Thriller Review: What Lies in the Woods

Summary: A twisty, gripping story with a satisfyingly shocking conclusion.

Naomi, Cassidy, and Olivia are childhood friends who survived the unthinkable together. While the girls were in the woods playing out a fantasy of wild magic, Naomi was attacked and barely survived. The girls’ testimony about the stabbing put a wanted serial killer behind bars. This made “[them] heroes. They were also liars.” Twenty-two years later, Olivia wants to reveal their secrets, leading Naomi to try to piece together what really happened for herself.

Out of all of the books I’ve read this year, I felt least prepared to talk about this one. I don’t read a ton of thrillers. I’m unfamiliar with the genre conventions and I wasn’t sure my experience of this one would be representative. After listening to and reading reviews from people who read more thrillers, I realized the obvious – no one’s experience is completely representative! Some people guessed more of the twists than I did and others didn’t see them coming at all.

For me, this book packed a punch from beginning to end. The first chapter was beautifully written. It covers the public story of what happened to the girls, which is shocking enough. It also immediately gave me a sense that there was more to this story, setting a hook that pulled me through the rest of the book, eager to find out more. The characterization was also well done. The three girls all had personalities that became more and more clear throughout the book, without relying on them fitting into stereotyped roles.

I have read enough thrillers to know my enjoyment hinges on there being a twisty reveal I don’t see coming, but that feels consistent with what came before. That seems like a tough trick for an author to pull off! The fact that I’ve found few thrillers that do this in a satisfying way is part of why I’ve not read more. This book managed that for me though, with at least one of its twists feeling surprising, but believable. One small twist I did predict and a final twist felt unearned to me, but the main plot twist worked.

The suspense did rely on an over-used trope that even I’m aware of – a protagonist with a faulty memory. Unlike most of these stories, though, I found Naomi’s disjointed recollection of being stabbed to be a reasonable response to the trauma she went through. I also thought the author did a good job of not putting up artificial barriers to us learning about what happened. We’re in Naomi’s head and when she’s thinking about what happened, I never felt that the author was leaving out something Naomi would have thought about.

As I already mentioned, the big reveal worked for me. I found the ending satisfying all around, with just the right amount of hope for the future to feel realistic given the dark story we emerged from. I’d give another thriller by this author a go.

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