Thanks to Netgalley and Cemetery Dance Publications for access to this arc.

I have quite a bit of mixed feelings about this book. First, i like the way its written. Even though at first there were quite a few different characters, I didn't feel confused. I enjoyed the read. However, I feel like it's the genre that I didn't really like. Maybe horror is not quite for me and I'll stick to purely thrillers. I would totally recommend to horror fans though.

Absolutely love Kristopher Triana! That Night in the Woods is a perfect read for spooky season. It’s got demons, cults, small town drama, and best friends just trying to not have a lame Halloween. It’s the kind of book that really gets in your head. It definitely made me think twice about spending a night in the woods again. Highly recommend and look forward to reading all of Kristopher’s books!

I have come to the conclusion that Kristopher Triana will never disappoint me. There is something about his writing that just clicks with me and draws me in. His ability to build and sustain suspense throughout a book is incredible.

This book centers around a group of childhood friends who, now as adults, return to their hometown and reconnect for the first time to try and get some answers about the last fateful night that they spent together. From the description, this did not sound like a book that I would normally be interested in, but when I saw the author, I didn't give it a second thought. The story alternates through each character's perspective, which I really liked. I really felt that each of them had their own voice, and I was able to thoroughly understand who they were and what their motivations were.

As a reader, the main driver in this book was the suspense and mystery around what happened that night and what is happening now. With each answer I got, more questions would arise, and nothing was set into plain view until the end. Nothing felt predictable to me, but everything made sense, with just enough breadcrumbs and hints along the way to make you curious, but not spoil anything, which is a feat in itself for a book like this.

I felt a bit disappointed about what I thought was the big reveal at first, but as I read on and learned more, I came back around and felt more satisfied. Also, this is the first book that has made me audibly gasp, so that has to count for something too right?

Things get pretty intense toward the end, but most of the book focuses on suspense instead. Though it is bloody at times, you are spared the grotesque details for the most part, making this a more accessible read for those who tend to avoid splatterpunk and extreme horror. It is very dark, however, so be prepared to deal with some heavy stuff.

“That Night in the Woods” is a gripping horror novel, offering up some genuinely frightening sequences that crawl under your skin and fester. It’s a very fun read, with a great cast of characters and a chilling plot. While the end of the book falls into the realm of predictability, the rest of the novel is far from it.

3.5 stars out of 5

This book has a few familiar tropes like 'adults returning to face there childhood demons' like in IT by King and Black Mouth by Ronald Malfi, and another trope that I will not mention, as it is part of the twist that happens at about the 60-70% mark, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but it's something we have seen before but not in this combination.

It was extremely well written, with a great atmosphere and characters, and very enjoyable.

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.*

Having read Gone to See the River Man earlier in the year, I was so excited to see this come up on Net Galley, so thank you Net Galley for the version I received of this!

Enjoyed this so much I couldn't put it down and had to finish it in one day, loved the slowly unfolding mystery and the descriptions of the autumn vibes and spooky woods were absolutely perfect to kick off Halloween season.

I don't know if it's because I was enjoying the book so much, but I was a little caught off guard by the ending. I felt like it just ends and I was like Oh, is that it? But it might have been because I just didn't want it to end.

The copy I received also had some typos and errors which always ends up taking me slightly out of the book, but I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to read it regardless!

I absolutely love stories where people come home and meet up after a long period of time. They are literally my favorite.
This one though didn't do it for me. It just wasn't for me, but I don't read a ton of cheesy tropey horror. I can think of friends of mine who would DIE to read this book and form fan clubs.
So it isn't a bad book at all. I am just not into it.
I want to see what the author writes next because I love the setting.

I tried, I really did. I made it to about 60% before deciding to DNF this book.

I couldn't connect to any of the characters. I found them all unlikeable and just uninteresting. The whole first 50% was just so slow and boring and I was having trouble getting myself to read more. So, for me, I had to DNF.

I've heard so much hype about Triana's writing, so I was doubly disappointed. I will be giving his other works a try, though.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book. <i>That Night in the Woods</i> releases in October 2023.

<i>That Night in the Woods</i> follows a group of friends who are called to return to their hometown twenty-some years after a tragic occurrence on Halloween.

I liked the framework of this story, and I enjoy narratives that follow a group of people who have to return someplace a certain of amount of time after a huge event. They can be fun stories.

This, unfortunately, wasn't really a fun story. It was entertaining in a B horror kind of way, where you're waiting to see what happens next but cringing on the journey.

I hope this book saw more editing in between the e-arc and its final releases, as there are some hilarious mistakes like saying someone lives "next store" instead of next door and calling spanx "Spankx." My favorite had to be "loving making" though, because oh boy.

My real issue with this book is that the characters are nothing. They are just stereotypical and all of the exposition dumps provided to give them depth and characterization are either unnecessary or just further stereotype them. Mark is the bad boy fuck up and Jenny is the obsessed with her high school sweet heart good girl and Corey is the "nice boy" whose just so nice and nerdy that he's neverrrrr going to really be loved by a woman (incel vibes). There is absolutely nothing to them, combined with the fact that they are all insufferable, made this a hard read.

