The Wild Dark by Katherine Silva | Horror Fiction Review

This is another great book I read a bit ago but never managed to get up on my blog.

The Wild Dark by Katherine Silva

Released October 2021

Source: Received for Review Consideration

Goodreads | Amazon

Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Raleigh has lost everything: her job as a police detective, her partner, her fiancé, and her peace of mind. After a month of solitude at a cabin in the woods, she finally feels as though she’s ready to move on.

But in one terrifying night, everything changes. Liz's partner, Brody, appears in the form of a ghost. He's one of millions that have returned to haunt their loved ones. Brody can't remember how he died and Liz is determined to keep the secret of it buried, for it means dredging up crushing memories. Along with him comes an unearthly forest purgatory that swallows up every sign of human civilization across the world. The woods are fraught with disturbing architecture and monstrous wolves hungry for human souls. Brody says he escaped from them and that the wolves are trying to drag him and others ghosts back.

As winter closes in and chaos erupts across New England, Liz fights desolation, resurfacing guilt, and absolute terror as she tries to survive one of the most brutal winters she's ever seen.

My 2 Cents for Free!

The Wild Dark is a story about messy relationships, imperfect characters, clinging ghosts, and shows us what happens when purgatory is set loose upon the world. It’s heavy on the suspense and characterization just the way I like my suspense/adventure-heavy reads.

Stories told in two timelines, like this one, either work for me or they don’t. Sometimes I find myself wishing I could skip one timeline to get back to the other because one is inevitably more interesting than the other but that’s not at all the case here. Both timelines had me anxious to keep reading. The past because I’m nosy and needed to find out all of the messy details about the relationships, and the present to try to figure out just what the heck was happening here.

Liz is the main character and she’s thrown into all of this along with the rest of us. She’s been hiding out alone in a cabin way out in the woods to heal her soul and heart when she hears someone call out her name, someone who is . . . dead. Or supposed to be! Things get increasingly eerie as she ventures out into the world and that’s all I shall say because I am both lazy and there is a lot going on here and I refuse to spoil things with my big mouth.

This book does not answer all of the questions I have and if you’ve read any of my grumpier reviews you know how much that usually bugs me! But I hear another book is coming so I will deal with it instead of complaining because more is better in this case. I can’t wait to read more about the incredibly haunted forest, those wolf-dog-creatures, and I truly hope Liz finds a little solace after all of the crap she’s faced down. Anyhow, this one ends at a place that feels right and if I didn’t get aggravated, I don’t think you will either! Highly recommended if you like any of these things.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

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