Thanks to poisoned pen press and NetGalley for this arc!

I really enjoyed this arc. I hadn’t been reading thrillers lately as I’ve been reading a lot of happy sports romances, but this reignited my love for thrillers.

This was dark and atmospheric. The forest looked alive but it felt dead. This was a slow burn, filled with generational trauma and strong female characters.

I finished this in a day! Super good.

The Forest of Stolen Girls is an evocative blend of historical fiction and unsettling mystery, powered by its immersive setting and the sisters’ emotional journey. A strong 4 stars from me—especially for readers who appreciate mood, culture, and family dynamics woven into a suspenseful tale.

I did not know what to expect when I started reading this book. I assumed the perpetrator would have been some monstrous creature, but the reality was so much worse. This book delved into the complexities of a toxic mother and daughter relationship which we find out could not be helped because of the origins of some of the characters. The perpetrators were audaciously hiding in plain sight and it really makes you think about the reality of the world we live in as we hear about people going missing all the time. I really enjoyed the fact that the author gave us the perspective of the protagonist as well as that of one of the missing girls, which kept you guessing as to who it could possibly be until you get further into the book. This was a good read.

Atmospheric, haunting, and impossible to put down.

The Forest of Missing Girls delivers everything I want in a thriller — a chilling mystery, deeply layered characters, and an eerie setting that feels like a character in itself. Nichelle Giraldes weaves together a gripping story of small-town secrets, long-buried trauma, and the desperate search for truth.

The forest setting is beautifully haunting, adding a constant sense of dread and unease that lingers throughout the book. Every twist and reveal kept me completely hooked — just when I thought I had it figured out, another layer unraveled.

Perfect for fans of:
🌲 Small town secrets
🕯️ Slow-burning suspense
💔 Generational trauma
🕵️‍♀️ Strong, flawed female leads
❓ Dark twists you won’t see coming

Highly recommend for anyone who loves a haunting thriller that stays with you long after you close the book.

“The Forest of Missing Girls” is a slow burn that leans heavily on atmosphere, weaving a tale of family, secrets, and small-town legends. Our protagonist, Lia, is drawn into a mystery that promises more suspense than it ultimately delivers.

While the setting is rich and moody—perfect for fans of haunting backdrops—the execution falters when it comes to structure. The jumps back and forth in time feel abrupt and jarring, pulling you out of the story rather than enhancing it. It’s a narrative choice that could have worked but ends up distracting more than deepening the plot.

The twists, while present, were easy to see coming, and the ending felt foreshadowed rather than surprising. This isn't so much a thriller as it is a story about the lingering pull of family, long-buried secrets, and the myths we grow up with. I really had to push through at times, and while the book has its strengths in tone and mood, it didn’t quite hit the mark for me in terms of suspense.

Thank You to NetGalley and the Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. Of course, all opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

I really enjoyed this book. It kept me interested from the start. I loved the atmosphere and the creepiness of the forest. The duel povs from the missing girls and our main character blended so well. The anger and unsettling feeling I got from the mother was my favorite part. I just wish we got more of the forest and why and how everything was happening.

I had been in a bit of a reading slump when I received an ARC for this book and it reignited my love of reading thrillers! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time! I will be reading anything this author writes from now on!

First and foremost, I would like to thank netgallery for giving me the opportunity to read the arc and give my honest review of this book.
I honestly enjoyed this read,it was a slow burn mystery, but also it is very drawing.
I couldn't help but read and continue reading so that I could get to the bottom of what was happening with the forest and the missing girls.
As much as I realized during reading that Elizabeth knew a lot about Maddie's disappearance, I wanted to know the reason she knew and her role in everything that was happening with the mystery behind the missing girls.
I liked how the author made or had Lia not be like a person who just wanted to solve the mystery of the missing girls,but the author had her to be curious about what was happening around her and her mother,I liked that she went with a different plot to what other mstery books tend to take and I really appreciate that so much. For me, this book was great and also okay for someone who is looking for a bit of horror/ fantasy myself read.
I definitely would be checking more work by this author.

I devoured this in one sitting.

The atmosphere is great, the jumps in time were a bit jarring and I found myself having to reread a chapter to get it in my head properly.

Other than that, despite the obvious foreshadowing for one twist I never really could have imagined the other or who was truly involved.

I think it wrapped up nicely, bittersweet but stitched together cleanly.

Ophelia and Evangeline’s sister bond becoming strong again was so nice to read between each new horror uncovered and I definitely recommend this one to people who like a bit of horror, body or otherwise.

The Forest of Missing Girls is a haunting, slow-burn thriller that expertly weaves together family secrets, small-town legends, and the kind of creeping dread that lingers long after dark. Lia Gregg is a compelling protagonist—vulnerable but determined—as she’s forced to confront not just the terrifying woods of her childhood, but also the secrets her family has long buried.

The atmosphere is one of the book’s strongest points. The forest feels like a character in its own right: mysterious, menacing, and thick with generations of fear. The tension builds steadily as Lia begins to untangle the truth behind the disappearances, and the sense of unease never fully lets up.

Some plot elements are a bit familiar if you read a lot of psychological thrillers, and a few reveals are more predictable than shocking. But the emotional stakes, especially around Lia’s relationship with her sister and mother, give the story real depth and heart.

This is a perfect read for fans of dark, twisty mysteries with a supernatural edge and strong female leads. It’s not just about what’s hidden in the woods—it’s about what we’re afraid to face in ourselves.

The premise of "The Forest of Missing Girls" immediately drew me in and once it did, it didn't let go.

The book was written in such a creepy, atmospheric way, that I felt like I was there. There were so many mysteries within the book and twists at every turn. The characters were well-developed with a lot of depth within the backstories. The pacing was excellent, I kept turning pages long after I should have stopped. There was a lot of suspense built up throughout the book and it kept me guessing until the very end.

Highly recommend adding this to your TBR for the perfect fall read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was my first book by this author but it absolutely did not disappoint!!! There were twists that were executed SO well, the plot, characters, everything about this book I loved. I look forward to more books by this author. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read an early copy

Haunting, immersive, and disturbingly beautiful—The Forest of Missing Girls by Nichelle Giraldes is a chilling descent into generational trauma, fractured identities, and a forest that seems to breathe, watch, and remember.

From the very first page, Giraldes lures you into a world where every tree hides a secret and every shadow could be something more. The setting is alive—lush and eerie, like nature itself is complicit in the horrors that unfold. It’s the kind of book that makes the hair on your arms rise, not just from what’s happening, but from what might be lurking just out of sight. If you love a good murder mystery wrapped in gothic dread and psychological unease, this one’s for you.

At its core, this story follows Lia, a woman returning to her small, secret-laden hometown after a failed stint in LA. Her homecoming isn’t just about heartbreak—it’s about confronting the weight of family expectations and the dark history of the forest that borders her childhood home. When her younger sister’s best friend vanishes without a trace, Lia is drawn into a mystery that stretches far beyond this single disappearance.

What makes this novel stand out is Giraldes’s striking use of dual POVs—one grounded in Lia’s search for answers, the other a more enigmatic voice that slowly reveals itself. The structure keeps you on your toes, constantly reevaluating what you think you know. I absolutely loved the mystery of the second perspective; it added a fresh and brilliantly executed layer that gave me chills.

The writing style is lyrical yet raw, blending dark fairytale elements with modern psychological horror. There’s a quiet brutality to the storytelling—some scenes are deeply disturbing, visceral in a way that lingers. And while there are subtle sci-fi undertones, they’re woven in so seamlessly that even non-genre fans won’t feel out of place. Think Blair Witch meets Frankenstein, with just a whisper of botanical horror.

Giraldes doesn’t shy away from heavy themes either—this is a novel that deals with the horrors women carry in their bodies and bones. From unrealistic expectations to generational trauma, mental illness, and the often invisible violence of being shaped into someone else’s image, it’s all here, wrapped in mystery and metaphor.

