For fans of Midsommar, Catriona Ward, and Sarah Gailey, this addictively readable modern horror novel unfolds like a movie with a climax you’ll never see coming

 

When Jen Monroe hears her father's remains have been found, she returns home to disprove his death, only to find the forests of rural Washington are hiding horrors beyond imagining

 

Seven years ago, Jen Monroe left behind her hometown of Barrow, Washington after her father, a forest ranger passionate about protecting old trees from the aggressive logging business that runs their small town, vanished seemingly into thin air. She vowed never to return … until she gets a text from her estranged mother. Her father's remains have been found. 

 

It seems impossible to Jen who has always believed her father is still alive, and she returns home, determined to find out what really happened. When her ex-boyfriend proposes a camping trip into the woods in her father's memory, it feels like the opportunity Jen had been hoping for: to find her father. To find the truth.

 

But what she finds lurking in the ancient, impenetrable forest may be deeper, darker and deadlier than she could have ever imagined. And it has no intention of letting her leave.

 

Deeply unsettling and thoroughly creepy, this is feminist horror for those who have always known there’s something waiting in the woods.

 

'McNeil surprises and thrills in this folklore-inspired hike through mountains of dread. Unlike her characters, readers won’t regret following her into the waiting trees.'—Kiersten White, #1 New York Times–bestselling Author of Hide