A few years ago, when I decided to move from my city apartment into an old small house in the woods, everyone thought I was crazy. And actually, maybe I was, because the forest and I are not always best friends, to be honest. During the day, I love the surroundings – the peace, the specialness . Then again, some nights I cannot sleep: animals scream, the wind rushes through the trees, everything creaks. This is when my brain starts to develop dark visions and strange fears. So what else should I do but write thrillers? And is it a coincidence that so far all of my books are at least partially set in the woods? Of course not. “Write what you know,“ says Mark Twain, so I make the forest my partner in crime.
Apart from that, I think that is also what fascinates readers when they read a thriller set in the forest: it is a place that you can immediately visualize, symbolizing the beautiful (during the day) and the uncanny (at night) – a place with two opposing faces, which could easily be transferred to (some of) us humans. Even in the old fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, the forest almost seems like an additional character. Whenever it comes into play, it is clear that it will get dangerous for someone. As if fate itself has concentrated in this place to decide between life and death.
Would you like to accompany me into the woods and get a little scared? Then I have the perfect reading material for you here.
In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
I have loved stories like this since I read William Golding’s Lord of The Flies at school: shield a group of people from civilization and let the games begin. And this is what happens here: a few friends come together for a bachelorette party in a house in the middle of the woods. But this house is not just a house. It has glass and see-through outer walls, like a stage on which the characters move like actors. With the feeling of being under constant observation and the revelation of some secrets that should have better remained in the dark, not only does the tension increase, but the group dynamics also change to an uncomfortable extent. Then Nora, one of the party guests, wakes up in a hospital. Oh man, what happened? She has to remember quickly, as one of the other guests didn‘t survive that night.
The Memory Wood by Sam Lloyd
Elijah is a loner who lives with his parents in a hut in the forest. He does not know much about the real world—no cell phones, no internet—but one thing he does know: it is not right that a 13-year-old girl is held captive in the underground cellar. Soon after getting over the initial shock of her kidnapping, the girl, Elissa—who, by the way, is a brilliant chess player and thus a trained strategist—realizes that she can only escape with Elijah’s help. However, all attempts to manipulate the boy during his daily visits seem to fail. Because he is much smarter than he claims to be and not only that: Elijah has long since started to play a game by his own rules …
The Memory Wood had me completely under its spell with its unusual characters and its incredibly thrilling plot. A book that made me hold my breath, clench my fists and let my heart stumble. Call me a fan, Sam Lloyd.
The Silver Road by Stina Jackson
Stina Jackson takes us to Sweden, where it never gets really dark in the summer. She writes about Lelle, a father who, chain-smoking and half-crazy, drives the streets around the woods every night, where his 16-year-old daughter disappeared three years ago. And there is 17-year-old Meja, who is supposed to start a new life with her mother and her mother’s new boyfriend in a run down place in the middle of nowhere. One day, she meets Carl-Johan and his two brothers in the woods. Meja falls in love with Carl-Johan, not realizing who she is actually dealing with. Until suddenly another girl disappears who—of all people—looks exactly like Lelle’s daughter.
Apart from the thrilling content, I was particularly fascinated by the characters and the way Stina Jackson manages to make their emotions tangible. All the pain, the despair, the loneliness, the forest as a symbol for the impenetrable chaos and the unexplained fate, the bright nights that symbolize that nobody can come to rest here until all secrets have been unravelled.
The Glass Forest by Cynthia Swanson
Wisconsin, 1960. Henry is found dead in the woods and his wife Silja disappears without a trace. His brother Paul and sister-in-law Angie travel to Henry’s house on the edge of the forest to help their niece, Henry’s and Silja’s daughter, Ruby. But given that her father is dead and her mother has disappeared, the girl seems strangely composed. The suspicion soon arises that the happy family might just have been a carefully constructed facade.
More than a thriller, The Glass House is a family tragedy told from the perspectives of the three women of the Glass family, Angie, Ruby and Silja—and very impressively so, in my opinion. Cynthia Swanson vividly describes the problems which were typical for that time, such as racial hatred and the degraded role of women.
Suicide Forest by Jeremy Bates
I like stories that have a real core, so there was no question that I had to read this book which is set in the Aokigahara. This vast, densely vegetated forest is said to be one of the most beautiful unspoiled areas in Japan, but also one of the most notorious, because the Aokigahara has been an unholy magnet for suicides for decades. According to the legends, this place is cursed as the spirits of the people, who die by suicide here, find no rest.
In his book, Jeremy Bates sends a group of young people around English teacher Ethan into this forest, and it doesn’t take long for the hike to turn into a real horror trip. A reading adventure that definitely reactivated the trauma I felt after watching The Blair Witch Project for the first time when I was seventeen.
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