4.5 stars ✨ Please note that this review contains spoilers!

Oh, this was such a page turner! I was trying to piece together what was happening and why from the very beginning.

I absolutely adored Jasper’s yearning at first; the way it was written was so beautiful and raw that it made me believe every single word he said. I was fully kicking my feet at some of the things he said, then I had to remind myself, wait, I’m probably not supposed to like him… oops!

I enjoyed the multiple POVs, though I did feel that Grayson’s perspective fell a bit flat in the middle, and then picked up again later on. And the gruesome scenes? Absolutely loved them, they literally made my eyes twitch. So good, and exactly what I want from a horror novel. Jade was absolutely insufferable and I really hated her character, nothing anyone did was good enough for her. Joey, on the other hand, was absolutely lovely and so intelligent, and knew exactly when to listen to his gut feelings.

I really liked that the science and the process behind everything was explained well so I didn’t have to wonder. It was so interesting that someone could become human again if they lost their black heart, especially since they only used about 20 something percent human DNA. That was wild! Also, I know Jasper was fully raised as a human and eventually got out of control, but it was a bit unclear if he had ever taken human form apart from the time at the gas station, as Clara seemed surprised to see him as a human. I need to reread that part!

The ending left me wanting more though, it felt a bit rushed, I needed more buildup there. There were also a few things that seemed unexplained to me towards the end, such as…

How is Clara supposed to live the rest of her life as a giant monster in the woods without anyone discovering her? Grayson, on the other hand, fascinated me. He was so eerie at times that I just knew that he had to know something, and I was right! The way he spoke just screamed “I know exactly what you are” and I loved that tension. I wish he had gotten his happy ending ❤️‍🩹 Also… Grayson’s mum sucks. She was so far gone she didn’t even see how she was endangering her own family, starting with massively contributing to the death of her husband. My gal basically killed off her entire bloodline… may I ask… for what? It’s a sad ending in a way, but I feel like Clara still got her happy ending after all: she finally found peace in who she really is and even managed to resolve things with her sister.

Overall, The Bleeding Woods was engrossing and perfectly haunting. This was a beautiful debut, and I cannot wait to see what Brittany Amara does next. Also, the cover is chef’s kiss!

Thank you NetGalley and Brittany Amara for this eARC!

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ★ ★ ★ ★
𝗔𝗥𝗖 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪:

This cover is stunning, that’s just the beginning to what is to come inside this book. The synopsis of this book pulled me straight in and I was so excited when I had the opportunity to read this. I loved and enjoyed this book through and through. You have horror, twists and turns at every opportunity given, mystery, you have a bit of everything honestly AND that backdrop of Appalachian Mountains (had me). It flowed well and the characters were very well written. Let’s quickly speak about the writing…this writing is that of someone who has written many many books, this debut is written flawlessly and I cannot wait for more to come out from Brittany. This comes out October 14th and you need to put this on your TBR just in time to read for spooky season. Definitely a great spooky season read with a cozy blanket and warm beverage.

𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗦: Twists and Turns, Horror, Romance, Mystery, Strong Characters, Appalachian Mountains Backdrop

Large thank you to our Author, NetGalley as well as 47North

Oh no, tricked by another stunning cover.

The story actually begins as a sort of prologue to the story we are promised in the premise.

Many years after a horrible event ending their parents lives, sisters Clara and Jade are joined by childhood friends on a trip to get closer together again.

Great premise, very slow build in the story. Underwhelming unfortunately. About 50 pages in I found myself struggling to care...

The Bleeding Woods had a compelling premise and showed real potential, but unfortunately, it didn’t quite deliver for me.

The mystery surrounding the main character and her origins was intriguing and is ultimately what kept me reading. I was eager to uncover more about who—or what—she was, and that thread of curiosity gave the story its momentum.

However, the use of multiple POVs significantly slowed the pacing. Many scenes were repeated from different perspectives, which diluted the tension and suspense rather than enhancing it. While this narrative choice might have been intended to add depth, I found it repetitive and at times frustrating, as it stalled the plot's progression.

Another point of frustration was the repeated manipulation of the protagonist. The cycle of deceit, emotional manipulation, her breaking free, only to be drawn back in again, became tiresome. This repetition made the main character feel passive and undermined her strength. Personally, I struggle with portrayals of female protagonists who are written into such disempowering loops without meaningful development.

That said, the twist in the story genuinely surprised me. I had to reread the paragraph to fully take it in—whether that’s due to clever misdirection or my own waning focus is up for debate—but it was a standout moment. Unfortunately, even after the twist, the pacing and tension didn’t significantly improve.

As a debut, there are definitely glimmers of potential in Amara’s storytelling. The concept was rich and intriguing, and with refinement in character development and narrative structure, I can see future works being much stronger.

