It's a jungle out there, or at least a forest, as a group of children on a school camping trip get lost among the trees with no adult role models to put things in context and no comforting mother figures to allay their fears. Through mishap and malice the frightened kids soon learn the truth behind all those adult adages: no good turn goes unpunished; might makes right; you reap what you sow; and pride goeth before the fall (actual real falls involving cracked skulls and ruptured vertebrae). The author even breaks the fourth wall on occasion just to ensure that we, the readers, are not left entirely unscathed. Grégoire Courtois' cruel and sadistic fable renders the dog-eat-dog world of grown-ups in miniature, upending our fairytale expectations in the process and setting the whole horror show in a sun-dappled woods suddenly grown haunted and carnivorous. Comparable on some level with "Lord of the Flies", yet delivered with enough explicit gut-churning clarity to give even Golding a nightmare or two. Repulsive, outrageous, and sharper than a scalpel. ( )

I liked this a lot. I wish it was a bit longer, and I think I'm going to need to reread it with my eyes as parts of it were a bit confusing, but I loved the pace of it and it was very interesting. ( )

Damn.... ( )

I won't lie, I was hoping it would be more like "Oh, let's all go on a school camping trip! Hahaha this is so fun! Oh no, there's like, ents and fairies and boogeymen and banshees and giant insects etc., and they're all trying to devour the children!" All the campers would be hiding in cabins, barricading from the supernatural forces, and it would just be a fun, campy, yet graphic story with the simple theme of "don't fuck with the forest (please recycle :P)."

I got none of that: the set-up was underdeveloped and edgy, none of the characters felt real, there's philosophical schlock present that tries to heighten the despair but ultimately doesn't fit, the deaths in this story are lackluster, and the only real threats present are a 6-year-old, school-shooter wannabe and natural accidents. There are no fantastical elements, and yet the story can't decide on whether it wants to be gritty realism or absolute camp. There's quite literally nothing to appreciate here that you couldn't find more focused, more creatively expressed, and better realized elsewhere. That even goes for campy stories. Don't bother wasting your time with this.

Mentioned in a blog post at https://booksbeyondbinaries.blog/2019/10/28/villainathon-wrap-up/

I was interested in the premise, and I hoped that it could be carried out in a writing style and narrative technique that would make the plotline compelling and horrific. Instead, this book is gruesome from the first page. I wouldn't be able to recommend this title. ( )