Thank you NetGalley and Rebellion publishing for the chance to read this ARC.

As much as I wanted to be, I was not a fan of this book. For me I think there wasn’t answers or climax to the myth and lore the author had created. I guess if I could put it into a perspective of if I were watching it as a movie, a lot of the scary, or gory moments would have occurred off screen, There also was not a lot of character development as the majority of the book was spent on the build of the supernatural/mythical presents in the woods and so I didn’t feel a connection to any of the characters. I was expecting portions of the book as well as the end to be a lot more intense.

I gave this book three stars because I definitely appreciate the work the author put into creating a mythical/supernatural presence that I had never heard of, that in it self had me trying to research myself which is why I gave it the extra star.

The Dark Between the Trees is a creepy, atmospheric horror story, with dual mirroring storylines set centuries apart. The setting of the story screams tension. I’d like to thank the author, publisher and NetGalley UK, for my copy of this engaging story which I recommend to anyone looking for a fulfilling, page-turning read.

Superbly discomfiting, this book brings alive the duality of Time through the eyes of 2 sets of people separated by centuries. It has echoes of The Ritual and A Field In England, while developing the mystery around folktales and oral history.
In the modern day, a team of female academics find not only their GPS equipment inadequate in Moresby Woods, but also basic maps. Nothing will give a true reading of where they are or help them escape from an encroaching menace. It may be witchcraft, it may be the Jabberwocky-like ‘Corrigal’, but whatever it is, it shows no more mercy to them than their historical counterparts, a band of soldiers.
Foliage shifts, streams change direction, water isn’t fresh, abandoned buildings shouldn’t still exist……
The novel drew me in almost as though Moresby Forest was a real place. Anyone who has ever taken the wrong turning on a hike will recognise the slow unease as darkness falls.

I was provided with an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Here it comes:

Okay. This was delightful.
Not in the way that you usually use that word, no. It was delightful in the way that it was exactly what was promised, and it, to talk in Tiktok terms, gave what it was supposed to give.

This book is about the Wood. The Moresby Wood, to be precise. In the 17th century, a group of soldiers takes refuge in this mysterious forest after being attacked by unknown foes, even though they are aware of the legends surrounding these woods, legends of witches and monsters and death. But they are soldiers, and they are confident that those legends are superstition and that they will be able to defeat anything that comes in their way.

Only two of those soldiers are ever seen again.

In present day, a group of women heads into the wood, to discover what happened to the soldiers and to survey the forest itself. They, too, are aware of the stories, the legends, but they attribute them to folklore and superstition. They walk in there, armed with modern GPS technology, metal detectors, and the works, confident that they will find something interesting.
And oh, do they find something.

Here begins the spoiler part! I will use spoiler tags on goodreads but beware if you read this on another platform.

The POV switches between the women and the soldiers each chapter. As far as characters go, sure, the groups are made up of a bunch of people, but especially at the beginning, they bleed together, making it hard to tell quite just through whose eyes we're looking at the moment. As the story goes on and their numbers dwindle, the divisions between the characters become more clear and they crystallize into complete personalities. I saw some other reviews saying that the amount of names and people was confusing, but if you accept that there's only three characters at the beginning, it could make things easier: Character 1 - the women, Character 2 - the soldiers, Character 3 - the forest.

The writing style is very precise, for lack of a better term. There's not much purple prose here, and I am truly astounded how well the author manages to build suspense through her words. I am not a horror gal, I gotta admit, and I did have to turn the lights on and make sure nothing was in the room with me before I could continue reading. But then, I am a proud scaredy-cat, and other readers might not find this book as terrifying as I did. However, as I said before, I commend the author's ability to build up suspense and athmosphere.

Now, why not 5 stars then? The answer is quite simple. The ending was complete bullshit. It just ends. I was so disappointed. I was expecting some kind of resolution, some definite end point, but it just ends, and I literally said out loud: "That's it???" So yeah. That was super disappointing and honestly? Kind of ruined the whole experience. I'm just gonna pretend the copy I got was missing a chapter or two, because I will not accept that.

I do highly recommend this book, but beware that the ending might leave you unsatisfied, just as it did with me. Otherwise, this is a brilliant little book, and it will stay with me for quite some time.

The plot of the book punched a bit of tension but the confusion arises from jumping from one part to another and to and fro. The characters are not well built and a lot of characters add to the confusion more.
I didn't enjoy the book as much as I thought I'd.