"The Bleeding Woods" was a captivating read that immerses you in a lush, enchanting world filled with dark secrets and complex characters. It follows a young girl who has a haunting past. She goes on a trip with friends and her sister after being estranged from her sister for a decade. They get stranded in a forest where the trees seem to whisper forgotten tales and the air is too thick.

Amara’s writing gives the readers a vivid imagery that draws you into the heart of the woods. The characters are well-developed, each with their own motivations and struggles, making them relatable and engaging. The exploration of themes such as grief, friendship, and the battle between light and darkness adds depth to the story.

Overall, "The Bleeding Woods" was a well written story full of intrigue and emotion. Although it isn’t my kind of story, I can see why readers would enjoy this.

First off, the beautiful book cover drew me in. Though I feel like I'm not the targeted audience for this novel, I still find it well-written and captivating. This had a little bit of everything. The writing style is not for everyone due to it's descriptive prose and it often reads like a stream of consciousness / fever dream...I struggled a bit with the first half of the book since I'm not really into romantasy / dark romance and I did find some of the parts dragging, confusing and cringey... but a few of the gory/thriller stuff made me want to keep reading. It did pick up on the second half though and I did not expect some of the plot twist.. I find myself rooting for Clara more and more as the story progresses. It did have an ambiguous ending but it did not bother me much

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

As someone who loves all things botanical horror and mystery, this book seemed right up my alley and I was eager to dive into it. However, it’s now been a few months since I started this book and unfortunately I don’t think it’s for me. While the premise itself seems quite interesting, the writing style is incredibly repetitive and it kept taking me out of the story, so much so that I had to DNF it around 25-30% into the book. I really disliked how each chapter repeated the last few pages of the previous chapter in a different characters POV. It just felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again. I wanted to be able to get past this constant repetition, but I just couldn’t get back into the book. Which is a shame since otherwise it seemed quite interesting.

If you’re able to get past this frequent repetition of the same interaction with multiple characters’ POVs then I’d say give this book a shot! I just unfortunately couldn’t.

he forest setting is beautifully eerie, and there’s a strong sense of mood throughout. Amara has a lyrical writing style that at times feels almost poetic, which adds to the immersive quality of the story. The book didn’t entirely stick the landing for me. The plot felt a bit muddled in places, and while the atmosphere was strong, the character development wasn’t always consistent. Some motivations felt unclear, and a few twists came off more confusing than surprising.

DNF at 30%. The first chapter was AMAZING and I was so intrigued but the rest of it fell flat. The insta-love felt super forced and I feel like a large part of it was just descriptive words over and over again. By the 30% mark I felt like I was just pushing through and wasn’t enjoying the story at all

3.5 stars rounded up. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I think this is one of the better atmospheric horror novels I’ve read this year. Clara and Jasper had so much depth to them and Amara’s prose was so lush and haunting; however, I do think that there can be too much purple prose because the language, descriptions and other literary devices definitely took away some of the tension, especially in the latter half of the book. The pacing also had some issues and I feel like Grayson and Jade were superficial in comparison to Clara and Jasper. I would’ve never guessed the twist though and I will be keeping an eye out for future Amara works.

Okay, The Bleeding Woods... You had me at “haunted forest with mystical vibes.” I was ready to dive into your pages like I was sixteen again, sneaking a flashlight under the covers to read past bedtime. I imagined myself lost in a dark, enchanted woodland, heart racing, totally immersed. Instead, I got the literary equivalent of a hiking trip where the trail keeps looping back to the same muddy puddle.

The prose is where things first went wobbly. It’s like Amara tried to dress up a gritty fantasy in a frilly gown, and the result is stilted, like a knight clanking around in armor two sizes too small. The writing doesn’t flow with the story’s dark, earthy premise—it’s more like it’s trying to recite Shakespeare while stuck in a group chat. I kept waiting for the words to sink me into the world, but instead, I was skimming paragraphs, wondering if we’d ever get to the point.

One scene will get dragged out over three chapters because we’re flipping through multiple POVs like it’s a reality show reunion episode. It’s giving 2008 InvisionFree message board roleplay vibes, where every character on the message board has to describe their reaction to the same spooky breeze. I used to eat that stuff up as a teen, staying up late to post my characters dramatic inner monologue. But in a novel? It’s like reading a group DM where everyone’s arguing over who saw the ghost first. I was begging for someone to just move the plot along.

There’s a flicker of brilliance here—the world has some intriguing bones, and a couple of characters almost made me care. But it’s buried under repetitive scenes and dialogue that tries to sound deep but lands like a motivational poster in a dentist’s office. I wanted to love this book, I really did, but it’s like showing up for a haunted forest adventure and getting stuck in a team-building exercise instead.

This was a beautifully written horror book. In fact, it was written so beautifully and poetic that in the beginning I started highlighting passages and I was so immersed in the writing style that I forgot I was reading a horror book!

