Sorry to say this book did not hit the mark for me. The blurb caught my attention as a gripping psychological thriller. I was confused for most of the book. I’m sure it was my inability to connect reality to the psychedelic/mystic adventures in the book.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

2.5 Stars

Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me
Other times, I can barely see
Lately, it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it's been
-Grateful Dead

Cousins, as well as writing partners, TJ and Jane decide to attend their 20th high school reunion in hopes of gathering some material to get them over the hurdle of writer’s block. But when they show up in their hometown, they discover Jane’s long-time stalker is creepier than ever, the town folk are still whispering about TJ’s family tragedy, and then there are the memories of time spent within “the thicket”, and the loss of their friend Evie…but what if she never left…

So, it has taken me a wee bit to prepare my thoughts on a review as there is a lot going on in this story…perhaps too much. What do you get when you mix together a high school reunion, a stalker and a mysterious “thicket”? Mass confusion for this reader! Reading this book has most certainly been “a long, strange trip”, which for some may be exactly what they were looking for, but for others, such as myself, totally lost. The cover and blurb completely drew me in, but as the pages turned, I kept getting confused with the POV and time changes. This is most likely just reader preferences, so don’t let my low rating dissuade you from giving this story a chance. While not my fav, it could be yours!



**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book that I received via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **

This book has been described as “Sharp Objects Meets Stranger Things”, so if you’re looking for a dark, sci-fi-esque thriller, this one might be for you!

This story has an intriguing premise but didn’t hit the mark for me. Jane and TJ return to their small Illinois hometown for their 20th high school reunion. There’s a lot to unpack in this novel – classmates and townspeople who have disappeared or died, an obsessive man who has stalked Jane for years, drug use and childhood abuse. A spooky woods everyone calls The Thicket features prominently, the setting of high school dabbling into psychedelic mushrooms and home to a fungus that is almost sentient.

The depiction of The Thicket is really creepy and atmospheric, the author did a great job setting the scene. This book was a little more sci-fi than I was expecting, which isn’t my usual genre, so maybe that’s why I struggled to connect. It was hard for me to figure out what was real vs what were the characters’ hallucinations, and maybe that was the point, but I had a hard time keeping up.

Many thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter, for providing me an advance copy of this book.

I received an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review

The book took a few twists I really wasn’t expecting, which took it up from 3 to 3.5 rounded up. The writing and the character development is not amazing but you keep turning pages to find out what will happen next.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this novel in exchange for an unbiased review. I was expecting a thriller but encountered instead a novel that straddles the thriller, science fiction and psychedelia genres and that, for most of its pages, felt fragmented. The storyline centres on cousins Jane and TJ, who attend their high school reunion in Ketchum, a small town haunted by mysterious death and disappearances. Rather than build on the atmospheric setting of the nearby woods or develop the folkloristic theme to challenge the reader’s imagination, however, this novel heaves a whole host of serious contemporary issues onto a plot that loops rather than build genuine mystery. The two narrators appeared rather immature, with underdeveloped speech patterns dominated by expletives, and for this reason I found this book was not for me.

I read this book in a couple days, but no clue what I read. This isn't my usual genre, so maybe it just went over my head. I kept reading it, hoping it would finally make sense, but that didn't happen.

I guess it was girl and and cousin go b back for high school reunion. They trip out on shrooms. Jane has psycho stalker from high school. The "thicket" is alive and kills and eats people?

Sorry, just don't know about this.

The first book for me to read by this author but I will be on the lookout for more for sure! This thrilling novel kept me on the edge of my seat and it was definitely a page-turner. Highly recommend this one!

A difficult book to get through, considering the very graphic language and psychedellic setting. The cover and synopsis is what really interested me initially. I had trouble staying plugged into the book, until about 60-75% through, then I felt the pieces started to fall into place. Difficult to understand what was going on the majority of the book through.

thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise and the cover, definitely draw you in. It took me awhile to get through this one, I think once you hit 60% it picks up and moves fairly quick.

There was a lot to unpack in this; supernatural elements, psychedelic trips, obsessive stalking, and mental illness to boot. All rolled up into one story that sort of disconnects at times. It felt fragmented and that we weren't getting the whole picture, which may have been the whole idea, however the ending was not at all what I thought we were leading up to. A bit disappointed with it.

Thank you to Harper Collins, UK; One More Chapter and NetGalley for the advanced review copy.

I wish to thank NetGalley and Harper Collins UK Publishers for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I knew this was a mystery when I requested it but it is so much more. There is a ton of information about the growth and descriptions of a large amount of psychedelic, luminous mushrooms growing in a thicket where a young girl disappeared 20 years ago.

Evie and TJ return home to attend a class reunion but the past is still there to frighten them and their classmates when they visit the party thicket gathering spot once again. I would classify this one as a sci-fi as well as a simple mystery because there is nothing simple about this story. I knew nothing about mushrooms and feel like I am now graduate student on the subject. That could have made it dull but you find yourself absorbed in the story and trying to figure it out page by page. The ending is off the charts. I did not see it coming. This is not a book you put down and do not want to finish. You are not sure if they are tripping on the mushrooms or really experiencing terrifying episodes. Read it and decide for yourself.

Lots of suspense and drama. Old town feels full of creepy stalkers and broken homes. Enjoyed the pace of the novel and the folkloreish atmosphere.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc

Jane and TJ are cousins who grew up together and now work together, TJ as a writer and Jane as her agent. The story is mainly concerned with their decision to revisit their childhood home in Illinois for a school reunion. They meet up with the group of friends who, twenty years ago, used to play in the Thicket, a local wood and imagine all kinds of extraterrestrial events. One is Lincoln who has been stalking Jane for two decades. One thing a reader will certainly find out about is wild mushrooms as the book has a course on them. Otherwise the story is full of characters with unlikely pasts. There is no convincing storyline and much of the slow progress is hard to imagine.

She Never Left is like a whispy cloud one tries to pin down. The plot involves supernatural, psychedelic aspects that I had a difficult time relating. I am very familiar with the location sites the author mentions in her b0ok. I was interested in the book, but the plot failed to grab me. It just wasn’t for me.

I'm always glad to read something a bit different and She Never Left by CM Harris is certainly that.
TJ and Jane Render travel from Chicago to their small Illinois hometown of Ketchum for their 20 year High School reunion. Just before they left one of their friends,Evie, had disappeared while riding her bike home through a wood known locally as The Thicket. The only other witness was loner Lincoln Metzger, obsessed with Jane from a very young age and still stalking her 2 decades later.

Even as the women hit the road passing through The Thicket as they approach Ketchum things get strange..........and from then on a lot stranger as they re-enter The Thicket in an attempt to understand the events of their childhood adventures there..

This is a book that keeps the reader on their toes as it heads very much down the Stephen King route then things get really wild and off the wall, to the point that I thought for a while, "what the heck am I reading?". In less skilled hands it could have bordered on ludicrous at one point but instead what seems like a totally over the top theory becomes thought-provoking and something that, as a bigger picture, has stuck in my mind ever since, not least given current events,I'll say no more than that..

This is part thriller, part horror and part ,"something else" with a good part of Jane's narrative being while she's under the influence of mind-altering hallucinogens of the fungal kind when neither her nor the reader knows what is reality and what is altered perception. The ending comes out of left field and while much is explained there's still plenty for the reader to ponder and come up with their own explanations, again in lesser hands that would frustrate me but it ties in with the tone of the rest of the book and its "unreliable narrator."

A roller coaster road that will keep you on your toes and make you think a bit, just when you think there are no more surprises there's "that ending" , great stuff.

It took me a while to understand exactly what was happening in this story of Jane and TJ as they returned to the small town of their childhood, and in particular the flashbacks of getting high on the local vegetation; I began to wonder if the author was using this stuff herself. The answer to that came with the twist at the end.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Secrets from the past have a way of revealing themselves in the future. Jane and TJ haven been friends for decades. When a stalker is bothering them, nothing will be the same.

This was certainly an odd book, but still intriguing. Started off quite sedately, but as the story progressed it became very weird, I was never quite sure if the story was hallucinations due to the mushrooms, memory feedback or just generally bizarre.

It was an ok read, managed to get to the end, but still none the wiser. This is more for the sci-fi readers than the mystery story that I was led to believe it was. Not sure I would have read it if I had known, but it is one that I won’t forget!

Thank you NetGalley.

Thank you for the advanced copy. This is about 2cousins Jane and TJ who also work together and get an invitation to go to their 20yr school reunion. What could go wrong?

This is not my usual type of thriller, it was on the slow pace side, but did pick up near the halfway mark.

Wow, this book has so many twists and turns I didn’t know what was real and what may have been a psychedelic episode. The author wrote an exciting book that is part psychological thriller, part sci-fi, part fantasy and part suspense. I couldn’t put it down and read well into the night to finish it. Two cousins decide to go to their high school reunion in the small town where people went missing or died in some strange manners. The Thicket is a spooky part of the woods where the kids all hung out to play and scare each other. It’s is also the one place where luminescent mushrooms grow and they provide the kids with a psychedelic trip that they can’t decide was all hallucinations or maybe it was real as they all saw and heard the same things. Toss in a stalker that has not given up in the past 20 years and you have a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat to the last page. I haven’t read a book that made me think this much in a long time. Even once I was finished I was still trying to figure things out.

Weird! Magic mushrooms, an intelligent fungus, and psychedelic trips are just the tip of the iceberg. Something fouler lurks beneath the surface.

I can honestly say the title and premise got me, but when I got into it, the storyline left me feeling flat.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read/review this book.