In Before Familiar Woods, Ian Pisarcik uses lovely, dense description to conjure a community struggling with drug use, the aftermath of the wars in the Middle East, dementia, prejudice, and two families ruined by an old crime. This may sound bleak but the novel isn’t without hope and its characters - a mother grieving the son she lost even before he died, a veteran trying to readjust to civilian life - will win you over with their authenticity and brave hearts.

BEFORE FAMILIAR WOODS by Ian Pisarcik
This book is a bit different from most I read. It’s not a thriller but definitely will keep you on edge at times. It’s a mystery for sure as you will want to know what happened. You’ll want to know where the two husbands who are not really friends are. They were together and you’ll want to know why. It’s somewhat of a sad story in many ways. It’s about what drugs will do to a person. Things they never imagined they would ever do. I felt bad for some of the characters in this story but hated some also. Though you can’t really blame another person if someone you love gets hooked on drugs you can get angry that they would take advantage of someone or get a kid hooked. Some things are just wrong no matter what. I’ve seen up close and personal what drugs do to good people. I’ve lost family members to drugs and it makes you so angry. This country does have a huge problem with drugs and it can only blame itself. The big drug companies get things started then the person has to turn to something they can afford. They feel helpless and hopeless. It’s truly sad what drugs does to people. What they will cause you to do just to get that high.
This book hits hard on drugs. It is also about two families who lost their only children to a crazy camping trip and supposed drug use. Also a mother who abandons her child to run away with someone so she can get drugs. A man back from Iraq who loves his son and wants what is best for him. A mother who blames herself. Another mother who tries praying to get her through the loss of her son. Two dads who have to live with choices.
This book is told in two stories. One is Ruth Fenn telling a story of love and loss. Of looking into herself to try and fix things. She wants to find her husband before something happens to him. The loss her her teenagers son. She is a hard woman now but loves children and helps people also. She’s a kind woman in many ways but will not be messed with about some things. I loved her. Then we have Milk’s story. He has a son also. A nine year old son who he is trying to raise since his return from Iraq. He’s alone. His wife and the mother of his son left. But she returned and will try anything to get Daniel back. Even though it’s the worse place he could ever be. Ruth and Milk become friends via a social worker who recommended Ruth to Milk as someone who would help him out with his son so he could find a job.
As this story progresses you will wonder what happened to the men. What happened to the boys who were found dead in a tent. Were they murdered or was it a night of doing drugs gone horrible wrong. That one you’ll have to read and figure out for yourself. One father in this story I loved. One I totally detested. In that I mean the father’s of the dead boys.
This is a good story to help you understand what drugs do to people. To people who are good until they get involved with that drug for the first time. How they change and how it changes a family is horrible. But it’s reality unfortunately.
I felt so many conflicting emotions reading this book but it is what it is. It’s the raw truth as to what happens in towns where no one seems to care that drugs are taking over. Where the law turns a blind eye to things and blames an innocent person totally for something that he may or may not have done.
I have to thank #NetGalley #Ian Pisarcik and #Crooked Lane Books for the eARC of this book.
I gave it 5 stars for the lesson I hope can be learned from reading it and I believe the author did a fantastic job of bringing this story to life. It felt real. From the cold to the addicts to the deaths. It felt like I was seeing these things as they unfolded. To me that is what a good book is suppose to do. I give this a high recommendation.

I loved the author’s beautiful, atmospheric writing style. I felt myself part of this Small Vermont town. The characters are remarkable and will stay with me for a while.
Many thanks to a Crooked Lane Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I still can't believe this is a debut novel. It was so well done. The writing style was wonderful and the story line was perfectly executed. The suspense and speed of this story was absolutely perfect.
I really hope to read more from this author.

I finished BEFORE FAMILIAR WOODS yesterday and I think a lot of readers are going to dig it.

