The Killing Woods is about a girl named Emily whose father goes into the woods and comes out with a dead body. The dead body happened to be a girl named Ashlee Parker, the most popular and prettiest girl in the school. Emily's father gets blamed for the murder, and he confesses to it. Emily doesn't believe her father actually committed the crime and is determined to prove his innocence. Damon Hilary, who was Ashlee's boyfriend, puts most the blame on Emily for what her father has done along with the rest of the town. Damon and his friends, along with Ashlee play a game in the woods where they get high and try and find each other. The catch is when you find the person you beat then and take their dog collar. Did this game have anything to do with Ashlee's death?
I really enjoyed the plot of this book, the story had a lot of plot twisters that kept me turning the page and wanting to read more. I also really liked how descripted the author was with this book. When she described the dark woods, the place where Damon and his friends would play their game, I got chills and could picture it perfectly. Another thing about the book that I really loved was that it was written in two different point of views, Damon's and Emily's. One thing I didn't like about the book was the choices the characters choices. Damon despised Emily for what he thought her dad did to Ashlee, but the only reason he cared for Ashlee so much was basically for sex and her looks. Emily even though knowing Damon wasn't a good guy still continues to have a crush on him to the end. I enjoyed the book, because it was plot twisting and chilling with a shocking ending. I would defiantly recommend this to other who enjoy murder mysteries. If you like The Killing Woods you might want to read Lucy Christopher's other book Stolen or a book called The Impossible Knife of Memory.
2 comments:
I gave this one 3 stars.
It should be noted that I also read her previous book, Stolen, and it was selected for discussion by my teen book club last year.
I never really connected with this story. I didn't find the woods that creepy and both Emily and Damon were very irritating characters. The secondary characters were flat and completely pointless in the narrative. I'm not a fan of books that have alternating first person narrations - the "he said, she said" style - and I was often annoyed with their rambling confusion and bumbling about ways that drug out the story. Especially irritating were the short chapter cliffhanger endings. I was just thinking GET TO THE POINT. TELL ME SOMETHING. Not scary, not deep, not dark. It tried to be...
The conclusion and the inevitable reveal of the cause and the reason for the "murder" was not compelling and seemed like a warning or a lesson.
I would like to read this book. It seems different from most other books I read and I'm always up for a murder mystery.
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