This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer paints a visceral survival horror that is loosely inspired by the unsolved Dyatlov Pass incident (albeit set in the Kentucky wilderness and in the modern social media age).

The story gets off to a strong start and the author does a fantastic job at setting up creepy scenes and creating a vivid setting that truly feels alive.

However, as the story goes on, I think what frustrated me the most was how many stupid, careless decisions the characters made. For instance, bringing your dog to uncharted rock formations, bringing old gear without backups, and administering questionable first aid. These all seem like novice mistakes experienced, professional rock climbers wouldn't make, and this ruined my immersion at times.

Qualms aside, if you enjoy supernatural survival horror (like The Ritual) where the landscape itself plays tricks on you, you’re in for a grisly treat.

As a Kentucky native and horror lover, I just had to read this book. It was one crazy read. Even though you discovered early on the outcome of the hikers, I still found myself hopeful for their survival. This was such a spooky, good read!

This book drags you into the woods, gets its claws under your skin, and doesn’t look back for a second. There’s no lag here. Just pages of horror entertainment right to the finish. The opening even tells you — mostly — the gruesome outcome up front, but leaves the “how” unanswered so you press on through the thickets of Kentucky backwoods to find out for yourself. Fans of “The Ruins” and “The Ritual” — two top tier survival/nature horror novels — will inhale this like a granola bar after a long and grueling hike. There is gore, lots of vomit, unlikable characters unraveling, panic, tension, resentment, and a wooded region with layers of history.

What the heck did I just read? This book really freaked me out. I typically read before bed, but I couldn’t with this book. Every time I I’d turn the light off and close my eyes, all I could see was Dylan being chased by a man with a hatchet. This terrifying story is going to stick with me for a while.

This book is what nightmares are made of! I just can’t imagine what I would do if I found myself in a situation like that. I found it interesting that the story starts with the ending. Even though I knew what would happen, I was still left with so many questions. The pacing was good, though it felt a little repetitive in parts.

Overall, a deeply disturbing book that will keep you engaged and leave you scared to go into the woods!

If you're looking for a stomach turning, supernatural horror book ... STOP RIGHT NOW and add this to your tbr!

What I thought might be a YA type novel from the amazing cover work, I was quickly proved wrong. From the halfway mark, this book turns gory 😱

I absolutely loved the original premise - a group of friends find a new rock wall to climb in the Kentucky wilderness but once they go in, they won't be finding their way out. What follows is a creepy tale of a haunted forest with characters spiraling into madness. Honestly there are some scenes in this book that I won't be forgetting any time soon 🤢

The only thing that didn't work for me were the characters. They were all very unlikable and I think could have done with a bit more fleshing out. There were also a few eye rolling moments at some questionable actions but hey, it's an entertaining fiction book so I shrugged and moved on.

Overall, this book is totally worth picking up if you're an avid horror reader. I don't think I'll be going into the woods anytime soon though 😅

A huge thanks to @quirkbooks and @netgalley for my digital review copy ♡

This book had me in its claws from the first line. I was riveted in the worst way, turning pages with frantic abandon. When it really got going, it was genuinely difficult to put down. Legitimately horrifying, but also so enjoyable. Reminded me of The Ruins, with everything I wished the film Yellow Brick Road had been. I adored this book. Even with the crushing inevitability of the ending coming toward me like a freight train, it swept me up and carried me away.

As someone who ponders the Dyatlov Pass incident probably at least weekly, this book scratched an itch I didn't know I had. Kiefer places her explorers in the Kentucky wilderness, intending to scale, map, and claim an undiscovered stone face to become famous in the rock-climbing world. This book forces you to wildly speculate the entire time, and none of my ideas were quite right. Kiefer tells you the 'ending' up front, making the reader start theorizing from the very first chapter. In the end, I wish that the explanation had been slightly different, but I can't say This Wretched Valley wasn't a page turner. She is so descriptive and I found my eyes flicking back over sentences that were just so gorgeously crafted I had to double take. She is also descriptive when it comes to violence, so fair warning on that.
5 stars for an engrossing, well written, and captivating read.

This Wretched Valley did some things really well, and also some things that I wish were done differently. It is definitely creepy and had some horrifying moments as the trip goes wrong. I didn’t mind that the characters ignore so many bad signs or even that the characters are a bit flat. The horror makes up for a lot of that. What I ended up having some issue with was that while we get glimpses of the past and this area, we don’t get to know much of why or how. I don’t need it all spelled out, but I bit more would have really solidified things for me.

Note: arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for honest review

This book made me feel like I was in parts of it! It was so eerie and I just couldn’t get enough of it! I loved the authors writing style

Huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC!

Deja vu for those who read my reviews, but by now, you’ve probably deduced that I like reading books set in the wilderness and involving craziness. It could simply be they are lost and they need to survive or the forest itself can be possessed or an ancient entity wanting to remain untouched – either way, I’m game.

Add in the third spine-tingle maker for me – Dyatlov Pass – and I’m practically vibrating in anticipation. If you’ve not heard of Dyatlov Pass by now – I’ll pause while you go Google it and then we’ll wait here until you dig yourself out of the rabbit hole…………………………………… (eight hours later) AH! You’re back. See, not much going on in that crazy world with Dyatlov eh?

So, it should’ve been a no brainer heading into ‘This Wretched Valley’ that this book would’ve been tailor made for me, but alas, not all books hit home runs and for me, this one was an easy ground out to first base.

What I liked: The novel is centered around two main individuals – Clay and Dylan. Clay is doing a research project using LIDAR and attempting to find an unmapped rock face in order to graduate. Dylan is a recently signed professional climber, and as she’s been friends with Clay for some time, when Clay finds his potential A-grade rock face, he invites her along so that she can make the first climb and film some online content. They head there with two others (Dylan’s significant other Luke (and their dog, Slade) and Clay’s research assistant, Sylvia.

The only problem? The place Clay’s found is in an area the locals know to avoid.

As they hike in, we get the growing tension of GPS issues, each of the people thinking they’ve been walking in circles and Slade, the dog, going bananas time and time again. The dog doesn’t want to be there, but the group pushes its outbursts away, suggesting the dog has just seen a squirrel or a deer.

Once they do finally arrive at the cliff face, nothing goes right. Kiefer does a solid job of making the area feel uneasy and a suggestion that not all is right with the place, nor with the group. Arguments break out, time seems to move differently and each of the people find that they seem like things are repeating themselves, even when there’s video evidence to suggest otherwise.

It all comes to a head when an injury happens and they need to get the injured person to a hospital. This kicks of a series of events that ultimately culminates with the forest reclaiming those who’ve trespassed and the circular nature of well… um, nature kicks off again.

What I didn’t like: I reaaalllly wanted to like this one. Going in, I was hoping to get something along the lines of Nevill’s ‘The Ritual’ meets Lyons ‘The Night Will Find Us.’ Instead, I found everything to be telegraphed and falling into the world of ‘predictable,’ unfortunately. I personally didn’t care enough about any of the characters to want to root for any of them and when I didn’t have any emotional attachment, when anything happened, it had no effect on me.

Things got off on the wrong foot near the beginning, at least for me, when they stop for food and the waitress wasted no time in telling them that people go there and don’t come back and soon after, they end up driving in circles. Couple that with the way the dog was behaving – finding what appears to be a human femur – and the group brushing it all aside, it made it hard for me to ground myself in reality in order to then detach myself from reality, if that makes sense? I needed something to say, ‘Hey, these individuals are pragmatic and rational, so the irrational stuff happening is that much worse because of it.’ But we didn’t get that at all.

Why you should buy this: As with all books, if it sounds like something you’d dig, give it a shot! I LOVE 99% of all books I read and I go into every book expecting to have my socks knocked off, so when one is a misfire, it’s more of a rarity for me. This one just didn’t connect any dots with my reading brain and instead of DNFing, I stuck it out to the end, hoping that the ship would be righted and I’d really fall into it. Unfortunately, that never took place.

So, for you, if you are looking for a book set in a creepy place and things just don’t go right, this might very well be right up your alley.

For me, it just didn’t do what I had hoped it was going to.

95/100 or 4.75 stars

I did not expect to love this, but here we are! This was a great YA horror story. This Wretched Valley held me and didn't let go until the last sentence. This was an awesome time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quirk Books for allowing me to read an ARC of this book. I love the premise of this book; a small group of friends goes to explore new rock climbing territory in Kentucky. Seven months later three of the fours' bodies are discovered mangled and the fourth person is missing. What happened out there? This book hooked me in from the beginning, but to me it seemed to fizzle in the middle. I'm not sure why but I got a bit bored, but that's just me. As this ramped back up towards the ending I couldn't put it down again. I really enjoyed the ending and how this was written; and it has just the right amount of horror. I believe this is the author's debut book, and after reading this one I will definitely be watching out for what she does next.

This book was such a mind fuck! As someone who’s had a keen interest it the Dyatlov Pass incident, when I heard there was a book coming out inspire by it I immediately requested the ARC.

This Wretched Valley has a little bit of everything. From a haunted forest, to apparent dimension travel, to body horror to characters descending into madness. Kiefer’s story telling here is incredible. I didn’t know if I was rooting the characters on, or low key hoping for their demise.

Unsettling, terrifying, mind-bending and wild. This is a release you’re going to want to pre-order. Gripping from front to back. Is there anything more unnerving then getting lost in the woods, only to realize there is no way out?

I really struggled with a review for This Wretched Valley. Overall, there was so much I enjoyed about Jenny Kiefer’s novel however, I found the ending to be a letdown. I appreciated the disorienting elements which allowed me, as the reader, to feel the confusion the characters were experiencing. There were times I, like the characters, couldn’t tell which way was up or if the story was a shared delusion as a result of something unworldly in this valley. I loved the not knowing and being kept guessing, but I was disappointed in how I felt the story was unfinished. My questions weren’t answered but there also wasn’t a cliffhanger to make me think there will be another installment. I enjoyed the concept and the uncertainty the characters felt but I was overall unsatisfied with how the story ended.

The beloved horror trope of "friends go into mysterious woods" starts This Wretched Valley off with an incredible environment, promising storyline, and a stark promise of coming violence. As the observer the questions being immediately: when would you turn back? At what point are the warnings not worth the reward? Of course, this group of friends charges forward, ignoring stomach turning concerns as they rush towards their goals. This Wretched Valley does not hold back on the violence, gore, or body horror and also sprinkles in accompanying paranormal fears to have avid horror readers on the edge of their seat.

I read this based on Cynthia Pelayo's comments about it. She was Jenny's mentor. It did not disappoint.

It's been a long time since a book truly freaked me out. Last Days by Adam Nevill is the last one I can remember wanting to stop because I was freaked out. This was like that.

I'm getting ahead of myself, so I'll backtrack.

The opening of this book reminds me of At The Mountains of Madness. They stumbled upon something amazing, a rockface that appeared out of the blue and where it shouldn't be. Much the way it happened in Madness.

I'd been around climbing as a kid. My biological father did technical climbing. He climbed Mt. Rainer and a few others. I never learned this, though I would like to.

This book starts with how many of the lost in the woods books do, but when it takes a turn, it's a hard turn. There are elements of Jack Ketchum in the darker parts of this book, as well as The Woods Are Dark by Richard Laymon.

I nearly stopped this book at 65%. I was completely freaked out by what was happening. My brain needed a break. I chalk this up to the prose and how well Jenny writes. Luckily, my Kindle, which I use to read books from NetGalley, needed to be charged. It gave me a few hours of respite. I dove in as soon as it was ready.

There are so many things to say about this book. It does not come out until January, but I would order it now. It's going to be one of my favorite books going forward. Jenny's description, her knowledge of climbing, and her sense of knowing what to put that will scare you all coalesce into a story about survival. About wanting something bad enough to risk your life to attain it.