Set in Vermont, I was immediately snared by the authors descriptive ability AND his MC Ruth Fenn. She is a strong woman that takes no shit and loves fiercely. Part mystery, part thriller, I thought the book moved well and I enjoyed the reader discovery. There are a couple of story lines at play here and by the time they smash violently together at the end, there was no way I could put this down until I finished. The ending of the book is unique...it ends and then there’s a bit more. I can’t say too much bc I don’t want to spoil anything, but I rather liked it and I can’t wait to see what others think.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book.
It's hard to believe this was the author's first novel. This book is a new favorite. Such a heart-breaking, noir tale full of emotion. You feel so much of what the characters are going through. I hope to read more by this wonderful new author. Reminds me a lot of David Joy, Ron Rash, William Gay.

This is a fantastic book of mysteries. It's dark and foreboding. The story runs smoothly, but secrets of this dark thriller are revealed slowly, leaving you on the edge of your seat holding your breath! The relationship between Ruth and Della is captivating and slowly reveals the secrets of their history. This is a great book for reading on a cold, stormy afternoon!

A top thriller that has you turning left and right. The characters don't quite reveal themselves, they keep dark secrets that slowly reveal themselves in this fast paced thriller that is hard to put down.

Before Familiar Woods isn't a familiar thriller. It's raw and dark. A town full of secrets that keep you guessing. A rare thriller in the sense that it actually shocks you each chapter.

Raw, gritty and dark with glimmers of light. While I found this novel to be easily readable, I felt the two disparate plot lines took too long to become clear why they were intertwined.

This has to be one of the top thrillers I've read as of late. There's a town with secrets and those that will do anything to protect them, while others are terrified. Boys are killed, then their fathers go missing. This is one hell of a thriller for 2020.

Thank You for the opportunity to read and review this book. This was a new author for me but the book was great and had an easy to follow along story and great characters. I highly recommend this book.

Living in a rural area myself, I could relate to the feel.of this book. The impoverished, struggling rural community. It had a dark feel to it, with realistic characters. It rang true to life, but almost too true. It was gritty, it was real, it was dark.

This was a very well written, interesting story. It just wasn't my personal taste.

I do want to thank the publisher and net galley for the ARC which did not impact my review. And it's always nice to read something outside of my usual wheelhouse.

This is a first time read from author Ian Pisarcik and has been a remarkable experience. The narrative has that Americana feel of impoverished and forgotten small town USA. Pisarcik’s depiction of the town, the setting, and the overall gravelly, raw nature of the characters - it’s an entire entity in itself. The characterization of the cast is unique in that the reader is (what I think is purposefully) held at arms length, adding a whole other edge of suspense to the storyline. This may not play well for audiences who like to submerse themselves thoroughly into characters. However, I’ll speak for myself and say that Pisarcik’s creative expression is well appreciated. While this is a suspense novel by genre, it holds a multitude of other complex dynamics within the plot that makes it feel like so much more. Loved it. 5 stars.



Thank you to #NetGalley and @CrookedLaneBooks for this ARC. #BeforeFamiliarWoods was read and reviewed voluntarily by Tarrah Marie (@wayward_readers) all thoughts and opinions are my own.

#wayward_readers #waywardreader #ianpisarcik

Reviews and mentions found here:
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https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3006716146
https://www.facebook.com/tarrahmarie.waywardreaders

Grim. Gritty. Dark. These are the first words that spring to mind after reading Ian Pisarcik's debut, Before Familiar Woods. Absent is the glitz and glamour of New York-set novels (or even novels portraying the struggling millennial, desperate to make ends meet while toiling as the executive assistant or the barista). This is poverty in small town America, the forgotten sector, set amidst the backdrop of drug addiction and exploitation.

I wanted to retreat immediately into a fluffy rom-com after finishing this one. It's a hard read, but wow, what a voice and what a setting. You're drawn into to the cold, unforgiving Vermont woods.

Ruth Fenn stars in this one. She's living on the outskirts of her town, an outcast after her son and his friend are found dead in a tent in the woods. Her son, Mathew, is blamed for everything. But then her husband disappears and her world is once again turned upside down.

Things get more complicated when she meets Milk, a returning veteran of the Iraq War, who takes custody of his son when his ex abandons him. Milk has no idea how to care for Daniel and he's desperate to find work. But when Daniel's mother comes back for her son, Milk and Ruth and thrown into the heart of evil that might have stolen Mathew.

