‘Be like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t’ – the advice given to Macbeth by his wife before he commits the murder of King Duncan definitely sprang to mind as I was reading this. Everyone is hiding something, and it’s not clear who to trust.
What She Found in the Woods is a pacy thriller, focusing on the story of a young girl with mental health issues who finds herself caught up in events beyond your worst imaginings.
Magda has – we know – done some awful stuff. She’s heavily medicated and comes from a life of privilege. When she is forced to live with her grandparents she finds herself drawn to the woods, where she spends her time hiking. There she meets Bo, a young man whose family live in the woods.
There’s a bit of everything in here, and yet it works. We quickly become invested in Magda’s story and curious to see how the strands come together. Some of the reveals were quite heavily hinted at, but there was plenty to leave us doubting the reliability of our narrator.