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A review by star_sapphire
What Waits in the Woods by Kieran Scott
5.0
4.5 stars!
What Waits in the Woods has been on my list of books I've been dying to get my hands on and read. And I'm so glad to say that this book didn't disappoint!
Told in third person narrative, WWITW follows Callie and her friends: Lissa (the alpha "mean girl"), Penelope (the shy/sweet beauty), and her Jeremy (the boyfriend) on their four day camping trip in a wood. The book was suspenseful and dramatic, well-paced and calculated.
Callie's fear and paranoia of the woods developed after the horror story of "the Skinner", a serial killer who had harmed and skinned innocent campers in the very woods that the four teenagers were camping in. It doesn't help the fact that Callie has a sinking suspicion that someone is following them. Tension, drama, mystery and suspense builds from there as Callie's paranoia develops. Things go awry, and the four teenagers soon find themselves lost in the woods before a mysterious stranger appears and joins them as they venture deeper into the woods.
There's plenty of hints as to who the villain is, carefully masqueraded and lamp-shaded behind red herrings and tension/drama that builds and unfolds between the four characters.
I had assumed that this book was going to be predictable, using red herrings to thwart the readers from who the real villain of the story. But the truth was, the "predictable" cliche/storyline that I had assumed was being developed was the author's other attempts to deceive the readers. (The author even teased and killed the one and only plot-twist-worthy storyline that I've been assuming was being set up right before the villain was revealed. By then, I was amazed that I let myself convince that I let myself get deceived).
It was only when the villain was revealed was I shocked and amazed--surprised that I didn't pick up on it right from the start (and I'm usually one to decipher and figure out plot twists in the first ten percent of the book).
Things I liked:
Bravo, Kieran Scott. What Waits In The Woods was a well paced, fast read that managed to surprise me with how things turned out.
What Waits in the Woods has been on my list of books I've been dying to get my hands on and read. And I'm so glad to say that this book didn't disappoint!
Told in third person narrative, WWITW follows Callie and her friends: Lissa (the alpha "mean girl"), Penelope (the shy/sweet beauty), and her Jeremy (the boyfriend) on their four day camping trip in a wood. The book was suspenseful and dramatic, well-paced and calculated.
Callie's fear and paranoia of the woods developed after the horror story of "the Skinner", a serial killer who had harmed and skinned innocent campers in the very woods that the four teenagers were camping in. It doesn't help the fact that Callie has a sinking suspicion that someone is following them. Tension, drama, mystery and suspense builds from there as Callie's paranoia develops. Things go awry, and the four teenagers soon find themselves lost in the woods before a mysterious stranger appears and joins them as they venture deeper into the woods.
There's plenty of hints as to who the villain is, carefully masqueraded and lamp-shaded behind red herrings and tension/drama that builds and unfolds between the four characters.
I had assumed that this book was going to be predictable, using red herrings to thwart the readers from who the real villain of the story. But the truth was, the "predictable" cliche/storyline that I had assumed was being developed was the author's other attempts to deceive the readers. (The author even teased and killed the one and only plot-twist-worthy storyline that I've been assuming was being set up right before the villain was revealed. By then, I was amazed that I let myself convince that I let myself get deceived).
It was only when the villain was revealed was I shocked and amazed--surprised that I didn't pick up on it right from the start (and I'm usually one to decipher and figure out plot twists in the first ten percent of the book).
Things I liked:
• Refreshing characters (Despite all of them being cliches in the beginning: the "flawlessly selfless/good girl heroine", the "mean girl who puts everyone down", the "sidekick of the mean girl who's nice with no back bone", and the "amazingly sweet boyfriend", they all became really well fleshed out as the story went on. They all got angry, they all had fights, and well, acted like normal teenagers.
• How fast paced and suspenseful it was.
• How the relationship drama between Jeremy and Callie wasn't overplayed in the grand scheme of things. Jeremy wasn't a bad boyfriend, and Callie wasn't a bad girlfriend. They were both in the wrongs at some point during the story, but it's clear that they cared for each other. I'm was surprised at how realistic the two were. (Also, I have a soft spot for nerdy book boyfriends and Jeremy was a nerd. Plain and simple. And I thought the backstory to how the two of them ended up dating was cute!)Spoiler
(considering that it related to the story so much!)
• And I truly enjoyed how the author wasn't afraid to harm/hurt major characters.Spoiler
And that not everybody made it. Considering the dark narratives of the story, it'd be wrong if everybody got out of the woods unharmed and unscathed
Bravo, Kieran Scott. What Waits In The Woods was a well paced, fast read that managed to surprise me with how things turned out.