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REVIEW: The Ghost Woods by C.J. Cooke



Genre: Mystery | Horror | Fiction

Release Date: Expected 13th October 2022 

Publisher: Harper Collins UK


1965. Pearl arrives at Lichen Hall, a striking manor that feels almost lost in an endless woods - one that young women are sent to to give birth under a shroud of secrecy and silence. 

There, she meets a mother and her young son living quietly in the woods, who've heard tales of the hall, of ghosts and witches, of strange things that happen at night, of a lost child who shouldn't exist. And together, they journey into the darkness, trying to shine a light on the secrets being hidden by the shadows of Lichen Hall and the family who watch over its inhabitants. 

But Pearl and her new friends need to be careful - if they dig too deep, they could end up buried themselves. 

"As I approach the woods, through the tall trunks I see not one light but hundreds, scattered across the forest floor like fallen stars."

I'm not saying C.J. Cooke is a witch … but I'm also not denying it. She has a way of making places come to life in the most vivid, terrifying of ways. She creates settings so intense you almost believe they're real, and atmospheres so richly otherworldly you might actually start to believe in ghosts.

We start this story with a snapshot of a future, we don't know how far away, but are immediately held in a nervous suspense, knowing that something dark and horrific is lurking somewhere in the pages ahead of us. Our journey through the Ghost Woods follows Pearl in 1965, and Mabel who arrived a few years earlier and found her own demons at the Hall. The other young women who have inhabited or worked at at the hall; Aretta, Morven, Rahmi, they're all perfect crafted into familiar friends, each recognisable and distinct. 

Weaving in folklore, fairytales and ghost stories, this is a slow, quiet horror story that creeps up on you, growing like mushrooms in a fairy ring. 

A running theme in Cookes writing is powerful women - and their own personal brand of magic. Pearl is strong-willed, dedicated herself to being a nurse and building a career when her family and the world outside just wanted her to marry and be a wife. We meet women who dared to work, to love other women, to stand against their oppressors and to rebel. All the women who've lived, worked and died within the walls of Lichen Hall have a story to tell, and each of them is as harrowing and as impactful as the next.

Atmospheric, evocative and utterly spell-binding, I'd like to end this review with a quote from the author herself, "To those who have walked in that shadow ...or have simply felt at home in the strange - this book is for you."


⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review.

CW: death, violence, depictions of gore, rape and sexual assault. 

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