Book Review: What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall

 

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Disclaimer

This review contains spoilers. The spoiler portion will be at the end of the review and will be clearly marked  for those who have not read What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall. 

I found the plot to be quite predictable and it just dragged on. 

Rating

⭐️⭐️.5/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review

I went into this book with high expectations because I read These Fleeting Shadows also by Kate Alice Marshall. I really enjoyed that one and gave it 4/5 stars, so I was throughly disappointed by What Lies in the Woods. The book started off quite slow for a suposed "thriller" and I really use the word "thriller" lightly. Nothing about this book was "thrilling." I was bored for pretty much all of the book. The plot twists were predictable. The pacing was also very slow and it felt drawn out. Maybe it's because I consume a lot of true crime content that the plot twists were so predictable for me. 

Overall, What Lies in the Woods was an okay read for me and I didn't really enjoy it. I wouldn't recommend it because there are better thrillers that are worth your time. 

Spoiler portion begins now!!!!!

Stop reading if you haven't read What Lies in the Woods !!!!!

You have been warned!!!!!

Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers! Spoilers!

It was very obvious from Cassidy's first introduction that she was involved with "Persephone" case. The way she was so adamant that Liv and Naomi should leave Persephone in the past, even though them telling the police about it wouldn't have any effect on them because that was 20 years ago. It was also very obvious that Cody was involved, his first encounter with Naomi when she goes back to her hometown is weird. I feel like the more the book progressed, the more it made you realize that Cass was the one who attacked Naomi in the woods. That reminded me of the real life Slenderman case where two girls lured their friend into the woods, one of the girls was the ringleader and tried to manipulate the other girl to stab the victim but she couldn't do it so the ringleader did and stabbed her to death. And they were only like 11-12 years old at the time. Ethan being Stahl's son I didn't see coming and Mr. Green having an affair with "Persephone" aka Jessi.