I was really excited to read this book. I enjoyed Gould's "The Dead and the Dark" and equally enjoyed this book. I know one thing that bothered me in "The Dead and the Dark" was how quickly the MCs went from hating each other to being so close. This book didn't feel like that. The characters definitely got incredibly close, but for good reason. The book is a trauma-filled romp through the woods, and so finding connections where there are few makes so much sense.

The creatures in the story were horrifying, and I found myself really reminded of Ishana Night Shyamalan' s recent The Watchers film.

The ending felt a little rushed in parts, just kind of the aftermath of what happened, but that feels kind of common in the horror genre. It's not so much about how everything is resolved or discussed, but more about the journey to the end. But I did appreciate the ending of the book, and felt strongly connected to the characters by the end of it all.

Really solid YA horror with elements of teenage suffering interwoven.

I really enjoyed this book. It is quite good, and I liked the whole concept of the mimics. I especially liked the implications of one particular mimic, and how the situation played out with that mimic and the other characters. It was really interesting, and it's something I would love to discuss in depth with other readers. I loved all of the kids as characters, particularly Ollie, Devin, and Sheridan. And I liked that at the end, things weren’t magically okay. Things got better for them, but things with their families weren’t resolved and all fixed. I also appreciated a conversation at the end about how all of their trauma is a part of them and will always be there with them. It’s not all that defines them, but it is part of what defines them, and that doesn’t go away. That conversation can be deeply meaningful for people struggling with their own trauma. I will be recommending this book widely.

You know what? I had a really good time with this book. There was something so gruesome about the monsters in this book, and maybe it was a smidge obvious that the monsters were coming up, but I had a really excellent time getting to the point. I really liked the group and how they were all so drastically different and how they were forced to come together to, you know, survive. I really enjoyed how they changed.

Hell, I even appreciated the counselors. Yeesh at what happened to them though.

Overall, this was a really compelling read. you might be able to do a wide overarching predicting as to what's to come, but the specifics about it was both so horrifying and not at all what I was anticipating that I really enjoyed it.

Thank you Wednesday Books and NetGalley for a chance to read and review!

What the woods took was a creepy and tense read. I really enjoyed and felt immersed in the story. Grab this for a good quick horror read!

What the Woods Took is about a group of troubled teens who end up in a wilderness therapy progam but the catch is that the teens find themselves stranded with monsters. What do the monsters want? Will they make it out alive? Want to find out what happens than make sure to read this captivating book. The author did a great job writing this one and I was turning pages until the very end. All of the characters in this were great and I especially liked Devin. I loved the creepy vibes in this book and it was such a tense read. Overall, this is one that I highly enjoyed and would recommend to any young adult reader or readers who love horror. Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this read in exchange of my honest review of What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould.

Thank you, NetGalley, St. Martin's Press | Wednesday Books, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

Devin Green is abducted from her foster parents' house, forced into a van and driven deep into the Idaho woods, where other teenagers are waiting for instructions. It soon becomes clear none of them consented to this treatment, but their parents agreed to it.
Two camp counselors inform them they have been enrolled in an experimental therapy program, where they have to change their self-destructive ways and survive a fifty-days hike through the wilderness. Devin is determined to escape, but there's something strange about the woods surrounding them. When they wake up to find their counselors missing, everything is turned upside down and they will have to fight to survive for real. Now stranded they will have to trust and rely on each other to survive and escape the woods. The campers not only are hiding dangerous secrets from each other, but the woods are more deadlier they thought they would be.

What the woods took is a genial, brilliant and intriguing horror YA novel. It's raw and imaginative, atmospheric and terrifying and I loved every single moment of it. I loved Devin and her stubborness, the bonds the campers create with each other and the terrifying things in the woods. What the woods took is a story about becoming someone or something new and powerful, in a scary and unsettling enviroment, forced to rely on one other in a dangerous place, filled with literal monsters ready to take their places.
Loved, loved this one so much!

I absolutely loved the latest by Gould—chilling, atmospheric, emotionally rich and complex, and a fully-realized setting. Kept me turning pages and deeply immersed in these characters!

While the premise was nice, the writing was... not what I expected. I wanted more from the characters because I felt that what was on the front cover and the front flap was not what we were given.

Gripping, moving, tense, mysterious…an absolute page turner with great depth and an important message.

