Darlene's Book Nook: #Book #Review: 3 out of 5 stars for After the Woods by Kim Savage @khsavage @MacKidsBooks

Sunday, December 11, 2016

#Book #Review: 3 out of 5 stars for After the Woods by Kim Savage @khsavage @MacKidsBooks

TITLE: After the Woods

AUTHOR: Kim Savage

PUBLISHER: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

PUBLICATION DATE: February 23, 2016

FORMAT: Hardcover

LENGTH: 304 pages

GENRE: Young Adult, Mystery

ISBN: 9780374300555

Would you risk your life to save your best friend?

Julia did. When a paroled predator attacked Liv in the woods, Julia fought back and got caught. Liv ran, leaving Julia in the woods for a terrifying 48 hours that she remembers only in flashbacks. One year later, Liv seems bent on self-destruction, starving herself, doing drugs, and hooking up with a violent new boyfriend. A dead girl turns up in those same woods, and Julia’s memories resurface alongside clues unearthed by an ambitious reporter that link the girl to Julia’s abductor. As the devastating truth becomes clear, Julia realizes that after the woods was just the beginning.

MY REVIEW:

This debut novel was a little dark and twisted, and I liked it!

Olivia “Liv” Lapin and her friend, Julia Spunk, are running through the woods one day for track practice. Liv sprints on ahead of Julia. When Julia catches up to her, she finds her friend lying on the ground with a man on top of her armed with a knife. He tells Julia that he will kill Liv if she doesn’t leave. Julia does the unexpected. She rushes toward the man, and he grabs her by the ankle and pulls her down. The distraction is enough for Liv to get out from underneath him. Rather than help her friend who just saved her life, Liv turns and runs away and leaves Julia with the madman.

Then the story moves ahead by almost one year, and we learn that Julia was held captive by Donald Jessup for two days. She has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and remembers little of the incident. Her therapist, Dr. Ricker, wants to hypnotize her to bring the memories to the surface. Sometimes a smell will trigger a memory, but Julia pushes it back down.

The body of a female jogger who disappeared the previous year is found in the same woods where Liv and Julia were attacked. Is there a connection between the two crimes?

You would think that Liv would be grateful to Julia for saving her life and be relieved that they were both safe, but she’s not! She’s stand-offish, and their friendship is strained. Does she feel guilty that she got away and Julia didn’t? There’s definitely more to the story.

I love flawed characters, and this book is full of them! This story was darker than I expected, but I liked it! It had some interesting plot developments that took me by surprise, and I will definitely look for Kim Savage’s sophomore novel when it comes out!

MY RATING: