What She Found in the Woods was a wild ride! One part Girl, Interrupted (girl in a psychiatric hospital) one part Girl on a Train an (impaired and unreliable narrator) one part Deliverance (horror in the woods.) With a romance.

Magdalena (referred to in the story as both Magda and Lena) has been sent to live with her grandparents in the Pacific Northwest after a stint in a psychiatric hospital. She’s on multiple medications and has been writing in her journal as a way to make sense of everything that’s been happening to her. Slowly, we get the story of what brought her to this point.

That might actually be enough story for one book, but wait ... there’s more. Lena starts volunteering at a women’s shelter, one where the residents are mysteriously disappearing. She also starts taking long walks in the woods, where she meets Bo, a boy who lives there with his family, completely off the grid. Is there a sinister reason his family is hiding?

Slowly, the threads of Lena’s past and present start coming together as she tells the reader more and more about what happened to her, and becomes more and more involved with Bo and the women at the shelter.

What She Found in the Woods was much darker than the typical YA thriller, and much more complex. (I’m not surprised; Josephine Angelini has written some pretty elaborate YA fantasy with time travel and mythology and dual timelines.) I did eventually guess who was responsible for the murders, but it took me some time to figure it out.

If you are a thriller lover like I am, consider trying this – it was a wild ride and definitely unique!

Wow oh wow was this a crazy wild ride. I love books where we don’t know if we can trust the main character because they are an unreliable narrator. Magdalena has just come from a ninth month stay at an insane asylum; she is recovering at her grandparents’ home where she used to go for the summers. She is on a lot of drugs to recover after her mental break down. We don’t know what happened, but throughout this story we get bits and pieces of what happened to Lena.

While Lena is at her grandparent’s house, she has no one to discuss what happened and she has so much guilt suppressed inside of her. She spends most of her days hiking on the trails behind the house and just spends time by herself. One day while hiking a boy name Bo lands on her picnic blanket. He is a wild boy from the woods and they get to know each other. At the same time Lena starts volunteering with her new friends at a women’s home and serves food. While volunteering girls are going missing and are ending up dead in the woods. The same woods where she hikes and sees Bo. Something strange and dark is going on in this town.

So many stories are going on in this book and you can’t stop reading. I mean I was sitting on the edge of my seat flipping pages. While at first this book seemed all over the place, the story weaved together and everything made sense in the end. I honestly didn’t see the twist coming and the author had me thinking something completely different. While there were faults in this book, I did really enjoy it. I wish it would have been longer and some of the aspects more drawn out, but on the other hand it was very fast paced. I would put this in a weird thriller category, because so many things were strange, but I think that’s why I liked it so much. It was different and unique.

Well that was a wild ride! The Netgalley description was even vaguer than the one posted on Goodreads so I truly feel I went into this one blind. I suggest everyone does the same, because the author, Josephine Angelini, truly knows how to tell a fierce story!

The plot hooked me immediately because I wanted to know why Magdalena was running from her past. Once and élite socialite she was now alone in the world with no one but her grandparents. What happened? We get small flashbacks here and there that slowly let the reader see into Magdalena's past and reveal to us why she is trying to rebuild her life. 

Magdalena has a run in with Bo and the story gets even more complex. Bo lives with his family deep in the woods, illegally on public forest land. Why does his family live like this? Are they running from their past also? What are they hiding and can they trust Magdalena to keep their secret? 

This whole book kept me excited to read the next chapter. It kept me engaged and I wanted to read and read so I could put all the pieces of this puzzle together. 

I don't want to over-hype this because it's not the most thrilling mystery I've read, but it was a fun and quick read for me and the story line was truly original.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for allowing me an eARC to read and give my honest review! 

This was a 4 star read for me and I hope you all enjoy every page! 
 
"What She Found In The Woods" by Josephine Angelini is due to be released here in the U.S. on Dec 1, 2020 so preorder now! 

Happy Reading!

This worked so fricking well for me. I haven't read a lot of thrillers, so this honestly blew my mind. Going from Starcrossed, Angelini's other novel I read a few years back, to this was such a giant leap and I really appreciated the author's note at the back of the book. This literally blew my 1am mind. I absolutely loved the twists and turns.

