A review by minslibrary
What Lives in the Woods by Lindsay Currie

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No

1.0

This was boring. Plain and simple. The beginning was fine, but it did not stick the landing, nor anything that happened after the 20-page mark. 

The pacing dragged, the narration was repetitive, and the dialogue was clunky and awkward. The plot was generic and I didn't think it had a very strong foundation. The writing failed to keep the tension up in many of the scenes, which left me feeling underwhelmed even when the plot and action picked up.

Usually, when I read middle-grade, the books tend to be fast-paced because the author knows they have to keep a kid’s attention, but this one was weirdly slow. 

It also didn’t feel polished or fully edited—some of the dialogue felt like place-holder dialogue. In fact, it felt like the dialogue just became progressively worse as the book went on. 

Also (spoilers)

did I miss something or did this book have nothing to do with the woods? Sure, the manor the protagonist's family stayed in was in the woods or by the woods, but the actual woods had nothing to do with the plot. The ghost was tied to the manor, not the woods. So I feel like the title of the book is very misleading (and now I've repeated the word "woods" so many times it ceases to sound like a real word)

In short, this one was a miss.