THE WOODS ARE WAITING

4 stars out of 5

Kind of odd that I kept turning the pages to find out what would happen next, all the while thinking it's silly for grown people to be behaving like the residents of this small, remote town in the middle of a forest do - I mean, really, catering to the demands of a never-seen man-beast who's been killing little kids for hundreds of years? In part, I suppose, I kept plugging away because I'd guessed who the real culprit is early on and wanted to get to the end and see if I nailed it (I did). 

Cheyenne Ashby left her home in Blue Cliff, Virginia, largely because she no longer could buy into the superstitions and strange behaviors of the town's residents - and especially those of her mother, Constance. The murder of three children whose bodies turned up in the woods was pretty much the last straw for her - murders all to similar to a number of others over many years that led to those superstitions and strange behaviors. Cheyenne literally ran out on her best friend, Natalie, and the guy who she'd been planning to spend the rest of her life with, Jackson Campbell.

But now, another young boy has gone missing, feared to be the latest victim of the evil forest creature; Constance has gone off the deep end with her weird behavior, and the sheriff - a close friend of Constance - wants her daughter to come home to get her back on track. Meanwhile, half the townspeople are cowering in fear, forbidding their kids to go into the woods and filling their shoes and pockets with the dirt and coins they believe will hold the evil spirits at bay. The other half are convinced that the man once convicted of killing one of the boys and set free, they claim, on a technicality, is guilty of taking the most recent child - and they're ready to lynch him on sight.

Cheyenne is reluctant, but she heads back; she's not sure how she'll deal with mom, but she reconnects with both Natalie and Jackson in fairly short order. Together, they try to learn what really happened to the missing boy and figure out what secrets the forest holds before more young lives are lost - and maybe even their own. Their efforts and thoughts are laid out in chapters told from the perspectives of Cheyenne and Natalie; some parts drag a bit while others kept me on the edge of my seat. All told, it's entertaining - and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

The Woods are Waiting by Katherine Greene (Crooked Lane Books, July 2023); 288 pp.