The Ghost Woods
By C.J. Cooke
Blurb
In the midst of the woods stands a house called Lichen Hall.
This place is shrouded in folklore – old stories of ghosts, of witches, of a child who is not quite a child.
Now the woods are creeping closer, and something has been unleashed.
Pearl Gorham arrives in 1965, one of a string of young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth. And she soon suspects the proprietors are hiding something.
Then she meets the mysterious mother and young boy who live in the grounds – and together they begin to unpick the secrets of this place.
As the truth comes to the surface and the darkness moves in, Pearl must rethink everything she knew – and risk what she holds most dear.
Our Review
"You're going to kill me,' he says with a whimper. "You want me to burn in the fire..."
Just five years old, filled with such a terrible knowledge.
My son
The Ghost Woods is a twisty gothic masterpiece and probably the best book I have read so far this year! Honestly amazing.
I have read a lot of horror books over the year and honestly I don't get scared by them anymore, or even mildly creeped out. The Ghost Woods is different though and I actually felt unnerved whilst I was reading it.
Lichen Hall stands on the Scottish borders in the midst of an ancient woodland. The hall is a haven for young women who have become pregnant outside of marriage and need to give their children up for adoption, a step-up from the grim institutions of the day.
Pearl arrives in 1965 at Lichen Hall and soon hears tales of ghosts and witches, of children who aren't really children at all. She brushes it off as superstition but she can't deny that the proprieter seems to be hiding something. Before long she begins to wonder if she made a mistake coming to the hall.
Whilst this book clearly deals with many fantastical elements, it also explores the historical abuses and stigma unmarried pregnant women were subjected to in the 50s and 60s. This element in itself is an intriguing element of the book. The young girls have nowhere to go and noone to turn to because of their social isolation and this added to the horror of their situation.
"It's stunning how inconsequential I feel now. And how pregnancy has devalued all my achievements I've rescued countless people from the brink of death, cured for them in their darkest moments. But I'll never nurse again. I'm exiled in shame.
This book will infect you like a fungus until you can think of nothing else. It truly is a remarkable book.
Our Final Rating...
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