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A review by heykellyjensen
The Little Woods by McCormick Templeman
2.0
The longer I think about this one, the more disappointed I am in it. This story is contrived to the point that even when all of the pieces come together at the end, the plot holes and character holes are more gaping.
Ten years ago, Cally's sister and her best friend died after spending the night on the campus of St. Bede's academy (her sister's friend, Laurel, was the daughter of one of the teachers and that gave them free reign to stay there that evening). Now, Cally's decided mid-way through the semester that she's going to attend St. Bede's -- the same out-of-state, private academy where her sister had died -- and she's taking up residence in the dorm where Iris had lived. Iris who just months before "disappeared," and who many believe was killed by Helen, Iris's former/Cally's current roommate.
The story is set against the backdrop of these mysterious woods. They were on fire the night that Cally's sister died and they're where Iris had supposedly disappeared.
So while Cally's at school, she's meeting a whole host of characters. There's the girls who I can't tell apart but who are all pretty shady, then there are the two boys, Jack and Alex. I don't understand why there was ever a need to introduce a love triangle because it didn't amp up tension or suspicion about who committed crimes here at all. Instead, it was distracting and the sex was poorly written, uninteresting, and didn't advance the characters. These relationships were flat and cliche and felt like they were trying way too hard (they weren't even there for shock factor because there's virtually no on-screen time for intimacy). What these romances did seem to do was rouse suspicion of the girls in the story for Cally -- that is, it was an opportunity for her to reconsider whether these girls were good people or bad people, based on whether Jack or Alex had been cheating on her with them/if they were hiding it from her. That was one of the biggest problems in this book: the only way most of these characters are defined is through their relationship to these boys. It didn't make sense why they were the ones she trusted from the start and why she let the one good character fly under her radar. Cally was inconsistent.
Then there's the drug use, which never once felt authentic or real. It felt cliched and honestly,. Likewise, I found the big reveal/potential non-reveal of Iris's back story to be more about shock value than about who she was as a person. It's never clear if what Helen and Noel say happened with her really happened, but either way, it didn't work for me. .
The Little Woods felt like it wanted to do a lot of what Erin Saldin does more successfully in The Girls of No Return: offer up characters whose intentions and back stories are unclear but who are stuck together in a remote place where bad things happen. Except in this story, the whole reason Cally attends St Bede's in the first place is contrived, and that no one questions why she was doing it was bizarre. The dark and haunting elements never coalesced here. Moreover, Cally's voice isn't all that memorable to me; what's sticking out is how much I had to suspend my belief.
While the story had a lot of problematic aspects, I thought the writing itself was nice. The pacing was right, despite the things that didn't work, and I do think there will be readers who will dig this. But I guess my biggest concern is that this is the kind of story that would work well for younger YA readers, yet the "shock" elements and the writing itself -- which at times borders on using really sophisticated language (a product of Cally's education and character, so it's not problematic in and of itself) -- are going to be too mature.
I'm bummed because this had all of the makings for something great, but it instead fell into many of the tropes that make these kinds of stories cliched. It just tried too hard.
Ten years ago, Cally's sister and her best friend died after spending the night on the campus of St. Bede's academy (her sister's friend, Laurel, was the daughter of one of the teachers and that gave them free reign to stay there that evening). Now, Cally's decided mid-way through the semester that she's going to attend St. Bede's -- the same out-of-state, private academy where her sister had died -- and she's taking up residence in the dorm where Iris had lived. Iris who just months before "disappeared," and who many believe was killed by Helen, Iris's former/Cally's current roommate.
The story is set against the backdrop of these mysterious woods. They were on fire the night that Cally's sister died and they're where Iris had supposedly disappeared.
So while Cally's at school, she's meeting a whole host of characters. There's the girls who I can't tell apart but who are all pretty shady, then there are the two boys, Jack and Alex. I don't understand why there was ever a need to introduce a love triangle because it didn't amp up tension or suspicion about who committed crimes here at all. Instead, it was distracting and the sex was poorly written, uninteresting, and didn't advance the characters. These relationships were flat and cliche and felt like they were trying way too hard (they weren't even there for shock factor because there's virtually no on-screen time for intimacy).
Spoiler
There's unnecessary grief sex, too.Then there's the drug use, which never once felt authentic or real. It felt cliched and honestly,
Spoiler
the fact that Asta was tripping when the kids drowned was SUCH A LETDOWN to the entire mystery. It was bad enough that the suspect/murderer was obvious from the beginning, but the reason why it happened was disappointingSpoiler
There's also the whole puzzle box subplot which felt tacked on. It helped out in the big reveal a little but the way it was introduced in the first place was a bit sloppyThe Little Woods felt like it wanted to do a lot of what Erin Saldin does more successfully in The Girls of No Return: offer up characters whose intentions and back stories are unclear but who are stuck together in a remote place where bad things happen. Except in this story, the whole reason Cally attends St Bede's in the first place is contrived, and that no one questions why she was doing it was bizarre. The dark and haunting elements never coalesced here. Moreover, Cally's voice isn't all that memorable to me; what's sticking out is how much I had to suspend my belief.
While the story had a lot of problematic aspects, I thought the writing itself was nice. The pacing was right, despite the things that didn't work, and I do think there will be readers who will dig this. But I guess my biggest concern is that this is the kind of story that would work well for younger YA readers, yet the "shock" elements and the writing itself -- which at times borders on using really sophisticated language (a product of Cally's education and character, so it's not problematic in and of itself) -- are going to be too mature.
I'm bummed because this had all of the makings for something great, but it instead fell into many of the tropes that make these kinds of stories cliched. It just tried too hard.