Review: What Lies in the Woods

Publisher’s Description:
Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.
And they were liars.
For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods—no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.

My Notes:
Kate Alice Marshall blends sharp twists, haunting atmosphere, and unreliable memories into a tight narrative that will have you questioning each character’s version of events while slowly peeling back layers of buried secrets. Liv, Naomi, and Cass. Athena, Artemis, and Hecate. When the man they sent to prison dies, it sets off long-put-off questions, and it starts unraveling just who Persephone is and how she fits into more than just a children’s game.

Location/Setting:
Some bits in Seattle, Washington, with the main body of the story in Chester, a small town in the Olympic Forest.

Diversity:
There is much more economic and cultural diversity than racial or ethnic diversity. There is one Japanese character who is given a bit of the exotic, and her husband is seen differently for having brought an “other” wife into the community. One of the main characters is bisexual, but it is in a few easily missed comments, and she only has boyfriends on the page. All other characters are depicted as cis and hetero.

What genres would this book fit in? Thrillers, Mystery, Horror

From whose point of view is the story told? Naomi Cunningham, one of a group of three best friends since kindergarten, and the one who survived being stabbed seventeen times that day in the woods when she was eleven. The book starts a couple of decades later.

Has this book been banned? It is not on any of the banned lists I have access to.

How are non-white people treated? There is only one explicitly non-white character in the book, and she is treated rather well for a small town not used to outsiders moving in, though some still note the differences.

How are GLBT+ people treated? There is only one explicitly non-cis/hetero character, and though her bisexuality is noted several times, it is not hard to miss.

Is there neurospicy / disabled representation? There are a couple of characters that are depicted with noted mental illness, one of whom is handled pretty well, and one of whom has a very complicated relationship with the narrator.

Scoring:
Plot = 1.0 – I was impressed with how the author kept such a busy plot clear in the telling. The many twists and turns make sense in the moment, and the conclusion is not out of the blue.
Characters = 0.9 – There is a larger cast, but all of the characters have a distinct feeling and voice. Some are more well-developed than others, but I had no trouble keeping track of everyone throughout the story.
Setting = 1.0 – The small town does not have a great deal of description, but it fits the small-town mold well, and all the necessary exposition is there. The woods, however, are almost another character in themselves – descriptions weave in and out with the magic of childhood imagination and with the chill foreboding of a good bit of horror, switching back and forth depending on the point of view and the place in the story.
Pacing = 0.8 – The story starts slowly, then speeds up within a couple of chapters. By the end it is galloping. It would have been a bit smoother if the pace had been more even, but the shift wasn’t enough to throw me out of the story.
Ending = 0.9 – The ending makes sense and is foreshadowed enough to not be too much of a surprise. The earlier twists and turns fit into the final ending in a sensible way. There is a bit of fortuitous timing near the end that stretches credulity a bit, but it didn’t break anything for me. I liked the very last bit and the possibilities it left for several of the characters.
Emotional Impact = 0.9 – At least some emotional elements in the story should resound with a majority of readers. The author does well with catching the magic of children’s games, and with how memory can play tricks on you about trauma and about secrets.
Writing Style = 1.0 – I was impressed with the clarity of each character, the handling of the very busy plotline, and with the simple but lush descriptions. The author has a distinct voice that I enjoyed reading, and that drew me back to the story quickly when I had to put it down for “real life” things.
Themes = 0.8 – Overall I think the themes are well-handled and don’t beat the reader over the head, but a couple of places that got a little more heavy-handed than usual brought this score down a little.
Other Scales = 1.0 – The levels of heat, scare, and violence are appropriate to the story, and the elements flow well with the storyline.
Overall Enjoyment = 1.0 – This is one I’m glad to have read, and really enjoyed. I’m sorry it sat on my TBR so long! I recommend it to readers who enjoy unreliable narrators, creepy woods, small town secrets, hidden identities, and second chances. It won’t work well for folks who are looking for greater diversity, straight plot lines, or clear endings. I am looking forward to re-reading this in a year or so, when the detail will be a bit fuzzy, to see what else I pick up in it.
Total Score = 9.3

Heat:
2.5 out of 5 – There is little explicit detail, but some sexual elements are important to the plot. There is some lightly described sexual tension, with some minimal detail and/or euphemism in descriptions of physical affection or sex. May have some rougher dirty talk.

Scare:
3.5 out of 5 – Has some mild graphic detail in fistfights or in violence with weapons. Has instances of intense verbal conflict. May have some graphic disturbing content that might be a little hard to read at times. If you were to explain the twists in this story to someone who didn’t read thrillers, you’d need to leave quite a bit out.

Violence:
4 out of 5 – Has graphic violence. On page events have some graphic detail. Has multiple instance of described violence. May be unsettling to some.

Grade:
A- – Highly recommended to folks who enjoy this story type. (It’s not a general interest read!) Well done, and highly enjoyable for its category. I will definitely be telling some of my friends that they really need to read this one, and I’m looking forward to discussing it with them.

Tests:
Bechdel = pass – There are a number of conversations between the girls as both children and adults that don’t involve men, as well as several conversations with more minor characters.
Mako Mori = pass – The girls stories are definitely not about supporting a man’s story, although a man’s story does intersect with them.
Deggans = fail – there is only one noted non-white character in the main cast
Vito Russo = pass, sort-of – there is a non-hetero major character, but there is nothing notably non-hetero on page
Babs and Kara = pass – all 3 of the girls/women have sufficiently developed personalities that they could be distinguished within a few sentences if they were to speak from behind screens
Finkbeiner = pass – the main women are depicted in multiple ways separate from their relationships with males or children, although the main reason they are known outside of their community is based on their relationship to one man
Fridge = pass – No woman’s suffering or death is used to initiate or progress a male character’s storyline.
Sexy Lamp = It’s complicated – None of the main woman characters could be replaced by a sexy lamp with a post it note on the shade, but a couple of minor woman characters could.
Ars Marginal = pass, mostly – The single explicitly non-white character is framed to some extent by her differences, but there are major elements of her part of the story that have nothing to do with her ethnicity.
Roxane Gay = pass – There are central woman character(s), with at least one supporting woman character, who does not compromise herself for love, or who doesn’t live extravagantly for no explained reason

About the author:
Kate Alice Marshall is the bestselling author of thrillers and horror for kids and adults. Her middle grade books include the Secrets of Eden Eld trilogy and Extra Normal. In YA, she’s written the survival thriller I Am Still Alive, as well as supernatural suspense including Rules for Vanishing and The Narrow. She made her adult thriller debut with What Lies in the Woods, followed by the USA Today bestseller No One Can Know.
She lives outside Seattle with her family, two very friendly (but not very smart) golden retrievers, and a growing collection of fancy pens.