I had been very excited to read Lucy Christopher's latest book because of how much I enjoyed both Stolen and Flyaway. However, I found that the style of this book was much different than her two preceding novels. While the other two spent a lot more time on character development, the two main characters of The Killing Woods are never particularly fleshed out. The main characterization we get from them throughout the whole book is simply their obsession about finding out what happened to Damon's murdered girlfriend.
The plot seemed to be mainly driven by Damon and Emily continuously going over the same thoughts again and again which got kind of old. I felt that most of the book was very repetitious and it was only really at the end and finding out what happened that my interest piqued. Yet, I felt even the ending was a bit predictable and somewhat easy to guess from about halfway through the book or sooner and when the books main appeal is the mystery I think it would have been more interesting to have some kind of a plot twist or an answer more convoluted than what it was that really made you think on it for a while.
All in all I was pretty disappointed with this novel after how great I thought Stolen and Flyaway were by Christoper. I thought it was much too repetitious and plain, not really delving into anything enough- not the plot, the characters, the mystery, or the suspense. I never felt connected to the characters or the story or particularly driven to even keep reading it. In all honesty the only reason I kept reading it was to see if it would get better with some kind of a twist or something because of how much I have enjoyed the author's other two books. Hoping Lucy Christopher's next novel gets back to the great style of writing found in her other two works.

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Emily's dad, a former soldier in the army suffering from PTSD, emerges from the woods with the body of a young girl. Ashlee Parker had her whole life ahead of her, until she apparently came across Mr. Shepherd in the midst of a flashback. Mr. Shepherd claims he can't remember what happened in the woods that night, but he admits to having mental issues and pleads guilty to manslaughter. Now while the courts decide if they will accept the plea or push for a harsher sentence, Emily wants to find out what really went on in those woods that night.

Damon and his friends play games in Darkwood. Ashlee played with them too. They were playing that night. Damon can't remember what happened, but he wants to believe he walked his girlfriend back to the path that would take her to her house. Best case scenario: he is a lousy boyfriend who passed out in the woods and didn't walk her back... Worse case scenario: well he doesn't want to think about that. Either way the guilt is eating him alive. With Emily's dad being charged he should feel relieved, but he just can't. If only he can convince Emily that her dad did it, then maybe he can let go of the gnawing feeling that he's missing something really important.

My Thoughts:
I love YA Mysteries! It seems like there should be more of them because they are so fun to read. Whatever else I felt about this book, I was really into the mystery aspect of it and was totally guessing until the end.

I really enjoyed how the mystery was laid out. I could not wait to find out what this Game was that was being played by Damon and his friends. I definitely thought it was going to be something much different than it was, but that was fine because the build up was awesome. The only character that felt like an open-book to me was Emily. She was the only one who didn't have secrets. So reading from her angle, I felt like I could trust it. When reading from Damon's view, I really didn't know what to think and that was kind of fun.

The thing I was not so into was that I felt like the atmosphere became too much of the focus. It felt like the author was so focused on making these woods seem creepy, that she didn't really pay attention to the characters as much as I would have liked. I mean I really liked Damon. He was angry, sad, guilt-ridden, but I wanted to like KNOW him a little more. Also it was like Emily was a mirror image of Damon and that just felt blah. And who exactly was this Ashlee girl? I would have liked to known what exactly made her tick too.

The woods to me were cool, but the name Darkwood got on my nerves for some reason. Like obviously bad things happen in a place called Darkwood. It was just too easy. And the way the characters were completely obsessed with woods. I guess in 5th or 6th grade I could see that, but by high school I don't see what the big deal is about a pile of trees. Why were they so obsessed with the woods?? I didn't get it.

Maybe I'm just being a little too nit-picky here. The book was really interesting. The whole army element was cool to read about and I really liked that I did NOT know who the real killer was. I thought I definitely had it pegged in the beginning, but I was wrong and that was great.

OVERALL: A really intriguing YA Mystery that is full of atmosphere. I really liked the story and wish there was more focus on that and less focus on rolling around in the leaves. I would definitely say this is worth reading, but it wasn't like mind blowing or anything.

My Blog:
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I won this book as a free give away- I was immediately sucked into this murder mystery. The author kept the focus on a main character and it was a tug through the whole book of whether you thought he was guilty or not. It was a great suspense and not until the near end did I realize who was to blame ultimately. It was a fast read and I liked how it was narrated through the two characters, Damon and Emily. I will look for more books by this author. ( )

My feelings are pretty mixed on this book. I have had a copy of this book in my review pile for a very long time so I am thrilled to be able to scratch it from my to be read list but I do wish it had worked a little better for me. I felt like this book was really slow at times and I found it rather easy to set aside. There were parts of the book that I did enjoy but I had quite a few issues with it as well.

I did think that the book started out really strong. Emily's dad brings home a girl that Emily knows from school, Ashlee. Ashlee is dead and Emily's father can't remember what happened so he is charged with the crime. Emily knows her dad and does not think that he is capable of the crime that he has been accused of committing since he has always been a very gentle man.

Damon was Ashlee's boyfriend. He was with her in the woods on the night that she died but he doesn't remember what happened either. Damon, Ashlee, and their friends had been doing drugs that night and Damon's memories from the night don't explain everything that happened. He has a lot of questions about the night and wants to remember how things happened.

I found this book to be pretty predictable. I thought it was pretty obvious from the beginning that someone else was responsible for what had happened to Ashlee. There were long sections of the book where I felt like nothing was really happening and they were no closer to finding out what had happened to Ashlee than they were at the start of the book.

I also found this book to be somewhat confusing. There is a lot of talk regarding the game that Ashlee, Damon, and their friends were playing on the night in question. I tried to understand this game but I was just as confused about the game at the end of the book as I was at the beginning. This game was talked about so many times during the book but I can't figure out what the goal was or how it could be any fun to play. Another confusing thing that happened in the book is that Damon is in a position to give a punishment to Emily at school despite the fact that they are roughly the same age which didn't make any sense to me.

I did like both of the narrators. Fiona Hardingham and Shaun Grindell both did a great job with this book. I thought that they both brought a lot of emotion to the story and made things a lot more exciting at times. I thought that their voices fit the characters of Emily and Damon really well and were very pleasant to listen to. I think that I probably liked this book a bit more because I decided to listen to the audiobook and I would not hesitate to listen to either narrator again in the future.

This wasn't really a book for me but I do think that others might enjoy the story a lot more than I did. I would suggest giving it a try if you think that it sounds like something you might enjoy.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Scholastic - Chicken House via NetGalley and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from the library via Hoopla. ( )

When Emily Shepherd’s ex-soldier father staggers out of the woods carrying the body of Ashlee Parker and claiming he has no memory of what happened, everyone is quick to declare the PTSD-suffering man guilty. Everyone, that is, except his daughter, Emily. As her father, unable to recall what happened, pleads guilty to manslaughter, Emily struggles to find the answers that will set him free.

Emily and Damon Hilary, Ashlee’s boyfriend, alternately narrate the complex tale, each offering readers their own perspective of the events surrounding Ashlee’s death. While the characters are well-developed, the mega-creepy Darkwood looms over all of them, demanding to be the center of attention. Despite the mean “friends,” teen angst, and the annoying, all-too-often making of unredeemable choices that result in Ashlee’s death, many readers will find the characters mostly unlikable and Emily’s father will evoke the strongest empathy in the unfolding story.

Targeted for the ninth grade and up young adult audience, this dark, eerie, and somewhat repetitious tale of teens, “fairy dust,” and a dangerous Game offers a lesson for readers. But it’s not a story for the faint of heart or for readers in search of a compelling mystery. ( )