Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould

6 reviews

cleot's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror and Religious bigotry

Wilderness therapy,

past foster abuse, past csa, doppelganger horror, doppelgangers take form of people most likely to cause psychological torture, intentional triggering

horrorandscience's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Devin Green is a foster child in Portland, Oregon. One night, she's taken from her foster parents' home and placed in the care of REVIVE, a troubled teen wilderness therapy group. She tries several times to run, but knows she has no other option. She meets Ollie on the way there, and Aidan, Hannah, and Sheridan at the woods. Coaches Ethan and Liv are supposed to be their guardians for this 50 day long expedition, but only a few days in, they both go missing. Strange things happen while the kids try to navigate the woods using their limited skills, and eventually Coach Liv reappears... but something is wrong, very wrong.

I requested this book from NetGalley originally because I thought it would be a fun thriller with some mental health elements intertwined. I was highly surprised when there were creatures and monsters in the forest. And I was hooked. The novel was very easy to read, and although there were several characters who shared the spotlight, it was easy to tell them apart and get into their own personal stories. They all came from different backgrounds, and showed that no matter where you come from, life can be horrible for a young adult with mental illness.

I'm not usually a big fan of YA novels, but the characters were older in this book, and I was able to connect with them pretty well. They did things teenagers would do, and I think having the coaches disappear mid-book helped solidify that.

The troubled teen industry is a very real thing, and I've heard so many horror stories that don't involve monsters. Courtney Gould was able to construct a novel on a real topic that provided a spotlight to these horrible wilderness programs, while also delving into the issues involving teen mental health.

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse and Suicide

sonyagale's review

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book may be a little triggering for some, but it was absolutely fantastic and very well worth reading about the hard topics covered. It didn’t exactly go into much detail but there is a lot of mention of abuse, drug use, etc. that has a lot to do with the main plot of the book. That doesn’t give away anything by the way, just wanted to mention it!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

bookeduntil's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

skye_era_books's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was fucked up in the best way. It kept me intrigued the entire time, I literally could not stop listening. All I knew about this book before reading was that it was about a wilderness therapy program, which is already horrifying, but add in

mimics in the woods?

fucking terrifying and one of my worst nightmares. But I loved seeing how the characters ended up coming together, to the point that it almost felt like a coming of age story. In a way, it was beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Suicide attempt

seriouslynerdy's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I was able to read this before release thanks to NetGalley!  

 

I want to start off by saying I LOVED this book, it was right up my ally with horror/ psychological thriller vibes. This is a YA based book if you read this book and think these kids act immature or it’s juveniles themes (it’s a ya book of course its going to have juvenile themes) but the YA aspect does not take away the horror of this book for me it made it more intense thinking of 13-17 year old taken away to stay in the woods for 50 days is terrifying in itself and what lies beyond as they continue their journey just add to the horror. 

 

This book is going to be in my top 5 reads of 2024 and I cannot wait for it to be released to re-read it it’s a physical book and annotate it and go back finding hidden horrors that I missed while hyper-focused of these kids survival. I could not read this book at night because living near the woods I was freaked out so this was strictly read during daylight hours, if you can read horror books at night then sleep soundly I am also scared of you. 

 

 

This is a slow paced book about 5 teenagers Devin, Aiden, Hannah, Sheridan and Ollie  who all only have one thing in common they were all sent to stay in the woods for 50 days under the the supervision of two leaders who are going to “change” the teenagers before they leave the woods. Things don’t go as planned but everyone who leaves the woods is changed forever, maybe for the better or maybe for the worst. This book showcase every bump you're scared of in the night, every shadow in the woods that have a face but you shake it off because that’s absurd, every fear you’ve kept buried because you're not scared to admit the truth to others but the truth to yourself. 

 

This book is a dual POV between Ollie and Devin. Ollie who is easy to love, easy to like and you want to protect him from the darkness.  Devin is harder to like she’s rough, she’s full of anger, she is the protector not the girl who needs  protecting. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail