Melissa (Trying to Catch Up)'s Reviews > What Lies in the Woods

3.5 stars

This is Marshall's debut adult thriller, and while I liked it, I didn't love it. There are some surprises, but I did find it a bit predictable and the explanations for everything were a bit too OTT for me to completely buy into.

Naomi and her two childhood best friends Cass and Liv, created "The Goddess Game" in the woods one summer when they were eleven. Naomi was attacked and stabbed 17 times, she survived and the girls all identified Allan Michael Stahl as the attacker. He was a suspected serial killer so it was a relief when he was put behind bars. Now, twenty-two years later, Naomi receives word that Stahl has died from cancer, and she goes back to her hometown to talk to her friends who still live there and maybe confront the secrets they have been keeping from everyone.

One of the problems I had with this book were the large number of characters and none of them were very well defined. At one point a name was mentioned and I struggled to remember who he was in the scope of the story. There are a few good surprises that I didn't see coming, and everything was thoroughly explained in the end so that's always a positive for me. Yet like I said above, there are some OTT things that left me alternately rolling my eyes and wondering in bafflement how, small town or not, things could be so well covered up and hidden.

The storytelling was a little uneven, long periods of time would go with nothing happening and then bam! everythinghappensallatonce It is a decent mystery/thriller novel, just not one that will be super memorable for me. I know many others have liked it more than I did, so check out their reviews. I listened to the audiobook and Karissa Vacker and her whispering aren't a good match for me, but she does the story justice.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.