Week 41 Review: What Lies in the Woods

From Goodreads:

They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison. They were heroes . . . but they were liars.

Kate Alice Marshall's What Lies in the Woods is a thrilling novel about friendship, secrets, betrayal, and lies - and having the courage to face the past.

Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls' testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.

And they were liars.

For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods—no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.

My Review:
I had such a fantastic time reading this book! I've really enjoyed reading her YA books, so I was looking forward to reading her adult book. It sounded really good, and I was looking forward to it, and man it was so good, I had such a great time! 

The idea of this story, that this girl's testimony got this guy locked up-and it turns out they were lying about that? Yeah, that's such an intriguing idea! Like a) this guy got locked up because of it and b) whoever did that to her wasn't, though I wondered if it was someone in the friend group, an accident, or they wanted to frame the guy. So many options, and I wanted to know, which, if any, were correct! 

Naomi doesn't remember everything that happened, which, now that her attacker has died in prison, seems like a good time to look further into those missing peices. That things turn out to be much more complicated then she thought, those twists, turns and reveals kept the pages turning, because I had to know what was going on!

What I wanted most was to know the truth of what had happened during that attack. That these people close to her had kept secrets, well, that lack of trust was both hurtful and unhelpful, and I felt for Naomi as she dealt with it. When all the truths were out, that was so satisfying to read! This really was a well-crafted mystery, and I couldn't get enough! 

Loved reading this book and I can't wait to read more from Kate Alice Marshall! 

Author: Kate Alice Marshall
Read: September 9th, 2023
Source: Library
Reason Why: Love her writing and it sounded really great, and it's a SAC 2023 Book and a WoW Book! 
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Published: January 17th 2023  

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars