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lediamond4 's review for:
The Woods Are Always Watching
by Stephanie Perkins
emotional
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
I sometimes have a hard time reviewing YA books because I’m very obviously not the target audience and I realize that I have to take that into consideration. But I also feel very strongly that YA readers should be taken more seriously and that we don’t have to shrug stuff off and say “well, it is for younger readers.”
The stuff I liked: I thought it was decently atmospheric. In the beginning, I found myself a little bored but in the sense that I was stuck in the woods with Neena and Josie, listening to them chatter. It felt hot and sticky and uncomfortable. I actually love hiking but being in their shoes (ha) I could very much sense that they weren’t exactly the biggest fans. But I understood their want and need to do something like this. One last big adventure before their separation.
I thought that their friendship was pretty well established. It wasn’t over the top mushy or cringy. It was realistic. They clearly cared very much about each other, enjoyed each other’s company, had a lot of good memories together, but there was always an underlying tension. I thought that the tension was built up well over time as they went from genuinely having fun, struggling a little bit, and then becoming fully lost and helpless. I thought their emotions were well balanced.
The stuff I didn’t like: the villains were incredibly underdeveloped. Scary and disturbing, and unfortunately realistic, but just not much meat to them. They’re just there in the woods killing wildly. And then there was the awkward last throw in of abusive, overly religious parents that spanned a few paragraphs. They just didn’t work.
This is where I feel a little mean, but I also think Josie breaking her foot, no, SHATTERING her foot, and then literally getting her hand blown off, and dong everything she did was unrealistic. YES, there’s such a thing as adrenaline and YES I want a strong bad ass female lead, and actually YES I do believe that this might be possible. There’s so many incredible stories of people surviving extraordinary events. But it just went off the rails. Every time she did something I found myself feeling frustrated rather than overwhelmed. And then she and concussed, asthmatic Neena (who, I’m so sorry, took a backseat to Josie in the strong female lead department, like she did stuff but I also just hated how uneven they were) made it all the way back to the car unaided??
The ending was also frustratingly abrupt and I truly disliked it. Overall I just wish that this book wasn’t so over the top and dramatic. It could have been exciting and tense and scary and full of female friendship and feminine power, but it could have also just been a tad bit more realistic.
The stuff I liked: I thought it was decently atmospheric. In the beginning, I found myself a little bored but in the sense that I was stuck in the woods with Neena and Josie, listening to them chatter. It felt hot and sticky and uncomfortable. I actually love hiking but being in their shoes (ha) I could very much sense that they weren’t exactly the biggest fans. But I understood their want and need to do something like this. One last big adventure before their separation.
I thought that their friendship was pretty well established. It wasn’t over the top mushy or cringy. It was realistic. They clearly cared very much about each other, enjoyed each other’s company, had a lot of good memories together, but there was always an underlying tension. I thought that the tension was built up well over time as they went from genuinely having fun, struggling a little bit, and then becoming fully lost and helpless. I thought their emotions were well balanced.
The stuff I didn’t like: the villains were incredibly underdeveloped. Scary and disturbing, and unfortunately realistic, but just not much meat to them. They’re just there in the woods killing wildly. And then there was the awkward last throw in of abusive, overly religious parents that spanned a few paragraphs. They just didn’t work.
This is where I feel a little mean, but I also think Josie breaking her foot, no, SHATTERING her foot, and then literally getting her hand blown off, and dong everything she did was unrealistic. YES, there’s such a thing as adrenaline and YES I want a strong bad ass female lead, and actually YES I do believe that this might be possible. There’s so many incredible stories of people surviving extraordinary events. But it just went off the rails. Every time she did something I found myself feeling frustrated rather than overwhelmed. And then she and concussed, asthmatic Neena (who, I’m so sorry, took a backseat to Josie in the strong female lead department, like she did stuff but I also just hated how uneven they were) made it all the way back to the car unaided??
The ending was also frustratingly abrupt and I truly disliked it. Overall I just wish that this book wasn’t so over the top and dramatic. It could have been exciting and tense and scary and full of female friendship and feminine power, but it could have also just been a tad bit more realistic.