This is a really great horror book! It has a unique story and moves at a perfect pace. This has genuinely creepy moments that were so much fun to read. This is one of my favorite books I have read this year! I highly recommend this! Special Thank you to Jenny Kiefer, Quirk Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a survival horror book reminiscent of Dyatlov Pass and the Donner Party. The writing is elegant and visceral. There were portions of the book that dragged on, but it was still engaging.

Jenny Kiefer puts a cool twist on the horror trope of a group of four young people caught up in a horrifying and deadly situation. The opening chapter is a summary of found bodies, confusion about the condtion of the bodies and how they died along with one person still missing. Dylan is a rock climber excited about the find of an unknown cliff in the Kentucky wilderness. Along with her boyfriend Luke, Luke's dog, and two research friends the four young people hike along with the help of a GPS to find the cliff. Things go sideways when they seem to be lost, the dog goes missing and they begin to see weird plants and hear noises. Kiefer pulls out all the stops by incorporating supernatural ghosts, violent deaths and the fear of being trapped with no escape. Readers know the end result but the fun is how it all happens. Savvy readers will link This Wretched Vally with Scott Smith's book The Ruins published in 2006.

I wanted to like this book since I devour hiking/camping gone bad reddit posts but I could not bring myself to care about anyone in this book. Bad case of Bird Box-itis where every character is two dimensional to the point of absurdity. I didn't mind the gore but it had the emotional impact of watching a paper doll get eaten by a bunny -- just weird and not especially engaging.

While the author herself claims inspiration from the Dyatlov Incident, This Wretched Valley has themes which make me think The Donner Party story lent inspiration to the story’s premise as well. What better premise for a nature driven horror story than terrifying unexplained occurrences and the horrible things they can drive humans to do to each other.

This novel focuses on themes of land cursed by human greed. Themes of man’s misguided belief that any “unclaimed” land is theirs for the taking and nature’s hungry response and desire to remain unblemished by man’s touch.

Personally I loved the themes of this novel, but there is plenty of horror and gore as well. Nature can be terrifying enough on its own, throw in some cannibalistic ghosts and a morphing forest which imparts an infectious rage on those who dare to claim it and you basically have a nature based slasher.

My only dislike with this novel was that I felt that the horror was a little all over the place with what seemed like many partially developed stories. If you know me you know I like a fully fleshed out story with my horror and I feel that this could have used a little more work here. Some of the chase/fight scenes were a little too drawn out and repetitive for me.

Something I have been living for lately, and which this novel certainly provides, is the author’s incorporation of personal knowledge or expertise. I’m also reading Mad Honey right now, and the amount of bee keeping knowledge I’ve been presented with has my mind buzzing. In this case, Jenny Kiefer uses her personal rock climbing experience, which I think adds more depth to the story through imparting lived experience onto her characters, down to the minute details that only a rock climber would know. I also think this is a great example of how you absolutely can learn through reading fiction.

This Wretched Valley is a very recent release from January, so it’s a great addition to any 2024 horror TBR. This is going to be a great read for anyone who is into survival horror, for me it had a lot of similarities to The Southern Reach Trilogy, but with much more of a paranormal aspect to it.

This Wretched Valley was an excellent, spooky read and I really enjoyed it! Inspired by the Dyatlov Pass, the book opens with a documentary-esque recounting of how the bodies of (most of) our protagonists were discovered and forensic details. I thought that this was a fun way to open the book, and it helped to build the dread and hopelessness as you went through the book, as you knew that the characters weren’t going to survive.

There are a lot of fun, spooky elements to the story; a haunted forest, body horror, survival horror, characters descending into madness and all in all Jenny Kiefer weaves these elements into the book in a really engaging and creepy way. The book is multi-POV, and whilst I’ve not always enjoyed multi-POV horror books in the past, I enjoyed this one a lot as I think Kiefer did it well.

Overall, I’d give it 4.25 stars and would definitely recommend it!

I was given an ARC in exchange for an honest review – thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and everyone else involved.

