TIME ONLY MAKES THE NIGHTMARE MORE REAL.

Something lives under Willa’s bed. As an adult, her fondest childhood memories are of the invisible entity under her bed who taught her how to read. Now thirty-two, Willa is a reclusive but successful painter until a bombshell news report exposes her identity as the controversial survivor of the unsolved Rapture Mystery Slayings, a small-town tragedy that splashed across headlines during her senior year of high school. Six teenagers died in the woods while Willa walked free, and everyone thinks she killed them.

When an old classmate calls about a funeral, Willa reluctantly travels to her sleepy hometown, where the possessed forest that stole her friends looms. The trees whistle for her attention, but she knows better than to listen. And the unexplained knocking from the shadows in the basement of her decaying childhood home is honestly the least of her problems.

As her past pulls her back to the place she swore she’d never return, Willa is drawn toward the monster she left behind—and becoming the villain her hometown has always believed her to be.

I received an advance copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

I really liked the idea behind this one. The synopsis alone is freaky as hell, and I couldn’t wait to find out who, or what, actually murdered Willa’s friends back in high school. I was dialed in, right up until the last 1/4 or so of the book.

Willa grew up believing an invisible entity lived under her bed. Thing is, she was never really scared of it. It was her friend. It taught her to read and kept her company. And distracted her from the things that lived in the basement. Now an adult, Willa lives a quiet, reclusive life as a successful painter (under a pseudonym). But after an interview goes sideways, Willa’s true identity is revealed and she’s exposed as the only survivor in a decades old murder case known as the Rapture Mystery Slayings, where six teenagers died in the woods around her hometown during her senior year of high school. She was never formally convicted, but everyone still believes she was somehow responsible. When an old classmate calls to tell her about the funeral of a beloved teacher, Willa reluctantly heads back to the small town she swore she’d never return to. And gets drawn back to her old house and the woods that took her friends. And closer to becoming the monster her hometown has always assumed she was.

I was fully locked in for a good chunk of this book. The pacing was perfect, and I was completely committed to following Willa on this journey, trying to piece together who actually killed her friends and what exactly was haunting both the woods and her childhood home. It stayed tense and creepy for a solid stretch, and I was having a great time with it. But then something shifted, and I felt it lost steam. I’d love to say what it was, but I don’t want to give spoilers so I’ll just say that the ending really petered out for me. I found that a lot of the tension and dread that had built up so effectively throughout the first part of the book fell away. It almost felt like the reveal was over convoluted and the things that were creepy just . . . weren’t anymore. Like I said, it’s hard to get into specifics without spoiling anything, so I’ll just say I walked away pretty disappointed in how everything wrapped up.

I did an immersive read on this one, and Jenn Lee’s narration was great. She captured Willa’s voice perfectly and kept things moving smoothly.

If you love small town horror with a nice mystery and some creepy scenes, this is worth picking up. I just felt like too much was thrown in at the end and things were resolved in a way that left me scratching my head.