3.75 stars

I grew up in an area known for these "wilderness camps" and have heard some terrible stories of things that happened, so the setting for a horror story was perfect for me. I appreciated that the plot starts right away, ripping kids from their beds and thrusting them into the care of strangers. For a while I thought the horror might just revolve on the dangers in the forest and having staff that aren't really qualified and I think that might have been scarier than the fantastical elements.

An easy story to dive into, with a nice pace and some creepy scenes.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the copy.

Wilderness therapy alone is horrifying, but add in mimics? So good! This was a great YA thriller. It was creepy, atmospheric, and an easy read.

I really enjoyed this sapphic cryptid horror/thriller novel and even though it's marketed as YA I think it would work for any age. Most people have heard stories of kids that are so troubled their parents and guardians send them on wilderness hikes as a way to change their behavior and I think that made a great setting for this type of book and even thought it was a thriller it also created room for a lot of growth for all of the characters because they had to learn to work together in order to survive the monsters in the woods. The characters in this book weren't always likable. Most of them are kids from troubled backgrounds, but as they try to figure out what's happening and start working together to escape the woods you really start to root for them. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes thrillers and especially anyone that is into cryptids.

✨ The Vibes ✨
YA horror with lots of social commentary

📖 Read if…
✨ You’re watching Yellowjackets S3
✨ You want YA horror that’s not too scary
✨ Your favorite book in elementary school was Hatchet

I’ll be honest—the main reason I picked up this book was because of the comparison to Yellowjackets. The Yellowjackets comp is a good one, but unfortunately What the Woods Took didn’t manage to match the highs of that series.

I’ll start by saying I think the concept was great. What the Woods Took is very timely in its subject matter, and I always think the horror genre is at its best when it's used to explore social issues. What the Woods Took dives into topics around mental health, sexuality, and autonomy, but does so in a way that will be accessible to younger readers, while still giving older readers much to think about.

That being said, a lot of the horror elements didn’t work for me. I was expecting a decent amount of supernatural horror based on the summary, but some of the most frightening parts of the story were rooted in the real life horrors of teen programs like the one included in this book. That’s fine, but I was just expecting the story to lean a little further into the supernatural space.

What The Woods Took is out now. Thanks to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Devin wakes up in the middle of the night to men “kidnapping” her from her bedroom. They are taking her to an intensive wilderness therapy program in Idaho. Devin finds herself with a group of teens who are also there to participate in this mental health assistance program. The cast of characters is a motley crew. All Devin wants to do is escape, but how and where will she go? “She doesn’t need to be oriented to this group. She needs to find a way out.” Then, some strange occurrences begin to happen. They must now contend with more than forced therapy, but will they succeed in discovering themselves?

Although supernatural beings don’t appeal to me personally, teens love this. The issues that the teens face are relatable, This book was well written in terms of creating an atmosphere that complemented the characters and their plights. The writing is suspenseful and engaging and contains a host of multilayered characters. I also appreciated that it didn’t end up with everything tied up nice and neatly. The characters were forever changed by their experience. Well done!

“Out here, though, every hour is distinct. Every passing minute is its own world. Every type of light has its own weight, color, and heat against her eyes. She knows the velvet feeling of early evening better than she ever did back home.”

This story broke my heart. It was so well done, it hurt me.
It struck a cord in my heart and I just wanted to cry.

It has been awhile since I have had the privilege of reading a YA horror novel and I think that it is a genre that is overlooked lately all too often in favor of fantasy/romantasy.

Set against the backdrop of a behavioral boot camp for teens in the wilderness, each of our teens is fighting both internal and external demons in this fast-paced thriller. While all the characters have their share of secrets and a penchant for pushing out anyone who tries to come close to them, the teens in Gould's novel must band together to fight an unknown enemy when their camp leaders suddenly disappear.

Focusing on facing past traumas along with learning to trust again is the main thread that is woven throughout. Although I thought each of the individual characters was well developed, their past traumas all seemed a bit too cookie cutter. I understand that for the sake of a YA novel, assault, addiction, and other triggering behaviors might be glossed over, however when those behaviors and facing them are central to the theme of the book, I felt they deserved a bit more time in helping shape the characters and improve their overall arcs as the story progresses.

I thoroughly enjoyed the tension regarding the unknown adversaries in the woods and the feeling of being lost that permeates throughout the entire book. There is a sense of unease that the author accurately portrays that stays with the reader up until the end. As far as uniqueness goes regarding what is really happening in the woods, I was pleasantly surprised and thought it was a cool twist that didn't need much explanation beyond what was given. That being said, I would not mind a sequel that delved more into the background of the woods.

There is a LGBTIA+ side romance with very mild spice, but I would not categorize this book as being LGBTQIA+ for a genre, since the relationship is wholly natural and only partially important to the overall storyline. Even though Devin is clearly the main character, the other "campers" get enough face time and POVs that keep things interesting and give different perspectives as to what is happening on the pages.