“I don’t have friends anymore.” He realizes I’m telling the truth. “What happened?” I look out at the sun that just won’t set. “I told a very big lie,” I say. I look back at him. “And I got caught.”

The writing in What She Found in the Woods was tragically beautiful. The way Angelini wove words together made such profound statements that really drove the book home. I felt like the book gave good red herrings while still keeping my interest on the twists and turns. I felt it did drag a bit in the middle, but it wasn’t something I couldn’t stand.

Also, let’s talk about how this book tackles major issues that are always portrayed in such a negative or exaggerated light. There was discussions of mental health, toxic masculinity, drug use. Some were written in a light to make someone a “villan” or “unstable” which really irks me. Let’s not. Other stereotypes were written to not diminish the character. The author discusses how they, themselves have dealt with some of these issues, and you can tell the writing was coming from a first hand experience. It was just very raw, and on the “ugly” side because it was real. I applaud the author for that. 

I kept reading because I wanted to know WTF was going on with Magda girl! I will say I turned the pages furiously because I had that itch of wanting to know and not knowing was killing me! I felt like the buildup was amazing, the reveal, meh. 

Overall, I enjoyed this. It was different, and had enough steam to keep me guessing. Thank you NetGalley and SourceBooks for the gifted copy! This is out Dec 1st.

I was so excited to receive this arc as Josie is one of my fave authors ever :) What She Found in the Woods is unlike anything she’s published before. The first half read as contemporary, and the second half read as psychological thriller, which might sound weird, but Josie made it work, it was very seamless.
Our MC Magdalena alternates her narrative from about a year to 9 months ago (leading up to the present) when she said a very big lie which had disastrous consequences, to the present when she moves to the west coast to live with her grandparents.  She reconnects with some childhood friends, and while hiking in the woods near her house, meets Bo, a guy around her age who grew up in the forest with his squatter family.  Meanwhile, women are turning up dead in the forest and Magdalena is trying to find the killer.  The last third of the story totally made it for me, I didn’t see most of the twists and turns woven in.  If you like mystery/ thrillers, then I highly recommend this book.  One star less because the first half’s pacing was a bit too slow, though I realize that information was necessary to get the whole story.

I've been burned by some thrillers recently, so I was pleasantly surprised by What She Found in the Woods. The pacing was excellent, and this was a real page-turner.

Magdalena returns to the Pacific Northwest for the first time in years after mysterious trauma within her prestigious circle in New York. It is clear from the start that Magda/Lena has secrets to hide and that she is pretty heavily medicated as a result. Upon arriving, she touches base with some old acquaintances, but she really springs back to life when she stumbles across a boy she has never seen before on one of her daily hikes. 

Angelini does a fantastic job of weaving flashbacks throughout that build tension and provide hints without ever feeling disorienting. The times where we flip to a flashback feel realistically triggered by what is happening in the present day for our protagonist. 

I think that the first two-thirds of this book-- the part that relies on building up tension and setting up the mystery-- is stronger than the last third's action and resolution. It wasn't necessarily because the last part was weak, but it may have just felt slightly different in tone compared to the beginning. I will say that many of the hints are pretty heavy-handed, and I had pretty accurate suspicions from early on. That did not change my enjoyment of this book.

There could be some complications in here with some potential demonization of mental illness, but to me, it felt appropriately nuanced. There was no real love for Western medicine, but there was also some acceptance of how it can be used properly and the necessity of it. 

There were also some plot holes that were never quite resolved, but, hey, it's just a book; it doesn't have to be perfect.

WHAT SHE FOUND IN THE WOODS had a lot of promising potential, but the execution of it left a bit to be desired. I didn't find myself too interested in many of the characters, and thought that the red herrings were either too obvious, or ended up being plot holes that could easily be explained by 'mental issues' without actually having to work for an explanation. Magdalena and Bo were more interesting on paper than they were on the actual page, and while I did like the slow reveal of Magdalena's past and the scandal she is running away from, it felt that too much was heaped on top of the initial issue that isn't really fully explored. I did, however, like the mystery as to why Bo's family is living in the woods, and the way that unfolded kept me guessing a little bit, even if the bigger questions surrounding it were not as hidden. But that said, the fact that there is a medical aspect to one of the family member's back grounds, some of the advice that that character gives Magdalena in regards to her medication is SO bad and so irresponsible that it was incongruous with that character's background within the context of this story. That feels like a bunch of gobbledy-gook, I know, but I'm trying to avoid spoilers....

