Thank you Netgalley for the advance audiobook and reader copy of What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould in exchange for an honest review. What an interesting story. Put a group of troubled teenagers in the woods with under experienced counselors, something in the woods, and get them scared. Obviously this book had a lot of tension and suspense in it. I really enjoyed the dynamics of the characters and how they each reacted to extreme stress. Well written book.

Not your typical horror story, and I loved it! Great read that follows a group of "troubled " teens trying to navigate the woods as part of a behavioral program. Not only do they have to work through the trauma and issues that led them there to begin with, but now have worry about surviving "the creatures!" *Won't spoil what the creatures turned out to be because it's part of the good stuff! Highly recommend, especially if you're looking for non-ghost horror.

Narrator was easy to understand, characters easy to identify, great flow even at over 1.50x .

I really enjoyed the building up to about the midpoint of the story. The second half kinda lost me a bit, partially I think due to the goofiness of the monsters (I just struggled to take them seriously based on the description given). I loved that we were given characters with different flaws and were able to observe how they interacted with each other and worked through conflict. I HATED Sheridan through most of the book (and truthfully still think she sucks and literally indirectly killed one of the characters with her words) but I enjoyed her arc through the end. Why were we given no background on Aiden though? I lowkey forgot he was there most of the time, and he kinda didn’t matter in the end… Anyway this was a very fun spooky read (that I was obsessed with in the first half omg) but also has its flaws that decreased my interest a lot about halfway through unfortunately.

Would absolutely read another one of the authors books, the vibes we’re immaculately spooky!

4.5/5 stars

This was such a good intro to horror book!

I’m not a big horror fan. In fact I’ve only ever read less than 5 horror books and this one was so, so good!

I was sold when this was compared to Yellow Jackets the TV show and if you loved it, you will love this book too!

The audiobook was very well done and I really enjoyed the narrator. I listened to this while at work and all in one sitting. It was that good!

I promise you will not be disappointed by this story. It will have you gripped from the very beginning and you will not see any of the twists coming.

This truly was a great book with or without audio, but I’m a audiobook girly so I really enjoyed this experience.

I found this to be a really clever albeit creepy book. With the setting being a wilderness "camp" where you literally hike through the wild and camp in tents, the characters are pretty vulnerable. When unusual things start happening, the characters believe it's their imagination until something big happens and then they know it's not just that. This story was truly imaginative - - it was unnerving and a little brutal while also delivering a message (or several messages). I was hooked from the beginning and kept going to see what would happen next.

I was fortunate enough to not just receive an early copy of the ebook, but also the audiobook. This enabled me to go back and forth between them which meant I was consistently immersed in this story until I finished it. The narration in the audio was really good and lent itself to the spooky atmosphere.

Thank you to NetGalley for the early copies. I chose to read and listen to them and review them.

50 days in the woods against your will is hell BEFORE you add in absolutely f*cked up monsters to the whole scenario.

I really enjoyed this! It was a well-written horror that had some great creepy moments and some neat twists that kept me glued to the story. I found the choice of dual POV odd at the beginning, but it actually made the story way more fulsome the deeper into it you got. Plus, the one character has one hell of a development arc, and I'm so impressed the author pulled it off as she did.

Will absolutely be reading more from this author in future!

This concept was really good, I just don’t think the YA thriller genre was for me. This is tense, dark, and very interesting, but I feel like left more to be desired. I didn’t expect there to be a sort of supernatural twist in this, and which I understood it more. It felt like it was thrown in with not much explanation or backstory. I did love the characters in this book and their arcs! They have tremendous growth throughout this story which definitely kept me engaged. Overall this was a good read!

After watching a documentary recently about a real life “wilderness camp” for troubled teens, this story felt very real life. That being said, there was a constant comparison in my head to “real life” and “fantasy.” I think the characters fell a little flat to me. I did enjoy the narration and that helped give the story a little more excitement, but overall, this story was just okay.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ narration
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ story

Stolen out of their beds and sent to wilderness camp, five teenagers set out into the woods to face the monsters of their past. But, as the days pass by and danger strikes they find that the woods are filled with creates ready to use their deepest fears against them and not everyone will make it out of the forest alive.

