This book was so good! It was very well written, the plot was amazing, it was really spooky sometimes and the characters were extremely interesting.

I loved how the whole plot revolved around trauma and how unresolved trauma can make healing difficult and create a lot of resentment. The main character is feeling a lot of guilt towards her sisters trauma and at the same time is feeling a lot of resentment towards her parents for the way they raised the kids and how they have handled the trauma in the family.

The way the author writes makes the atmosphere of the story really creepy and intriguing. It definitely a book that’s difficult to put down at certain points in the story.

I will definitely recommend this book, just be aware of the trauma and other trigger warnings before reading. This book would without a doubt be perfect as a good summer read, but can easily as well be read during autumn.

From the first page, I knew this one would be a winner. It was atmospheric and creepy, and I loved the woodland setting.
I enjoyed Chase as our MC, and I loved her friends and little sister Guthrie.
Chase's relationship with her parents is strained, they love the van life, and all Chase wants is to settle down and have roots. She also wants Guthrie to get help. She has gone through something traumatic in a wooded area and since it happened she hasn't spoken one word to her family,

Now Chase and her family are moving to a fire lookout in Pando.. in the middle of the forest, which doesn't seem like the right place for a little girl who was traumatized in .the .woods. Weird things start happening. really almost from the moment they arrived and Guthrie seems to be at the center of it. Chase is already worried about her sister, and this just sets off her protective instincts even more. '

This kept me on the edge of my seat and completely immersed in the story from beginning to end. I will absolutely read more by this author.

Chase and Guthrie are two sisters who essentially grew up traveling the country with their parents and living in a renovated school bus after a tragedy occurred in their lives. After another accident happens to Guthrie, the family decides they need stability. Settling in Pando, they take up residence in a fire lookout in the middle of a forest. Not long after Guthrie becomes obsessed with some of the trees and begins talking to herself. The significance? Guthrie's past tragedy rendered her mute.

Trying to save money for college and escape from the "hippie" lifestyle, Chase takes a summer job at a nearby camp. Even though she tries to resist, she soon makes friends and has a summer crush. Throughout the summer, strange things continue to occur in the forest - trees appear to have faces, Guthrie brings home collections of bones, and the summer is overshadowed by the story of a girl who went missing in the same forest decades ago. Next - Guthrie goes missing and the family must find her before it's too late. To find Guthrie, Chase and her family must face their past and the trauma that brought them to Pando.

Lonely Places is a "slow burn" YA horror novel that mixes the past with the present and presents a psychological plot twist that will keep the reader guessing to the very end.

An excellent book. I quite enjoyed the wonderful writing and the beautiful prose. The author has very beautifully explored familial trauma and situated in a spooky setting. The suspense keeps the reader engaged and on the edge of their seat. Definitely recommended.

Creepy woods make me swoon - this plot pulled on them so well! The creepy fire watch adds another creepy layer - overlooking the woods, encased in glass.
Chase left her sister, Gutherie, in the woods; she still lives with the guilt - and cannot take her eyes off her sister. Especially after moving to Pando. the summer camp next door provides community and friendship for Chase who is desperate for connection and stability.
The woods call to Gutherie - mute with her family, she spends her days talking to the trees.
Chase knows her sister is in danger - she cannot get her parents to pay attention. With the help of her new found family, Chase goes to battle against the black void attempting to suck her and her family into its darkness.
Great metaphor for coping with trauma.

This book was perfect for this season to be honest, I loved Chase and her sister, the link between them and the story.. It really made sense the protection after a bad thing happened and the sense of becoming the adult when parents aren't act properly, I'm a mom and personally for me mom knows best but when trauma is involved we need to take away of our role and think the big picture
Also besides the vortex(sorry about the spoiler) I loved the idea of "we can control" and "family work"

This was a great book for the spooky season. It is chalk full of spooky and creepy vibes. The vibes were so spot on that I felt transported to this seemingly isolated fire lookout with this family. Reading about Chase and her relationship with Guthrie was heartwarming and heartbreaking. I felt for Guthrie after the traumatic event she went through, and I couldn’t wait to find out what it was. Then when I did, it was interesting how the past was woven into the current. I also appreciated the imagery of other events of the past were brought into the current time period. Beneath everything, I think this book had a really important message about dealing with trauma and how to move on. While Guthrie was the one who experienced the trauma firsthand, her sister Chase, also dealt with trauma from her sister going through it. They each handled it very differently, and I appreciated the contrast. The resolution of the book was spot on and I felt that it wrapped things up nicely.

If you are looking for a book full of spooky and creepy vibes, then you need to check this one out.

