What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Thank goodness for a great narrator! I might never have made it to the end without the brilliant narrator in this audiobook. I had both a print copy and an audiobook I was swapping between. In the end I probably listened to more than half on the audio (which is unusual for me). Here’s the thing, this is young adult. Now I don’t mean teen, or the kind of YA that appeals to adults in many ways (myself included). This is clearly a, I have a moral purpose and reason to exist YA, and only those who need me at the right point in their life are going to want me.
I’m glad books like this exist. Ones that conceptualize evil and monsters for kids and teens and make something that can be fought back against. Even the most intangible of traumas, once made into ‘real’ things, can be healed or overcome in some way. What the Woods Took is about a number of different traumas, but at its core for me, it was really about fighting back the despair and loss of suicide. While each of our teens has drastically different circumstances, some more horrific than others, all of them have considered if life is worth living. Or what a worthwhile life might look like in the future. And thus at the core of this novel I believe Courtney Gould is having a conversation with teens about how it gets better. Something I tell every single teen I ever meet. It truly does get better. Not perfect, not even easy, but things do improve in ways you maybe can’t even really understand until you leave high school, leave home, create your own life and narrative to walk along.
Therefore, much as I felt this was a slog for me I get why it should exist. And I hope it lands in the hands of the children or teens, or even adults, that need it. The horror here is monster-like, but it’s also intangible in that living is hard, for everyone. We all fight our own internal battles and each of us has to choose to get up in the morning and carry forward because there are even better things to experience that come our way and those things are well worth the agony that can come from past experiences.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Thank goodness for a great narrator! I might never have made it to the end without the brilliant narrator in this audiobook. I had both a print copy and an audiobook I was swapping between. In the end I probably listened to more than half on the audio (which is unusual for me). Here’s the thing, this is young adult. Now I don’t mean teen, or the kind of YA that appeals to adults in many ways (myself included). This is clearly a, I have a moral purpose and reason to exist YA, and only those who need me at the right point in their life are going to want me.
I’m glad books like this exist. Ones that conceptualize evil and monsters for kids and teens and make something that can be fought back against. Even the most intangible of traumas, once made into ‘real’ things, can be healed or overcome in some way. What the Woods Took is about a number of different traumas, but at its core for me, it was really about fighting back the despair and loss of suicide. While each of our teens has drastically different circumstances, some more horrific than others, all of them have considered if life is worth living. Or what a worthwhile life might look like in the future. And thus at the core of this novel I believe Courtney Gould is having a conversation with teens about how it gets better. Something I tell every single teen I ever meet. It truly does get better. Not perfect, not even easy, but things do improve in ways you maybe can’t even really understand until you leave high school, leave home, create your own life and narrative to walk along.
Therefore, much as I felt this was a slog for me I get why it should exist. And I hope it lands in the hands of the children or teens, or even adults, that need it. The horror here is monster-like, but it’s also intangible in that living is hard, for everyone. We all fight our own internal battles and each of us has to choose to get up in the morning and carry forward because there are even better things to experience that come our way and those things are well worth the agony that can come from past experiences.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
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