There's some great character development here and your heart breaks alongside Ruth's. The action picks up considerably in the last quarter of the book and you're left with a feeling of unease when it's all over. This was not the book I was expecting when I read the blurb. I thought I was in for a crime thriller; this ended up being much bleaker. But I'm glad to have read it all the same.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

On the outskirts of a town too tired for its own happenings, the boys were found dead inside a tent.

Three years later, their fathers have disappeared, too.

Ruth Fenn's son was the boy they blamed. For three years, Ruth has accepted her lot as pariah, focusing on her ailing mother and the children left in her care by the struggling single parents of North Falls, Vermont. But now the additional loss of her husband is too much to bear, and she has no choice but to overcome the darkness or be consumed by it. But as she edges closer to the truth, she begins to uncover some secrets that are better left buried.

That's when she meets Milk Raymond, a war vet who comes home to find his nine-year-old son abandoned by his mother. Unable to find work, with no idea how to be a father, Milk turns to Ruth for help. But as the mystery of Ruth's missing husband deepens, the fragile stability Milk has created for Daniel is shattered by the ill-fated return of Daniel's mother, who will stop at nothing to get her boy back.

As these unsettled and interconnected lives hurtle towards a devastating conclusion, both Ruth and Milk are about to learn that their dying Vermont town has more secrets than they ever thought possible--and there are those who will do anything to protect them.

Dang, this was some serious subject matter. I felt the whole bunch. Ruth was one you DO connect with from the shart to finish. Vermont has far too many secrets, some you just wish were rumors.
Thanks, NetGalley for the advance to review.

I wish to thank NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC in return for an honest review. This gritty story is set in a small town in decline, located in Vermont and surrounded by forests. It is wintertime, and the author does a wonderful job with elegant descriptions of the forests and the hard, cold winter weather. I am not anti-smoking, but I found the constant references to people smoking, the odour of cigarette smoke and piles of cigarette butts to be constant and repetitive and added little to the plot or character development.

I thought the story was well written, but moved lethargically, as did the characterizations. Later I felt I knew the people well. The suspense was built up at a slow pace, as seemed fitting within the setting.

Ruth has lived in semi-seclusion with her husband, Elam, and her ailing mother since the tragic death of their son, Matthew. She has been shunned by her friend Della and many of the townspeople since the violent deaths of Matthew and Della’s son three years earlier. The two boys were found dead in their tent in the woods while on a camping trip. Rumours blamed Matthew, but what really happened is too dark and disturbing to contemplate.

Ruth’s home had been a place of refuge for troubled children. Child Welfare had frequently sent children there for loving care and pottery lessons. She also rescued abused dogs. Now her time is taken up worrying about her elderly mother, grieving her son, and her silent, moody husband who is in the depths of despair following Matthew’s death.

Now, Ruth’s and Della’s husbands have both vanished. They had last been seen together at a local tavern, and witnesses found this surprising as it was well known that they had never liked each other. This is more than Ruth can bear, and in searching for Elam she begins to uncover terrible secrets hidden in the small town.

Milk Raymond has just returned from Iraq with some fearsome memories which disturb his sleep. He is a stranger with his 9-year-old son, Daniel, who had been deserted by his unstable mother. He wants to be a good father but has a lot of self-doubts. He is unable to find work, and it is suggested that the boy be left in Ruth’s care while he seeks employment. When Daniel’s mother returns and snatches the boy away he finds his problems partly coincide with Ruth’s. This brings the story to a shattering conclusion with revelations about evil infesting the town, but with much hope in the aftermath.

For the last three years, Ruth has lived on the outskirts of “polite society” after her son was blamed for the deaths of three boys, whose fathers have now, also, mysteriously gone missing. Ruth buried herself in her home life, caring for her mother and other children, but now the loss of her husband is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. She’s at serious risk of going down for the third time when she meets Milk Raymond, a man who came home from war to find his stepson alone, after his mother walked out on him. Milk and Ruth, two lost souls struggling to find answers turn to each other for help, but what they uncover is worse than they could have ever imagined. I will never look at Vermont the same way after reading this creepy book!