Recommended for fans of supernatural YA horror with some romance. There are lots of mental health triggers, so be fully aware of the fact that these are kids whose parents have signed them up as a last resort to a behavioral survival camp, which are notoriously abusive in their own right.

Thank you to NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and Courtney Gould for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

What The Woods Took
Courtney Gould
4⭐️

Pub Date: 12/10/2024
Genre: YA, Horror

This was so weird in a very good way! This story revolves around 5 troublesome teens that were sent to wilderness camp. First of all, I didn't know this was a thing and had to research why this is potentially a "bad" or "punishment" situation. The book did graze a little on it and it was easy to grasp the concept. I thought it was going to be more of a coming of age plot and in some level, it did just that. But the things they saw and had to go through for the "growing" to happen was so bizarre. Truthfully, very much spooked out while reading this. There were multiple POVs and we got backstories of each teen. I very much enjoyed knowing how and why they each got sent to this camp in the first place.

Now I will say that a lot in this book is dialogue, narration and lots of hiking. But for some reason, and I believe it's the writing style, it was very much intriguing and it was easy to keep reading. The last rush of this was good. I wished there was more of it but it was appropriately stretched out. It wasn't too long that it dragged. I like that it ended with answers and resolution for the characters.

Horror-wise, this didn't give me nightmares and I didn't have to keep my lights on to sleep, but it definitely gave me such a creepy feeling when I was reading it at night. Writing style provided a good spook factor but not excessively. So for lightweight horror readers like me, this one gets a thumbs up!

Thank you @netgalley and Wednesday Books for a gifted e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If you’ve ever watched Girl, Interrupted and been like, “I wonder what would happen if Angelina Jolie’s character was 17 and dropped in creepy haunted woods for a wilderness therapy program,” this book has the answer.

It’s dark, it’s tense, it follows a group of five teenagers as they’re pushed into a 50 day program to rehabilitate their behaviour. When the two counsellors leading the group disappear, Devin, Ollie, and the others must push through the woods with no one to rely on but each other.

But what happens when they look into the woods, and the woods start looking back?

Everything about this book was well done - the character growth, the group dynamics, the slow infiltration of the creepiness and dread. I absolutely could not put it down!

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to read this book. I enjoyed Gould's "The Dead and the Dark" and equally enjoyed this book. I know one thing that bothered me in "The Dead and the Dark" was how quickly the MCs went from hating each other to being so close. This book didn't feel like that. The characters definitely got incredibly close, but for good reason. The book is a trauma-filled romp through the woods, and so finding connections where there are few makes so much sense.

The creatures in the story were horrifying, and I found myself really reminded of Ishana Night Shyamalan' s recent The Watchers film.

The ending felt a little rushed in parts, just kind of the aftermath of what happened, but that feels kind of common in the horror genre. It's not so much about how everything is resolved or discussed, but more about the journey to the end. But I did appreciate the ending of the book, and felt strongly connected to the characters by the end of it all.

Really solid YA horror with elements of teenage suffering interwoven.

I really enjoyed this book. It is quite good, and I liked the whole concept of the mimics. I especially liked the implications of one particular mimic, and how the situation played out with that mimic and the other characters. It was really interesting, and it's something I would love to discuss in depth with other readers. I loved all of the kids as characters, particularly Ollie, Devin, and Sheridan. And I liked that at the end, things weren’t magically okay. Things got better for them, but things with their families weren’t resolved and all fixed. I also appreciated a conversation at the end about how all of their trauma is a part of them and will always be there with them. It’s not all that defines them, but it is part of what defines them, and that doesn’t go away. That conversation can be deeply meaningful for people struggling with their own trauma. I will be recommending this book widely.

You know what? I had a really good time with this book. There was something so gruesome about the monsters in this book, and maybe it was a smidge obvious that the monsters were coming up, but I had a really excellent time getting to the point. I really liked the group and how they were all so drastically different and how they were forced to come together to, you know, survive. I really enjoyed how they changed.

Hell, I even appreciated the counselors. Yeesh at what happened to them though.

Overall, this was a really compelling read. you might be able to do a wide overarching predicting as to what's to come, but the specifics about it was both so horrifying and not at all what I was anticipating that I really enjoyed it.

Thank you Wednesday Books and NetGalley for a chance to read and review!

What the woods took was a creepy and tense read. I really enjoyed and felt immersed in the story. Grab this for a good quick horror read!

What the Woods Took is about a group of troubled teens who end up in a wilderness therapy progam but the catch is that the teens find themselves stranded with monsters. What do the monsters want? Will they make it out alive? Want to find out what happens than make sure to read this captivating book. The author did a great job writing this one and I was turning pages until the very end. All of the characters in this were great and I especially liked Devin. I loved the creepy vibes in this book and it was such a tense read. Overall, this is one that I highly enjoyed and would recommend to any young adult reader or readers who love horror. Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this read in exchange of my honest review of What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould.