WHAT SHE FOUND IN THE WOODS is a book I didn't connect with, but would still recommend to readers who were just starting out in the unreliable narrator story tropes.

The story takes place in a town in the Pacific Northwest. Magda (Magdalena) is sent to live with her Grandparents after a traumatic event with her Manhattan peer group. She reconnects with friends she knew during her summer visits to her Grandparents home and then she meets Bo. He lives in the woods and there is something about him that she is drawn too, he brings out the best in her. 

Not long after arriving, women are found murdered in the woods, not far from a women's shelter, which Magda volunteers at. As Magda relives the events of her past, reconciling her actions and participation in the tragedies, she is also growing concerned about the murders in her town and the suspicion thrown on Bo and his family. The plot moves along quickly and there are multiple twists and turns to keep you in suspense.  

I'm torn about how much I like this book. There are parts of the story that took such big leaps with reality that I found it unbelievable and yet, I couldn't put it down until it was finished. I really admired the author's descriptions of drug addiction and recovery, I felt her points on this topic were well written. I appreciated the honesty of mental health issues, the roller-coaster of emotions and the side-effects of prescription drugs and withdrawals. The book covers some heavy topics, so be forewarned that mental health, suicide, drug use, and murder are intertwined throughout.

Overall a great, fast-past suspense thriller, 3.5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley, Josephine Angelini, and Sourcebooks Fire for the advanced eBook copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book had such an interesting premise but unfortunately it was incredibly disappointing and even problematic for me. The way important subjects are represented in this book really made me mad because even without doing my research, I know some of these things could NEVER happen.

I can’t get into this because of spoilers, obviously, but I do wanna say It did really have potential. Due to its weird pacing and unbelievable twists, though, it wasn’t something I’d recommend. 

I’ve decided not to post reviews for this novel because I can’t say a lot without getting into spoilers. I’m so sorry!

Love, 
Alissa

When I first saw this book's title and description, I was expecting a spooky jaunt through the woods, full of twists and turns that left me gasping and flipping pages until the very end. What I got was unfortunately far from that. WHAT SHE FOUND IN THE WOODS did the one thing that I absolutely despise seeing in thrillers: it used mental illness as a way to create an unreliable, dishonest, violent character. As someone who suffers from a mental illness, and has been on various medications in the past, this rubbed me the wrong way. Not only that, but it also used a women's shelter and addicts to help fuel the plot, which I wasn't a fan of either. 

Yes, there was a murdered in the woods. Yes, there was suspense and action and flashbacks, and everything else that should make a good YA thriller, but the way it was presented didn't work for me. I was expecting something different from this book, and ended up very disappointed with what I read. 

I'm sure there are readers who will love this story. It has many themes and tropes that other popular books within the genre do. 

Thank you to the publisher, Sourcefire Books, for an electronic copy of this book via NetGalley.

This was a brilliantly written puzzle of a YA thriller. I don't know if I have ever read a slow burn thriller that packed this much of a punch before. This is one that I definitely had to reserve judgment for until the very end, because you need all the pieces to form the full puzzle.

Magdelena is not your typical teenage girl. She is running from one heck of a haunting past. One that you won't fully know until the author gives you all the breadcrumbs. Patience is key in a thriller like this. You are given just enough at a time to keep you baited. And, with the unreliable narrator that Magdelena is, you don't even really know what you're getting.

Moving to a town that she spent her summers in, and living with her waspy grandparents, Magdelena is on a strict medication regimen, a practical shell of a person. She gets back in touch with some faces from the past but all she wants to do is spend time reading in the woods. In those woods, she comes across a beautiful young man living out there. Soon, she is spending all of her time with him entwined in a whirlwind teenage romance.

But, when girls in town start to go missing, she is compelled to find out what is happening. Along with her unreliable memories and reality, she must piece through her present and her past to figure out the truth. Does she know more than she thinks she does?

I really enjoyed this thriller, though I will admit that it took a little while for it to start to grip me. Once it got its hooks in, though, it did not let go.

If I was a teen, this thriller would have been good for me. Instead, I'm a 40-something year old woman who has been reading thriller most of her life and this just gave into too many thriller tropes for me to enjoy. 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. All thoughts are my own. 

Trigger warnings: mental and physical abuse, drug abuse, mental illness (schizophrenia), self harm, suicide. 

If you told me this book was originally written in 2010 and re-released, I would believe you. The story follows Lena, who has been sent to live with her grandparents after a hospitalisation that you discover more about as the book progresses. While she’s there, she reunites with old friends from her youth and it spawns the entire book. She also does a lot of hiking and it leads to an instant love between her and a boy. There’s also murder, a mystery, and drugs. 

This book portrayed a lot and hardly any of it was done well- our main character’s schizophrenia is the major plot point in this, so much so that it is actually used against her in a rather... unimaginative way. Furthermore, the author connects four suicides to this girl through her schizophrenia and that’s a stretch for me. The drugs problems were looked down on for most of the book and were, in fact, how the killers picked their victims. The book was correct in saying that most people suffering drug abuse/addiction aren’t looked for by police; my main issue was the tone the book took about society and drugs. 

The characters were pretty flat too, there was a whole bunch of side characters that actually did play some role in the story and yet, weren’t that real. As if all the effort went into us believing the mental illness + murder plot line. 

Honestly, the only interesting part of this whole book was who the actual killers were and the discussion of assisted suicide.

2 1/2 Stars

I’ve enjoyed Angelini’s previous books so the fact that her latest disappointed me comes as a bit of a shock. I thought the romance was sweet, and the mystery definitely kept me guessing, but I didn’t care for the way mental illness and drug addiction were portrayed in the story. To me, they were used more as superficial plot devices, rather than a thoughtful exploration of two afflictions that plague so many. I understand from her Afterward that the author had personal reasons why she included them in the story, but the way they were written in just didn’t work for me.

This book can be listed under many genres. It could be called young adult, mystery, thriller and even romance. It also deals with plenty of timely issues such as mental health, violence, social class, drug use and family dynamics. While the writing itself was okay the pacing was a little too slow for my liking, especially in the beginning chapters. BUT the book redeems itself in the last quarter.

I really enjoyed the parts where we get to read Lena's diary entries. It showed the mind of a teenager in crisis very well and we got a great internal view of her backstory and she became very unlikable. In fact all the characters in this book seemed real and flawed. So, because I enjoyed the twists and the unreliable narrator theme I am rounding up.

I found the build up for the resolution to be better then the actual ending. The ending left the reader feeling dissatisfied and disappointed. The story starts off as being very believable but it quickly turns ridiculous when the main character suddenly has this amazing new skill set that nothing in her past could have called for. It was nice to see this mental health rep in a ya story it just didn’t hit the mark for me.

This book ended up being so different than I thought it would! It took a little while for the mystery aspect to get started, but it ended up being so exciting by the end. The background of the narrator is fascinating, and I love how you only get little bits and pieces as the story unfolds. I didn't want to put it down, and I was so drawn into the story and characters. Great read!

This book was amazing and much better than I was expecting in the beginning. The loved the main characters especially Bo something about him really grabbed me as a reader and I couldn't wait to read more about him. While this is a YA book it deals with a lot of deep and dark subjects that really made the story come to life and stand on its own from others in the same genre. I found all of the main characters really pulled you into the story while the plot itself is what sealed the deal and really had you falling in love. While the flashbacks aren't usually my favourite thing this book really did them justice and I can see why they were important. Very good read and I'm very glad that I got the chance to check it out. I really liked Bo and Magdalena's relationship it seemed so real and genuine. I also like how it showed the pain that Magalena was going through and what caused it. Great read the characters were so realistic and the plot pulled you in while everything else kept you hooked. Very good read and I'm glad that I got the chance to check it out.

I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was first drawn to this book because of the description and then I realized who the author was and was even more excited because she’s wrote some of my fave books. I wasn’t quite sure how she’d do on a thriller/ mystery compared to her usually fantasy but I was pleasantly surprised.
I did really enjoy this read literally just read it in one sitting and started when I was going to bed and ended up finishing it haha! I liked the characters, the love interest. I was a bit ify on what was going on but then I guessed it, but it was still a bit of a shock. 
I would definitely recommend this one!