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A review by house_of_hannah
The Dark Between The Trees by Fiona Barnett
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Thank you so much to Rebellion Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC; it is greatly appreciated.
I am always down for any horror that takes place in the woods, and for a majority of the story this book delivered. I truly thought I was going to give this 4 stars...and then the ending happened. There was such an amazing buildup of tension, questions, and madness, just for all of that to take a nosedive at the end. None of the things I was looking forward to discovering were answered. Nothing that I was interested in mattered.
Be aware going into this that it's a slow moving story. This is written in a dual timeline with alternating chapters. Both groups of people experience the same things, which attributes to the slow feeling, and for some might seem quite repetitive. However, the story really hooked me in, and I needed to know what was going on. (Although that doesn't really get answered in the end)
One thing I ended up having an issue with was telling the women apart. They are only a group of five, but I could only ever differentiate Nuria and Alice. Kim, Sue, and Helly just ended up seeming like the same character to me. I didn't have this issue with the group of soldiers, and there were a lot more of them in their group. I don't believe I've encountered this before, and I am not sure why.
The writing is ok here. I found several words being repeated quite a bit. Not enough to be distracting, but enough for me to notice it. We spend a lot of time in the character's heads, and I think the author did a good job at showing the buildup of fear among the groups, which is one of my favorite aspects of the story. Their fear is quite tangible.
Overall I enjoyed the ride, but the destination was far too abrupt for me. I'm curious though to see what this author writes next.
I am always down for any horror that takes place in the woods, and for a majority of the story this book delivered. I truly thought I was going to give this 4 stars...and then the ending happened. There was such an amazing buildup of tension, questions, and madness, just for all of that to take a nosedive at the end. None of the things I was looking forward to discovering were answered. Nothing that I was interested in mattered.
Be aware going into this that it's a slow moving story. This is written in a dual timeline with alternating chapters. Both groups of people experience the same things, which attributes to the slow feeling, and for some might seem quite repetitive. However, the story really hooked me in, and I needed to know what was going on. (Although that doesn't really get answered in the end)
One thing I ended up having an issue with was telling the women apart. They are only a group of five, but I could only ever differentiate Nuria and Alice. Kim, Sue, and Helly just ended up seeming like the same character to me. I didn't have this issue with the group of soldiers, and there were a lot more of them in their group. I don't believe I've encountered this before, and I am not sure why.
The writing is ok here. I found several words being repeated quite a bit. Not enough to be distracting, but enough for me to notice it. We spend a lot of time in the character's heads, and I think the author did a good job at showing the buildup of fear among the groups, which is one of my favorite aspects of the story. Their fear is quite tangible.
Overall I enjoyed the ride, but the destination was far too abrupt for me. I'm curious though to see what this author writes next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Animal death, Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Vomit and Religious bigotry
Minor: Child death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol