying the sense of isolation that comes with being lost in the wilderness. The forest is described as being both beautiful and dangerous, and the tension between the natural beauty and the lurking threat is well crafted. The vivid descriptions of the forest, along with the unexplained happenings, create an atmospheric sense of dread that sets the perfect tone for a gothic-horror novel.
The duel timeline adds an extra layer of intrigue to the novel, as the past and present events slowly unfold and reveal a shocking and unsettling truth. The novel has strong parallels to Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation (one of my favourite books), and fans of that book will find much to enjoy in Barnett's debut novel.
One shortcoming of the story is that the characters are not particularly well-developed. This is understandable, as the novel is heavily plot-driven and focused on building an unsettling atmosphere.
Whilst some reviews have critiqued the ending for not being 'scary' enough, it was one of my favourite elements of the story. I enjoyed that the ending wasn't spoon-fed to us, but rather allowed us to draw our own conclusions. I found the final pages especially powerful. The themes of grief, loss, and redemption were all expertly woven together, making for an emotionally powerful conclusion to the novel.
The remote and dense forest serves as the perfect backdrop for the unearthly atmosphere of the novel. The dense, dark woods are a recurring motif throughout the story, and Barnett does an excellent job of conveying the sense of isolation that comes with being lost in the wilderness. The forest is described as being both beautiful and dangerous, and the tension between the natural beauty and the lurking threat is well crafted. The vivid descriptions of the forest, along with the unexplained happenings, create an atmospheric sense of dread that sets the perfect tone for a gothic-horror novel.
The duel timeline adds an extra layer of intrigue to the novel, as the past and present events slowly unfold and reveal a shocking and unsettling truth. The novel has strong parallels to Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation (one of my favourite books), and fans of that book will find much to enjoy in Barnett's debut novel.
One shortcoming of the story is that the characters are not particularly well-developed. This is understandable, as the novel is heavily plot-driven and focused on building an unsettling atmosphere.
Whilst some reviews have critiqued the ending for not being 'scary' enough, it was one of my favourite elements of the story. I enjoyed that the ending wasn't spoon-fed to us, but rather allowed us to draw our own conclusions. I found the final pages especially powerful. The themes of grief, loss, and redemption were all expertly woven together, making for an emotionally powerful conclusion to the novel.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is really spooky and mind bending.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood
challenging
dark
medium-paced
I had high hopes for The Dark Between the Trees, and for the most part, they were fulfilled. A gothic-folk thriller about a forest, Moresby Wood, which is known to be an unnatural place; the realm of witchcraft and shadows, where there are tales of the devil walking by moonlight. In 1643 seventeen men enter the wood and only two are ever seen again. Now, five women scholars are entering the wood to once and for all discover the truth of what happened.
This book was incredibly atmospheric, and I felt immersed in the creepy Blair Witch feel of the woods. There is suspense and tension with the mysteriously shifting landscape and talk of evil entities. The narrative switches between the soldiers in 1643 and the five women 300 years later, but I didn’t find it hard to follow. I enjoyed the creep factor and the slow buildup, and felt it was a great spooky read for October.
The ending may not have been conclusive or answer ever question, but in this case I didn’t mind it. It gives the story an overall feel of loneliness, confusion, and hopelessness. It may not be for everyone, but I quite enjoyed the folklore of the forest and the overall dread and fear felt by the characters in the book.
Special thanks to Rebellion, Solaris and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book was incredibly atmospheric, and I felt immersed in the creepy Blair Witch feel of the woods. There is suspense and tension with the mysteriously shifting landscape and talk of evil entities. The narrative switches between the soldiers in 1643 and the five women 300 years later, but I didn’t find it hard to follow. I enjoyed the creep factor and the slow buildup, and felt it was a great spooky read for October.
The ending may not have been conclusive or answer ever question, but in this case I didn’t mind it. It gives the story an overall feel of loneliness, confusion, and hopelessness. It may not be for everyone, but I quite enjoyed the folklore of the forest and the overall dread and fear felt by the characters in the book.
Special thanks to Rebellion, Solaris and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a fantastically spooky tale from Fiona Barnett.
I read it in one sitting, beyond intrigued with the chilling events both in the past and present.
Just what lies in wait within the mysterious forest? I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to step one foot into that uninviting place.
They say getting lost is safer than being found and going by the events that slowly unfold, I tend to agree.