The novel either needed to be longer to really delve the town, the woods, and the characters, or it needed to be a novella with all that unnecessary exposition cut.

I also yearn for the day when horror writers stop using disfigurement as a way to show someone is horrifying. It's ableist and disgusting. Please stop.

There's also some weird kid stuff in here, a la this book's clear inspiration, <i>It</i>. <spoiler>And the whole cult thing was...weird. Needed more explanation. </spoiler>

So, yeah, overall I wouldn't recommend. It was not great, unless you're in the mood for a B horror read and can deal with some cringy writing.

[Any quotes used in this review are from an advance reader's copy and do not reflect the final copy. Please refer to the finished copy.]

That Night in the Woods is a spooky slasher read for every horror fan and has that ending that you are not expecting. This book delivers the non stop thrills that will leave you turning the pages until you get done reading this book. The book was an enjoyable read with the suspense, mystery and gore and would recommend it to any horror fan. The author has created the perfect spooky Halloween location by putting it in the middle of the woods with a group of friends. Definitely will recommend this one to any horror fans. Thank you to NetGalley and Cemetery Dance Publications for this ARC read in exchange of my honest review.

Scott invites his old love Jennifer and the rest of the crew, Tracey Mark and Corey back to their home town to mourn the passing of an old friend. This group of friends have a secret, a dark secret that happened in the woods known as Suicide Woods and have tried to leave it in the past, however Scott manages to convince them to go into these creepy woods once more. Full of murder with twists and turns this was one I didn't want to put down!

⚠️Slight Spoiler Here ⚠️
The only downside for me was that it wasn't actually Paranormal stuff going down in those woods just normal human horror 🤦

**3.75 stars
okay, I'm a huge fan of creepy books that will have chills running down my spine and this book delivered just that. I've never been a fan of the woods and cabins in the woods and this book has both. From the very first page, you're trying to figure out what is happening and this book has you guessing after every page turn. This book was a great read and this will be going on my list of spooky books to read during October.

I completely devoured this book! I noticed that it is a different type of novel than Triana usually writes. There is amazing character development, which leads you to care about what happens to this group of friends. This book felt very Stephen King-esque! Given King is one of my favorite authors, I loved the feel of this book. I felt like it had "It" vibes because of the relationship with the friends having to confront a dark event from their past. The book is haunting, and the scary scenes are gory, which gives you the Kristopher Triana feels.

This book revolves around a couple friends from high school and a life-changing event that occurs on Halloween. It is a night that has a haunting effect on them for the rest of their lives. One of the friends, Scott, reaches out to all the others because Stephen had passed away and left them in his will. They all go back to their hometown even though they said they would never go back.

Reliving their experiences and trying to correct the mistakes of the past make this book horrifying, intense, and gut-wrenching. I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who loves spooky, creepy stories that are also a smattering of extreme horror.

That Night in the Woods by Kristopher Triana is a story reminiscent of The Losers Club from IT, in that a group of five friends meet up after twenty years to celebrate and mourn the loss of one of the group, Steven. I’m afraid that’s where the comparison ends. This unfortunately wasn’t a book that worked for me. It was a real slog to get through it and I did think about DNF’ing it at several points. The story starts off extremely slow and the POV’s alternating without warning and did find myself getting frustrated.

That Night in the Woods follows Jennifer, Traci, Corey and Mark coming back to Redford after Scott gets back in touch with them to inform them of the passing of their friend Steven. Each friend seems to be at different stages of their lives – some are married, some divorced all still quite immature, but one thing that was blindingly obvious is that they’re all miserable. When they arrive at Scott’s (who still resides in Redford) the awkwardness is off the scale, and they all just seem to immediately fall back into their teenage selves.

This is one of the issues I had with the story – the falling back into past behaviours. Here they are all meeting up again after twenty years and they suddenly forget about jobs, families, responsibilities. I just found I had to suspend disbelief a little too much. Scott presents them with information relating to Steven’s death, mysterious journals, new details and then again with the acting like teenagers, despite hearing about the new details and Jennifer going through a recent divorce, falls into bed with Scott. I mean there’s no way in hell I’d sleep with an ex again, especially after twenty years, I just wasn’t buying it.

They revisit that night twenty years ago, that night in the woods, that night they vowed to never speak of again, and here they are speaking of it again. The story went back and forth and when I got to the scene of them in the woods, I was fully expecting to have the pants scared off me, but it just wasn’t what I had been expecting.

That Night in the Woods had so much potential, but I was just left feeling so deflated by the whole experience. I have the author’s other works on my TBR and will be reading them, but this just wasn’t for me. Again, this is a subjective view and may be different for everyone.

This horror/thriller follows a group of friends 20 years after one Halloween night changed their lives forever. When Scott Dwyer calls out of the blue to invite the fractured friend group back together, they are all a bit wary of returning to Redford. But each of them - Jennifer, Corey, Traci, and Mark - agree to come and honor the memory of their recently passed friend, Steven. As the group begin to reminisce about their teenage years, Scott breaches the vow they made to never speak of that one night.

