Thank you NetGalley for a copy of The Night in the Woods in exchange for an honest review. In true Triana fashion, this was messed up in all the best ways! I will always read anything Kris produces!

I had heard this author wrote a lot of extreme horror but I have to say this book focused a lot more on relationships and humanity and I was here for it.

The book has a very slow start and it follows a group of friends that reunite in their hometown after their friend Steve passes away.

The friends had not seen each other since their early teen years and their lives have changed a lot. However they all wanted to avoid coming back to their hometown, to those woods and to be reminded of what happened inside of them when they were teens.

Once they reunite, we are told the story through letters and journals going back to that fateful night when their lives changed forever and we will learn of the dangers inside those woods.

The story starts to get quite disturbing and offers psychological horror mixed with a folk tale.

The book is divided into different parts and the author understands very well how to navigate through the horror tropes and make them work in his favor.

I have to admit that I was more engaged through the first half and the ending missed a little bit of that extra punch for me but I really enjoyed the story and the characters.

It was a blend between The Witch Blair Project and IT and I would definitely pick up more books by the author.

Great book! It had all the fears of growing up. Make a choice. Turn the page or close the book. Enter the darkness if you wish!

Kristopher Triana is a go-to anytime I want a fun and disturbing read! I always recommend his books in the horror community!

Kristopher Triana’s The Night in the Woods is a visceral and unrelenting descent into the darkest corners of human depravity and supernatural horror. Triana masterfully blends folklore and psychological terror, crafting a tale that is as unsettling as it is addictive.

The story follows characters whose fractured relationships and hidden secrets become the perfect tinder for the horrors they encounter in the woods. Triana’s vivid prose paints a grim and atmospheric setting, where nature itself feels like an ominous force. The pacing is relentless, building tension that crescendos into shocking and unforgettable moments.

This book is not for the faint of heart but is a must-read for fans of extreme horror and those who crave stories that push boundaries. Triana cements his reputation as a bold and uncompromising storyteller with The Night in the Woods.

This book had been on my tbr for a long time. I kept wanting to read it around Halloween, but I never got around to it. I finally ended up reading it recently.

I liked the premise of this book and I was excited to read it. It was mysterious and creepy, but the main characters were insufferable. I just didn’t like any of them. I didn’t care if they all died by the end of the book.

The pacing felt slow in parts and I got a little bored with the story. I’ve heard good things about the author’s other books, so I will be reading those in the future. This book was just not for me.

I am a huge Kristopher Triana fan so I was so grateful to receive this arc. After taking a new baby book hiatus, I am back and really getting into the horror genre. While this isn’t my favorite of his books, this was such good read

I loved the vibes of this cover but it did not work for me. When it comes to suspenseful/mystery books I need a quick hook to keep me interested. Unfortunately this one was not for me.

This was an interesting novel that I have mixed feelings about. It gave "Ritual" meets "Blair Witch Project" movie vibes. It was intense, dark, fast pace and creepy, but the last quarter kind of lost me. Not in that I couldn't follow along type lost me, more of a I wasn't sure I cared anymore type vibe. The ending just wasn't for me. I wanted to love this one so much, but the later portion just took a direction that failed in comparison to the first chunk of story.

Loved this! Creepy, unsettling, and will make you never want to go back in the woods! Perfect for spooky season!

Thank you to the publisher!

This was a tough read. Not my favorite. I could barely get through it.

I just described this book to my friend as Are You Afraid of the Dark for adults, mixed with IT, with some good old weird shit thrown in for good measure. (I almost wrote something else but it would 100% give away the whole book plot).

I adored the messed up characters and the time Triana took to introduce us to each one. I enjoyed the messed up atmosphere and I enjoyed the REALLY FUCKING MESSED UP ENDING.

Cant believe this was my first Triana book. Won’t be my last that’s for sure.

This book had me on edge the entire time, filled with an eerie atmosphere and a constant sense of unease. The mystery was intense, and I was never sure what was lurking around the corner. It’s a chilling read that keeps you guessing until the end.

Predictable. Moderate-to-Slow. I was expecting a bit more but did still enjoy the read. I still look forward to her future works.

Thank you NetGalley.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a PDF to me for review.

Kristopher Triana has been a rising star in indie horror, particularly with his first 3 extreme horror classics Body Art, Full Brutal, and Toxic Love. He has also written more traditional horror, a couple of splatter westerns, and crime novels as well. His Gone to See the River Man books, the brutal And the Devil Cried, and the carnage-heavy collaboration The Night Stockers have been other career highpoints in recent years, although there have been some books with fewer attributes here and there. Ex-Boogeyman is a slasher-themed book begging to subvert genre expectations that instead leans into them for underwhelming results. A Fine Evening in Hell has a compelling beginning that becomes predictable and tells more than it shows in the last act, as if to convince you it’s as harsh as some of his other works. I was hoping That Night in the Woods would be grouped with the glories rather than the also-rans.

The concept is going to be almost irresistible to horror readers—adults who encountered evil as teenagers are called back home after one of their friends dies. Anyone with a fondness for Stephen King’s It is going to resonate with that concept. The first part of the book introduces us to the characters and their eventual convergence in the town of Redford. I found this the most engrossing part of the book. Triana usually has a strong flare for characterization and he does a pretty good job here separating the group so you can keep up with who everyone is and their various interrelationships.

Issues begin with the flashback to the eponymous night, because it is mostly not that intriguing or terrifying. There is a reason for that, a twist that in one sense works, but in another also works against the novel’s best interests. You may find yourself wondering why some of the characters are so resistant to any kind of supernatural explanation for their strange experiences, which you are ready for them to just abandon for the story to progress. Everything builds to a third act where there is an attempted subversion of a horror trope, in service of a conclusion that does not really feel earned. A character’s determination is rather quickly discarded for the ending the author wanted to have rather than what the narrative established.

In this respect, That Night in the Woods tends toward the Ex-Boogeyman tier of Triana’s work. It is an easily recognizable backdrop where you expect a proven talent to take it in some exciting new direction, but which is mostly relying on its last act revelations to do the heavy lifting for a storyline that starts to feel repetitive, populated by characters who are separate but not as endearing as you would hope. If you liked The Long Shadows of October, you might still find enough enjoyment here, but if you expect more from him on the basis of the aforementioned trilogy, And the Devil Cried, or Gone to See the Riverman, there is less here to distinguish this work.

3.5 stars

Big Kristopher Triana fan. Have read Gone to See the River Man and A Cold Place for Dying by him and have his latest The Old Lady on my shelf. This one was killer! Can’t go wrong with Triana

A group of friends go into the woods... and the rest is fairly predictable. This was surprisingly quite slow-paced and boring, I expected otherwise from Triana, considering his other work. It brings the horror element and has a few twists, but it's just so tedious to read through all the character drama, unnecessary life snippets, and the ridiculous immaturity of the 40 somethings that have (predictably) gathered after parting ways in their youth following an "incident" just to rehash and relive it.

Another great book from Kristopher Triana! It’s horror to its’ core and I never wanted to put this book down. There are definitely some good scares and twists. I highly recommend it!

I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn't get into it. It was more of a "me" problem. I think others will enjoy this book very much.

This one was a race-to-the-finish which I couldn’t put down. I read it in one sitting. The book is well-paced and sucks you in from the beginning. The wood scenes were heart-pounding and atmospheric and make you want to keep reading to find out just what happened that night in the woods. I’d highly recommend this fun-to-read horror novel.