What the Woods Took is a deep dive into the complexities of childhood and teenage coming of age with background of various forms of neglect and abuse at home. It is confronting in a way that is accessible to teens and young people, without removing any of the depth of understanding of the suffering and difficulty with getting beyond such experiences entail. It is beautifully written, and grips from page one, making it almost impossible to put down before all of the answers to the mysteries have unfolded. It carries a story of intense survival and hope and resilience with strong, relatable characters. It explores the role empathy and understanding, along with acceptance of difference can make on a healing journey, but also exposes the reality of the organisations involved in helping troubled teens and some of their more questionable methods for achieving outcomes.

I didn’t love the supernatural elements of the story, but taken as metaphor for experiences the children had faced and were facing they were understandable. I am also not generally a fan of reading books with f/f romance, (personal preference) but in this case the budding relationship was handled delicately and was truly beautiful at times, as the girls supported each other journey towards learning important lessons about trust and acceptance.

Themes to be aware of (handled in a non-explicit way, clear but sensitive to a YA/teen audience):
Child abuse, child neglect, suicide, child sexual assault, loss of parents, drug abuse, violence, child abandonment.

WHAT THE WOODS TOOK by @courtneybgould is a thriller focusing around a "scared straight" style youth wilderness therapy group that devolves into supernatural terror. Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publishers, @stmartinspress and @macmillanaudio for the e and audio ARCs.

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Devin has been snatched from her foster home in Portland, OR and thrown in a van with other "troubled teens" as they make their way to a wilderness therapy camp. None of the campers want to be here, but Devin particularly butts heads with another camper, Sheraton. But when their group leaders are missing one morning after they have been in the woods over a week, the group decides they better call a truce to get to the bottom of what is happening out in the woods and the strange sounds and sights they have been experiencing.

I liked this book but did not find it quite as compelling as the title I read by this author last year, WHERE ECHOES DIE. This was certainly interesting and I loved the creature feature aspect as well as the enemies to lovers sapphic storyline. Found family also was a powerful piece of this group of young people who don't fit the mold of society.

There’s something about an eerie forest that just gets under your skin—and this book absolutely nailed that creeping, unsettling feeling. This is more than just a survival horror story; it’s a sharp, emotionally resonant tale about identity, transformation, and the ways society fails its most vulnerable. Devin and the other teens are thrown into the woods under the guise of therapy, but what unfolds is something far darker. When their counselors vanish, they’re left alone with their fears, their secrets, and the uncanny presence of something lurking just beyond the trees—something that wants to replace them.

At its core, this book is about the messy, painful process of figuring out who you are. For teens on the edge of adulthood—or anyone who remembers that feeling of disorientation—this story hits deep. It explores how kids can slip through the cracks, abandoned by systems meant to help them, and how the pressure to be "fixed" can feel suffocating. The horror is both supernatural and deeply human: the monsters in the woods are terrifying, but so is the idea of losing yourself to become what others expect. And yet, there's hope here too—hope that redemption is possible, that change doesn’t have to mean erasure, and that the right people will accept you as you are.

This would be a fantastic pick for readers new to YA horror, especially those who love isolation horror, survival stories, or unsettling psychological tension. The message? It’s better to be imperfectly you than to mold yourself into someone else’s version of perfect. And to the teens (or former teens) who need to hear this: keep being yourself. The right people will find you.

Courtney Gould has proven, once again, that they are the champion of YA stories of sorrowful suspense. WHAT THE WOODS TOOK is no less mysterious and heartbreaking than Gould’s past works — and no less remarkable.

If Yellowjackets and The Faculty came together to make this modern day book baby. If you’re a fan of both, this book is fun. I do love both so I did enjoy it but it did take a little bit too long to come together. I’m also not the target audience for this book, so the younger gens should like this even more than me.

This book surprised me, in a good way. It's perfect for YA readers that are maybe too old for the Goosebumps series but too young for Stephen King (am I dating myself by mentioning those books?). The horror bits don't happen until almost the halfway mark but the first half is still fast-paced and attention grabbing. Even if you aren't a young adult, this book is worth reading. We're starting to hear a lot about the wilderness camps that parents would send their teens to as more survivors are coming forward to tell their stories. This book gives an insider view to what they might have endured.