Lindsey Dorcus was an amazing narrator. She brought to life these complex, broken, healing, characters and gave them each a distinct voice.

For fans of Yellowjackets or The Wilds, you’ll eat this up. It’s the perfect mixture of these two shows.

I think that this book could’ve been longer. There’s so much more that the author could’ve explored that would bring even more depth to the book. The concept of mimics was very interesting and I think that there could’ve been more information about them.

Overall, I think this was such a beautiful healing journey for these characters who fight tooth and nail against themselves and the figurative and literal demons from their past.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for this audio ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book was fucked up in the best way. It kept me intrigued the entire time, I literally could not stop listening. All I knew about this book before reading was that it was about a wilderness therapy program, which is already horrifying, but add in mimics in the woods? fucking terrifying and one of my worst nightmares. But I loved seeing how the characters ended up coming together, to the point that it almost felt like a coming of age story. In a way, it was beautiful.

i saw the yellowjackets and girl, interrupted comps and i had to have this one. ultimately, i'm not sure that either of those comparisons delivered here, but i found this book too be a fairly quick read.

in the middle of the night devin is woken up by two men in her bedroom. think mid-to-late 90's dr. phil/jerry springer we're-sending-out-kid-to-military-school kind of vibes. which, okay - i'm definitely familiar with the teenagers who have been taken from their homes and thrust into hell camps by their rich, evangelist parents. i think that's what i thought this was going to be more like. but no, in this case devin is submitted by her foster family for fighting in school. logistically, i'm not sure this make much sense to me, but okay.

i think i thought this book would be different and probably would have preferred it had the supernatural twist had not been present. i think the insidious aspect of parents submitting their children into this kind of suffering intentionally is the true horror.

in the woods, inhuman faces start appearing and suddenly the counselors are gone. the kids think that this is part of the plan - they've got some food and supplies, so they begin to plot together to discover a way out.

i think the supernatural elements were pretty scary to start, but once more was revealed about them i cared a lot less about them. i think horror for me is more in the not knowing, personally. and though there were discussions of mental health, discussions about insidious things that have happened to kids in foster care, there's a LOT of bad parenting, i don't know if i feel like any of those things were discussed thoroughly insomuch as thrown in for the drama. perhaps this is just me realizing that i've grown out of reading ya literature.

anyway, i think for most interested in this kind of thing they'll have a good time. for me, this one was just okay and once the creatures made their appearance i mostly skimmed the rest of the book.

I enjoyed this so much! I have read all of Courtney Gould’s books and this one is by far my favorite. I was hooked from the very beginning and I couldn’t stop reading. I had to know what was going to happen to these characters. This had such a creepy feel to it. I think I was constantly inspecting each character to see if they were acting…different! It was thrilling. I listened to the audiobook which was perfection. The narrator really brought this story to life. Highly recommend picking it up. I can’t wait to see what is next for this author.

I find this to be interesting! I didn’t know I would be taking on this journey with all these different turns in the story! But overall, the story was gripping, mysterious, intriguing all the way til the end! An enemies to lovers LGBTQ story…and camping going all the way wrong! Loved the story! Listening to the audiobook was a good experience!

This was a great read. It wasn't scary in my opinion, but it was a little creepy.

I thought the exploration of wilderness therapy and the damage that can be caused from it was really good.

I also really liked how Gould explored the trauma that teens can face due to external and internal pressures. How unrealistic parental expectations can be hurtful for the kid.

I also like how this book shows that we as a society don't always believe survivors and we would rather call them crazy rather than listen to them and believe them.

The narrator, Lindsey Dorcus, was AMAZING. She had a great flow in her voice that kept me engaged. She portrayed all the different characters well. You could hear the sneer in Sheridan's voice. And later in the book she made this creepy sound that made that part of the book perfectly terrifying.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for the audio arc!

We are following Devin as she is being taken from her foster home, and placed into wilderness therapy in the middle of the night. She get the camp in the middle of the wilderness where she is paired with other kids who have also been taken from their homes for the purpose of disciplining these kids and helping them to change their ways. However, the counselors that they have there are only a few years older than they are, so there begins some friction between kids and counselors.

