Review--In the Woods by Carrie Jones & Steven E. Wedel

New York Times bestselling author Carrie Jones teams up with acclaimed cowriter Steven Wedel in this supernatural mysteryIt should have been just another quiet night on the farm when Logan witnessed the attack, but it wasn't.

Something is in the woods.
Something unexplainable.
Something deadly.

Hundreds of miles away, Chrystal's plans for summer in Manhattan are abruptly upended when her dad reads tabloid coverage of some kind of grisly incident in Oklahoma. When they arrive to investigate, they find a witness: a surprisingly good-looking farm boy.

As townsfolk start disappearing and the attacks get ever closer, Logan and Chrystal will have to find out the truth about whatever's hiding in the woods...before they become targets themselves.

Carrie Jones and Steven E. Wedel’s In the Woods practically screamed READ ME the moment I saw the amazing cover! I’m a sucker for covers that have a woodsy atmosphere! The story itself also sounded amazing…something sinister and creepy lurking in the woods, kill animals and eventually people! It was all the makings for a great read…though the end result was a little less than great, but still pretty entertaining!

Chrystal is with her father for the summer as her mother and husband #3 decided to go to Europe instead of the trip to New York that she promised her. Chrystal’s dad is what you might call eccentric. He’s a teacher, but also a cryptozoologist, he studies all the strange occurrences that appear in our world…such as Big Foot sightings, that kind of thing. When he catches wind of the strange creature that killed a calf by ripping its head off, he immediately heads to Oklahoma with Chrystal to check it out.

Logan is your typical teenage farm boy. He lives and works on his family farm and was the boy who witnessed the possible Big Foot creature that killed one of their calves. I gotta admit, that scene was pretty brutal to read, because I could see it happening and was nearly a wreck within those first few pages. So be advised that there’s some animal violence in this, other than that first scene and at least one other intense moment, there’s no other animal violence in this one. Just wanted to give you readers who might be sensitive to that a heads up. The most detailed of it all is that first scene with the calf.

It’s not long after their arrival to Oklahoma and talk with Logan about what he witnessed that the creature ups its game. A young woman goes missing and it quickly becomes clear that Chrystal might be a target.

I will say that the mystery element was very well done. I guess I didn’t really think of a particular element would play a role in this story, which coming from me, you’d think that I would catch onto this! Lol! But I guess I thought this would be more in line with a thriller, and while it did have those elements, the outcome still kind of took me by surprise! But I liked it!

The romance was also rather cute. You could see it coming, what with the dual point of views from Chrystal and Logan. Though, and here’s where we touch on the things that I didn’t really like, their conversations always came off as a little awkward. Perhaps, I’ve read too many books where at least one of the characters was a little bolder. But it wasn’t even that, really. Just the way they were saying things…it was weird, like awkward weird. And this happened at other points of conversation too, not just with Logan and Chrystal. I don’t expect everyone to speak in that easy going, easy flowing type of style, but let’s just say I felt like I was tripping over words here as I was trying to read what was being said. Conversations felt a little awkward in this one.

Another tiny nuisance was among Logan’s sisters, one was grad school young, the other was fifteen, so I think Chrystal mentions Kelsey being a year younger than herself. For whatever reason, I felt like Kelsey was made a little too juvenile. It felt like she was more in-line with her younger sister with the way they giggled constantly together and they were together a lot of the times too. Maybe, again, it was just that they had a closer sisterly bond with one another despite a big age gap. I know my sister and I didn’t get along as well as these two and we were only three years apart! There’s definitely more years between Kelsey and her younger sister.

Again, tiny nuisances, though nothing major, were what contributed to my lowering my rating for this one. The dialogue bit can almost be overlooked as attributing it to shyness when boy meets girl and vice versa, but as I said, there were times when the conversation felt awkward and it wasn’t between these two. I don’t know how to put it, it’s like the words were struggling to be simplistic when using a word that might be a little “advance” would work just as well and still flow naturally in a conversation with at least one teenager.

Since my reading habits have changed a little, this could also be playing a role in the things I am not noticing right away like I used to. Even with notetaking, I still realize that there are things I am missing or didn’t really realize. Such as one character who I thought was older than he really was and I didn’t realize it until late and it was just like whoa! It kind of changed my perspective on things.

There was quite a shocking twist to this one, even after the big reveal! I wasn’t really expecting it and I suppose you could call that a good thing, but then again, once it got thrown out there, I was still a little confused. There wasn’t enough detail to the “history” of it all. I wouldn’t have minded a little more detail to that history that ended up playing such a key role in the ending. The ending itself felt a little rushed too. I would not have minded if more time was taken to get things all straightened out and resolved in a believable manner. There was also a bit of cheesiness to be had in the ending too, but honestly it was the good kind of cheesiness, but cheese is still cheese! Lol.

If you’re looking for a mysterious read set in the woods on a farm in the middle of Oklahoma—a perfect atmosphere for a good creepy mystery—then I would highly recommend In the Woods. It’s not a flawless read, but it still ranks pretty high on my list as one that was a delight to read!



Overall Rating 3.75/5 stars