Naomi Shaw is a survivor. When she was 11, she had been attacked in the woods. She was stabbed 17 times. She told detectives her attacker was a man they suspected of killing six women. It was the testimony of Naomi and her friends Cassidy and Olivia that finally put him in prison.
That was over 20 years ago. Now Naomi is a wedding photographer. She’s changed her name but hasn’t done anything to mask her scars. And then she gets a phone call. The man she put in prison is no longer a threat. Cancer has killed him. Naomi is free.
Only she isn’t. She will always have her memories. She will always have her scars. She will always have her secrets. Like, how she never saw him that day in the woods. She didn’t see anyone. She only saw the knife.
When they were 11, Naomi, Cass, and Liv were the best of friends. They ran around the woods like they owned them. They had a secret there, Persephone. Their Goddess. They spent the summer playing Goddess games and coming up with ideas to show her their devotion. It was a magical summer. Until it wasn’t. Naomi had been sitting in the forest eating her peanut butter sandwich when she was stabbed in the back. Then she was held down and stabbed 16 more times. And then she was left for dead.
One of the older kids had found her and brought her out of the woods. She had survived the attack, put a serial killer in prison, grown up, and moved away. But she can’t let go of the guilt she feels for having lied to the police. And Olivia agrees. She wants to tell the secrets too. But when she goes into the woods and doesn’t come out, Nami can’t help but wonder if someone else has a different secret, something worth dying for. Or worth killing for.
What Lies in the Woods is a dark thriller layered with secrets and lies. It’s the story difficult childhoods and dubious police investigations, of secret games and painful consequences. It’s a story of survival against all odds, and it is a chilling roller coaster of twists and turns, of characters who have darkness in their hearts and those who are striving to heal from trauma.
I listened to What Lies in the Woods on audio, and narrator Karissa Vacker brings the story to life. It’s not always easy to listen to a story this dark, but I thought that Vacker did a phenomenal job with her performance. She was able to get into the head of Naomi and found the right tone for author Kate Alice Marshall’s story.
I really enjoyed What Lies in the Woods. I thought that there were a lot of smart things about it. However, I could see some of the reveals coming, but even with that, I still found the story entertaining. I liked Naomi a lot, even when she made bad choices, and watching her journey through the dark woods of her past and back into the light, only to find herself in mortal danger again. I think fans of dark thrillers or light horror will enjoy this, and I look forward to seeing where Marshall goes next with her writing.
A copy of the audio book to What Lies in the Woods was provided by Macmillan Audio through NetGalley, with many thanks.
