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A review by woahshereads
These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant
2.5
I didn’t love this book but nor did I hate it. It was SO SLOW up to about the 70% mark for me.
This book started out great. The world building and atmosphere really came through to me and it was easy for me to imagine the world Cooper and Finch lived in. It was captivating right from the beginning and I was hooked trying to figure out who these characters were & what Cooper’s history was. I especially loved the eeriness behind “Scotland”. The entire book, up to the end, I was trying to figure out what this guys deal was & why did he always seem to be spying on this young family & show up at the most random times. Surely, there had to be a purpose for his visits & lack of communication with Cooper.
But then, after the first few chapters I felt the storyline just plateaued. It was steady, nothing was really happening. It was tense at times with Finch seeming to press her dad about the outside world. But beyond what felt like surface level “leave it at that” arguments one can have with an 7/8 year old, I didn’t’t feel like Finch’s curiosity was as apparent as the synopsis made it seem. I felt that the storyline jumping didn’t help the writing progress & it didn’t keep me engaged. I was expecting cliff hanger chapters that would keep me turning the pages but I struggled to keep wanted to pick this book back up.
In the end, the one big terrible thing that Cooper was said to have done to get Finch back was very underwhelming. The entire story you are trying to figure out what it could have been and once I got to that part, I was left wondering “Okay, but what else? That’s it?”. The relationship/romance part of this book felt thrown in there and rushed. I almost wish she wasn’t introduced into the very END of the book.. It just didn’t feel like an Authentic relationship for me. The Christianity undertones I also felt like came out of nowhere? I mean it definitely helped build Scotland’s mysterious character but in the end I guess I just didn’t realize this is what the message of the book was about (& that is on me).
Ultimately, this wasn’t for me. I can see why other are readers are LOVING this book & overall if I did know more about this book going in I probably would have had differente expectations while reading. But, going in blind, I wasn’t thrilled (I also wouldn’t categorize this as a “thriller”).
This book started out great. The world building and atmosphere really came through to me and it was easy for me to imagine the world Cooper and Finch lived in. It was captivating right from the beginning and I was hooked trying to figure out who these characters were & what Cooper’s history was. I especially loved the eeriness behind “Scotland”. The entire book, up to the end, I was trying to figure out what this guys deal was & why did he always seem to be spying on this young family & show up at the most random times. Surely, there had to be a purpose for his visits & lack of communication with Cooper.
But then, after the first few chapters I felt the storyline just plateaued. It was steady, nothing was really happening. It was tense at times with Finch seeming to press her dad about the outside world. But beyond what felt like surface level “leave it at that” arguments one can have with an 7/8 year old, I didn’t’t feel like Finch’s curiosity was as apparent as the synopsis made it seem. I felt that the storyline jumping didn’t help the writing progress & it didn’t keep me engaged. I was expecting cliff hanger chapters that would keep me turning the pages but I struggled to keep wanted to pick this book back up.
In the end, the one big terrible thing that Cooper was said to have done to get Finch back was very underwhelming. The entire story you are trying to figure out what it could have been and once I got to that part, I was left wondering “Okay, but what else? That’s it?”. The relationship/romance part of this book felt thrown in there and rushed. I almost wish she wasn’t introduced into the very END of the book.. It just didn’t feel like an Authentic relationship for me. The Christianity undertones I also felt like came out of nowhere? I mean it definitely helped build Scotland’s mysterious character but in the end I guess I just didn’t realize this is what the message of the book was about (& that is on me).
Ultimately, this wasn’t for me. I can see why other are readers are LOVING this book & overall if I did know more about this book going in I probably would have had differente expectations while reading. But, going in blind, I wasn’t thrilled (I also wouldn’t categorize this as a “thriller”).