While I enjoyed the premise of this book, I found that none of the characters seemed very developed and the pot was slower paced that I would have expected or hoped for. I think it may appeal to some patrons, but that this would not be a book that I would widely recommend as a reader advisory.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

I loved the premise. The character interactions were very realistic.

I had a lot of trouble with the writing style. It can be any character's POV in any given sentence -- sometimes in the same paragraph. A few times, different characters were speaking within the same paragraph. My brain could not keep up, which is a shame as otherwise I think it had a lot of potential to be a great book. I think it needs substantive and line editing.

A career long obsession has led Dr Alice Christopher to Moresby wood to investigate the disappearance of 15 Parlimentarian soldiers in 1643. Centuries old folk stories surround this forest and Alice leads a group to unearth these secrets. Captain Davies, having been ambushed leads his men in to the wood to supposed safety.
The story unravels through the format of dual timelines through the perspectives of Dr Alive, her PhD student Nuria and alternatively Captain Davies and his Sergeant, Harper.
The author creates a tense atmosphere throughout the book and leaves all to the imagination as an ominous but unseen presence looms over the characters in both timelines.
I enjoy dual timeline stories but found that the soldiers' timeline had too many characters which could be confusing at times and stalled the story somewhat.
I didn't enjoy the ending of the story as felt it was rushed and very open ended.

The beginning of this was really slow and confusing as there were many characters to keep a track of.

I loved the atmosphere. It was creepy, unsettling all at the same time. It dragged me in, intrigued me, and left me wanting to dive in.

I will admit I was a bit bored. It felt like the same things kept happening over and over, just in slightly different ways, and it became predictable.

The premise sounded brilliant in theory, but unfortunately for me, it wasn’t executed to its full potential.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author, for a chance to read and review this book.

Wow! I thoroughly enjoyed this book
The book was set in a creepy wood which is one of my favourite settings. There’s just something about a wood that draws my interest, both in real life and I’m books
This novel had dual narrative which is one of my favourite narrative modes. The chapters alternate between an army in the 17th century who, battle weary, found themselves lost in the wood and a modern day academic who is looking into the disappearance of the army. I felt that this narration style provided some foreshadowing and explanation and I thought it was done so well! There were some parallels between the members of the different parties.
Throughout the book there was such a creepy atmosphere of foreboding. I enjoyed the creepy ghost stories that were quoted by each of the parties.
I found this book to be creepy and chilling and I just loved it. I could not see the ending coming and it was such an enjoyable read. I highly recommend this book, it picked me out of a slump that I’d found myself in
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars (rounded up)
The Dark Between the Trees is a standalone gothic thriller novel by author Fiona Barnett. I picked this one up based solely on the enticing blurb and exciting premise. While I enjoyed the creepy and atmospheric setting of the Moresby Wood, it felt like this one never quite reached the scary and tense horror novel I was expecting. The story is told with dual timelines, one in current times following 5 women exploring the woods and a past timeline following a group of soldiers. I really enjoyed the parts about the women but found the soldier's chapters confusing and difficult to work out which character was which. There is minimal back story or focus on character development which I think contributes to not feeling very connected to them. My main interest in the story lay in finding out the mystery of the woods and what the creature was. Much of the horror and supernatural elements are 'off screen' and help to bring the suspense and mystery. I was expecting an epic showdown to end the book which didn't really happen. I'd recommend this book to fans of Adam Neville's The Ritual or Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer.

Thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

The Dark Between the Trees is a thrilling, creepy tale about the infamous Moresby woods, where a group of soldiers disappear into during the English Civil War and where five women in the modern day enter to search for them.

This is a slow-burn story that follows two different timelines, that of the soldiers and of the women. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, and I think that's why I wasn't very attached to any of them.

I really liked the way the suspense and fear build all throughout. From the first few chapters you're already hit by a sense of foreboding of what might happen. While the atmosphere of dread was well-done across the book, there were some parts that felt boring or slow, and I was itching for something to happen to the characters.

I ended up guessing the way two characters' arc would go and I honestly thought it would be an interesting thing but when it did happen, it didn't really make me gasp or anything. Some reveals also disappointed me. The ending also felt quite bland — it was open-ended but in an awkward way, and there were just too many unanswered questions about a lot of things.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, but I just found certain parts lacking. Would still recommend it to anyone starting out in the horror genre though.

Suggesting a profound mythology, The Dark Between the Trees never really fulfills its promises in terms of explaining the supernatural phenomena described in its pages.