This underlying theme in the story, whether one character or another, stayed with me when I closed the book. I'll be thinking about this one for a while. This will be my last review for a while unless something piques my interest. I do have other books to review through NetGalley, but I'll be watching cartoons or reading comics for a while after this book. I need to wash my brain out for a bit.

I was excited to read this book, but it did not live up to my expectations. It starts off with a good premise of the rock climbers and scientists going into the possibly haunted woods to study what they think is a new crag of rock. However, it quickly just becomes boring. I hate it when anything bad happens to an animal in a book. Of course, Slade, the dog, goes missing almost immediately. He at least turns out to be okay at the end. By the part where Luke is severely injured in Dylan's fall from the rock, I had completely lost interest. I didn't feel like there was enough explanation/exploration of why the area was haunted/evil/filled with poisonous plants. It was a good idea for a novel, but it just gets bogged down and annoying when they can't get out of the woods and are suddenly wanting to murder each other just because the wilderness somehow convinces them too. The ghostly moonshine Clay finds is pretty stupid. I could really go on and on about the reasons I didn't like it. I probably would not read another book by this author.

4 young people go into the Kentucky wilderness each with their own goals. Months later 3 bodies are discovered, one missing.

I LOVE survival horror and this one was really fun. I love the concept of sentient/ malevolent nature.

This was interesting as you know from the start that at least 3 of the 4 don't survive and you know they had some weird as fuck deaths due to the condition of the corpses. It then tracks back to follow their trip and how it unfolds. There are also occasional flashbacks to others who had entered the woods throughout history. The pacing could have been tightened as I think too much time was spent in the campsite before the really creepy stuff kicked in. The last 30% is a series of gruesome events. I felt actually nauseated at a couple points (the flies) which is the highest praise. It took effort to tear my eyes away from the page at points.

The characters could have used some work too, I found they feel into two camps:
A) arrogant and annoying as hell (Dylan and Clay or,
B) boring and nondescript (Sylvia and Luke).

I really wish they had been fleshed out a bit more, some I actually wanted them to die. I especially wish there had been more about Sylvia. All we know is that she's a botanist and she makes observations that a lot of the plant species she see are poisonous and not- native to the area but doesn't seem particularly curious about it. She really just a note-taker and someone who apparently took one first-aid course.

My biggest gripe with the book <spoiler> The dog. If my dog goes missing and my partner has any response other than dropping what they're doing to help me search they are getting dumped immediately. Let alone to disregard the dog to help with something as inane as ROCK-CLIMBING. The fact that it is considered her job is irrelevant- I've called in sick numerous times because my dog had diarrhea let alone a serious illness/injury.
And then the dog dies? No, Jenny, that's NOT cool. Like, if he's not going to show up at some person's house covered in blood then he should die jumping to Luke's defence or something. His existence and death in the story is useless/ just a motivation factor for Luke to turn against Dylan. </spoiler>

I knew I had to read this the second I saw the cover. May I have a t-shirt with this graphic, please? Survival horror is also a good time and when I saw this likened to The Ruins and The Descent, I got so excited. The prologue immediately draws you in where we’re introduced to the scene of a camp trip gone wrong. The first chapter goes back to the beginning of the story where we find two eager Science grad students, a climber, climber’s boyfriend, and his dog set off on a climbing trip. The first half was really slow, but definitely eerie. The second half ramps up in grotesquely brutal fashion. Interspersed are flashbacks to other instances throughout the years where this hungry forest ruined lives. Thank goodness the second half picked up because I found the characters slightly unbearable and their actions frustrating. Overall, solid short read that fans of wilderness survival horror should definitely check out.

3.5

Really enjoyed this novel! Set in KY, it’s reminiscent of The Descent & The Ruins…I I climbing gone horribly wrong. The characters were a bit frustrating in that they made the wrong choice EVERY SINGLE TIME, but they were stupid college kids so there’s that, lol! Slower paced & filled with the right amount of dread!