Blurb:
| Bears aren't the only predators in these woods. Best friends Neena and Josie spent high school as outsiders, but at least they had each other. Now, with college and a two-thousand-mile separation looming on the horizon, they have one last chance to be together—a three-day hike deep into the woods of the Pisgah National Forest. Simmering tensions lead to a detour off the trail and straight into a waking nightmare; and then into something far worse. Something that will test them in horrifying ways. |
Camping and horror go together like chocolate and toasted
marshmallows. There’s just something about being out in the middle of nowhere
with only the light of a bonfire to really prey on those primal fears. In
Western tradition, the woods have been a symbol of the dark and unknown for as
long as folklore and fairytales have been told: a place where witches, wild
beasts, monsters and faeries dwell.
The threat of becoming lost in the forest and falling victim
to these creatures is central to many dark tales. In the beginning of the Divine
Comedy Dante finds himself wandering in a dark wood, the “selva oscura,”
unable to find his way and set upon by a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf.
Little Red Riding Hood encounters a wolf when she wanders off the path (though
some interpretations of the fairy tale say the wolf is meant to represent a
sexual predator) and Hansel and Gretel stumble upon a witch after losing their
way in the woods. In Tam Lin, anyone who wanders into the forest runs
the risk of becoming the fae’s blood tithing to hell. The films the Ritual
and the Blair Witch both have a group of friends become lost in the
woods through supernatural means and then assailed by a Jötunn and the titular
witch respectively. But beasts and supernatural beings aren’t the only monsters
in the forest. Ordinary humans can be just as —if not more — deadly than wolves and witches. The
woods are popular killing grounds for murderers like William Mitchell Hudson
(the Texas Campsite Killer) and Herbert Mullin. Ivan Milat was a serial killer
who specifically targeted backpackers while Alexander Pichushkin lured dozens
of victims to Bitsevski park before murdering them. It’s safe to say the woods
can be a dark and dangerous place in both fiction and reality, as best friends
Neena and Josie are about to discover in Perkins’ outdoor horror novel The
Woods are Always Watching.
Neena Chandrasekhar is a carefree and fun-loving
teenage girl, especially compared to her worrywart best friend, Josie Gordon.
After the death of her father in a car accident, Josie is scared of the world
and often needs Nina to push her to try new things, like camping. Neither girl is much of an outdoors woman,
but going on a solo camping trip is practically a rite of passage in Asheville
North Carolina, and with Neena soon leaving for college, the duo decides it’s
the perfect way to celebrate their last few days together. They have GPS,
printouts of the trails, and Josie’s brother’s camping gear, so what could
possibly go wrong? Well, it’s a horror novel, so a lot.
The trip gets off to a rough start with both girls quickly
realizing that they may not be physically prepared for such an arduous journey.
Their exhaustion soon leads to short tempers and building tension as Josie
quickly becomes fed up with Neena’s cavalier attitude towards camping and Neena
gets annoyed with her best –friend's condescending bossiness. Their friendship
is further put to the test as the duo discover how ill-prepared they actually
are for their hike through the woods and each takes out their frustration on
the other. Caught up in their own petty squabbling the pair are dangerously
unaware of something watching and waiting for them in the woods until it’s too
late.
The Woods are Always Watching is slow to start,
focusing on teenage drama and interpersonal conflict for the first chunk of the
story, which can feel tedious even if it does offer glimpses into the main
characters’ psyches. We don’t meet the actual villains of the story until
almost halfway in (although there are hints to their presence early on). But
once the action actually does get started, I found I couldn’t put the book
down. Perkins is a master of creating atmosphere and suspense and making the
forest feel dark and foreboding, especially to two inexperienced girls. The whole
book feels like a modern-day fairytale with two naïve young women journeying
through the dark woods
So, will you enjoy this particular dark woods story? Well,
it’s essentially a young adult version of Deliverance, and the film is a
good metric of how much you’ll like this book. Does the idea of being isolated
in the woods, and slasher/folk horror terrify you? Then you’ll enjoy Stephanie
Perkins’ camping-gone-wrong novel. Evil hillbillies and threats of rape not
your thing? Then you’re probably better off skipping this one.