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ravensandpages 's review for:
The Woods Are Always Watching
by Stephanie Perkins
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
ARC received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Penguin Teen!
Josie and Neena have been thick as thieves all throughout high school, but their impending separation looms on the horizon. While Josie is staying local in North Carolina for college and living at home, Neena is about to move two thousand miles away to go to school in California. To have one last trip together, Neena and Josie decide to go on a three-day hike in Pisgah National Forest. They have new equipment, charged phones, printed trail maps, a solid bear canister, and each other: what could possibly go wrong?
While the answer is "a lot," the build to it is a tense crawl. Tension creeps into the story as the girls get deeper into the forest, hiking slowly upward and getting more tired and argumentative by the day. When things go wrong, it is a steep, quick descent. When this book got going, it didn't stop until the gruesome end! I will warn readers of this review that this book is a YA about some foolish high school girls, so going in with lowered expectations regarding their behavior will definitely ameliorate your reading experience.
While I had some struggles with this book like later odd backstory flashbacks from supernatural touch (?), the fun whiplash from a tense medium-paced first 50% to a whirlwind final 50% that I finished in literally one hour, I quite enjoyed this book!
trigger warnings: broken bones (external), detailed on-page injury, car accident (mentioned, fatal, some detail), death of a parent, parental neglect, flashing, sexual assault, lost limb, necrophilia (mentioned, threatened), rape (mentioned, threatened), parental abuse, child sexual assault (mentioned)
❧ 3.5 ★
Josie and Neena have been thick as thieves all throughout high school, but their impending separation looms on the horizon. While Josie is staying local in North Carolina for college and living at home, Neena is about to move two thousand miles away to go to school in California. To have one last trip together, Neena and Josie decide to go on a three-day hike in Pisgah National Forest. They have new equipment, charged phones, printed trail maps, a solid bear canister, and each other: what could possibly go wrong?
While the answer is "a lot," the build to it is a tense crawl. Tension creeps into the story as the girls get deeper into the forest, hiking slowly upward and getting more tired and argumentative by the day. When things go wrong, it is a steep, quick descent. When this book got going, it didn't stop until the gruesome end! I will warn readers of this review that this book is a YA about some foolish high school girls, so going in with lowered expectations regarding their behavior will definitely ameliorate your reading experience.
While I had some struggles with this book like later odd backstory flashbacks from supernatural touch (?), the fun whiplash from a tense medium-paced first 50% to a whirlwind final 50% that I finished in literally one hour, I quite enjoyed this book!
trigger warnings: broken bones (external), detailed on-page injury, car accident (mentioned, fatal, some detail), death of a parent, parental neglect, flashing, sexual assault, lost limb, necrophilia (mentioned, threatened), rape (mentioned, threatened), parental abuse, child sexual assault (mentioned)
❧ 3.5 ★