If you are looking for a haunting book to keep you up at night then you should definitely read this one!
I read it in one sitting, beyond intrigued with the chilling events both in the past and present.
Just what lies in wait within the mysterious forest? I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to step one foot into that uninviting place.
They say getting lost is safer than being found and going by the events that slowly unfold, I tend to agree.
If you are looking for a haunting book to keep you up at night then you should definitely read this one!
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Plot: I’m a plot reader, and this book has that in spades. What’s the truth to all these myths! Where did the soldiers disappear to! What is going on in this damn forest! Tell me everything! What it doesn’t have is any sort of resolution at all. I don’t mind an open ended book but this feels like it just… stopped. It feels incomplete. As I roll it around in my head more maybe my feelings will warm but at the moment I just feel sort of… let down.
Characters: None of the characters are likable, which is fine, but they also aren’t well developed. Most of the characters are interchangeable and all they contribute is body count.
Setting: 10/10 no notes. Spooky forests for days.
Characters: None of the characters are likable, which is fine, but they also aren’t well developed. Most of the characters are interchangeable and all they contribute is body count.
Setting: 10/10 no notes. Spooky forests for days.
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
my review from goodreads! = )
okay first...who decided proper review format started with a synopsis? creepy woods throughout history. also, now that i noticed, i can't get it out of my head. but check out how many reviews describe the two groups we follow in the book as "the soldiers" and "the women". one group is all men, one all women. one soldiers, the other academics. why not past soldiers, present day academics? men in the past, women in the present? anyway. just an observation. draw your own conclusions. i saw another review that said (and i'm obv paraphrasing) that the pov shifts are easier if you think of it as having three characters: the men in the past, the women in the present, and the wood. which is really good advice!
without spoilers for now, this was a really slow-paced story that built tension right up until the disappointing ending. it's not open ended necessarily, more that the book just kind of...stops. like if someone who's telling you a story suddenly gets a phone call and then leaves. and i usually LIKE open ended endings, which is mostly why i'm mentioning it. this feels either like the barnett wasn't sure how to end the story, or thought just leaving everything somewhat ambiguous would be creepier. i always think of the ones we're meant to find by joan he when i think of good open endings. again, without spoiling anything, there's a decision to be made at the end. but i think if you've been paying attention to the narrative and have a good feel for who the characters essentially are as people, you can guess what decision is made. again though, this book just sort of stops. i have some guesses, but that'll be spoilery.
that's probably all i can/should say without spoilers?? just know going in that it's slow paced and things don't wrap up neatly at the end. BUT it read really fast for me because i HAD to know what was going on! i read 80 pages one afternoon, then the rest of it the next day. the woods are excellently creepy, and i think the best part is that it's all fenced in and padlocked which you learn really early on. so the soldiers sort of wandered in out of necessity, but the scholars had to get permission and funding and keys and approval to get in. so their pov is extra creepy bc nothing/no one else could've wandered in with them. i definitely want to see what barnett writes next!!
okay, now for spoilers and theories haha
for real, spoilers now.
things i liked:
- the slow building tension. seriously, so good. i just HAD to keep reading. what's out there? who knowssssss
- the monster showing up as shimmers out of the corner of your eye, swooping in to attack and swooping out again without anyone really SEEING anything. then boom, someone's dead. apparently i'm morbid and like a high body count.
- the sense of dread but also resolve. in both times, the characters have accepted they'll probably never get out of the wood, and so are driven by curiosity. it was a nice balance. especially with the present day group, or at least with alice. a lot of the veteran soldiers were already resigned to the fact that they might die at any moment on a battlefield. but alice especially spent most of her life trying to get to moresby wood. she wasn't seeing beyond because the wood was her end/life goal.
- i also got the sense that curious people were rewarded by the wood. the grumbly or injured ones were picked off first, and the ones who wanted to push ahead had more discoveries. especially (to me at least) alice, davies, and harper. those three were more in tune with the forest and letting it guide them where it would. so i was most interested in their povs when they came up.
- it vaguely reminded me of other books...obv the present day expedition of all women who are convinced they're more prepared this time (LOL) made me think of annihilation. davies also reminded me of a character i liked in another book i think, but i can't quite remember who it was. just that he felt familiar. and the feeling that the wood was leading them somewhere in both (all??) times, slowly spiraling to the middle like circling a drain...that reminded me of the clock arena in the second hunger games. also in the sense that once you figure out how things work, it's easier to navigate. like when harper and alice figured out the "second wood" (i think that's what they called it), things made more sense to them. the cave part at the end reminded me of walking to aldebaran by tchaikovsky, which is an excellently creepy story worth a read. even though it's very "wtf?!?!" at least you get an ending. so the cave part was extra creepy to me bc it reminded me of that!
- most, if not all of the characters were unlikable. i know that's a negative for a lot of readers, but it just felt realistic to me. both timelines fall asleep next to the giant oak tree and it's gone when they wake up. being scared, grumpy, lashing out at people, wanting to just go home...those are natural reactions. or, they feel like they would be, if this actually happened haha
- time folding?!?! hell yes. yes please.
theories i had while reading:
- both harper and alice (and maybe davies, but i'm not sure) all had thoughts in the woods that felt uncharacteristic. and commented how they weren't sure where the thought had come from. i thought/hoped it would be the wood either somehow reading their minds, or placing thoughts in their heads. i was thinking of that even more whenever the present day group encountered something they'd read/heard in their research, and they wondered if they were really seeing something as it was or if they were just seeing what they expected to see. i'm still not sure this WASN'T the wood messing with their minds, though it's not confirmed on page. unless i missed it.
- i loved how the wood was leading the groups where it wanted. certain paths would appear, or obstructions would block their current route. i wasn't sure if the wood was just messing with them, or specifically leading, or both, or it switched. but the wood had a PLAN and i wanted to know what it was. i was kind of hoping it would lead them to answers, but i figured it'd just lead to the corrigal.
- at the end, when harper mentioned how he lost track of davies and that davies had "ascended"...i'm not sure about that. but i think we're supposed to assume that's what happens to harper and alice at the end as well. people who have come to the end of their lives and accepted it, and are ready to move on/die/into the next life/whatever you believe. i thought the word "ascended" was used to be purposely vague and ambiguous. it did annoy me that we followed davies through all that and his "ending" happened off page. sigh.
- i was pissed nothing was in the cave, but maybe that was the point. maybe there's nothing in there to confront except yourself. your life, your choices, and everything that led you there to those woods in that moment. and people who look back on their lives and are at peace with their choices can ascend. because the monsters in our head are often much more frightening than the ones that will rip and tear at our flesh. again, maybe that's me just reading into it too much. but barnett doesn't give us a ton to go on, so (like i said at the beginning) i think each reader just has to draw their own conclusions. that would explain why the moresby kids(?) were still out there after all those years, and had no plans to go to the cave. they weren't ready to face the reality of their world or their lives. they couldn't move on or accept what happened to their family, and they were shortsighted and focused on their tragedies. they had no drive to explore, no curiosity. and so, they were trapped. they lingered in the wood because they had no other option but to be stagnant because they refused or weren't ready to move forward. again, just my interpretation. i could be entirely wrong. i'm not religious, so if there was any imagery that supported it, i missed it (except all the god/devil stuff in the past with the soldiers).
- at one point, i really thought alice had killed her supervisor person (can't find the name). kind of disappointed she didn't lol
things i disliked:
-nuria for fuck's sake with the six weeks before her thesis!! so repetitive. but, going with my last theories above, it makes sense she would be the one to get out. she was most firmly rooted in the present and her life outside. her drive the whole time was to escape. and she would've done so earlier, probably, if she was more of an assertive personality. which is realistic. but also incredibly annoying.
- helly (injured), sue (rude), and kim (??) were largely interchangeable. when they come across a pink jacket, i couldn't remember who it was. kim? she seemed to try the hardest at being a bit optimistic, so i'd place her in a pink jacket. anyway, i didn't care about any of them.
- going into a forest with a monster of myth wearing NEON jackets is...a choice. just saying.
- what was nuria even studying?! why was she there?! she knew all the mythology/stories/local legend, and i couldn't figure out why hat would be her area of study. as someone with a more passive personality who just went along with whatever all the time, you'd think she would study something with absolute facts. like the actual history of things as opposed to folk tales. i was tricked into thinking she'd be more interesting when she "did a chapter" on the corrigal or whatever. idk, i truly do not care about her academic pursuits.
questions:
- who were the faceless soldiers who ambushed the davies group? creations of the wood? people from even further in the past? it doesn't matter, except i'm interested. i want to know.
