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A Novel
by Courtney Gould
Yellowjackets meets Girl, Interrupted when a group of troubled teens in a wilderness therapy program find themselves stranded in a forest full of monsters eager to take their place.
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.
Devin is immediately determined to escape. She's also determined to ignore Sheridan, the cruel-mouthed, lavender-haired bully who mocks every group exercise. But there's something strange about these woods―inhuman faces appearing between the trees, visions of people who shouldn't be there flashing in the leaves―and when the campers wake up to find both counselors missing, therapy becomes the least of their problems. Stranded and left to fend for themselves, the teens quickly realize they'll have to trust each other if they want to survive. But what lies in the woods may not be as dangerous as what the campers are hiding from each other―and if the monsters have their way, no one will leave the woods alive.
Atmospheric and sharp, What the Woods Took is a poignant story of transformation that explores the price of becoming someone―or something―new.
"Gould concocts a harrowing story of trauma and metamorphosis.. Depictions of the power of connection and love in the face of hardship ground the otherworldly happenings; the simmering romance between Devin and Sheridan is a standout bright spot." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Gripping plot...Fast paced and atmospheric." —Kirkus Reviews
"A slow-burn supernatural thriller.. creepy and atmospheric." —Booklist
"This is pitch-perfect survival horror with heart, with purpose beyond scares, and it still delivers a hell of a fright. An absolute must-read." —Alison Ames, author of It Looks Like Us
"A spooky, intimately woven page-turner that effortlessly balances complex monster horror with tender character dynamics." —Ryan Douglass, New York Times bestselling author of The Taking of Jake Livingston
"Haunting and cuttingly tender, What The Woods Took has it all: slippery twists, satisfying scares, and a breathless sapphic romance." ―Ann Fraistat, author of What We Harvest and A Place For Vanishing
This information about What the Woods Took was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Courtney Gould writes books about queer girls, ghosts, and things that go bump in the night. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in 2016 with a Bachelor's degree in Creative Writing and Publishing. She was born and raised in Salem, OR, where she continues to write love letters to the haunted girls and rural, empty spaces. She is the author of The Dead and the Dark and What the Woods Took.
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