A review by bitterlyenthusiastic_books
The Dark Between The Trees by Fiona Barnett

3.0

The Dark Between the Trees sets itself up to be a moody blend of gothic horror and slow-burn mystery, and to its credit, the atmosphere mostly delivers. Moresby Wood, with its shifting geography, disappearing trees, and eerie silence, has all the bones of a compelling, haunted setting. Unfortunately, the novel never quite commits to what kind of story it wants to tell. It flirts with horror, dabbles in science fiction, and hints at psychological depth—but ultimately seems hesitant to lean fully into any of these. It’s a little like wandering through a foggy forest: evocative at first, but eventually disorienting and, in this case, oddly uneventful.

The dual timeline structure—one thread following a group of 17th-century soldiers fleeing into the woods, the other a present-day academic expedition retracing their path—should have been a strength. But both timelines suffer from the same problem: a lot of wandering, very little payoff. The monster? Barely glimpsed. The witch? Mostly rumor. And the forest, while described with creepy flair, becomes more of a narrative loop than a location with real stakes. There’s an entire chapter dedicated to someone finding a shed. That should tell you a lot.

Still, I’m not mad I read it. I love a weird forest, and I appreciate the ambition behind the book’s blurred lines between time, myth, and memory. I just found myself wishing it had chosen a lane—or at least picked up the pace a bit. There are hints of something sharp and unsettling buried in the underbrush of The Dark Between the Trees, but much like its characters, the book seems content to wander without ever truly arriving.