This had been on my TBR for a while, and I finally picked it up on a visit to Butcher Cabin Books — where the author is one of the owners!
While this is a promising debut novel with an eerie setting and some great horror aspects, I felt that it was missing some critical character development and worldbuilding—but I'm getting ahead of myself.
"It just seems like—I don't know... Like a dream. Like it was made for this. For us."
When her friend Clay discovered an uncharted rock face in the Kentucky wilderness, Dylan thought her life would be forever changed. As a rock climber and influencer looking to go professional, being the first to develop a new crag would be exactly the push she needed to kick start her career.
Her life would be forever changed, indeed, but not in the way she expected.
Several months later, an unusual set of bodies are discovered: Clay, completely naked with his ribcage cracked open and his organs removed, his assistant Sylvia, reduced to nothing but a skeleton, and Dylan's boyfriend Luke, perfectly preserved but with his tongue, eyes, fingers, and toes removed.
Dylan, however, remains unaccounted for—but her followers begin to report strange activity from her Instagram account. Her photos from the rock wall have disappeared, inexplicably replaced by blurry photos of the ground, and eerie livestreams continue even after her phone is found and logged as police evidence.
"Too many odd pieces that didn't fit, more discovered every night as a detective or coroner or first responder sprang upright in bed, struck by another revelation. But, above all, that fucking skeleton."
After an ominous prologue revealing their ultimate fate, the story follows Dylan, Clay, Sylvia, and Luke as they venture into the woods in search of the rock wall.
The forest seems to be constantly changing, the same tree and leaf patterns regenerating to appear over and over again as the very terrain stretches and folds itself, making it impossible to maintain any sense of direction.
Of course, the question readers are asking at this point is who, or what killed them? Don't worry, the valley will eventually give up its secrets—but only after it's had its fill.
"And after they had taken their photographs and mulled around the corpses, assessing, smoking, constantly feeling a small hand tugging at their pant leg as if asking them to leave, they zipped the corpses into bags and stacked their little numbered markers back together and stuffed the tents and backpacks and dirty clothing into evidence bags and wheeled the bags to the van and checked one last time to see if they had missed anything, any tiny part of Sylvia Skeleton or a bloody blade or even a detailed journal that would make the puzzle whole, something other than the waterlogged notebooks at the campsite that had turned to pulp. Satisfied, they shut the doors of the van. Then they left that wretched place forever."
Don't get me wrong, I loved reading this. It kept me on the edge of my seat, and on the creepy factor, it definitely delivered. I also loved getting to learn more about rock climbing thanks to Jenny Kiefer's own experience as a climber, which shone beautifully through her writing.
What disappointed me was the lack of context regarding the environment the characters found themselves in. Dating back to the 1700's, the Cherokee and Shawnee knew to avoid the valley. The only plants that could grow there were poisonous, and the land never appeared the same way twice. Almost like it would alter its appearance to lure new blood into the forest, never to be seen again — but why? I would've loved a backstory on how this particular place on Earth came to be, and the lack of explanation made it hard to be creeped out by what was otherwise a great concept.
Overall, I think this is absolutely worth the read, especially for climbers or lovers of environmental/survival horror. Just don't go into it expecting some grand explanation at the end, because there isn't one.
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As always, thank you so much for reading, and I'll catch you next time!
'•.¸♡ The dog lives! ♡¸.•'