We Haunt These Woods by Holley Cornetto

13 year old Nate enjoys spending his summers at Lake Swart with his friends, until the other children start disappearing.

Twenty years later, Nate is determined to return to Lake Swart with the other survivors to prove there was nothing preternatural about that summer, but what if Nate’s wrong?

This is an unputdownable creepy, atmospheric story, made all the more haunting because so much is left to the imagination.

Nate has been haunted for 20 years by the disappearance of his friends over a fateful summer by the lake. Told in alternating timelines between 13 year old Nate and adult Nate, the tale shows the impact of trauma, tragedy, grief, loss and guilt as well as one very scary ‘thing’ lurking in the woods.

The different characters are realistic, both as kids and adults, and I love how that summer impacts them as adults. Just as they all reacted to the weirdness in their own way, they’ve all survived – or crumbled – in its aftermath. 

The folk or preternatural horror of this story gets under your skin and is seriously creepy. It’s scary and horrible and sad. I loved it!

I award We Haunt These Woods…