Author Fiona Barnett presents readers with great hikers-lost-in-haunted-forest fodder, but the action seems to continuously build and then plateau without any actual conflict or progress towards unraveling the mystery. Many of the characters who are attacked and die in the story do so away from the focus of the narrator, or while their companions are asleep, resulting in surreal descriptions that obscure the details of specific events. Other authors like Jeff VanderMeer and Adam Nevill manage these impressionistic sequences in their own work more elegantly, still conveying the meaning of the action while maintaining a dreamy tone. Any resemblance to Long's Descent, Matthew Lyons' Night Will Find Us or Coates' Hunted soon fades as the story draws to a close without so much as substantial speculation about the nature of the phenomena. Personality is established only in a cursory way, with very little emotional investment possible for any character as the focus jumps around and new characters are introduced late in the narrative. For a more satisfying version of the same idea, readers should try Michaelbrent Collings' The Forest.

Thanks to NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for the ARC.

Another story that jumps back and forth between timelines, that I unfortunately lost interest in quickly in.

Too many characters to sift through.

However, I did enjoy the anticipatory fear and tension of what was hiding behind the woods.

4/5 Stars!

The Dark Between the Trees is a creeping, atmospheric suspense that takes us through two vastly different timelines and groups of people as they travel through the terrifying Moresby Wood, where both a terrible creature from centuries before man walked the earth is said to stalk the area and the witch who claims it.

This was a slow-burn if I ever saw one. We start with both Dr. Alice Christopher, a historian who has studied the stories, lore, and accounts from those rare few who had entered the Moresby Wood(which is now closed off for supposed military purposes) and managed to come out the other side. She is joined by two guides, a student of her own, and a map surveyor. A group of particular note was the lost men of Captain Davies, a man who lived three hundred years before her. But the Wood itself grabs hold of Alice, and with each strange phenomena, her obsession grows, even as it costs the lives of her companions.

Meanwhile, Captain Davies and his men were attacked by a rogue battalion on the hills next to Moresby Forest. Being forced into the wood, he attempts to guide them all out safely. But between the whispers and fears of his own men, and something horrible lurking in the dark behind them that is seemingly determined to pick them off one by one, Davies finds that getting out might not be as easy as any of them might have suspected.

This was dark in the way that darkness soothes until something shatters the silence and invites your imagination to take root. Each group swaps stories about the history of the wood; the monster that roams there, the witch, the family who disappeared or died overnight. We follow both of these groups through the woods, through mud and blood and blisters, and it is painful in itself. I really enjoyed the writing here, because a format like this is easy to drag along pacing-wise, but FB did a fantastic job switching through the POVs and allowing the natural tension of the situation to push the story along. When I finally sat down to read this book, I finished it in two complete halves—which was fitting in and of itself that the halves seemed to reveal the Before and After of when obsession and fear takes hold of each group.

TDBTT was compared to The Ritual and The Descent, both notable and gory horrors that utilize the ambiguity of unknown nature to get the job done. Because of that, I was expecting more of those elements in this book, and really, I don't think it could have been more different. When we did get to the 'Corrigal', or the creature in the woods, it was almost inconsequential. We are led to believe this is going to be a monster scare, and really, it was more of a Sentient Setting sort of situation. Which, again, was lovely, just not what I expected after the comparison to the two films.

What we got instead was a look inside the human psyche; how our legends affect us, how we, as humans, can be so separated by time and yet not really at all. How obsession and pride can drive us to the ends of the earth and bears the question: What do we do when we get there?

In the end, this was a truly creepy read and I highly recommend it for anyone who loves the kind of slow-moving scares that make you think about it long after it's done.

I can not recommend this book enough! Was absolutely one of the best books I’ve read this year. Completely hair raising and tense. I plan to purchase for all my horror reading friends and family. Can’t wait for more by author. Will definitely be added to my favorite author list.

From the moment I read the description for The Dark Between the Trees, I knew it was my kind of tale. The premise itself is not entirely unfamiliar and you go in knowing it's not going to end well, but the journey getting there was unique and creeping. I have a personal gripe about not getting a glimpse of what's comes after, but any horror fan can surmise it themselves.

The Dark Between The Trees is a great dual timeline thriller about a mysterious woods that people go into but never come out of. I enjoyed the dual timeline and liked that they took the same path it made it really tense. There were a lot of characters but not many I found likable, some of Davies group were ok, but I found the women historians awful. I loved the building suspense and the folk tales of the monster. The end fell really flat for me, I did not care for it, and it left so many unanswered questions.

This book kept me so engrossed. The chapter changes and amalgamation at the end was perfect.

I loved some of the metaphors within the book which really matched with how people feel in real life. It kept me on the edge of my seat and I was looking forward with trepidation the whole way through!