Loved this book, equal parts suspense and mystery. I also deeply appreciated the underlying themes of personal responsibility for self-care and healing from trauma, without dismissing the trauma itself. It's a difficult topic to address and I felt What Lies in the Woods did it masterfully.

A mystery story about a young girl who almost looses her life in the woods but managed to make it out alive. The man they thought was responsible was convicted and in prison. After he died of cancer, she goes back home and gets back together with her two best friends that were in the woods with her on that horrible day.
After being back home she has many memories come back to her that have been hidden in her mind for years. And that her friends have been keeping from her. So many things aren't as they appear.
A good story with twists and turns that I didn't expect, but enjoyed.

Compelling enough, but the plot had a few too many twists. The last 1/3 was fairly absurd, honestly, between the culprit reveals and redemption arcs.

Wow…I was transfixed during this audiobook. We recently moved across the country and I popped this on while I was unpacking and organizing our new house. It kept me enthralled and motivated to keep working so I could keep listening! I thought I had a few things figured out, and then out of nowhere, twists and turns galore! I actually rated this one a 4.5!

What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall was a new to me author - and it totally threw me for a loop!! I immediately fell in love with our main heroine Naomi - she was a damaged from the horror that happened as a young girl deep in the woods. This is the tale of a psycho killer, hurt people, a town that doesn't want to really know what happens and nothing is what it seems. I was heartbroken to get to the ending and realize who really didn't wear a white hat :( I absolutely did NOT see that ending coming though!!! Good thing about a new to me author - she has a nice little stack of novels just waiting on me!! I offer this honest review in exchange for a digital copy of this book from Netgalley :)

Thank you Netgalley for the advance audiobook copy of What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall in exchange for an honest review. This was a very gripping and honest book. I could completely believe Naomi's pain and tragedy. She was very relatable and going through her journey of discovery was hard and engaging. A beautiful and sad story about friendship, manipulation, lies and secrets. I really enjoyed this book and would jump at the chance to read more by Marshall.

Wow! This was an addictive & twisty thriller I just couldn't stop reading until the end!

Naomi & her two best friends Olivia & Cassidy shared a magical summer when they were eleven, playing their Goddess Game in the woods in their small hometown. But their summer ended with a vicious attack upon Naomi, leaving her scarred from seventeen stab wounds, and resulted in the capture and arrest of a serial killer.

Flash forward twenty years and the serial killer has died in prison. Naomi travels back to her sleepy hometown to meet up with her best friends to talk about the past, and the lies they told. The truth starts to unravel around them and Naomi tries desperately to remember what really happened in that long ago summer.

This book was so well written, woven with the right amount of suspense & long hidden secrets. This one will keep you up late!

Kate Alice Marshall writes a very well developed and appropriately paced thriller that is perfectly paired with a fantastic audiobook narrator. This audiobook had me hooked from very early on in the story. The main things I liked about this book are:

Clear and consistent characters
Unique background to the crime
Various twists that keep you guessing
Unreliable memory, adding mystery to the story

I had a hunch for some of the plot twists and suspects but this was thrown off multiple times by more twists, memory recollections, and character revelations. I was constantly changing my hypothesis and enjoyed trying to piece this together. While I did not enjoy Naomi much as a person, she was consistent in her choices and personality, which made her a realistic trauma victim and main character. Overall this roller coaster novel was an exciting and addicting thriller! I would especially recommend the audiobook if you want to read this. Be sure to check out the content warnings, as there are several.

I LOVE a good mystery and I had been hearing a lot about What Lies in the Woods. This book was a great mystery. The story centers on main character Naomi, who was attacked in the woods as an 11 year old child while playing with her 2 best friends. Their testimony put away a murderer but after he dies in prison 20+ years later, Naomi begins to question what really happened, and returns to her hometown to investigate. This book is FULL or red herrings and it was very hard to determine "who done it". There was so much more to the story than just the attack on Naomi, and the author weaved it all together brilliantly and tied up the loose ends. The friendship between the girls was authentic and that the author wrote beautiful prose that captured the spirit of young girls. I was frustrated with Naomi regularly but I also felt like I had to cut her some slack based on the traumas that she had experienced. I immediately decided on the choices I hope she makes after the book ends :) Overall, I really enjoyed this book and appreciated the many twists and turns throughout. I’d recommend it to those who read mysteries and psychological thrillers, and am going to track down some more books by this author. I’d give this 4.5 stars.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio & NetGalley for allowing me to listen to this Digital ARC

Goodness, what a story. The narration was excellent, the story was well-paced, and the twists had me flip-flopping over and over regarding who did what.

