In The Dead Woods, Christian Francis introduces readers to a town plagued by mysterious deaths and a group of friends determined to get to the bottom of it.

I will say, I absolutely loved the 'monster' in this book. There was a point while reading that I truly could not put the book down because I was so interested in learning more about the woods. The ending was satisfying, and the gruesome bits definitely scratched my horror itch. I particularly enjoyed the non-linear elements to the story, as we were able to see the history of the town's deaths over the span of sixty years.

My biggest issue with the book, and the one that will keep from recommending it, is that the level is inconsistent. The teenage characters in the book come of more like middle-schoolers than high-schoolers, leading me to think this book should be labeled as Middle Grade over Young Adult. As the book progressed though, the descriptions and behavior of the adult characters in the book definitely fit more of a Young Adult style, even as the main teenage characters continued to feel more like 12-year-olds than 16-year-olds.

There were definitely elements of this book that I loved, especially the horror bits. Overall though, I don't feel that I can truly call it a Young Adult book or a Middle Grade book, which makes me hesitant to recommend it to readers in either group.

[Blurb goes here]

A kid lost his dog, mom and dad told him the dog died. He knows they're lying! His pet comes every night and gently scratches his window, begging to come in, smiling even. They don't believe him, and now his parents have locked his window, but he's found the key and is determined to let his beloved mascot inside his room! It turns out to be a terrible idea.

Three years later, a group of friends are reminded of a kid that died. One of them overheard his mom saying an animal had just...mauled the kid.

This has the makings of a fantastic story...let me rephrase that: this is an amazing story!

What's the downside, then? The underdeveloped writing, the lack of an editor or a grammar checker. These things are essential to a book's success, and this is a story worth working over and over again until it's perfect.

This is an advanced copy and probably an uncorrected one. IMHO, it shouldn't have seen the light of day until every little detail was fixed.

Anyways, those are my two cents...

Thank you for the advanced copy!

Children start to disappear and each time it's near the area everyone calls "the dead woods" because every tree there has died. The parents of some of these children recall when the same thing happened when they were around the same age and they know for a fact that the dead woods are alive. I really enjoyed this short horror novel. It got to the action right away and was fast-paced. The characters were likeable and I cared what happened to them. The book's too short at under 200 pages to say more but it was a fun, quick read.

After a group of friends discuss they’re missing classmate Adam Leblanc pit takes it upon himself to go and give a belated apology to his mother but when pip goes messing the friends or add a loss and want to find him. This seems like such a lame summary but the author is Christian Francis and so you know there is much more to the story,there’s rumors and folklore surrounding Adam going missing but is any of it true? and if so is that who got Pip? I love a great horror story and that’s what The Dead Woods by Christian Francis is one great piece of horror and it’s one I highly recommend. I have loved this authors books and he certainly did not disappoint with this one if you were a great thing of hora then you’ll probably love it as well. It is a total five star read. I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this room do you voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Honestly not sure what to think about this. It was… interesting. I went in completely blind, only choosing this arc over the others I have because it was significantly shorter. I really liked the concept but wish it had a happier ending. Too many kids died or were majorly injured for me to rate it any higher.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

There’s a Creepy wood slowly expanding through town and the people in here keeps a tight lid about the Weird disappearances and murders. Kids getting into fatal trouble because no one will tell them anything about what's going on until the disappearance of Pip.

This plot is really a good one with a unique taste. But the sometimes I felt like the dialogues were extremely tedious in places and I found it hard to focus to the main storyline.
I didn't really get attached to any of the characters besides Emmie, and I wish that the characters would've been developed a little more, so their experiences would've been more of a mature coming of age feeling.

However, I really liked the ending. I wasn't expecting things to go the way they did and it was unexpected and fabulous.

Huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for approving me for a copy of ‘The Dead Woods.’

The cover and the synopsis had me hooked. I was excited to dive into this one and, as a huge fan of coming-of-age, creatures in the woods novels, thought this one would be right up my alley.

I also didn’t mind going in that this was marketed as YA Horror. YA Horror can be some of the most fast-paced, emotionally devastating books, while also scaring the pants off of the reader. So, knowing that, I dove in.

What I liked: The story follows a group of kids trying to find out what actually happened to their friend who disappeared one night. They know he was going to the house where, just a short time prior their own son had disappeared, but when their friends bike and bag are found far from there, they know something is up.

From here, Francis takes his time in setting up a creepy story where there is an obvious desire from our characters to stay out of the woods. As more of the truth gets revealed, it becomes and inevitable task, that the kids will need to enter and we get some really great creature scenes and some well done tension.

The coming-of-age aspect wasn’t as prominent as I expected, but the group of kids work well together and do what they can to survive and attempt to put an end to the evil.

What I didn’t like: This one just didn’t click with me, unfortunately. I didn’t care about any of the kids, and because of that there was no emotional connection between reader and story, which meant when anything happened, I just didn’t care.

It also took a really long time to ramp up. Even by the 50% mark very little actual progress had been made, which meant by the time anything of woodsy note occurred, it felt rushed and not expanded upon.

Why you should buy this: This was good, just not great for me. It had some really fun moments and had enough going on that I wanted to see what happened, but it wasn’t as fast-paced as I would’ve hoped considering the middle range page count.

Overall, a decent entry into the creature-in-the-woods genre but one that won’t appeal to those who stay away from YA.

Thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of the dead woods by christian Francis. This was a quick horror read. I will admit so easy to guess and so easy to speed read bc I didn't feel so connected or drawn in.

3.5 stars

The Dead Woods seduced me with a really good cover and I have to say the opening is very strong; it’s menacing, it’s creepy, it has really strong potential.

The main issue with this book however, at least for me, was it’s always clear who the intended target audience is - the children act very much like children, even down to making up fake swear words, cycling around on bikes (ie. Stranger Things), having a paper round and having their own den, and yet I believe they’re meant to be high school age (?) with them not just working with adults but adults treating them like peers. It’s just a bit of a confusing clash because they really do come over as children which makes what happens during the book more unsettling and unnecessary. The imagery is graphic enough but the execution holds back, death and violence being just sort of thrown around and not too explicitly dealt with, to make the themes and visuals truly horrifying. The writing style is quite young making this too horrific for middle age but also too childish for YA.
The characters aren’t really built up enough, the only one I really liked died, but you don’t really get enough of the characters to know them much.

That said this is a short book and it does achieve a lot in its reduced pages. It’s a quick read and has its powerful moments, I did enjoy it, it’s just a little disjointed in its tone

Thank you NetGalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review

This book was okay. It would start to get I treating and then the scene would be over. Like when it’s the backstory about Pip’s mom and her experience with the tree people, I feel it was too short, rushed a little bit. We were introduced to many characters in the beginning and the point of view would change so it would get confusing sometimes. It would be interesting if maybe there was a point of view from the tree people maybe, that could be cool. This story has potential but it needs some tweaking.

It gives The Witch and Midsommar vibes ! It's very creepy,TW here for all the body horror and gore. the characters feel a little bit younger but in general it's a really great book.

The Dead Woods was a coming of age tale centered around a monster made of fleshy wood and sticks. Lots of good gross out scenes in this one. Body horror mixed with folk horror.

First Impressions:
Phenomenal cover! Really creepy.

I found the main characters, Fin, James, Emmie, Hamish and Pip, younger to me. I believe they were written as 15-16, but seemed more in the 12-13 range. That’s what gave it a more ‘coming of age’ feel.

The horror was excellent. The woods and the Tree Man were terrifying. For fans of body horror, people who are scared of the woods (me) and folk horror.

This was really fun! I loved how fast paced it was, it's quick to get into the action and nitty gritty of the monster lurking in the woods.

It's a fast read, and really ideal if the reader is looking for a quick thrill - It delivers it scares really effectively, I felt like I could really visualize the creepiness of what was happening, and that's so important with a horror story!

I think my only complaint is it seems very inspired by already popular horror stories. Granted, coming up with a new horror is so difficult, but that's the only reason I felt like I had to mark it down a little. It feels like it's piggybacking off of already successful ideas.

Regardless, I would absolutely recommend this to people who love atmospheric and creepy horror. I would definitely love to read more by this author!

Okay. This was a tough one. The story is compelling, creepy, suspenseful. The writing, on the other hand, was messy, choppy, and awkward. So, A toss up. This was such a fun monster story, but the awkward writing pulled me out several times.

Thank you net galley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this story and this book! The twist at the end really got me, I love it when stories do what this author did (vague to avoid any spoilers). Now despite how much I loved this story and this book, I will say that the author needs to hire a HEAVY handed editor with a bright red pen. There are a lot of areas that the spelling or grammar are off, the author repeats things forgetting they just said something similar, or the phrasing of things is off. I also felt like the description of the “thing in the woods” could use some rounding out. The provided details don’t make a whole lot of sense together at some points. So either keep it completely vague or round out the idea of what this is. But don’t get me wrong, I truly loved this book and this story! The author is so talented! Just needs a few things on the editor side.

Description
From the award-winning author of The Animus Chronicles and the novelizations for Wishmaster, Titan Find and Vamp comes this new tale of YA terror.

"An exciting new talent'" says Tom Holland (the creator of Child's Play and Fright Night) of Christian Francis.

The woods were dead, and had been for as long as the townsfolk could remember. Sitting on the edge of the town, it was an expanse of sinister and leafless rot. Those unlucky enough to find themselves alone and scared in those woods may have seen the thick yellowing mist that came first. They may have seen the shadows that appeared to watch them as they tried to escape. They then may have seen the faces of those long since past, approaching them with a hungry grin. But that would probably be the last thing they would ever see.

Few escaped seeing the truth in the evil that lay in wait in the dead woods, and those that were lucky enough, were never the same again.

Thank you Netgalley for this advanced reader copy.

This book was like a creepy campfire story past down from generation after generation. Anyone sitting around a fire deep in the woods wouldn't sleep after hearing this one! Beware the tree man.

NetGalley sent me a copy of this book and I can say that it was worth it. Thank you, NetGalley!

A combination of Stephen King’s IT, Fear Street and a little bit of Stranger Things.

A story where a group of kids where just having fun, discovering the different place to play in their hometown until they encounter things at their scary dark woods.

It’s a little cold shivering experience when I read this. It can be considered as a Middle to YA Horror indeed. The book was short, I finished it in less than 2 days I think. I love the vibe! I also love the twist in the ending as it was a shocking twist that I learned! The adventure, the adrenaline and the excitement when I was reading it was so fun! I frequently put the book (kindle) down as the story progress, I got excited! The visuals of how I imagined was so good. It was like I am watching a version of Stranger Things!

I give this book a solid 4 stars! It was a little scary I admit but it was kinda fun as well while reading it at 12midnight.

I wanted to like this so badly and it had such good potential but it didn't work. The execution was messy and I didn't enjoy the characters or plot because there were a lot of editing mistakes for me.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3.5 stars

I liked this book. It was short but a had a great premise. The execution however, was a little messy. Its a YA horror but it was giving middle grade horror vibes. Not that it was bad, just not as advertised.

The main characters are 16 but keep making decisions like they were 11-13 or very stupid. They gave off very similar vibes to stranger things season 1. Which is a great season. But they were 11yr olds.

Also another re read of an editor would of been good. I found a good handful of errors but not enough for me to dnf.

All in all, if you like stranger things, this definitely fits the vibe (minus magic powers). Plots good, characters need a little work.