Review: What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould

What the Woods Took

by Courtney Gould

Release Date: December 10, 2024

2024 Wednesday Books

Ebook ARC; 336 Pages

ISBN: 978-1250340672

ASIN: B0CQHL4YGV

Audiobook: B0CR6R77TJ

Genre: Fiction / YA / Thriller / Horror

Source: Review copy from publisher

3.5 / 5 Stars

Summary

Devin Green wakes in the middle of the night to find two men in her bedroom. No stranger to a fight, she calls to her foster parents for help, but it soon becomes clear this is a planned abduction—one everyone but Devin signed up for. She’s shoved in a van and driven deep into the Idaho woods, where she’s dropped off with a cohort of equally confused teens. Finally, two camp counselors inform them that they've all been enrolled in an experimental therapy program. If the campers can learn to change their self-destructive ways—and survive a fifty-days hike through the wilderness—they’ll come out the other side as better versions of themselves. Or so the counselors say.

 

My Thoughts

What the Woods Took was a wild ride, a book about loyalty, friendship, self-discovery, survival, and dealing with personal issues, but a horror novel? Not really.  I thought the author did a great job at describing the scenes in the wilderness and the difficulties of surviving when left alone as well as the trauma with which these teens were dealing. There were a lot of sensitive topics that were discussed and they were dealt with sensitivity and care. However well done the character development and growth though, I did think the actual horror element wasn't quite as developed.

 

First, the characters. Sheridan was actually my favourite character and I thought her development arc was the strongest of all of them. She grew from this petulant, angry person to someone who cared deeply about others and who was willing to look within herself and understand why she was behaving the way she was. The other characters had similar growth and honestly, I was impressed with the character development. I was personally invested in all their journeys and looked forward to learning more about their lives. I will admit to some frustration as I didn't learn as much as I would have liked about Ollie's relationship with his father or about Aidan's relationship with his mother and why exactly why the two of them were there.  When I discussed this book with a couple of friends who had read it, I was amazed at who we all connected with as everyone thought a different character had better character development. This just shows the scope of the author's skill that she can reach different people with her book.

 

I did enjoy the story and wondered what would happen to the teens when they were left stranded. Honestly, getting lost in forest settings comes second to haunted houses for me in the horror genre as there is so much possibility for awful things to happen. And while we have some monsters, I don't think the author took the story far enough as there was a lot of focus on personal growth and trauma over the monster story line.  Things could have been so much worse, but somehow they were able to read maps, get food, etc... and survive quite well.  This coming from a bunch of teens who have barely set foot in a wilderness setting, well, as someone who has trekked a lot of wilderness, this doesn't come off that well. The author did try to show the teens were out of their league in one sense, but in the other they were splitting up and finding each other, no problem, in dense forest, with little experience. Um, no.

Verdict

What the Woods Took did surprise me with its insightful treatment of trauma and the growth of the characters what really fascinating. I truly appreciated the author's way of handling a lot of the situations that arose and thought they were done very well. I didn't think the horror element of the book was that strong, and I certainly didn't believe that five teens who had no experience with backpacking through rough terrain would survive the way they did in this book. Too many liberties with survival skills that are not learned that easily, from someone who has backpacked many wilderness areas.  I will definitely read another book by this author as I enjoyed the writing style and liked the overall story.