While not a fast-paced, in-your-face thriller, this was a satisfying suspense novel set in the Appalachian Mountains.

Cooper and his daughter Finch live in isolation at a remote, off-the-grid cabin, and Jake, Cooper’s friend, and Scotland, a hermit living nearby, are the only people who know they are there, which is the way Cooper wants it. For the last eight years, Jake has brought Cooper and Finch much needed supplies once a year, but this year, Jake never arrives. Instead, Cooper and Finch cross paths with two strangers – one, Jake’s sister, who now owns the cabin, and a young female photographer, who Finch is transfixed by and whose unexpected disappearance puts them all at risk.

I was really fascinated by the story and these characters. Between Finch’s approaching adolescence, Cooper’s troubled past, and Scotland’s secrets, it was clear that even without the missing photographer, these characters were approaching a build-up to something life-changing no matter what. For eight years, Finch has gone along with what her father wants – staying away from strangers, being able to hide herself in the cellar at a moment’s notice, and following every rule – but as she gets older, it’s clear that she is not naturally a recluse and yearns for the attention and companionship of others. While she’s only eight, it’s clear that changes are coming, and I liked how the author wove this in to all the other things that were going wrong all at once.

Without giving anything away, the ending was a bit easy, but also made a lot of sense for how these characters developed.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.

Ever since seeing Kelly @kellyhook.readsbooks rave about this book, I’ve been dying to get to this book. I went into it blind. I’m not sure what I thought it would be, but it was so different than I was picturing and EXTREMELY intriguing! I devoured it in 24 hours.

I don’t really want to give any spoilers away, even with a brief synopsis. So here are my highlights from it:

✨Go into it blind- the build up and twists are worth it.
✨Reading it during a chillier season adds so much to this book… I recommend picking it up soon!
✨The author’s atmospheric writing is STUNNING. Do you love books where you feel like you’re tucked into a hidden corner of the world? (Think “The Great Alone”) Then this is DEFINITELY a book for you.
✨I don’t usually cry. But there was a part that ripped my heart out. It was beautiful and all props to her for being able to evoke that emotion out of my grinchy heart 😂

Beautifully written story about the love of parents for their children and the lengths we'll go to protect them. Rather enjoyed the dichotomy of Cooper's pre-woods life dealing with PTSD and the peaceful, serene life he created with Finch in the woods. Grant cleverly orchestrates a low intensity of doom throughout the book and crescendos of tension at key moments. Well deserving of all the 5 star reviews.

Now this is how you use voice in fiction!!! Totally atmospheric and tense all the way through. Fantastic father-daughter relationship, too. I'm so excited to read Kimi's next work.

I throughly enjoyed this one. I’m sucked in by books that can make you feel how far a parent will go for their child. Very emotional and full of suspense.

I have to admit, I wasn't sure about this one at the onset. It seemed like it was going to be a rehashing of My Abandonment and I wasn't feeling it. In some ways, there are a few common elements between the two books, but once you hit about the halfway point, it's clear that These Silent Woods is its own novel, and one with a far less sinister, but much sadder past to it. This one snuck up on me, and I was left an emotional wreck by the end! Definitely a slow-burner and I don't know that I'd really call it a thriller, but well worth a read if you're looking for something with complex human relationships and morally grey characters doing the wrong thing for the right reasons.

Wow, I did not expect to love this book so much! I enjoyed every single minute of this one. With it's very unique plot, it is a beautifully told story of the lengths a father will go to to keep his daughter. Not often does a book bring out all the feels but this story just really tugged at my heart. Easily one of my best reads of the year and I will be highly recommending it.

This book deserves every ounce of praise that it gets.
As soon as I started reading this I knew that I was going to cry at some point. And I was right. This is moody, atmospheric, mysterious and left me full of emotions so raw I didn’t stop crying for the last 40 pages.
But they were tears in a good way because this story was beautifully told and heartbreaking and hopeful. All of these characters were lovable in their own way and I was rooting for them the whole time.
Despite a hard life and tragedy after tragedy Cooper remains resilient and will do anything to give his daughter the best life possible. I think one of the things that really got me was the deep and pure love he felt for his daughter. It came through in every page of the story.
I know this is also classified as a thriller, and while there were some mysterious elements I would more likely classify this as fiction.
All I can say is bravo to the author for such a wonderful story! It’s one that will stay with me for a long time.

🄴-🄰🅁🄲 🄺🄸🄽🄳🄻🄴 🅁🄴🅅🄸🄴🅆

𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑾𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒔
𝙱𝚢: Kimi Cunningham Grant / @kimicgrant
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction
𝙿𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚛: Minotaur Books
𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎d On: November 16th 2021
@goodreads 𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎: 4.27
𝙼𝚢 𝚂𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚎: 🌲🌲🌲🌲 / 5 Forest Trees

Thank you @netgalley & @minotaurbooks for the gifted E-ARC.

𝑵𝒐 𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚, 𝒏𝒐 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚, 𝒏𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅.

A father and daughter living in the remote Appalachian mountains must reckon with the ghosts of their past. A mesmerizing suspense novel written by Kimi Cunningham Grant, a two-time winner of the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Prize in Poetry. Kimi spins us into a tale of what a father would & must do to save the only previous thing he has left in his life. His daughter.