"Lonely Places" by Kate Anderson is a slowburn about trauma, grief, liminal spaces, and healing. This atmospheric novel sets the tone for a story that uses themes of loneliness and isolation to build on the tension that keeps on winding tighter and tighter throughout the narrative.

Chase and her family move to an isolated lookout in Pando after a traumatic experience that left Chase's younger sister Guthrie mute. The place is meant to provide stability and the opportunity to grow and heal in a way they couldn't while travelling the country in a converted school bus. But all Chase yearns for is the home they left eight years ago.

Forced to adapt to her new home, Chase gets a summer job at the local camp. When the counsellors find out where she lives, they say something bad happened at the lookout years ago, something they aren't willing to talk about. On top of that, strange things keep happening in the woods, inexplicable things. Birds singing on a loop and bones sprouting from the ground like weeds. Worst of all, the weirdness going on in Pando is affecting Guthrie, and Chase doesn't know if that's a good thing or bad thing ... or if she should stop it. The more time she spends at camp and getting closer to one of the guys, Wilder, the less time she spends hovering over Guthrie. For once she feels like a normal teenager ... until Guthrie gets lost in the woods. Chase has to confront her childhood trauma to save her sister or else Guthrie will be lost forever.

"Lonely Places" is so suspenseful and eerie that it's easy to get lost in the pages and make friends with the characters. Not to mention the writing style is phenomenal. This is one of those books where passage after passage is highlighted because the imagery and details are so vivid and evocative that they strike an emotional chord or sucker punch you in the gut.

Anderson also knows how to create a cast of characters who have believable and convincing flaws. They're relatable and that makes them characters worth getting to know and follow along as they traverse this eerie and strange town. It also means getting annoyed with them when they make decisions that are frustrating or seem "wrong," knowing we've all been there and have made mistakes we later regret.

I also liked how themes of trauma and learning how to heal are mixed with a creepy, horror-type setting where a lot of bizarre and bad things happen. It has an interesting parallel that makes sense given the context and adds a lot of depth to the story itself. There's definitely an important message to take away from it, one that inspires hope and forgiveness.

I can't wait to read more books by this author! I was blown away by the depth and style of Anderson's writing and will be looking for more books by them in the future. "Lonely Places" by Kate Anderson is expected to be published on October 29, 20204.

Thank you to NetGalley and North Star Editions (Flux) for a copy of the e-arc and the opportunity to share my honest opinion in this review!

A slow-burn, eerie, and atmospheric story with an ominous feeling that something’s about to happen. A creepy forest, the relationship between two sisters, a dash of romance, and YA with psychological narratives—what more can you ask for? Fifteen years ago, I would’ve completely eaten this up.

I enjoyed several elements, and the setting itself gets 5 stars. There were a lot of tense moments in Pando, but as an adult reader, I would have loved to see it fleshed out a bit more. Characters, relationships, and mysteries—I wish I could have dived deeper into them. I’m a bit over the negligent parent trope in YA, though I understand that having present parents would hinder a lot of YA plots. Recommended for fans of the genre, but it was a bit of a stretch for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and North Star Editions for the ARC!

There’s something about a horror novel that takes place in the woods. That feeling you get under your skin knowing how dark it can get at night, and the senses you lose trying to navigate the trees. While this is a slow burning story, it’s worth it.

gorgeous YA book that's really less horror per say and more grief and trauma and how that affects people adn families. tysm for the arc.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC copy of Lonely Places!

This was a great YA horror with a bit of a thriller aspect to it! The writing was atmospheric and drops you right into the middle of the story!

It’s an interesting underlying topic for YA (family trauma, PTSD) but was really well written and in my opinion, written in a way that is easily digestible for the target audience.

I enjoyed this for what it was! Creepy woods, dramatic, atmospheric and mysterious!

Creepy.family.trauma Lonely Places set to publish October 29, 2024

We follow a family who converted a bus to a home and travel the country until a life altering event happens. They lose their youngest child in the woods. The story is mysterious and illusive as to what all happened in this moment of time. We fast forward to 6 months after this event when the family decides to take 'refuge' and build stability for their family after the event with their daughter.

While living in a lookout tower in a new town, oddities start occurring in this new forest. This story is told from 17 year old Chase and her thoughts on the lifestyle. Immediately their is tension within the family on the decisions being made. I feel for Chase and after her sister is left mute (from the trauma of the event in the woods). Chase feels guilt and pressure to maintain control over her sister.

The pace of this book was good, Chase felt real and I was happy to see that she was such a strong voice in the story with sharing her opinion and discomfort of the situation. She really cares for her sister and we see a lot of character growth with her throughout the story.