I really loved this book - it’s like if The Ruins met The Descent, also inspired by the Dyatlov Pass incident! This Wretched Valley follows four friends who trek into the Kentucky wilderness to explore a newly discovered climbing rock. The gore was top notch and it was so trippy and messed up! A brilliant survival horror novel that really did leave me quite unsettled at points.

This book was inspired by the Dyatlov Pass which I’ve always been fascinated by (if you don’t know what that is, Google it and go down a rabbit hole that will keep you busy for hours). I breezed through the beginning portion of this novel, as I find rock climbing (and mountain climbing) very fascinating (probably because I don’t partake in it so I can live vicariously through characters who do!). The moment the four friends arrive at the valley, strange things begin to happen. I find forests pretty intimidating and scary so the setting was definitely creepy for me and I enjoyed that. I loved the history behind the forest and what occurred before the friends arrived there (that we got to learn later on in the book). There are many scary moments in this novel that horror fans will absolutely love. The only snag I had was that towards the middle mark the novel became a little repetitive when the friends kept going around in circles in the woods (and that’s probably the point) but for a debut, this was a strong novel. Not to mention that I haven’t read too many books that have a sentient forest ready to unleash its fury upon those who dare trespass on it.

Horror fans (especially those who love gore) will love this novel. I think it’d make an excellent movie too!

*Thank you so much to NetGalley and Quirk Books for the digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

A strong debut that's part haunted house story/part survivalist horror. Definitely an up and comer in horror. Full review here: https://bewarethescarylibrarian.blogspot.com/2024/01/new-arrival-this-wretched-valley-by.html

Horror is not a genre I usually read, but I wanted to give this one a try since Quirk Books is based in Philly and I live near there. I love to support smaller pubs and especially debut novelists like Kiefer.

Four people head into the Kentucky woods to do some research about the terrain. One, Dylan, has just started a lucrative deal with a climbing company. She's hoping to scale a cliff and show climbing devotees what she's made of.

The horror amps up as the quartet start experiencing some odd sights and experiences in the woods. As their emotions heighten and fear reigns, the capability of humans to hurt others--and the land to get revenge--take center stage.

As far as horror goes, this book absolutely scared me. The build up in tension and the vivid descriptions of the horrific things the characters experienced and saw definitely kept me engaged. The supernatural thread of the story was intriguing, but I felt like we weren't given a "reason" for why what was happening happened. With this storyline not tied to reality or a relatable emotion/historical issue, it didn't resonate as much with me as it could have. I was scared but wasn't invested in the horror.

Still, if you're a fan of "wilderness horror," this is absolutely a book for you. Kiefer's ability to scare--and describe scenes of horror--is strong.

3.5 stars.
likes:
- the horror/gore. really vivid descriptions that were great!
- solid survival horror!

dislikes:
- the POVs. there were a few too many for me & I don't feel like the characters had distinct voices that were easy to tell apart. I especially didn't enjoy the POVs from the past.
- the cursed land trope

This was a really interesting take on the Dyatlov Pass incident. Great supernatural elements and some nice grisly bits as well.

This one was tough to get into and I don't know if it's because with translations somethings are lost or that they were changed to better fit the English language, but I couldn't get into it.

I could predict what was going to happen very early on, and I just didn't enjoy the book the way I thought I would. Overall the story is not bad but it wasn't my cup of tea.

The synopsis made me think the book would unravel the mystery of what happened to these climbers, but that's not what this gave. You're with the climbers the whole time so there's no mystery. You see what happens to them as it happens.

I'd categorize this more as a variation on the final girl trope where the woods are the attacker. The horror is very of the popping, cracking, oozing, festering, swelling, bloating, squirting, stinking, rotting, souring variety. There is minimal character development and character relationships are flat. A couple of the characters were geology/botany(?) students working on research, but the science and nature writing is nearly non-existent.

Having just finished Dead Mountain, a non-fiction about the Dyatlov Pass Incident, I was pretty disappointed by this as an 'inspired by' work of fiction. Too much gore, not enough science, and my intrigue died by the 20% mark.

