ARC Review: The Woods Are Always Watching by Stephanie Perkins

“The story does fit the cover and is the right time of year for it. But I definitely had higher expectations in the execution.”

~ Under the Covers

I don’t think I’ve read a young adult thriller before and I felt this was perfect for the season! The premise of this one sounded really interesting. Two high school best friends decided to go into a National Forest for a 3 day hike before going their separate ways to different colleges.

First thing to point out. This is YA and it felt like it. The main characters and their personalities got on my nerves. So be prepared for some of that. I prefer my young adult to be a little more mature as far as that goes.

Second if expectations. I was expecting this to be a thriller obviously, but because this author is well known for a cute YA series, I also thought it would be thriller light. That’s not the case as far as the gruesomeness of the book. 

As you can imagine, things don’t go as planned in the forest and they are caught in a pretty bad situation. At times it felt pretty unbelievable. Not that it could happen, because it obviously can and probably does. But how everything was handled. I wanted more motivation and backstory as to what was happening and even in the end I don’t think this book does a good job explaining that. 

The story does fit the cover and is the right time of year for it. But I definitely had higher expectations in the execution. In the end, I could’ve been ok with both girls dying and at times I was rooting for that anyway. So I never did come to like either of them much.

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About Stephanie Perkins

Hi, there! I'm Stephanie Perkins, and I wrote Anna and the French Kiss, Lola and the Boy Next Door, and Isla and the Happily Ever After. I also edited (and contributed a short story to) a romantic holiday anthology called My True Love Gave to Me and its companion anthology, Summer Days and Summer Nights. My first horror novel, There's Someone Inside Your House, was recently adapted into a film for Netflix. My second horror novel, The Woods Are Always Watching, will be released Fall 2021.

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