a GREAT read: Can't Wait Wednesday #208

Aug 6, 2025

Can't Wait Wednesday #208

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.

For fans of Midsommar, Catriona Ward, and Sarah Gailey, this addictively readable modern horror novel unfolds like a movie with a climax you’ll never see coming.

When Jen Monroe hears her father's remains have been found, she returns home to disprove his death, only to find the forests of rural Washington are hiding unimaginable horrors.

Seven years ago Jen Monroe left behind her hometown of Barrow, Washington after her father, a forest ranger passionate about protecting old trees from the aggressive logging business, vanished. She vowed never to return. Then she gets a text from her estranged mother: Her father's remains have been found.

It seems impossible to Jen, who had always believed her father was alive, and she returns home determined to find out what happened. When her ex-boyfriend suggests a camping trip in the woods in her father's memory, it feels like the opportunity Jen has been hoping for: to find her father. To find the truth. But what she finds in the ancient, impenetrable forest may be deeper, darker and deadlier than she could have imagined—and it has no intention of letting her leave.

SUPER excited for Gretchen's adult debut! I've loved her YA thrillers over the years and just can't wait to see her tackle this new "genre" so to speak--age level wise!

TITLE: They Fear Not Men in the Woods
AUTHOR: Gretchen McNeil
PUBLISHER: DAW
GENRE: Thriller
RELEASE DATE: September 9, 2025

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of And I Darken comes a dark fantasy about a girl who will do anything to find her sister, including posing as a maid to infiltrate the mysterious House of Quiet.

To save her sister, she must enter the House.

In the middle of a deadly bog sits the House of Quiet. It’s a place for children whose Procedure triggered powers too terrible to be lived with—their last hope for treatment. No one knows how they’re healed or where they go afterward.

Birdie has begged, bargained, and blackmailed her way inside as a maid, determined to find her missing sister, Magpie. But what she discovers is more mysteries. Instead of the destitute children who undergo the Procedure in hopes of social advancement, the house brims with aristocratic teens wielding strange powers they never should have been burdened with.

Though Birdie wants to ignore them, she can’t help being drawn to stoic and silent Forest, charmed by clever River, and concerned for the youngest residents. And with fellow maid Minnow keeping tabs on everything Birdie does, danger is everywhere.

In her desperate search for Magpie, Birdie unearths terrifying threats and devastating truths, forcing her to confront just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save her own sister. Because in the House of Quiet, if you find what’s lurking beneath . . . you lose everything.

Unravel the mystery. Ignite the rebellion.

SOOO cannot wait for Kiersten's next YA creepy book or mysterious I guess! The cover gives creepy vibes but the blurb is just very mysterious! Can't wait either way!