Review: Black Woods

Black Woods by Laura Wright LaRoche

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Black Woods
by Laura Wright LaRoche (Goodreads Author)
5 of 5 stars
Avid mushroom hunters and volunteers with the local Search and Rescue Department, Laura and Julie, who are in their sixties, remember that first encounter in the woods years ago.

Four young men who are fun by nature, travel to the woods with high hopes of a hunt they won't forget.

A call to the Search and Rescue Department will bring them shockingly together in the....
Black Woods.

Adult Language(less)

MY REVIEW:
I wanted to take a little while after reading this Perfectly horrifying book to think on the review to do it justice. Should I start with the fact that I think about parts of the book every few days? Maybe the fact tht I love woods, spooky woods, used to love scary stories but became a little chicken in my older age of 39.. Maybe I can skip to the part where I lay sleepless in bed at 4 am a few nights ago rolling parts over in my mind & my fuzzy cat rubbed against my leg & I near had a heart attack! Needless to say, this story stuck with me!

The story begins with an old scary retelling of something horrific that happened years ago. After that introduction, we are introduced to 2 sisters, Laura & Julie, who are in their 60's. The sisters love mushroom hunting in "their woods ". Even the 2 sisters know there is a specific place in the woods where nobody is safe. As long as they avoid that area everything is always fine. As younger women, they saw the 'beast' that controls that area, but nobody believes them. Many, mamy unexplained deaths & disappearances over the years back up their fears. The sisters are also members of a rescue group because they know the woods so well due to their years of mushroom hunting in the woods. I enjoyed getting to feel comfortable with the sisters and their families throughout the story. I started to feel a true liking for them.

Along cometh the idiot teenagers. (this would be a good movie, all horror movies need the idiot teens). The idiots (I mean teens) drove from an area about an hour away to try out some hunting/ camping in the woods. The hilarious descriptions & conversations of the teens makes me wonder if the author hasn't been a fly on the dash taking notes in a car full of nutty teenage boys. It is 100% hilarious & accurate as far as how idiots (wonderful teens) act when left to their own. I could not believe anyone other than a teen could so accurately lay out their ridiculous interactions with one another. Just hilarious.

Needless to say, the teens roam into the off limits area the locals know to stay away from. They also get into several predicaments before the 'monster-beast' even gets a chance at them. It is a recipe for some gross, gory, bloody... Just right down stomach turning reading. That is when you aren't holding your sides laughing. The scenes gripped me a little too tightly in places, yet I couldn't stop reading. The characters were well developed and I felt like I definitely got enough of the picture when it came to gore.

I loved the ending. It was both surprising and lended a hopefulness needed for me after all of the action. The story definitely stuck with me for many days after finishing the book!



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