- why was the corrigal not eating all her(?) victims? (i think the moresby boy called the corrigal her) was it that she couldn't properly navigate the timeline convergences and sometimes killed with intent to devour, then couldn't make her way back to her prey? i like that the monster wasn't really the scariest thing in there - just another person trying to survive and navigate their world. but i just don't understand how she was going about it.
i think i might come back and add more to this review later, because i definitely have more questions and more to say. this is a book that i keep thinking about, trying to figure out what was going on after the fact. right now it's sitting at a 3.5, but i'll update if i change that.
okay first...who decided proper review format started with a synopsis? creepy woods throughout history. also, now that i noticed, i can't get it out of my head. but check out how many reviews describe the two groups we follow in the book as "the soldiers" and "the women". one group is all men, one all women. one soldiers, the other academics. why not past soldiers, present day academics? men in the past, women in the present? anyway. just an observation. draw your own conclusions. i saw another review that said (and i'm obv paraphrasing) that the pov shifts are easier if you think of it as having three characters: the men in the past, the women in the present, and the wood. which is really good advice!
without spoilers for now, this was a really slow-paced story that built tension right up until the disappointing ending. it's not open ended necessarily, more that the book just kind of...stops. like if someone who's telling you a story suddenly gets a phone call and then leaves. and i usually LIKE open ended endings, which is mostly why i'm mentioning it. this feels either like the barnett wasn't sure how to end the story, or thought just leaving everything somewhat ambiguous would be creepier. i always think of the ones we're meant to find by joan he when i think of good open endings. again, without spoiling anything, there's a decision to be made at the end. but i think if you've been paying attention to the narrative and have a good feel for who the characters essentially are as people, you can guess what decision is made. again though, this book just sort of stops. i have some guesses, but that'll be spoilery.
that's probably all i can/should say without spoilers?? just know going in that it's slow paced and things don't wrap up neatly at the end. BUT it read really fast for me because i HAD to know what was going on! i read 80 pages one afternoon, then the rest of it the next day. the woods are excellently creepy, and i think the best part is that it's all fenced in and padlocked which you learn really early on. so the soldiers sort of wandered in out of necessity, but the scholars had to get permission and funding and keys and approval to get in. so their pov is extra creepy bc nothing/no one else could've wandered in with them. i definitely want to see what barnett writes next!!
okay, now for spoilers and theories haha
for real, spoilers now.
things i liked:
- the slow building tension. seriously, so good. i just HAD to keep reading. what's out there? who knowssssss
- the monster showing up as shimmers out of the corner of your eye, swooping in to attack and swooping out again without anyone really SEEING anything. then boom, someone's dead. apparently i'm morbid and like a high body count.
- the sense of dread but also resolve. in both times, the characters have accepted they'll probably never get out of the wood, and so are driven by curiosity. it was a nice balance. especially with the present day group, or at least with alice. a lot of the veteran soldiers were already resigned to the fact that they might die at any moment on a battlefield. but alice especially spent most of her life trying to get to moresby wood. she wasn't seeing beyond because the wood was her end/life goal.
- i also got the sense that curious people were rewarded by the wood. the grumbly or injured ones were picked off first, and the ones who wanted to push ahead had more discoveries. especially (to me at least) alice, davies, and harper. those three were more in tune with the forest and letting it guide them where it would. so i was most interested in their povs when they came up.
- it vaguely reminded me of other books...obv the present day expedition of all women who are convinced they're more prepared this time (LOL) made me think of annihilation. davies also reminded me of a character i liked in another book i think, but i can't quite remember who it was. just that he felt familiar. and the feeling that the wood was leading them somewhere in both (all??) times, slowly spiraling to the middle like circling a drain...that reminded me of the clock arena in the second hunger games. also in the sense that once you figure out how things work, it's easier to navigate. like when harper and alice figured out the "second wood" (i think that's what they called it), things made more sense to them. the cave part at the end reminded me of walking to aldebaran by tchaikovsky, which is an excellently creepy story worth a read. even though it's very "wtf?!?!" at least you get an ending. so the cave part was extra creepy to me bc it reminded me of that!
- most, if not all of the characters were unlikable. i know that's a negative for a lot of readers, but it just felt realistic to me. both timelines fall asleep next to the giant oak tree and it's gone when they wake up. being scared, grumpy, lashing out at people, wanting to just go home...those are natural reactions. or, they feel like they would be, if this actually happened haha
- time folding?!?! hell yes. yes please.
theories i had while reading:
- both harper and alice (and maybe davies, but i'm not sure) all had thoughts in the woods that felt uncharacteristic. and commented how they weren't sure where the thought had come from. i thought/hoped it would be the wood either somehow reading their minds, or placing thoughts in their heads. i was thinking of that even more whenever the present day group encountered something they'd read/heard in their research, and they wondered if they were really seeing something as it was or if they were just seeing what they expected to see. i'm still not sure this WASN'T the wood messing with their minds, though it's not confirmed on page. unless i missed it.
- i loved how the wood was leading the groups where it wanted. certain paths would appear, or obstructions would block their current route. i wasn't sure if the wood was just messing with them, or specifically leading, or both, or it switched. but the wood had a PLAN and i wanted to know what it was. i was kind of hoping it would lead them to answers, but i figured it'd just lead to the corrigal.
- at the end, when harper mentioned how he lost track of davies and that davies had "ascended"...i'm not sure about that. but i think we're supposed to assume that's what happens to harper and alice at the end as well. people who have come to the end of their lives and accepted it, and are ready to move on/die/into the next life/whatever you believe. i thought the word "ascended" was used to be purposely vague and ambiguous. it did annoy me that we followed davies through all that and his "ending" happened off page. sigh.
- i was pissed nothing was in the cave, but maybe that was the point. maybe there's nothing in there to confront except yourself. your life, your choices, and everything that led you there to those woods in that moment. and people who look back on their lives and are at peace with their choices can ascend. because the monsters in our head are often much more frightening than the ones that will rip and tear at our flesh. again, maybe that's me just reading into it too much. but barnett doesn't give us a ton to go on, so (like i said at the beginning) i think each reader just has to draw their own conclusions. that would explain why the moresby kids(?) were still out there after all those years, and had no plans to go to the cave. they weren't ready to face the reality of their world or their lives. they couldn't move on or accept what happened to their family, and they were shortsighted and focused on their tragedies. they had no drive to explore, no curiosity. and so, they were trapped. they lingered in the wood because they had no other option but to be stagnant because they refused or weren't ready to move forward. again, just my interpretation. i could be entirely wrong. i'm not religious, so if there was any imagery that supported it, i missed it (except all the god/devil stuff in the past with the soldiers).
- at one point, i really thought alice had killed her supervisor person (can't find the name). kind of disappointed she didn't lol
things i disliked:
-nuria for fuck's sake with the six weeks before her thesis!! so repetitive. but, going with my last theories above, it makes sense she would be the one to get out. she was most firmly rooted in the present and her life outside. her drive the whole time was to escape. and she would've done so earlier, probably, if she was more of an assertive personality. which is realistic. but also incredibly annoying.
- helly (injured), sue (rude), and kim (??) were largely interchangeable. when they come across a pink jacket, i couldn't remember who it was. kim? she seemed to try the hardest at being a bit optimistic, so i'd place her in a pink jacket. anyway, i didn't care about any of them.
- going into a forest with a monster of myth wearing NEON jackets is...a choice. just saying.
- what was nuria even studying?! why was she there?! she knew all the mythology/stories/local legend, and i couldn't figure out why hat would be her area of study. as someone with a more passive personality who just went along with whatever all the time, you'd think she would study something with absolute facts. like the actual history of things as opposed to folk tales. i was tricked into thinking she'd be more interesting when she "did a chapter" on the corrigal or whatever. idk, i truly do not care about her academic pursuits.
questions:
- who were the faceless soldiers who ambushed the davies group? creations of the wood? people from even further in the past? it doesn't matter, except i'm interested. i want to know.
- why was the corrigal not eating all her(?) victims? (i think the moresby boy called the corrigal her) was it that she couldn't properly navigate the timeline convergences and sometimes killed with intent to devour, then couldn't make her way back to her prey? i like that the monster wasn't really the scariest thing in there - just another person trying to survive and navigate their world. but i just don't understand how she was going about it.
i think i might come back and add more to this review later, because i definitely have more questions and more to say. this is a book that i keep thinking about, trying to figure out what was going on after the fact. right now it's sitting at a 3.5, but i'll update if i change that.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Started off interesting enough, even with too many characters to keep straight. The ending left me with more questions than answers, not a fan. Tense but not really scary.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Vomit