We get a good mix of characters - but I found them to be on the caricature side of the spectrum. While the group hadn't spoken in many years, I didn't get a good feeling that they were ever really friends. Even in the flashbacks, it felt like more of a gathering of acquaintances rather than an established friend group. We get a brief introduction to most of the characters before they gather together but I wanted more time to establish their characters now so the comparison between then and now would be more clear. There is some substantial character change during the ending climax but since I didn't get a good sense of the characters to begin with, this change didn't hit me the way I think it was meant to.

The horror elements in this were spectacular and there were so many chilling moments. There are 2 timelines in this story and the past timeline, where we are seeing what happened that night in the woods, reminded me of All Hallows by Christopher Golden. We get the creepy people in the maybe haunted forest and a group of friends who are trying to be logical about it all but also aren't sure what they are experiencing. There's also a fair amount of gore in the last 25% or so of the read which I wasn't really expecting but I think worked well given the escalation with the plot.

I think the standout element by far is the tension Triana was able to craft. While the dual timelines do alternate, we get pretty big chunks at one time. There isn't a whole lot of back and forth that would normally help to build tension through the structure of the book so the meat of the story really needed to do the heavy lifting. As we get more reveals, the tension amps up because each reveal has some pretty far-reaching consequences. These aren't just "oh, X did Y" type of reveals. It is "X did Y which means that A and B ended up C which would mean..." type of reveals. There's also a good amount of interpersonal tension with the friend group and the fallout of that night in the woods. We get multiple POVs so tension is built that way as well where we see certain characters and their internal thoughts or desires.

The ending lost me, which is a real shame. Plot-wise, the ending was actually was a little off the rails but in a way that I usually like. However, I found the plot development to clash with the character development. There were certain characters that felt like they had complete personality shift in the last 30 pages or so which didn't work for me. I also found a bit of the explanation/reveal of the ending to be a bit info-dumpy in a way that made it feel rushed. Like we could have had this information woven into the scene a little more but instead it felt like the reader was being pushed toward the ending before I was ready for it.

Overall, I enjoyed parts of the story but it didn't quite come together perfectly for me. Fantastic horror elements and tension building but the characters and ending ended up feeling a little misaligned.

Overall, this one has a lot of the stuff I've come to love from Kristopher Triana. The prose is beautiful and compelling; the characters are authentic in their flaws and strengths; and the feelings of dread were masterfully navigated. However, this one seemed watered down in its extremeness. The gore was more standard-issue and that took a little away from the experience. For those who aren't fans of extreme horror, this is a great way to check out one of horror's best authors without getting grossed out.

That Night in the Woods was my first Kristopher Triana novel and I'll definitely be circling back for his other books. I enjoyed the writing, the creepy cover and the atmosphere. I can easily recommend this to readers for spooky season. Outstanding work on this novel.

4.5! So first and foremost go ahead and add this to your Halloween/October reading list right now, because it is perfect for that. This book was incredibly creepy. Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, it takes a hard left. I enjoyed the backstories of the characters (all in their forties) as I felt like it made the characters' insecurities, traumas, worries etc. that much more poignant and as someone knocking on 40s door, I really related to them. I also think it helped with parts of the book that were revealed towards the end that I shall not spoil. My other favorite part of the book was the mid nineties Halloween nostalgia. This really is the perfect read for spooky season. And if you’re wanting to start reading Kristopher Triana but are nervous about the levels of extreme, this is a great opener. There’s plenty of gore and horror, but not as much as many others. This book comes out on October 7, just in time for Halloween! Thank you to NetGalley and Cemetery Dance Publications for this wild ride of a great book!

2.5/5 stars for this creepy horror story that showed a lot of promise, but was uneven and clunky in execution. Thank you to NetGalley and Cemetery Dance Publications for the chance to review this book.

What to expect if you pick this up: That Night in the Woods starts out strong. We’ve got a cast of characters who were all teenage friends, now in their early 40s and trying to forget a traumatic night they spent as teens in the Suicide Woods in their hometown. One of the group has recently died, and they are all coaxed into coming back home to pay their respects. What happens from there takes us back and forth from past (that infamous night) to present, as they uncover the grim truth behind the Suicide Woods. The premise is great. In execution…I had some issues. The writing was inconsistent and clunky at times. The events of the night as teenagers wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be, not because the events that transpired weren’t potentially scary, but because the writing wasn’t. And when the truth is revealed, just doesn’t come together well. It feels rushed and ill-explained. The very end didn’t make sense to me either - the character involved behaves in a way totally contradictory to the way they were in the rest of the novel. I wanted to like this. There were times I enjoyed the story, especially the character development. But ultimately it just didn’t work for me.

The cover and description pulled me into this as it gave off 'I know what you did last summer' vibes and overall, that is what I got! This had more of an air of YA despite the characters being well into adulthood (something I already knew based on reading reviews) so going in knowing that it made it much easier to enjoy the story for what it was.