I confess to severe camping phobia. This consists of an ugly interweaving of arkoudophobia [fear of bears] and foniosophobia [fear of serial killers]. Until the Yosemite Killer in 1999, it was just the first; then the fear of brutal killers stalking campsites leaped in. I am overanxious even about family members camping, and as for me: Never and no way, no how. Give me a building and locked windows and doors!


I determined to read THE WOODS ARE ALWAYS WATCHING after reading author Stephanie Perkins' excellent (and scary) THERE'S SOMEONE IN YOUR HOUSE. I somehow failed to realize THE WOODS ARE ALWAYS WATCHING would jump on my every acknowledged and unacknowledged camping fear. Nor did I think about the additional anxieties of reading late at night, all alone. I may never sleep again.


On the positive: Stephanie Perkins has a gifted turn of phrase and a special talent for imagery evoking all the senses, so that her novels become literary and transcendent. She also delivers the Horror. Readers who enjoyed THE TROOP will find much to admire here.


Meanwhile, sleepless nights provide so many more hours to read.

Stephanie Perkins is best known for the bestselling Anna and the French Kiss trilogy published between 2010 and 2014, however in 2017 she made a fascinating diversion into YA horror with There's Someone Inside Your House. This was an excellent slasher high school read which we have featured on Ginger Nuts in the past and is currently being developed by Netflix. Stephanie is a fine addition to the YA horror scene, and I was delighted to hear she was sticking with horror with The Woods Are Always Watching. Like its predecessor, this latest novel is a non-supernatural story novel with a plot which is more akin to adult horror, rather than YA. If this were an adult novel it would undoubtedly fit into the ‘Hillbilly Horror’ subgenre, something we do not see much of within YA. It really was a book of two halves, the first slowly sets the scene with clever and convincing character development and the second half ramps up the horror, which includes some truly bone-crunching scenes, with real menace and gore, much of which would not have been out of place in an eighties backwater horror movie where the victims are picked off one by one.

This does not exactly happen in The Woods Are Always Watching as there are only two major characters, Neema and Josie who are going on a three-day hike deep into the woods of the Pisgah National Forest, which is part of the Appalachian mountain range which stretches through many American states, with the action taking place in North Carolina. The girls are inexperienced walkers and are looking for an exciting trip to mark finishing high school. However, in the background there is tension as one of the pair will be leaving to attend college and this is the last opportunity for the two high school outsiders to bond. Things do not pan out that way and the characters, who are obviously not the outdoor type, struggle with the terrain and begin to find problems with each other. The two halves truly were widely different, and I struggled to decide who to pitch this novel at: the first part was harmless teen survival fun, the second features the threat of rape, murder and very cliched killers, characters which could have been lifted straight out of a thousand ‘Hillbilly Horror’ films. However, the girls fight for survival was very realistic and, if anything, Perkins was maybe too cruel on one of the characters. Riveting stuff and young teens who tackle this must surely be ready to make the jump to adult horror. AGE RANGE 13+