When Naomi Shaw learned that the man accused of stabbing her 22 years earlier has died in prison, she thought she would feel relieved. But it only managed to bring to the surface things that she had been dealing with since she was 11, When she receives a call from one of the other girls, who had been with her in the forest, saying she couldn’t hold things inside any longer, Naomi rushes back to her hometown.

The unique personalities of all three girls are handled beautifully and my interest never dropped. While the twists and turns felt catastrophic at times, they only served to keep me guessing. Nothing felt out of line or contrived. Okay. Well, let’s be honest, it’s always best to suspend some disbelief!

Final Thoughts
Marshall jumped seamlessly from the author of Young Adult and Middle Grade to Adult books. The characters felt well-developed and the ending was believable enough to satisfy me.

I always like to note that my rating is for the book, audiobook, or Kindle since it can definitely make a difference in my rating. So, of course, my rating is for the audiobook.

In this case, the narrator brought a very, very good story up to an excellent one!

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ability to listen to and post an early review of the audiobook without any stipulations.

Could not stop listening to this audiobook that I received from Netgalley to listen to early and review. This was such a gripping, mind screwing read. There were so many twists that I would think something but then it wouldn’t be that and I’d have to wait. I hate waiting! I kept listening. This book was very well written and I recommend it to anyone that loves a good thriller.

The book that just kept on twisting! It’s not often that I’m taken surprise by the end of a book anymore, but this one kept me guessing until the very end.

While I didn’t love the character of present-day Naomi, I really enjoyed the flashback portions of the book discussing the three girls and their adventures in the woods. It felt very magical: the imaginations and wonder of children juxtaposed against the realities of adulthood in the present day story were very interesting.

I listened to the audiobook and I appreciated the talents to the narrator. She was great! Very animated with great inflection. I never felt bored as can sometimes happen with audiobooks.

I received an advanced copy of the audiobook through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

WHAT LIES IN THE WOODS by Kate Alice Marshall is narrated by the fantastic Karissa Vacker and I was riveted from the beginning! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Three young girls go into the woods and only 2 come out. But that wasn't the end for that 3rd little girl.

Naomi, Cassidy, and Olivia are best friends who develop a fantasy game the summer they are 11 called the Goddess Game. One day, Naomi is attacked viciously, but survives and the girl's testimonies send a serial killer to prison.

20 years later, the death of this man brings Naomi back to the community to confront the truth and comfort her friends. A Podcaster also comes around and his questions stir her uncertainty about what really happened that day. As Naomi retraces her steps from that summer, new revelations threaten not just the trio's friendship but their lives as well.

I was engrossed by this story instantly. The young girls summer game was filled with macabre and magic which would have been pure joy for me at that age, though I don't think I could have kept it secret! The relationship between the 3 was fascinating as it moved into adulthood. The trauma they experienced affected them each differently. I thought I had this one pegged pretty early. It wasn't long before I was questioning it all. I have more thoughts, but hesitate because it might give too much away.

I am a huge fan of Karissa Vacker. She was able to capture the young voices as well as the adult women and other characters as well. I listened to this at 1.75X and it was smooth and easy to follow. I will listen to her read anything.

Thank you to @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for the ALC and these are my thoughts. @flatiron_books and MacMillan Audio will have this title available on January 17th, so keep an eye out!

The beginning had me intrigued and I enjoyed the back and forth timelines. However, as the story went on I became somewhat bored and confused with what was happening. I’m not sure if I was just zoning out so I didn’t fully enjoy what was being said but I didn’t really get back into the story until about 80%. Once the first twist was revealed they just kept coming out and they were all pretty predictable.


