Even though I knew it was going to keep me up at night, this creepy book was SO worth it. Greene artfully wove children’s ghost stories with horrific events in a small town. There’s something about nursery rhymes to keep the monsters away that will always be ominous to me.
The atmosphere in this book was memorable. What’s more terrifying than returning to your hometown to see the people you went to high school with? Kidding…kind of. In all seriousness, this small town community that seemingly “gobbles up children” located on the edge of the forest where the Hickory Man dwells was the perfect place for a scary story.
Hands down, my favorite part of the book was the last page. Without giving it all away, I’m a sucker for a book that doesn’t wrap everything up in a neat little bow at the end. I like a book that leaves me unsettled. It gives me something to think about long after I’ve finished the pages.
What a well done debut thriller!
Summary: Cheyenne Ashby knows the dark and disturbing history of her hometown of Blue Cliff, Virginia, all too well. It’s why she left. Growing up deep within the woods with her eccentric mother, Constance, she was raised on the unusual customs and generational superstitions linked to the local legend of an evil entity that haunts the forest.
Five years ago, the bodies of three children were found in the woods. It was a man—not a mythical beast—named Jasper Clinton who was convicted of these heinous crimes. For five years the town breathed just a bit easier with a real-life monster behind bars.
But when another child goes missing, Cheyenne and Natalie are determined to discover the truth and uncover the town’s dangerous secrets rooted in its terrifying past.
The two women must confront the reality of the superstitions they always believed in and their town’s complicated connection with who—or what—lives in the woods.
Books and Bites with Brooke 