This was a surprisingly boring horror story. I don't know why it was initially so hyped. That's too bad. The blurb advertises spooky woods, but they get little page time. The witches are not mentioned until page two hundred, and then a teen quarrels with her grandmother. The mayor of the small town, even, is too boring to be creepy despite knowing about the tree sacrifice or whatever it is that needs the blood of teen girls. I was looking forward to making a BTVS reference about the mayor, so, too bad. After page two hundred fifty, I fully admit to skimming because I was so bored. This...is not a book about witches in spooky woods. It's about a small town, and I wish the blurb, title, and cover had reflected that. Sigh. ( )

A town where you know something strange is going on. A creepy forest that almost everyone is afraid of. Horribly mutilated dead bodies. And a young teen girl at the center of it all coming into her own. Yep, this is a solid horror story to keep your turning the pages! ( )

I had to wait ages for this book since someone saw fit to check it out of the library and “adopt” it instead of returning it as normal people would have. When I finally got a copy, I thought it must really be something special since it had inspired someone to almost commit petty larceny. I was a bit disappointed in what, from the book description was supposed to be a strange murder mystery with headless corpses and monsters that were probably not human. It did offer some of that which was the good part of it but some parts were questionable and bordering on the unbelievable. Okay...I agree that anyone that can believe that some monstrous creature actually carried some headless body off through the woods should be okay to believe almost anything...right? I read a lot of m/m romances so I can accept a lot of things... but when it’s a love interest like the characters of Lauren and Jake... something just isn’t right here. Jake is in college and has recently turned 19, Lauren is 13 and about to start Jr. High School. Jake says lines like “I've been into you for a long time”...and "I dream of all the things I would like to do to you"... which is by far creepier than the monster. What? Did he have this huge crush on her when she as 9 or 10? There were only a couple murders when there was enough going on this town to have produced a lot more. Good premise for a good gory story but it fell rather short...and certainly not worth stealing. ( )

Needs a tweak or two. Kinda saw the ending coming. Would recommend for someone else to check out ( )

Entertaining AF! I could not put this down. Stayed up until 3am reading last night and threw myself on the couch with the book as soon as I could today.

I loved seeing the action through multiple POVs, including all the red herrings laid in our path. The characters were great.

As an aside ---

I think I figured out why we are seeing such a spate of 1980s themed horror books - It's the last era in which there was no instant communication available. No beepers, no cell phones, just landlines and a few answering machines here and there. Contacting someone was a hit or miss kind of thing. No instant news. The news came along once a day in the newspaper. Cable news was in its infancy in the mid-eighties and most rural areas did not have access. Life was more insulated. ( )