Thank you, NetGalley, St. Martin's Press | Wednesday Books, for the chance to read this book in exchange of an honest review.

Devin Green is abducted from her foster parents' house, forced into a van and driven deep into the Idaho woods, where other teenagers are waiting for instructions. It soon becomes clear none of them consented to this treatment, but their parents agreed to it.
Two camp counselors inform them they have been enrolled in an experimental therapy program, where they have to change their self-destructive ways and survive a fifty-days hike through the wilderness. Devin is determined to escape, but there's something strange about the woods surrounding them. When they wake up to find their counselors missing, everything is turned upside down and they will have to fight to survive for real. Now stranded they will have to trust and rely on each other to survive and escape the woods. The campers not only are hiding dangerous secrets from each other, but the woods are more deadlier they thought they would be.

What the woods took is a genial, brilliant and intriguing horror YA novel. It's raw and imaginative, atmospheric and terrifying and I loved every single moment of it. I loved Devin and her stubborness, the bonds the campers create with each other and the terrifying things in the woods. What the woods took is a story about becoming someone or something new and powerful, in a scary and unsettling enviroment, forced to rely on one other in a dangerous place, filled with literal monsters ready to take their places.
Loved, loved this one so much!

I absolutely loved the latest by Gould—chilling, atmospheric, emotionally rich and complex, and a fully-realized setting. Kept me turning pages and deeply immersed in these characters!

While the premise was nice, the writing was... not what I expected. I wanted more from the characters because I felt that what was on the front cover and the front flap was not what we were given.

Gripping, moving, tense, mysterious…an absolute page turner with great depth and an important message.

What the Woods Took is a deep dive into the complexities of childhood and teenage coming of age with background of various forms of neglect and abuse at home. It is confronting in a way that is accessible to teens and young people, without removing any of the depth of understanding of the suffering and difficulty with getting beyond such experiences entail. It is beautifully written, and grips from page one, making it almost impossible to put down before all of the answers to the mysteries have unfolded. It carries a story of intense survival and hope and resilience with strong, relatable characters. It explores the role empathy and understanding, along with acceptance of difference can make on a healing journey, but also exposes the reality of the organisations involved in helping troubled teens and some of their more questionable methods for achieving outcomes.

I didn’t love the supernatural elements of the story, but taken as metaphor for experiences the children had faced and were facing they were understandable. I am also not generally a fan of reading books with f/f romance, (personal preference) but in this case the budding relationship was handled delicately and was truly beautiful at times, as the girls supported each other journey towards learning important lessons about trust and acceptance.

Themes to be aware of (handled in a non-explicit way, clear but sensitive to a YA/teen audience):
Child abuse, child neglect, suicide, child sexual assault, loss of parents, drug abuse, violence, child abandonment.

WHAT THE WOODS TOOK by @courtneybgould is a thriller focusing around a "scared straight" style youth wilderness therapy group that devolves into supernatural terror. Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publishers, @stmartinspress and @macmillanaudio for the e and audio ARCs.

🌲🌲🌲

Devin has been snatched from her foster home in Portland, OR and thrown in a van with other "troubled teens" as they make their way to a wilderness therapy camp. None of the campers want to be here, but Devin particularly butts heads with another camper, Sheraton. But when their group leaders are missing one morning after they have been in the woods over a week, the group decides they better call a truce to get to the bottom of what is happening out in the woods and the strange sounds and sights they have been experiencing.

I liked this book but did not find it quite as compelling as the title I read by this author last year, WHERE ECHOES DIE. This was certainly interesting and I loved the creature feature aspect as well as the enemies to lovers sapphic storyline. Found family also was a powerful piece of this group of young people who don't fit the mold of society.

There’s something about an eerie forest that just gets under your skin—and this book absolutely nailed that creeping, unsettling feeling. This is more than just a survival horror story; it’s a sharp, emotionally resonant tale about identity, transformation, and the ways society fails its most vulnerable. Devin and the other teens are thrown into the woods under the guise of therapy, but what unfolds is something far darker. When their counselors vanish, they’re left alone with their fears, their secrets, and the uncanny presence of something lurking just beyond the trees—something that wants to replace them.

At its core, this book is about the messy, painful process of figuring out who you are. For teens on the edge of adulthood—or anyone who remembers that feeling of disorientation—this story hits deep. It explores how kids can slip through the cracks, abandoned by systems meant to help them, and how the pressure to be "fixed" can feel suffocating. The horror is both supernatural and deeply human: the monsters in the woods are terrifying, but so is the idea of losing yourself to become what others expect. And yet, there's hope here too—hope that redemption is possible, that change doesn’t have to mean erasure, and that the right people will accept you as you are.

This would be a fantastic pick for readers new to YA horror, especially those who love isolation horror, survival stories, or unsettling psychological tension. The message? It’s better to be imperfectly you than to mold yourself into someone else’s version of perfect. And to the teens (or former teens) who need to hear this: keep being yourself. The right people will find you.