Thank you to the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I thoroughly enjoy this narrator. Her voice is so smooth and easy to listen to while keeping up with the emotions of the characters. She’s fantastic.

This story was more of a slow burn and focuses more on the characters i think. Really enjoyed getting to know them and all their issues. I did guess the first twist but the others were a bit more of a surprise. While i could sense something, i didn’t fully guess it!

Such an intriguing story where the ending packs more of a punch! Definitely gets wild.

Holy Moly!
Probably the best mystery/thriller I have read this year!
An enthralling and thrilling read with so many twists and turns.
Highly recommend.

***I would like to thank NetGalley, Kate Alice Marshall (the author), and Macmillan Audio for graciously sending me the audiobook to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.*

For mystery and thriller readers who crave a somewhat darker, broodier, eerier Louise Penny-style novel.

What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall is a richly woven mystery that pulls readers in from the very start: we want to know what happened to Naomi Shaw’s face - what caused those scars when she was playing in the woods with friends as a young girl? A trio of women from a small town seem to be hiding something. The men of their past also appear to be people who can’t be trusted. Same goes with their parents. The care that author Kate Alice Marshall takes to give the reader just enough of the story from three friends’ childhood memories pulls the reader in and renders the novel completely un-put-down-able.

There’s a major cast of characters in What Lies in the Woods. I see this novel translating well into a TV miniseries. There were times I wished I had a hard copy of the book to reference back to the names, the stories, and so on, but overall, I felt like listening to this novel as narrated by Karissa Vacker was the perfect way to consume it. I ignored reviews from other people warning it was too scary to read in the evening and instead listened at all hours of the night WITH THE LIGHTS OFF. My skin crawled. Reader note: there’s no gore but there is violence. I appreciate that most of the deeply scary stuff is left to the reader’s imagination.

Often in thrillers like this, the reader expects to discover that an adult’s memories of what happened when they were kids got in the way of truth. In What Lies in the Woods, we see that it was the actual kids and the adults surrounding them who caused some major blurring of information when we fast forward to present-day. This tricky plot style works so well to keep the reader guessing and mistrusting multiple characters. The reader starts to wonder if Naomi herself is not to be trusted as her character becomes increasingly paranoid. The men around her just tell her to settle down. This dismissive behaviour comes to a head while she’s stuck on a ferry in a scene that is truly creepy perfection.

Thank you to Amber Cortes at MacMillan Audio for the advanced listening copy of this novel. I was sold on Karissa Vacker’s excellent delivery style when I listened to a sample. She’s a wonderfully engaging narrator and she handled the multiple voices and moods of the novel so very well. What a performance!

Whoa! I LOVED this book. It was interesting and engaging. I really enjoyed the twists and turns. Naomi and her father’s relationship was ROUGH. I loved the dynamic of the three girls’s childhood friendship. I could relate to it. And that longing for believing in magic as an 11 year old girl. The ending was great. I plan on suggesting this book to my book group. I couldn’t stop listening.


Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC I received in return for my honest opinion.

This book was insanely good for kate alice marshall's first adult novel. It left me on edge and i wanted more. The narrator was great and made listening easy and made me feel like i was in the story. Mostly recommend 5 stars

So many twists! This is a spooky, woodsy, small-town mystery and domestic drama.

We meet Naomi first, as she’s our narrator. She’s one of 3 girls who went into the woods one night when they were 11 and came out forever changed. She was stabbed mercilessly but she miraculously survived.

They said that a serial killer did it. Now that he’s dead, some of them are reckoning with their guilt. They weren’t sure it was really him.. so who was it?

Naomi only remembers being rescued. The girls speak of Persephone. Is this a real person or some kind of Slenderman situation? Wondering is part of the fun.

Anyway, upon the serial killer’s death, the girls all want to meet up but suddenly they seem to be targets all over again. Is the real killer still out there.. and are they in town?

This was a lot of fun and although it flashes back to their youth, it’s not a YA novel. It’s still for adults. I love the element of youth nostalgia without going full on YA. It was so well-written. I got the full on creeps several times. Kids are creepy. The audio narration was excellent and I’ll be looking for more from this author!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review!