Blog Tour Review - They Fear Not Men in the Woods

 Blog Tour Review - They Fear Not Men in the Woods by Gretchen McNeil

When Jen Monroe hears her father's remains have been found, she returns home to disprove his death, only to find the forests of rural Washington are hiding something ancient and dangerous…

Seven years ago, Jen Monroe left behind her hometown of Barrow, Washington after her father, a forest ranger passionate about protecting old trees from the aggressive logging business that runs their small town, vanished seemingly into thin air. She vowed never to return...until she gets a text from her estranged mother. Her father's remains have been found.

It seems impossible to Jen who has always believed her father is still alive, and she returns home, determined to find out what really happened. When her ex-boyfriend proposes a camping trip into the woods in her father's memory, it feels like the opportunity Jen had been hoping for: to find her father. To find the truth.

But what she finds lurking in the forest may be deeper, darker and deadlier than she could have ever imagined. And it has no intention of letting her leave.

This is a book that can easily be summarised by a single quote from the book itself. "There's weird shit in the woods." There most certainly is weird shit in the woods, and it is equal parts horrifying, mesmerising and haunting.

They Fear Not Men in the Woods has to be one of the best horror stories I've read in a long time! It is utterly enchanting, seriously creepy and thoroughly unputdownable. 

It is set in a small town and the nearby woods and mountains of Washington State, a place where the only industries are logging and hiking tourism, with the emphasis on the logging. With its wooden lodges and logging barons, there's a touch of Twin Peaks about the whole thing, particularly since a lot of it revolves around the kind of soap opera relationship dramas that Twin Peaks also wove so successfully around its weird horror, petty jealousies, family feuds and match making attempts being a feature of both memorial services and hiking trips alike. 

For a relatively short book, it takes a while getting into the action, but this actually works very successfully in its favour. Jen, our main character, is firmly established before she returns to her home town, and then we spend some time learning about her relationship with her mother and her old school friends, all of which sets up the later action wonderfully. About a third of the way into the novel Jen finally gets to head off into the woods and mountains with a group of friends and acquaintances and the story starts to get a whole lot darker. 

The horror elements build up beautifully, with things feeling a little bit off for quite a while before the tension dramatically goes up a few notches and then just keeps increasing and increasing until the rather sublime ending. I was loving it throughout, but more than a little apprehensive about how successfully it was going to be drawn to a conclusion. I shouldn't have worried, as the ending of the story fits what came before perfectly. They Fear Not Men in the Woods is a success, from the creepy, tone setting Kipling poem is starts with (from which the title is drawn) to the last page.

Many of the twists are telegraphed fairly obviously in advance. I don't think there was too much I was surprised by when it was revealed, but that really didn't matter. It plays out so beautifully and so horrifyingly that it was satisfying nevertheless. The presentation is also incredibly gorgeous. Black Crow Books have gone all out on this one, with stunning sprayed edges on the hardback edition I was sent that matches the cover perfectly. There were a number of typos that occasionally pulled me out of my enthralled state, but hopefully they'll be corrected in future printings.

They Fear Not Men in the Woods by Gretchen McNeil is a beautiful, disturbing horror story about what waits for us in the wild. It's written with appropriate respect for the wilderness and the everyday dangers of going out into the wild, with a healthy mix of science balancing out the supernatural elements. Jen is a fantastic main character, and while many of her companions are completely terrible, it's always fun seeing them through her eyes, with her feminist mind and critical thinking making short work of these alpha frat bros she's stu
ck on the trail with. 

It feels like Cheryl Strayed's Wild crossed with Midsommar. A uniquely unsettling read and one I can't recommend highly enough.

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They Fear Not Men in the Woods by Gretchen McNeil is out now from Black Crow Books. I was sent a review copy in exchange for an honest review and participation in this blog tour.