Title: The Killing Woods
Author: Lucy Christopher
Genre: Mystery (Young Adult)
Publisher: Chicken House
Publication date: December 30th, 2014
Synopsis from The Killing Woods' Goodreads page
Ashlee Parker is dead, and Emily Shepherd's dad is accused of the crime. A former soldier suffering from PTSD, he emerges from the woods carrying the girl's broken body. "Gone," he says, then retreats into silence.
What really happened that wild night? Emily knows in her bones that her father is innocent -- isn't he? Before he's convicted, she's got to find out the truth. Does Damon Hilary, Ashlee's charismatic boyfriend, have the answers? Or is he only playing games with her -- the kinds of games that can kill?
The fourth book I read this month was The Killing Woods by Lucy Christopher. I first read Stolen: A Letter to my Captor by Lucy Christopher 3 years ago because of a recommendation from one of my best friends, and I have read it many, many more times since. When I found out that Lucy Christopher had another book coming out, I was ecstatic. (Except I waiting for almost a year before reading it...)
I loved everything about this book, from the setting to the plot and the character, all the way to how the book was written. It was written beautifully, and I will no doubt be reading it again and again.
The plot of the book was very intriguing, with a dead teenage girl, and her classmate's father the supposed killer. The synopsis reeled me in and made me wonder who had killed poor Ashlee, and why.
The setting of the book was also amazing, with it being in a small army town in the British wilderness, with a massive forest right on the edge of town. Having the story take place by something like a forest in England really allows for weeks and months to pass quickly in a short book, just by describing what is happening in those woods. Having the trees go from a pleasant green to bright autumn colours to a dark, dead wood in winter also really helps for suspense to build, and to help the book climax. (A wood also creates a very dark, secluded place that is perfect for a murder to take place).
The characters in this book were all also very well written, as all of Lucy Christopher's characters are. No matter how small a character is, or how slight their time is in the story, each and every character develops in their own way, and each character shows the reader who they are in such a short amount of time. Each character in the story also has their own bits of personality and quirkiness that allows them to each have different emotions and feelings about each thing that happens in the story, at each at varying strengths. What is completely insignificant to one character could change how another character views themselves, or how they view those around them.
Lucy Christopher has done an amazing job with this book, and I am amazed at how much she kept me guessing until the very end. I pride myself on being able to solve mysteries due to the amount of mystery novels and Sherlock books I read (and the amount of Sherlock I watch) and I could not figure out who the culprit was until the very end of the book, almost right before it was revealed. I applaud Lucy Christopher for her amazing writing skills, and I realllllly hope that she will write another book, preferably a mystery, very soon.
Overall - ★★★★.5☆
No comments:
Post a Comment