What the woods took by courtney gould is a ya thriller standalone novel which is great cause last year in 2024 I was starting so many series. I first want to say thank you to Wednesday books & Netgalley for approving me for this e-arc all opions are my own.
Overall thoughts I thought that this was a fun and fast pace thriller. I wasn't expecting this book to be as creepy as the summary soundeded but boy did it creep me out! I give this five stars because we have some of my favorite tropes in this novel and that is. closed quarters, found family, friends to lovers! What more could you want? Anyways I love courtney's writing in this one and it was probalby her best work yet! Ik she only has 3 books out but I loved this one the most.
Devin was an interntesting main character to follow a tad annoying at the choices she made but overall really great character and of course I love the LGBTQ+ Rep we got in here too. I do kind of wish we got a pov from all the characters to see what the second group were doing throughout the novel, but still a really fun thriller and one I will totally re-read again! Kind of remind me of fourth wing with the trial aspect of what the woods took!(:

This book was a pleasant surprise! The first half of the book was spent building up the suspense and tension between the various characters. I was a little annoyed with Sheridan and Devin initially, but I think that was part of the author's intention too, for us to come to expect a certain behavior from these characters even though they could be irritating. While nothing big really happens in the first half of the book, I found myself coming back to it and wanting to keep reading to see what happens next. I was trying to pace myself, so it was actually a bit hard. Honestly, I was surprised by how much I wanted to continue on despite the lack of action. The second half of the book got more exciting as the characters realize they may really need to fight to survive and learn to trust each other. I enjoyed the mystery of the monsters, but also wish there was more explanation and background revealed about them. Overall, this was a fast paced read despite the build up. There was a good amount of creepiness, but nothing super scary. I thought the characters were well written and the reader sees their growth from the beginning of the book to the end. I definitely can't imagine doing that much hiking!

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an eARC of What the Woods Took in exchange for my honest review!

I like quite a bit of what we get here as this claustrophobic mood gobbles up the wilderness in which these youths are having to deal with a mysterious threat to their lives. Even before that point, it's already scary to imagine being in the teenagers' position and getting thrown out into the woods for a therapy camp that can supposedly give them the healing they need. Now, I do think this can get slow and some of the characters aren't all that strongly fleshed-out, although Sheridan is a good example of someone who's able to benefit from nuanced writing. And even with my critiques, this remains a compelling tale about self-hate, depression, mental health, identity, companionship, and dysfunctional families.

Overall, I'm officially rating What the Woods Took 3.25 out of 5 stars, which I'm rounding down to 3 stars. I've had my eye on Courtney Gould's work for a while, so I'm glad to have checked out one of her books.

What the Woods Took is a suspenseful young adult novel about survival, apathy vs. empathy, past traumas, trust, self discovery, transformation, and found family. A group of strangers, who have been labeled as “troubled teens” whose families have pretty much given up on them, have each been kidnapped and taken to a wilderness therapy program where they are left to fend for themselves in order to survive unknown woods and everything that lives inside it. The deeper they go into the woods the more secrets revealed and the more their past traumas haunt them.

It's hard to write this review without giving too much away. I really enjoyed the first part of the story, and was hooked from the very first page. But the deeper they got into the woods the crazier the story became. However, I felt it was a good representation of their lives. The transformation from trying to run from the monsters of their past, to battling and facing those traumas head on, to winning the battle which allowed them to leave the past behind in order to make a better life for themselves.

The narrator did a fantastic job giving each character their own voice and making it easy to distinguish between them. The pacing, inflection, and dialect were spot on giving a suspenseful atmospheric vibe. It was easy to follow and listen to, giving a full immersive experience with the ARC. I was thankful to have both since this story got a little wild and became more sci-fi, which I don’t normally read, so I was able to easily reference the ARC when things got a little chaotic.

Overall, it was an interesting read that I enjoyed even though it was a little out of my typical genre comfort zone. I can see this being a very impactful read for some young adults.

Thank you @stmartinspress, @macmillan.audio, and @netgalley for the #gifted ARC/ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Well this books is definitely tense, dark and a tale of coming of age and survival. It has me scared for most of the read. Im a scary cat. Not sure who told me i was strong enough for a suspenseful book. My heart couldn’t take. But overall this was really well done and it hit all the marks .

YA. Revive is a camp for last hope kids who need to turn their lives around. Except this wilderness camp is like no others and totally out of control. Kidnapped from their bedrooms and thrown into a program to ‘better’ themselves, regardless of how they feel. Bu t something is seriously wrong here - threatens their lives and no one would believe it.