They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison. They were heroes . . . but they were liars.
Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.
And they were liars.
For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods—no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.
Book Info: Print length: 326 pages. Publisher: Flatiron Books. Publication Date: 17 Jan 2023
My Thoughts.
What Lies in the Woods is the breakout adult psychological thriller by American author Kate Alice Marshall who is best known for writing YA fiction novels.
This standalone thriller centres is primarily narrated by Naomi. Twenty-two years ago, as a child she was subjected to a violent and brutal attack, leaving her physically and mentally scarred and now as an adult, she carries the trauma in her behaviour.
When Naomi and her best-friends Cassidy and Olivia were found in the woods, bloodied and left to die, they identified a man who was discovered to have murdered several women and was convicted based on their testimony.
Naomi has since left the small community where she and her friends were hailed as heroes, she’s stuck in an unhealthy relationship, working as a wedding photographer still haunted by her past.
When she gets the news that the man she helped put behind bars has died she is dragged back to her home town and starts to re-examine her past.
The book is atmospheric and claustrophobic with the dual timelines delving between the women’s friendships at a time they were young and easily influenced and now as adults struggling with their present lives colliding with their pasts.
The story delves deeply into friendships, struggling to fit in, how a childhood trauma can shape your life, how secrets and lies can’t stay hidden forever and the true cost of survival.
Overall I really enjoyed this dark and twisted tale. There were moments I was sure I had worked out why/who/when only to be wrong-footed. The author cleverly misguides the reader through the narration leading us down lots of twisty one-way paths, only to shock us time and time again.