The plot took its sweet time while we got to know the characters and their dynamics, and at first I thought that took away from my enjoyment but as the story progressed, I could see why the author chose to introduce us to these characters in such depth. And the pace picked up towards the end, I was on the edge of my seat!

I highly recommend this if you like slow burn, beautifully written horror that has scifi elements.

“I’ve only ever deemed myself a dragon, not just polluted, but pollution itself. Fire scorching all in its path. Ash that blackens the lungs afterward. But perhaps, for him, I could be . . . different.”

In Brittany Amara’s debut horror novel, our main character is struggling to hold on to her humanity while the dredges of her past cling to her like a second skin. Always trying to fit into a mold all her life, Clara Lovecroft realizes the truth of her origin from her parents which leads to a devastating outcome. Years pass and Clara’s futile relationship with a sister who blames her for their family trauma and a “something-more” relationship with her friend Grayson is all she has. In attempts to bridge the rift, Grayson, Clara and their two siblings take off on a roadtrip through the Appalachian Mountains. Unexpectedly, their vehicle breaks down and cell service is abysmal. To make matters worse, Clara begins hearing whispers in the forest of an alluring eldritch-esque being wanting to claim her as his own. Can she cling to her humanity or will she let the forest and the being within chew her up and spit her out a monster?

Stranger Things meets CG Drews’ Don’t Let Forest In.

This book was full of suspense, obsessive infatuation, plot twist emotional turmoil and Appalachian Eldritch horror.

Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy of this book!

This book felt like a little spin off on Stranger things. It was written beautifully and in a very melodic way, but the writing couldn't save the subpar plot. The beginning gripped me, the middle lost me and the ending did make me curious to how it'll all end but grateful for it to be nearly over. In a way I'm glad things didn't go the way I imagined they would, with a happy-ish ending for all involved, but Clara got to live out who she is I guess. Pop off queen.

At some point, things were just being repeated and recycled and that whole cycle of manipulating the FMC, her falling for it and then coming to her senses got boring. There were great metaphors in the book, another plus to the authors way of writing, but I really can't get over how much was written for how little happened.

My thoughts about the book are a bit crazy and all over the place. In one way, I enjoyed the horror and botanical aspects of the book and it was very intriguing from that point of view when first learning about it. However, I don't think I'd be re-reading it. The characters felt quite shallow and I wish there was more thought given to their deaths and how each character deals with that instead of just acknowledging it and moving on.

For a debut novel, it was a nice read, something to pass the time with, and I would be interested to see what Amara has in store for us in the future.

I really wanted to love this book. Unfortunately the writing style did not work for me and took me out of the story often times. The language used is too flowery and metaphorical and at times it was far more distracting than it was descriptive.
I did enjoy the ending for the most part, though it did feel somewhat out of nowhere. The characters and plot felt quite surface level. The characters felt like caricatures of simple movie tropes. I also think that it would have been better to just keep Clara’s POV rather than switching. Being confused and not knowing what the other character’s motivations were would have added a lot to the suspense and unease that Clara was experiencing.
I don’t think the book or plot were bad, but it is a book for a very specific kind of horror fan.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an Advanced Readers Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Before we start this review, please remember the following is my honest opinion on the book I have received.

I’m a huge lover of horror so when I saw this book I was like “I must give this book a go.” The cover really had me interested with the eyes and such. The summary of the book also had me interested too.

To add to the positives, something I appreciate with this book is how easy it is to differentiate the characters/pov characters. When we were in Grayson’s pov we could tell it was Grayson, Same with Clara and JS-7R. Each character’s personality was different, and I really like that. No character was a copy and paste.

I wish I had more positives to say but I don’t. The rest were things in the book that I liked less. While I appreciated that each character had their own ‘voice’, I felt like JS-7R (Jasper’s) chapters/point of view took me out of the book occasionally with all the big/technical words as they left me needing to google some of these words. It isn’t a major thing, but it personally distracted me from the book.

I felt like that first chapter felt more like a prologue than a ‘chapter one’ to me and it also seemed to move at a very fast pace with us going from one thing to another in quick succession while the rest of the book went on very very slowly. Full disclosure: I stopped somewhere during chapter 8. Up until chapter eight, I found myself feeling bored as there wasn’t really a hook, I guess? I felt like it was just how their day was going with no real action or ‘mystery’ factor happening. I almost stopped a lot earlier, but I wanted to give this book a fair chance, so I kept going. During a few moments in the read I found myself a little frustrated as there wasn’t anything to hook me into continuing to read until chapter eight happened. I personally wanted more ‘action’ instead of a “day to day” life kind of start of the book. This, I guess, is a personal preference.

While I appreciate the descriptions we got of the atmosphere, the way people look, etc, I feel like there were times we got a huge description dump especially in chapter five for example. We had a paragraph or two where there were descriptions of Clara, Jade and the boys comparing them to one another and it kind of took me out of the story. I feel like their appearances would be better weaved into the story, throughout the narrative instead of just in one huge paragraph.

While I could see the repetition working, I also felt like we didn’t need more than one chapter of a scene happening. I feel like we don’t need to see two characters' viewpoint of a singular scene and the book could just move along.

Overall, I’d rate this book a three out of five stars. Solid effort but I feel like it could have been better. It didn’t hook me enough to want to keep reading unfortunately. I love horror but I couldn’t get into this. I really tried to push through, but I could not anymore. With some editing/fixing, I’m sure this book will be really good when published!

˗ˏˋ 4 stars ⟡ ݁₊ .

ngl this book was kinda hard to get into as i didn't really vibe with the writing. but once it hit the 50% mark, i was completely sucked into it. the twists and turns kept me on the edge of the seat, and i was super locked in. i literally could not put the book down by the last 100 pages-ish and finished it in one go. and to know that this is her debut novel, i cant wait to see what she can come up with next!

⤷ thank you to netgalley, the publisher and the author for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you netgalley for this beautiful arc!
I judged a book by it's cover and clicked request on an ARC and it delivered.

This one was a dark, twisty and such an interesting experience. It's eldritch horror, mystery, romance and a whole lot of woods. Even from the start I really wasn't sure where this story was going. There were a lot of moments that made me gasp because I just didn't think that was what was about to happen. I did actually predict a few things because the foreshadowing was pretty heavy but for the most part I was constantly shocked and surprised. This has some very vivid imagery and was pretty gruesome at times.

Thank you Netgalley. 47North and Brittany Amara for the eARC of The Bleeding Woods.

This is Brittany's debut novel and it has pretty much everything including a great writing style. We have two sisters, Clara and Jade who have been bonded and ripped apart when they lost their parents in a car accident. Something happened that night and Clara is convinced it was her fault seeing she was in the car. On the tenth anniversary of their parents death, Clara decides to join Jade and they childhood friend, Grayson and his brother Joey on a trip to try and bring the sister's together. This leads them to Blackstone Forest. From then on Clara comes face to face with something dark, terrible and ominous. It has one name and 2 faces and Clara knows deep down that she is like them.

The Bleeding woods is a multi POV book and flows every well. Each POV other laps very slightly from one person to the next and this works very well and because all POVs are all in 1st person, we get an in-depth insight to these characters personality and how they are perceiving the situations that they come across. There is also a lot of atmospheric build up in the pacing and storyline plot. The whispering woods, the entity and who or what Clara really is comes to light around half way through the book. All the main characters go through a multitude of situations and emotions, love, loss, grieve, terror, possession and it's a rollercoaster of a ride. All this makes for an extremely engaging and truly engaging read. Im looking forward to seeing if this appears as an audiobook ( I bet it would be really good and Im also looking forward to reading more work from Brittany Amara.

4.5 stars for story graph. 5 stars for Netgalley

The Bleeding Woods is a haunting and immersive debut that blends supernatural horror with tangled human relationships—and I devoured it in a single weekend. It’s the kind of story that lingers in your bones, not just because of the eerie, blood-soaked Appalachian setting, but because of how raw and messy the characters feel. This isn’t just a book about things that go bump in the woods; it’s about guilt, grief, and the terrifying ways trauma can grow wild when left untended.

Clara Lovecroft is a standout protagonist—fragile but dangerous, full of remorse and uncertainty. Her powers aren’t cool or flashy—they’re terrifying and rooted in real emotional damage. Her dynamic with her sister Jade is heartbreakingly real: years of resentment, unspoken hurt, and a slow, painful dance around forgiveness. Toss in Grayson, the boy Clara once loved, and his unsettling younger brother Joey—who’s psychically tethered to Clara in a way that feels both intimate and deeply wrong—and you’ve got a cast simmering with tension before they even get to the forest.

And oh, the forest. Blackstone isn’t just a creepy backdrop; it’s practically a character of its own. Whispers, hallucinations, sinister omens—it all wraps around you like fog. The horror here isn’t nonstop jump scares—it’s slow, dread-soaked unease that builds and builds until you can practically hear the trees breathing. When the violence hits, it’s shocking and visceral. But the real horror? It's the emotional unraveling. The betrayals. The buried secrets. The eerie magnetism of a man who would literally kill for Clara.

This is Annihilation meets The Wicked Deep, with a dash of Crimson Peak thrown in for good measure. It’s dark, romantic in a twisted way, and full of moments where you’ll whisper “No, no, no” to the page. Perfect for fans of atmospheric horror that isn't afraid to dive into the ugly parts of love, family, and power.