This book definitely leans horror and some of the elements are shown as the story evolves. However, I thought that the story had some slower parts even though it very much takes on a survival plotline.

It was just an okay read for me, but I did enjoy the narrator.

I love this author so when I was approved to read this book in ebook form I was really excited but then I struggled to start the book because I have my own serious trauma associated with wilderness camps. Days after my 13th birthday a boy I loved very much was sent to one. His mom asked me to write letters but then he never received him, so his mom got all my vulnerable 13 year old girl cringe letters and he got to be locked away in the woods somewhere.
He came back different and got along well with his parents. He is a "normal" nice dad now but I developed some serious trauma. Also now, looking back as a 40 year old mom, I can see that his parents were just extremely bad parents. He was never a "bad" kid. To say I have issues with these camps is an understatement.
Anyway, so I was just looking at the book daily and then not reading it.
But once it was an audiobook and I could "read" it at work, while doing spreadsheets, I was able to handle it. The narrator was perfection! I had a hard time for the first 30% but then it got supernatural and I was able to take a breath and enjoy it. I love the way she does the other voices and perspectives.
I love the characters and the explanations about how they ended up where they are. I love the way the author introduces the "monsters" and sets the scenes.
I was terrified in the last few hours - in a good way. My gosh did these kids forget that fire kills humans too!

Five stars for the performance. Five stars for the story.

3.25⭐️
This is a very well narrated audiobook.
The narrator did a fantastic job and really helped keep me captivated even during the chapters that I felt had gotten really monotonus.
I don't think I would've been able to finish the book if it hadn't been so well narrated.

This book was decent, I think it coulsve gone deeper with the characters and the pacing coukdve been better but it was still a fun read

I was not expecting this. What an amazing YA book.  Five teenagers are basically abducted from their residences in the middle of the night to be dropped off in the middle of nowhere to embark on a fifty day experimental therapeutic rehabilitation camping and hiking experience. Thrust into the wilderness with not much more than the clothes on their backs. When the guides go missing, the teens are left to fend for themselves. Determined to continue the trek, the teens use their knowledge to survive. When one of the guides shows back up injured, something seems off. The guide seems more attuned to the teens needs. She also seems to heal very rapidly from her injuries.  The teens find a journal from a guy that hiked the area in the 1970s. They learn of "mimics" from the journal. Mimics basically replace the host. Mimics haunt all of the teens by bringing up moments of their lives, not always positive moments.  The journey physically and metaphysically is so expertly portrayed. 

The narrator, Lindsey Dorcus, is superb. She nails all the characters expertly.

3.5 stars rounded up!

This is great young adult horror or horror for someone who is a bit of a scaredy cat (meaning me). What the Woods Took follows a group of 'troubled' teens who are taken (literally - against their will) to a "nature camp," where it is intended they will work through their issues and come out as better, more disciplined people. However, one night their guides disappear, leaving the teens on their own to find their way back. The woods, however, have more than just the teens in them.

This is advertised as a mix of Yellowjackets with Girl, Interrupted. I haven't seen Girl, Interrupted, but I expected spooky based on the Yellowjackets comparison. I think this led me to be slightly disappointed. There is a slight supernatural element, but it is pretty clearly a metaphor for the demons the teens face within themselves and at home. This book was enjoyable, and had quite a good "what the heck is going on" vibe, but it felt very young adult to me. Also, for being teens dealing with trauma, the teens were slightly more emotionally mature than I anticipated. Devin, one of our two main POVs, is able to process her feelings extremely well for someone who is meant to be experiencing anger issues. Regardless, it was fun, and I think it will be a great read for teens!

The audio of this book was very well done. Different characters had different tones in a way that felt natural, and I preferred the audio to reading it with my eyes.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is far and away my favorite Courtney Gould. I've read all of her books and usually find the ending too cheesy and rushed, but I really enjoyed this one. A solid speculative survival thriller. I was so invested in what was happening. I also really appreciated that Gould took the time to stress that these programs in and of themselves are harmful to the teens who are forced into them.

The narrator was EXCELLENT. She did a great job with the different voices and making the characters feel alive.