I'm not normally a horror person, but this took place in the woods of Kentucky, so I thought I'd try it. Four people go into the woods of Kentucky, and 3 bodies are found a month later. What happened, and where is the fourth body? Two members of the party are graduate students at the University of Kentucky, and the last two are a rock climber influencer and her boyfriend. The book comes from all four points of view, as well as the past of the haunted forest. Very gorey, and I could have used less of that. I also wanted more of an explanation of why this all was happening. But otherwise very intriguing. Thanks to Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

THIS WRETCHED VALLEY [Release January 16, 2024] is an immensely, delightfully, engrossing Supernatural Folk Horror set in rural Kentucky. On the surface a gentle account of four young persons, two of whom are graduate students, one a budding influencer-rock climber, plus her dog-devoted boyfriend/assistant, this novel is surprising both in its depth and in its breadth. Suspension of disbelief is immediate, compelling, and continuing, as the hapless quintet (four humans plus an Australian Shepherd) find themselves inextricably trapped in an increasingly unreal and impossible "reality." Each time I tried to get a handle on what's happening, the author delivers yet another revelation of intensity and terror. Also, although this tale is set in March in rural Kentucky in 2019, the group supplied with cell phones and GPS, the relevances and parallels to the February 1959 Dyatlov Pass Tragedy in the Ural Mountains of Russia are amazingly pertinent.

*2.75 stars
I am an avid horror/thriller reader, and especially love when a book includes things that are like a science-expedition kind of deal. I found the book description to be rather enthralling, and I absolutely love this cover. This book started off strong to me, but quickly fell flat. While the writing is technically good, save for a few blips, I just found the story to be very repetitive. The characters were very one note and, aside from the dog, I didn't care for any of them. They continually ran through the cycle of running away and "oh no, we're stuck! What do we do?!" and it became very irritating very quickly. While I enjoyed the flashbacks that provided more context for the wretched valley, I felt they were placed so randomly that it completely took you out of the story. Aside from all of this, I thought the gore moments were done well, producing very disturbing images in my head as I read (like I said, the writing is very good). All in all, this isn't a bad book; it just clearly did not work well for me and I likely will forget much about it by next week.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quirk Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.75 It's a good idea and plot. For some reason I just couldn't connect with the characters. Would make an awesome movie.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. If you like ghostly horror stories, it might be just what you're looking for, but that's not my cup of tea unfortunately. I went in thinking it was more of a straightforward suspense with horror elements and that's not what it turned out to be.

I didn't connect with the characters, and the plot had too many unanswered questions for me. There was a lot about this book that reminded me of The Ruins--the feeling of foreboding and everyone warning them away from the area, and the supernatural events that happen when they are there. It's possible that this book might be better as a movie, because the drama seems more suited to that type of medium.

Side note: I spent the entire book worried about the dog, and we don't know what happened to the dog. Why was the dog even included? To make readers more anxious?

If you like ghost horror stories, this book might be for you. If not, then I suggest reading one of the many intriguing non-fiction books about the Dyatlov Pass incident.

I absolutely don’t read enough horror with settings in nature and This Wretched Valley scratched an itch I didn’t realize I had. This book is great for fans of books similar to The Ruins where readers know that their main characters are going to get trapped somewhere, but the how, the why, and the what will happen to them is completely unknown.

This Wretched Valley was the perfect mix of suspense and twistiness while also delivering on the examination of the psychological impact the situation has on our cast of characters. Speaking of which, the cast is great. Kiefer gives readers four unique characters who each get the chance to tell the story from their perspective. I loved the insider look into what each of them was experiencing and their observations about how those with them were reacting to what was happening. Mix this with an isolated and largely unknown setting and you’re in for a book you just can’t put down.

I highly recommend walking into this one as blindly as possible and following along with the cast as they try to find out what’s happening around them.

A huge thank you to Quirk Books for my gifted copy!