What Lies in the Woods
Kate Alice Marshall
narrated by Karissa Vacker
Trigger Warnings: Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationships, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Suicide and Self Harm
Minor: Sexual violence, Stalking
Publisher’s Summary:
They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison. They were heroes…but they were liars.
Kate Alice Marshall’s What Lies in the Woods is a thrilling novel about friendship, secrets, betrayal, and lies – and having the courage to face the past.
Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.
And they were liars.
For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods—no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.
Review:
Not only are three women bonded by a childhood trauma, but readers get to know how they became friends as very different kids from varied backgrounds. They’ve come through abuse: racism, physical abuse, SA, and poverty.
These young girls escaped their problems through creative roleplaying in the woods called the Goddess Game. They found a dead body that convinced them their game was more real than not. That wasn’t the biggest event somehow. They survived a serial killer in those sacred woods.
Naomi is a rare bisexual main character that can be appreciated. Since the story essentially revolves around three best friends, each one incredibly unique, Naomi’s realization at a young age that she was always in love with one of them makes sense. Her sexual history though does focus on choosing the absolute wrong men.
There’s the trope of someone’s not who you think because they changed their identity. In this case, it does make sense for the character, but it is painfully manipulative against the protagonist. The twists have their twists – multiple times. This isn’t necessarily unrealistic when the main character’s primary trauma happened at 11-years-old and she was repeatedly spoonfed false narratives. The title is also a fantastic pun of lies the verb and lies the noun.
Marshall is quite good at setting tones for each scene, although it could feel repetitive. That repetition may have been deliberate as Naomi constantly relives troubling and mysterious incidents in her life. An example is how Marshall uses the word rot metaphorically for Naomi to talk about her hometown, her boyfriends, her family home, and her own self worth.
The climax is fulfilling as is the closure afterward.
Summary:
If you’re in the mood for a story where you change your mind on who did what crime at a rapid pace, this is an excellent choice. Like Amy Tintera’s Listen for the Lie, What Lies in the Woods delivers authentic PTSD, mental illness, and traumatic brain injuries.
Rating: 4 stars
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.