What the Woods Keep by Katya De Becerra Review

What the Woods Keep
Aurhor: Katya De Becerra
Publisher: Allen and Unwin
Release date: 26th September 2018
Pages: 384 pages
R.R.P: $16.99
On her eighteenth birthday, Hayden inherits her childhood home- on the condition that she uncovers it's dark secrets. Hayden has tried to put the past behind her, but now it's catching up with her: her mother's mysterious disappearance, her father's outlandish theories about a lost supernatural race, and Hayden's own dark dreams of strange symbols and rituals in the Colorado woods where she grew up. As soon as Hayden arrives at her hometown, it begins: Neighbours whisper secrets about Hayden's mother; the boy next door is now all grown-up in a very distracting way; and Hayden feels the trees calling to her. And among them, deep in the woods, Hayden will discover something incredible- something that threatens reality itself.

My Review
Thoughts on the book: What the Woods Keep is the new YA mystery, sci-fi, fantasy from debut author Katya De Becerra. Hayden has just turned 18 and has just come back from a meeting with her family lawyer with the deed to her family's estate and a letter from her missing mother wanting her to complete the task that she couldn't. Hayden hasn't been back to her childhood home in Promise since her mother mysteriously disappeared ten years ago, her father has since lost his job because of his outlandish theories about a supernatural race called the Nibelungs. So after telling her housemate Del about what has happened they pack their bags and head across the state to check out her family home where she will decide if she wants to keep the house or sell it and if she will go through with her mother's weird requests. As soon as they arrive weird things start happening to them and on the first night Hayden finds Del digging in their basement saying 'Dig Deep.' The next day Del has no memory of what she did and after going back down and looking Hayden comes away with a box filled with vials of blood and a new request from her mum. With more and more weird things happening to Hayden and Del will they both make it out of Promise alive and will Hayden fulfil her mother's requests or sell the house and do away with it?

A massive thank you to Jess from Allen and Unwin for sending me a copy of What The Woods Keep by Katya De Becerra to read and review for them and also giving me the opportunity to post a guest post from the author. I was intrigued to start What the Woods Keep because it sounded like something I hadn't really read before and upon flipping through I found the pages with newspaper articles and letters and such and knew that the book was going to head in a direction that I would love. So I started reading and quickly read the first quarter of the book but then I found that I was struggling with the next half of the book and I can't tell you why I struggled either. I was finding I was walking away from the book more and more and finding excuses to do other things besides reading. But as I said to my husband I try to never DNF a book and I was determined to make it through What the Woods Keep and guess what I did it. The last quarter of the book was what made it for me and had me hanging on the edge of my seat. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Hayden and Del and whether what Hayden's mother was orginally doing was completed by Hayden. I did feel the ending was a little rushed though.

Rating: 3/5





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