For eight years, Cooper and his young daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. And that's exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he's got a lot to hide.
The only people who know they exist are Scotland, an overly friendly hermit with murky intentions, and Cooper's old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them food and supplies.

But when Jake's day to arrive comes & he doesn't things start to look for the worst. A few days later Cooper makes the decision. They must go for the food & supply run themselves. Suddenly, setting off an irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation really is.

When a stranger wanders into their woods, Finch’s growing obsession with her could put them all in danger. And a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding—or finally face the sins of his past.

With the craft of creative writing and weaving us through Coopers past and present, we get to see what a father's love for his daughter and the power of what he'd do to keep them both safe.

Congratulations @kimicgrant I look forward to reading more of your work in the future.

A dad living with his eight year old daughter in the woods off the grid? Not for me. This book wasn’t in my wheelhouse at all but I loved it! I think the best approach to this book is to go in blind and let the story unfold with no foreknowledge or expectations. Grant’s descriptions of the woods are poetic. I could feel myself hungry and cold as they trudged through snow. I fell in love with Finch, the daughter, and tried to imagine what it would be like to live in total isolation. I can’t recommend this book enough and I look forward to reading more from this author. I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read the ARC.

BOOK REVIEW: These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My Takeaway: The Great Alone Meets A Tale Of Two Cities... ✨😎✨
Pages: 279
Genre: Thriller
Sub-Genre: Domestic Thriller
Time Period: Present Day
Location: Appalachian Mountains

IF YOU LIKE THIS BOOK THEN TRY…
Book: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Movie: Leave No Trace

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All my reviews can be seen at This Is My Everybody | Simple Living | Denise Wilbanks at www.thisismyeverybody.com

♡ Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

I loved this book! It's the first I've read of hers, and will definitely check out her other books.
The beginning of the back cover synopsis, "No electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world" enticed me right away, and the book delivered.
Cooper, and his daughter, Finch, have managed okay living in an old cabin in the woods, owned by a friend of Cooper's from his days in the service, a friend who brings them supplies every year.
Until the year his friend doesn't show up, and Cooper needs to take matters into his own hands to ensure their survival.
I loved every character in this story, the multifaceted personalities such as their only neighbor, Scotland. As their situation worsens, and the threat of Cooper's whereabouts escalate, he is backed into a corner, and this page-turning story will keep you guessing right to the very end.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this interesting, well-told story!

I enjoyed this book but it’s really one I wanted more from. I wanted to know more about the Forrest and their everyday survival but the story was focused primarily on the story arc of them potentially being found. Not only that, I grew angry at the father throughout the book, I really wanted to like him and understand his struggle but I just couldn’t. To tell you the truth, the only character I thought had any brains was the nosey neighbor. So even though the majority of the book was maybe a 3 star from me, the ending was pretty superb, I’d give it 4 stars overall.

Emotional. Heartbreaking yet heart warming. I did not expect to cry from this novel. I loved it all!

Connor and his eight-year-old daughter, Finch, live off-the-grid. They have been living alone and isolated deep in the forest for all of Finch’s life, This book tackles things like PTSD, and you find out why Connor has chosen this lifestyle. It was a really well written book that I would recommend for any reader who enjoy suspense.

I absolutely LOVED this novel! The main characters, Cooper and Finch, are incredibly detailed and richly human. I wanted them to be real. You can't help but root for them and they're surrounded with great side characters in Jake, Marie, Cindy, and Scotland (the last of whom was my favorite).

The pacing is amazing the whole way through as Cooper's POV alternates between his present-day living off the grid entirely with Finch in Appalachia and his past as a small town hard-luck boy and soldier in the War on Terror. I couldn't bring myself to put it down. It's the kind of story with the kind of characters that you get really attached to and you're desperate to know what happens to them next, especially as the situation starts to go south.

And the ending! WOW! The last 20% of the book was perfection. I'm not one of those that cry when reading but I totally did and I'm not ashamed of it. Just goes to show how deeply emotional this story is and how well Cunningham translated that to the reader.

I couldn't recommend this book more strongly. It's absolutely hands-down one of my favorite reads of 2021.


Note: I received a free electronic edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank them, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to do so.

I did not expect this one to be as good as it was, and I was so pleasantly surprised. I absolutely loved Cooper and Finch and their world and their story. I was fascinated by the life they carved out for themselves. Cooper really was a good man and his little girl was remarkable. So much love and trust in each other. When I was unexpectedly battling tears toward the end of this, I realized I had a 5 star read on my hands and needed to make sure I let the world know that they should read this beauty. It's not a thriller by any means, or even a mystery. It's just an incredible example of grace.

I loved the beginning of this book, it drew me in and I was so curious about the mysteries in this little family. As the story progressed too much was given to me, told rather than shown, which took away some of the mystery that was fueling me.

I really liked the atmosphere and the characters, but it felt like there was too much backstory that had to be shared in order for me to follow along. The longer I read the more the tension that drew me in fell away.

An ARC copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this was good. It was a little out of the genres I have been reading but saw it as a recommendation on one of the book sites I follow. I would recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. A father goes to great lengths to raise and protect his young daughter amid his PTSD issues. I like how it explains the backstory as to why the dad is the way he is and what happened to get them now to this point.