#Review - What the Woods Keep by Katya de Becerra #YALit #Suspense

Series: Standalone
Format: E-Galley, 384 pages
Release Date: September 18, 2018
Publisher: Imprint
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Thrillers & Suspense

This YA supernatural mystery features two girls alone in the woods as paranormal twists build into a terrifying reveal that threatens their reality.

On her eighteenth birthday, Hayden inherits her childhood home—on the condition that she uncover the dark secrets in the Colorado woods that surround it.

Hayden’s tried to put her past behind her. She lives in a comfy Brooklyn apartment with her best friend Del. But it’s all coming back for Hayden: her mother’s inexplicable disappearance a decade before, her father’s crackpot theories, and Hayden’s own dark dreams of strange rituals in the woods.

Now Hayden and Del must confront the secrets of Hayden’s past in a house that holds all the mysteries of her childhood—and might be the last protection against the dark powers in the surrounding woods.

This YA supernatural mystery with dark fantasy elements features a strong female friendship, a sizzling romance, and terrifying plot twists.

 

What the Woods Keep is the debut novel for author Katya de Becerra. The book is written in first person and is narrated by Hayden Holland. Hayden tried to put the past behind her, and it worked. She's getting ready for college, living in a Brooklyn apartment, and hanging out with her best friend and roommate Del Chauvet. But now it's all catching up with her: her mother's mysterious disappearance a decade before, her father's outlandish theories about a lost supernatural race, and Hayden's own dark dreams of strange symbols and rituals in the Colorado woods where she grew up.

10 years ago, Hayden's mother Ella went into the woods surrounding her childhood home, and disappeared. She was declared dead "in absentia." Thanks to her father, Thomas Holland, Hayden was kept in the dark about Ella's life and her legacy. Thomas is a physicist and conspiracy theorist who believes in something or someone called Nibelung's. After Ella's disappearance, he moved them away from her home, and settled in NYC.  Now, on Hayden's 18th birthday, a surprising shock awaits her. 

Her mother, it seems, left the family estate, Holland Manor, to Hayden with the request to uncover her mother’s darkest secrets, and put her past wrongs right. 

"My first condition is that Hayden goes to the Manor and looks for the gifts I left her. They'll call to her. She needs to listen with her blood.

"My second condition is that Hayden uses my gifts to destroy my darkest secret - my hidden treasure, my heaviest burden.

My third and final condition is that Hayden trusts no one where my treasure is concerned, especially the ravens."

The estate just happens to be in Promise, Colorado which means that Hayden and Del must travel there and uncover the supposed secrets that Ella wants to put to rest. Del and Hayden are quite a pair. Hayden has a dark past which ended with her being home schooled. She also seems to attract animals like moths to a flame. Del, on the other hand, is fashion and makeover obsessed who has tried hard to get Hayden a boyfriend.

As soon as Hayden & Del arrive at her hometown, they quickly realize that everything isn't as it seems, and that there is a deeper purpose behind their visit to the old house. Neighbors whisper secrets about Hayden's mother; the boy next door is now all grown-up in a very distracting way; and Hayden feels the trees calling to her. Something has been hiding in the woods. It is an ancient evil that poisons the sun. In fact, there is a black spot in the forest where Ella disappeared and never returned. 

What the Woods Keep is a curious blend of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror all rolled into one. This book was such a twisted story with a house next to the woods, a creepy conspiracy theory which somehow hinges on what Hayden will do next, and a lost best friend she left behind 10 years ago who returns and is working with, shockingly enough, the person who failed to tell Hayden what he's really been up to all these years, and what really happened to her mother. The author tells her story by mixing Hayden’s first POV narrative with other documents like letters, medical notes, scientific journal entries, and transcripts; each element offering a piece of the puzzle. 

Recommendation: I do, if you are like me who loves a mixture of genre with a creepy as hell vibe and surprises along the way. My only complaint is that the ending wrapped up way too quickly. This is one of those books that you have to use your own imagine to consider what happens next to these characters.

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