I just reviewed The Woods are Waiting by Katherine Greene.
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this debut novel. The setting was in Appalachia which made it extra special to me. I have lived in Appalachia my entire life. I connected with the small town feel and “eerie” woods. My only complaint is I felt the end “reveal” had way too much detail. I would definitely recommend this author and book though.



#TheWoodsareWaiting #NetGalley

I think I’ve grown weary of this particular trope - The one where someone returns to their small town several years after escaping; a town known for some unsolved crime that is now happening again. I used to really look forward to books like this, but they’re no longer exciting me. That’s not the author’s fault. It is simply that I’m not a reader who longs for the reliable. I want new, different, and utterly surprising.

This novel, following the footsteps of others like it, spends a lot of time reacquainting the newly returned character with old friends and enemies and the drama that stayed behind. There is upset over the returning character previously abandoning her best friend and boyfriend, but the bad blood between them all is repaired quickly and without any meaningful resolution. Even if my view of the trope wasn’t jaded, this would have still frustrated me.

The most irritating aspect, however, was the way a villain monologue was spread out over several chapters. I realize that it can be difficult to figure out how to explain the dynamics of a tainted and murderous history, but having your bad guy map it all out for the reader never appeals to me. It’s even more unappealing when it drags on for as long as it did in this one.

And while I’m on the topic of the villain, I must say that I found it very easy to identify the culprit. I even realized that a side aspect (not the main mystery) was not what it seemed to be and that the villain was to blame for that, as well. This doesn’t necessarily make the story predictable, as I think this circles back to what I touched upon in the beginning: I’ve read books like this too many times. I recognize certain bits of information as important details revealing something more and that’s what happened here. I wouldn’t say it’s obvious, but it wasn’t a challenge for me and I prefer to struggle a bit more when I try to determine which character to throw my daggers at.

I do think most of the story warranted 3 stars but that ending was so poorly executed that it ruined what little I enjoyed. Still, much of my perspective is the reflection of a seasoned thriller reader. If you’re a novice, inexperienced with this particular trope, or simply too blinded by your love for the trope to care, I’m willing to bet you’ll enjoy this a lot more than I did.

I am immensely grateful to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for my review copy. All opinions are my own.

Overall a creepy thriller that reminded me of a Stephen King story or the movie The Village. I enjoyed the way the author laid out the possible suspects and the final twist.

Atmospheric and intriguing, I have mixed feelings here. I enjoyed the creepy haunting feelihg that emanated from the woods, and loved the idea of a shadowy, ghostly figure lurking among the trees. I dont think the tree or the birds should be portrayed as afraid of him though, why would they be?

Right from the beginning, 90% of the people in the town gave me the creeps. I especially did not like the portrayal of Constance, specifically the blood, the sacrifices, the animals.. It made her completely unappealing and was unnecessary, it just leaves a bad taste. Chey, Jack and Natalie are great characters.

Three and a half stars, rounded down because of the animals.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for my ARC.

Thank you for allowing me to read this book as an ARC. I did not know the author but, from now on, I will be looking for everyone of her books!!! This was one of the best mystery/suspense books I ever read. It was captivating and it kept me glued to it. I could and would not put it down.
The characters were well developed and fit perfectly into the story line. Each one of them provided background to understand the story and how everyone is connected. Nothing was missing that would lack in the story to not understand it. And what an amazing story it was. I have read a lot of mystery books and often tney are similar to each other. Not this one! Very different story line. And without giving anything away, the story kept building up to a totally unexpected ending.
I gave this book 5 🌟 and cannot wait to read more by this author!

This reminded me of All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda.. just not nearly as compelling or well written. In fact, it's poorly written and executed.

I'm all in in on something that's part lure / fantasy / murder mystery, but the plot holes and writing really ruined this for me. The author assumes that the reader is stupid-- I swear, nothing is left for the reader to peruse on their own (even if it's SUPER obvious), and Natalie's chapters are completely pointless. What could be a compelling character backstory (Cheyenne leaving without saying goodbye) is glossed over, and suddenly everyone loves again.

The more I think about the characters, the more annoyed I get. I'm still giving this 2 stars because the story itself could be good... COULD BE

*Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!*

I was very intrigued by the premise! Haunted woods, nursery rhymes, a dark past looming... it all fit right in my alley.
Sadly, I felt the story developped too slowly, and there was poor character development.
I didn't feel very tense, and I found myself looking forward to finishing.
However, the writing style is pretty good, and I would definitely read Katherine Greene again.

The Woods Are Waiting by Katherine Greene published July 2023. In Blue Cliff another child is missing. Cheyenne gets a call from the sheriff that her mother needs her. Has hickory man taken another child in the woods? Can Cheyenne’s mom herbs, silver coins and dirt in shoes save the children from hickory man or is there a live killer we know?

This was a good thrilling/ mystery set in Va . It kept me interested with engaging well crafted characters, plot and setting.
Overall a good addition to the genre from an author to watch
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review book.

Creepy and thrilling!!

I love the slow build—definitely added to the intensity.

I feel like the mystery was wrapped up decently, but a few questions were left unanswered.

Cheyenne has returned home to take care of her mother after another young boy has gone missing. The town she’s from, is full of missing kids and each time her mom gets more unhinged. This latest missing boy might be the end of her mom. Now that Cheyenne is home, she is determined to put the real killer behind bars and put the end to the missing children once and for all.

This book was a nice atmospheric and enjoyable read. I really enjoyed the folklore that was engrained in this one! It was so utterly complex yet gratifying that I didn’t want to put it down. I was thoroughly entertained with this story. I’ve never been so afraid of something as these characters were of the woods, and I was able to feel their feel through the writing. It was so real. I really enjoyed the big reveal, but this one I did see coming. It’s alright though, it was done nicely.

If you are a fan of Lisa Jewell, or Ruth Ware, then check out this one when it's out this summer on July 11th! Thank you to Crooked Lane Books, @crookedlanebooks, and @netgalley for a copy of this e-ARC in exchange for this honest review.

This was a creepy read, centered primarily on Cheyenne, who returns to her home in a backwoods city in VA after a 5 year absence after she hears her mother needs help. You also get some chapters told in the POV of Natalie, Cheyenne’s former best friend who has never left the town. Children in their small town have gone missing for decades and Cheyenne’s arrival is aligned with yet another child gone missing; rumor has it that the woods around the town are cursed.

The story is definitely creepy with the unknown boogeyman, the nursery rhymes, and town lore. That being said, I found it somewhat difficult to believe that children have been going missing for decades and no one (except Cheyenne) chooses to leave town. Maybe I just don’t understand the culture of a small town like this. I thought Cheyenne and Natalie were both mostly likable characters but I couldn’t get a sense of how old they were or what Cheyenne did while she was gone for 5 years- I felt like a little more background info would’ve further endeared me to them.

As for the mystery, I did figure out what was really going on but it wasn’t exactly like I had envisioned (which was actually even more horrible than what happened) but I thought the end of the book was rather slow- a lot of time was spent tying up the loose ends that I thought was unnecessary.

Overall, I found this to be an enjoyable read that was suitably creepy. I’d recommend it to those who like mysteries. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This book is easily 5 stars for me!

I actually put off reading this for several weeks because I was afraid to start based on the synopsis! I don’t typically choose to read stories like this but I’m glad I did because I thought it was amazing and I can’t wait for more!

Nursery rhymes, the woods, isolation, superstitions… this book houses all of my childhood fears and then some!

I’ve seen this described at a slow burn in other reviews but I definitely feel like it had a faster pace. It starts with a bang and I feel like the suspense never left for me. The imagery was fantastic and I truly felt like I was able to visualize everything I read with ease.

I can’t believe this is Katherine Greene’s debut! Her writing is superior to loads of writers with much more experience.

I did not see the twist coming at all! My only disappointment was the very last page — I was really hoping for something different but it didn’t change my overall view of the story. It was excellent!

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and Katherine Greene for allowing me to read this ARC! Bravo!!

For a debut novel,The Woods Are Waiting will hopefully be a sign for things to come from Katherine Greene. A solid, suspenseful, dark thriller that is set in a small rural town in the Appalachian mountains. I enjoyed the storyline and the supernatural touches that worked their way through the book, ultimately it tells us that we don't have to look for the unknown to necessarily find the evil that lurks. Katherine did a great job of making you feel contempt for various characters and questioning what had truly happened. I did begin to work out what may have happened a short while before the end and I did feel the ending was reaching in parts. But these are the only negatives I can really find, otherwise it drew me in and I did enjoy the read. I would recommend!

Whenever I am asked to review anything by Crooked Lane Books I rarely refuse as the standard of dark thrillers (which often blend into horror) they release is incredibly high. They have also a keen eye for spotting new talent, often publishing highly impressive debuts, with Katherine Greene’s The Woods are Waiting the latest in an impressive line. If you are a dark thriller fan, all these previously reviewed Crooked Lane titles are worth further investigation: The Nightmare Man (J.H. Markert), The Hidden (Melanie Golding), A Dark and Secret Place (Jen Williams), Sins of the Mother (August Norman), It Will Just Be Us (Jo Kaplan), The Monsters We Make (Kali White) and The Dead Girl’s Club (Damien Angelica Walters). Crooked Lane also released one of my favourite ever detective trilogies, the hillbilly noir series by Hank Early which begins with Heaven’s Crooked Finger, which I regard as an undiscovered classic.

Although the blurb compares The Woods are Waiting to mainstream crime writers Lisa Jewell and Ruth Ware there is definitely a whiff of hillbilly noir to the plot. Being set entirely in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains this dark thriller, with its dark customs and small-town secrets, had more in common with Hank Early rather than Jewell or Ware. There is something about this huge mountain range which transforms beautifully into the realms of fiction and Katherine Greene does a great job of bringing this vast location to life, with rivalries, superstitions, suspicion to outsiders and perhaps most importantly, sinister local legends.

The local legend revolves around a supernatural character called the ‘Hickory Man’ which parents use to scare their kids into not wandering off into the Hickory Woods which encroaches the small town of Blue Cliff, Virginia. However, what makes the Hickory Man different from many other local legends is the fact that many locals believe him to be real and have rituals to ensure he does not snatch their kids, such as having sand in their shoes or a silver coin in their pocket. This part of the story was very nicely developed and for the most part the author keeps the Hickory Man nicely shrouded and lurking in the background. You will have to read it yourself to figure out whether he is real or not and if you are a fan of thrillers, but not the supernatural, this book will still satisfy as the mystery is significantly more complex than whether this local boogieman is genuine or not.

The Woods are Waiting has a very clever and effective split first-person narrative, Cheyenne Ashby and Natalie Bartlett, who between them provide contrasting views of the town. Cheyenne has recently returned to her former home to look after her erratic and elderly mother after five years away, she does not want to be there, and clearly has issues with the town. Natalie has never left Blue Cliff and is the former best friend of Cheyenne, when the two bump into each other early in the novel we realise Cheyenne disappeared without telling Natalie and there is hurt and resentment between the two women.

As well as being about the two young women reconnecting another major part of the story concerns Cheyenne’s conflict with her mother Constance. She grew up deep in the woods with her eccentric single parent, was raised on the unusual customs and generational superstitions linked to the Hickory Man local legend which haunted the forest. Cheyenne was taught to only use certain forest paths, used charms for safety and helped her mother mix potions and spells for members of the local community who believed in the same superstitions. Becoming tired of this mumbo-jumbo, as she saw it, she escaped leaving Blue Cliff for five years.

A number of other characters are thrown into the mix, including a former love interest and the local sheriff, but the main plot is built around the disappearance of a local child and the fact that the locals believe this is the beginning of a new cycle of killings, repeating what happened five years earlier. Things are complicated by the fact that the convicted murderer of five years earlier has recently been exonerated in an appeal and so the knee jerk reaction is to blame the Hickory Man. Sensing a story, the national media also descend on the normally sleepy small town and cracks begin to show.

The Woods are Waiting was a highly entertaining thriller which deserves to be a hit with both thriller and horror fans. The clash of local superstition with hard facts was nicely pitched and whether you believe in the Hickory Man or not, the possibility of him being real cast a shadow of uncertainly across the book. The two young women who narrated the book were also refreshing, both in their personal clashes with each other, other characters and their roles in solving the mystery. The Woods are Waiting was a very solid page-turner and an impressive debut from Katherine Greene.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC copy of this title.

As someone who lives in the Appalachian mountains I really enjoyed this book. This book did a great job on showing a glimpse into the lives of rural appalachia. Do we all carry coins in our pockets and dirt in our shoes, no, at least not here. However the feeling this book provides is the same feeling I get just driving through my town.

The Good: The feeling and presence the book lays out for you feel authentic and keeps you turning the pages. The Appalachian lore is wonderful and I found myself devouring it. I loved the characters and trying to work out the plot line. The book is a fast easy read.

The Bad: While the ending provided a satisfying wrap up, I was a-little dissappointed. I WANTED to face the Wicker Man. I wanted to see the big bad monster, not faced with a Dexter like ending. The author did a good job wrapping it up but I was dissappointed in the choice of ending.

So overall I really enjoyed the book and the journey, I just wish it would have stuck to the appalachian folk lore at the end. I know the last last left it open and I appreciated that but it just left me wanting more and wishing for a different ending. With the being said my rating is 3.5 so its rounded up to a 4. It definitely is worth the read.

Unfortunately this one was a miss for me. The premise sounded very intriguing. Haunting woods, nursery rhymes gone awry, a small town with a dark past. I was very interested to see where this story would go.

I thought the book started off well. I was very interested in Cheyenne and her mother. Natalie’s perspective fell a bit flat for me. I wanted more backstory on the woods and the Ashby family. I think that would have added to the story line.

Sadly, I felt there was poor character development and the book had more relationship drama than suspense.

There was potential in this story, but this one didn’t do it for me. 3 stars

The Woods are Waiting by Katherine Greene was an amazing debut thriller!

This story kept me thoroughly entertained from start to finish.
Greene's style was good and the story flowed well throughout.
The plot was very intriguing and well executed.
I could not stop reading this book once I started. Literally couldn't.
The characters were all well rounded and realistic.
Katherine Greene writes an addictive, compelling thriller that I just devoured.
And I can't wait to see what she creates next!
Because The Woods are Waiting was an amazing ride!

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Gripping mystery of small towns, the power of superstition and folklore, and the strong bonds of true family, by blood or not. Complex story with enough red herrings to keep you on your toes to the satisfying ending.

Excellent Debut novel.
This was an interesting story. What is in the woods, why do children go missing in there and then later found dead. The woods have been taking children for over a hundred years and usually always in three’s.
When Cheyenne is asked to come back home to her hometown by the local Sheriff, as another child is missing and Cheyenne’s mother isn’t taking it to well. So she goes back to the town full of superstitions.
Are the woods really too blame, they must be for what else explains the disappearance and death of so many children over a century.
Thoroughly enjoyed this read. A pact made over a century ago is still playing out and the ending is or is not what you expect. Totally intriguing.
Thanks to Netgalley and publishers for this eARC.