When the bodies of two girls are found torn apart in her hometown, Lauren is surprised, but she also expects that the police won't find the killer. After all, the year before her father's body was found with his heart missing, and since then everyone has moved on. Even her best friend, Miranda, has become more interested in boys than in spending time at the old ghost tree, the way they used to when they were kids.
So when Lauren has a vision of a monster dragging the remains of the girls through the woods, she knows she can't just do nothing. Not like the rest of her town. But as she draws closer to answers, she realizes that the foundation of her seemingly normal town might be rotten at the centre. And that if nobody else stands for the missing, she will.
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Lauren glanced down at her feet as she pedalled her bike toward the woods. THE GIRLS, 1
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(@TitanBooks, 8 September 2020, 507 pages, ebook, copy rom the publisher via # NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed)
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I've read a few books by the author and am quite a fan. I was looking forward to this as it's a bit different from her usual work which tends to be fairytale retellings. The Ghost Tree is a straight-up horror story, brilliantly executed. This has all you can ask from a horror story; creepy woods, lots of dead people, a monster that likes human flesh and a small town who know how to keep their secrets and guard them well. I loved the fact the book is set in a small town, the perfect place for the horrific events Lauren encounters to take place and be kept from the wider world. Some of the best horror fiction is set in the proverbial small town. Stephen King is a genius using this device. The book is quite gory at times but not OTT and it adds to the plot. I really loved this.