Overall, The Forest of Missing Girls is an evocative, skin-crawling thriller that blends mystery with myth, horror with humanity. It’s a forest you won’t forget—and one you may think twice about walking into again.

Perfect for fans of:
• Atmospheric, small-town mysteries
• Creepy forests that feel alive
• Slow-burn horror with emotional depth
• Supernatural suspense with real-world trauma
• Unreliable narrators, dual timelines,

The ending…🤯 I need to know more! Book 2?

Highly recommended! Just, not before bed!

A great book for a weekend, that you cannot put it down. Nature, love all blended with the society's rules for women that never fade, leading to a mystery where you sometimes suspect a character, the development revealing the suspect til the end.

" I was unnatural, formed from the unwilling sacrifice of others. Like Frankenstein's monster, I was a creature composed of parts."

I enjoyed this book.
The story starts out slowly and the slow pace is maintained throughout the book. The slowness was not a problem for me because it’s the kind of story that crept up on me and before I knew it I could not put it down.
Think a beautiful Frankenstein's monster with a family, an enchanted forest and one very nasty doctor. Sisterhood, friendships, broken relationships, unfulfilled lives, murder and a whole lot of themes can be found right there in the mix.
The story is excellently written. The descriptions of the forest made it feel vibrant and alive with such vivid details.The main character is well fleshed out and when she finds herself in that last scene I was on her side cheering her on.
A great read.

oh. my. god.

this book is AMAZING! i was completely enthralled. the plot was so good. and let’s be real.. nichelle’s writing was just so captivating. the twists were executed so well. ugh. i need everyone to read this!

This was hands down one of the most twisted, unexpected books I’ve ever read. The plot was straight up wild. It was so so well written and I absolutely fell in love with the characters and atmosphere. This book falls into a category pushing the supernatural realm but it is done very realisticly.
Such a fast paced suspenseful read. I could not put this down. And the ending 🤯
Brilliant

Very Shelley-esque. Less of a thriller than I expected, but a good, tense read, with a few interesting elements. 3.5 stars rounded up.

When Lia leaves LA and returns to her family home, she hopes to outgrow the fear of the woods surrounding them. The woods appear more sinister than usual when a friend of Lia’s sister disappears from their back garden. Does Lia’s mother know more about this than she is letting on? Can the trees really be hiding secrets, secrets that might bring Lia closer to danger than she ever imagined?

The premise of this book was appealing and from the beginning the description of the woods emphasised the eerie background ‘The forest felt alive, like a wild animal—unpredictable, uncontrollable, something that could kill me without a second thought’.

Lia’s determination to seek out answers whilst being blocked in parts by her critical mother plays a consistent role in this book. It was a slow burn and some repetition in places which I felt took away parts of the payoff at the end. I feel there could have been more character background in places, partially from the missing girls scenes which could have answered some questions (of which I had many!). Overall, this was a mix of thriller, some horror and a little folklore/sci-fi so quite different to what I would normally read, but an enjoyable one that kept my interest nevertheless.

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A girl is coming back home to a small town after breaking up with her boyfriend. She feels like a failure, not because of the break up or because of the discovery that LA is not for her, but because of her perfect Mother who will be once again disappointed in her. Or so she believes. In a strange way, she also missed the nature and the forest that surrounds their home. It's the same forest she grew up in, taking walks in with her mother and sister. The same forest she is very much afraid of. The same forest where the girls have gone missing regularly in the last decades never to be found again.

After her teen sister's best friend is gone form their backyard, their lives turn upside down trying to figure out what happened and how is their Mother involved. At the same time we get the first glimpse into the memories of one of the missing girls... or many of them.

The story is spun perfectly and you will love it if you are a fan of spooky, supernatural thrillers, truly crazy scientists, a horror involving a cottage in the woods and the forest that is more alive than the regular forests are. And then there is also the horror of unrealistic expectations placed on women and the horror of generational trauma with all the pressure, mental issues, violence and feelings of failure that comes with it.

Without spoilers, this is all I can say, but I do recommend this book with all my heart. Despite the subjects, the fairytale like horror makes this one a very cozy read for me.