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I recently finished reading What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT

  Rating: 4/5 stars

"Devin Green wakes in the middle of the night to find two men in her bedroom. No stranger to a fight, she calls to her foster parents for help, but it soon becomes clear this is a planned abduction—one everyone but Devin signed up for. She’s shoved in a van and driven deep into the Idaho woods, where she’s dropped off with a cohort of equally confused teens. Finally, two camp counselors inform them that they've all been enrolled in an experimental therapy program. If the campers can learn to change their self-destructive ways—and survive a fifty-days hike through the wilderness—they’ll come out the other side as better versions of themselves. Or so the counselors say.

Devin is immediately determined to escape. She’s also determined to ignore Sheridan, the cruel-mouthed, lavender-haired bully who mocks every group exercise. But there’s something strange about these woods—inhuman faces appearing between the trees, visions of people who shouldn't be there flashing in the leaves—and when the campers wake up to find both counselors missing, therapy becomes the least of their problems. Stranded and left to fend for themselves, the teens quickly realize they’ll have to trust each other if they want to survive. But what lies in the woods may not be as dangerous as what the campers are hiding from each other—and if the monsters have their way, no one will leave the woods alive."

Gripping, tense, dark, horrific and hard to put down! Like two of the main characters, I was instantly grabbed from the very beginning of What the Woods Took! This book had me turning the pages, not wanting to put it down as I was fully invested in what was going to happen next in this coming-of-age tale of survival!

Devin Green, asleep at her foster home, is taken from her bed in the middle of the night and thrown in a van. In the van she meets Oliver, a teen who was also grabbed at his home as he slept as well. Initially, they are given very little information, which ramps up their anxiety and unease. What they do know is that they are being taken to an experimental therapy program where they will hike, camp, and survive in the woods with two camp counselors and other teens for 50 days. The intended result of the therapy program is that the teens will emerge from the woods changed for the better! When they wake up and their two camp counselors are missing, the teens find themselves faced with the unimaginable!

I enjoyed the mixing of personalities and backgrounds of the teens in this book. I also enjoyed their dynamics with each other and their reactions after being thrust into a situation beyond their control. Can you imagine strangers waking you up and taking you by force with little to no explanation. That you are a minor and have no say in what is happening to you? I thought Courtney Gould did a fantastic job of depicting this. I enjoyed how Devin fought and tried to escape while Olive, who did not like the situation, was more accepting of what was happening. Their reactions alone in the beginning of the book show their personalities. Then they meet the other teens who are distinct and add so much to the plot.

What the Woods Took has that trapped feeling that I enjoy in books. While they are not physically locked into any room or house, the group of teens do have the task of finding their way out of the woods - woods that they are unfamiliar with. Survival is the name of the game for them. This book was oozing with atmosphere. I also enjoyed the sense of unease, tension and mounting danger. I enjoyed the sense of something-isn't-quite-right that morphed into full on fear! When they learned that they were not alone in the woods, the creepy factor went off the charts. Their therapy adventure in the woods morphed into a horrific nightmare! What the Woods Took also morphed into a great story about friendship, romance, survival, trust, and battling your own demons.

Creepy, scary, tense, well thought out, spooky!

Check out What the Woods Took, and uncover the truth behind what the woods truly took.

Happy Reading :)