The parents to me were just bleh, the dad was extremely annoying to me. Self-centered and very out of the picture.

While this story was very slice of life (I was invested)in Chase's outcome and what would come of Guthrie aka Gus. Would she ever recover. As the story unfolded it definately came together more and I appreciate the overall message of this story and how trauma can effect each and every one of us. The pain and trauma was visceral or what all this poor family has had to overcome.

Thank you to Netgalley and North Star Editions | Flux for the ARC copy for my honest review.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.25

My feelings about this book changed a lot as I was reading. This was probably due to the pacing of the book, because a lot of the times where it should have been action packed and fast paced, it really fell flat.

But, I'll start with the positives: This book immediately caught my attention with a really unique setting and family dynamic. Our main character Chase is the daughter of parents who decided to uproot their life close to a decade ago and travel the country in a renovated school bus. Chase has a little sister who you immediately want to know more about and figure out the mystery of why she is selectively mute. The family winds up at a fire tower surrounded by Aspen trees, which I could imagine is absolutely beautiful! There's a ton of creepy imagery and suspense throughout the whole book which I appreciated. The little sister also collects bones from the nearby forest and does some strange things that really add to the tense tone. The overall message of the book is super important and I liked how it tied into the mystery and horror aspect of the story.

But, there were so many things that disappointed me when I had such high hopes for the first 50% of the book! I thought it was going to be close to a 5⭐ read for me. There were a few mysteries that were focused on a ton in the beginning and then NEVER explained fully by the end. Instead, a briefly mentioned mystery that was never built up took up the whole ending. And the ending felt like it should have had more action and suspense but it seemed really rushed to me. It felt almost out of place with the book. I was expecting everything from the beginning to tie into the big mystery but it didn't. Usually when a book builds up so much suspense, there's a climactic ending that wraps it all together but this was just suspense to slow boring parts to an anticlimactic ending. I liked the romance subplot for awhile and was expecting the love interest to play a part in the ending as well but he was nowhere to be seen. And after some time it just felt like filler scenes that messed with the pacing and suspense. None of the side characters felt fully fleshed out either. Just Chase, but she was not super likable.

Idk if it's just me not loving YA anymore, but this was kind of disappointing when the premise and message of the book were so promising.

If you do enjoy creepy YA books with mental health undertones, I would recommend this. But don't get too caught up in the suspense like I did because it will disappoint you in the end.

fun and twisted, it was a very fast read and i could not put it down i ran into multiple twists i could never expect and that doesnt happen to me often

Lonely Places had me staying up late to read -- and when a book can do that, it is worth discussing why!

Chase has been been living the life of a nomad for most of her childhood, but right when she is on the cusp of her senior year of high school, her parents decide to move the family to another unconventional but stationary locale: a fire watch tower in the middle of a forest. Different from the converted school bus she is used to but a far cry from her early childhood home in a "regular" suburban neighborhood, Chase is concerned mostly with how her younger sister is going to cope. Selectively mute after being lost in another forest (which chase blames herself for), her sister seems slow to recover, so how is living in the middle of another forest going to affect her? Add in the nearby summer camp complete with a cute boy and the energy of a "negative vortex", there are a lot of storylines, but the author does a good job of bringing them all together without seeming too precious or beyond belief.

I liked the blurb, the title and the cover. It was supposed to be a spooky read but it wasn't. The writing is very good and atmospheric. However, for this genre, it takes a lot of time to build intrigue. You keep reading and nothing significant happens. Finding weird things like a skull, seeing faces in the woods, and repeated mention of “that night” don't take the story forward. The Chase-Wilder interaction didn't interest me much.

Even though I liked the writing, I began to lose interest and patience after 6-7 chapters.

Sorry it didn't work for me. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to read this book.

I enjoyed this book very much. Kept me thoroughly interested through one sitting. Look forward to much more by this author.

Creepy and distinctly unsettling, this is much more of a psychological horror than blood and gore. I read it alone as my teen granddaughter is not a great fan of horror books so not the true target demographic writing the review. Much more my sort of thing and I enjoyed it a lot.

Lonely Places was a haunting and atmospheric exploration of trauma with a heavy dose of uncanny forest creepiness. I really enjoyed this read, I think it's perfect for a rainy fall day when you want something slower paced but aren't looking for a light read. I will be getting a physical copy of this one for sure. The imagery was vivid and evocative and came across as genuinely creepy without being too much. I do wish we learned more about what happened to Guthrie in the first place, but I can cope. I’m a sucker for liminal spaces in stories and folk horror and this novel had elements of both.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC