A Chilling YA Horror: What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould Review

Courtney Gould’s What the Woods Took is a creepy YA horror that follows a group of teenagers who are sent on a hike through the woods as part of an experimental wilderness therapy program: an abusive, exploitative practice with very little oversight. Even before the supernatural horrors began, we have teenagers getting kidnapped out of their beds and unqualified adults putting them in dangerous situations while simultaneously forcing them to share extremely personal information without their consent. One morning, the teenagers wake up to find their counselors have disappeared, leaving them stranded in the middle of the woods—and before long, they discover dangerous monsters lurking in the woods, with terrifying motives of their own. 

I could not put this book down! I had been in a bit of a reading slump before I picked this up, but with this one, I was obsessed, pretty much right from the start. This is exactly my kind of horror, first of all. It was emotional, it was character-focused, and, of course, it had lesbians. I almost forgot it was horror in the beginning, because I was so immediately invested in the characters. Once the horror elements started, though, they got my heart pounding, and I was actually nervous as I got into bed. I don’t want to say too much about the monsters, but I found them unique, as well as an interesting extension of the overall themes of the book (as any good horror monster is).

I truly loved all of the characters here, and more than that, the narrative clearly had love for them too. Every one of them had a distinct personality and story, and I thought the book did a really solid job sitting with each of them, without letting it distract from the main story. I loved that they were allowed to be angry and handle things poorly, and I loved seeing them grow and get better, and I loved that the narrative recognized how hard that is. There’s such anger in this book, but also such care and respect.

That care and respect is the core of the romances as well. Devin and Sheridan’s initial hatred changed to a begrudging well-I-don’t-want-you-dead-I-guess truce to friendship so slowly, so naturally, in a way that can be difficult with dislike-to-lovers romances, particularly when the characters involved are so prickly, even volatile, as these two were. I thought their attraction from there made sense as well. Likewise, the friendships between the rest of the group, especially Devin and Ollie, felt natural and earned.

This book gave me everything I wanted. It was smart and it was scary and it made me feel everything so deeply. I cannot wait to read more Courtney Gould.