Day’s YA: WHAT THE WOODS TOOK

WHAT THE WOODS TOOK by Courtney Gould
9781250340672
12/10/2024
Wednesday Books
Ages 13-18

E-galley available on Edelweiss and NetGalley

Devin Green is what some people might call a “troubled teen.” She gets in fights, talks back, and is bounced from one foster home to another. But her life is upended when she’s taken from her bed one night by two strange men. When she calls out to her foster parents for help, they just watch as the men drag Devin out to a van—a van that will transport her from her home in Portland, OR to the middle of nowhere in Idaho. When she arrives, she finds four other “troubled teens” and two enthusiastic counselors who inform them that they’re all about to embark on a 50 day hike through the woods as part of a wilderness therapy program. 

The group begrudgingly starts their journey, and Devin is determined to find an escape route along the way, even if just to get away from Sheridan, the bully who has been nothing but a thorn in everyone’s side the entire time. When the group wakes up one morning to find that their counselors have disappeared, they’re suddenly stranded and left to fend for themselves in a forest that is getting creepier by the day. Now Devin has to work together with the other teens to find their way out, but the monsters lurking in the trees will do anything to stop that from happening.

This third horror novel from Courtney Gould will check all of the boxes for anyone looking for a story that is both creepy and poignant. The atmosphere in the woods is unsettling—to say the least—especially as the monsters take the shape of the teens’ worst nightmares. And I appreciated Gould shining a light on the very real wilderness therapy programs that are so often harmful to the kids they claim to help. The burgeoning romance between Devin and Sheridan was a much-needed bright spot in the darkness of both the woods and the subject matter. This sinister survival tale will appeal to fans of Yellowjackets and THE LUMINARIES by Susan Dennard, as well as Courtney’s previous books, WHERE ECHOES DIE and THE DEAD AND THE DARK.

“Gould concocts a harrowing story of trauma and metamorphosis with a potent mix of real-world therapeutic abuse, supernatural shape-shifting paranoia, and wilderness survival.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Happy reading!
<3 Emily

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