A review by rknitss
This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer

dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

So this book opens with the discovery of three strangely mutilated bodies. The majority of the book is actually the flashback to the camping/climbing/research trip of the four people (plus one dog)  that went out and never returned. So we don't have a lot of tension as far as "will they survive this" it was just a matter of watching how it all went wrong. Then the book ends with a reiteration of the investigation into the missing persons turned dead bodies and that really killed all the momentum built up by the previous action packed chapters.

It starts out with vibes that reminded me of The Ruins by Scott Smith and for some reason I could not stop comparing the two which wasn't fair, this book is definitely it's own thing. Maybe it was the set up of loosely connected people headed out into a place that the locals fear? The poisonous forest that clearly warns any passerby's to beware? Something did it. 

I was expecting more explanation for why the bodies were found in different states of decay and mutilation which we really don't get. I was hoping for a cohesive haunting which, again, we don't really get. The place is just evil and makes the people who enter act out in unexplainable ways. 

The imagery saved this from being a flat two stars. Jenny Kiefer does an excellent job of describing the forest, the wall, the gore and the fear/confusion the characters felt. I just find I didn't care.
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