Title: THESE SILENT WOODS
Author: Kimi Cunningham Grant
Read: December 2021
Expected publication: out now
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2
Book Description:
No electricity, no family, no
connection to the outside world. For eight years, Cooper and his young
daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern
Appalachian woods. And that's exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he's got
a lot to hide. Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin’s shelves
and the beautiful but brutal code of life in the wilderness. But she’s starting
to push back against the sheltered life Cooper has created for her—and he’s
still haunted by the painful truth of what it took to get them there.
The only people who know they exist are a mysterious local hermit named
Scotland, and Cooper's old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them
food and supplies. But this year, Jake doesn't show up, setting off an
irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation
really is. Suddenly, the boundaries of their safe haven have blurred—and when a
stranger wanders into their woods, Finch’s growing obsession with her could put
them all in danger. After a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only
life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding—or
finally face the sins of his past.
Vividly atmospheric and masterfully tense, These Silent Woods is a
poignant story of survival, sacrifice, and how far a father will go when faced
with losing it all.
My musings:
Do you love books that break your heart and yet
reinstate your faith in humanity? THESE SILENT WOODS did that for me. Initially I was drawn to it
by the promise of a remote wilderness setting, but I hadn’t counted on the way
Cooper and Finch would highjack my heart and draw me into their world. What
would compel a father to retreat from the world and bring up his child in a
remote cabin in the woods, far away from civilisation and friends and family?
Finch has grown up here for eight years, and she has never set foot in a store
or had any other human contact apart from their equally as reclusive neighbour
Scotland and Cooper’s best friend and army mate Jake, who visits once a year
just before Christmas to deliver supplies for the harsh winter ahead. What
would such a life be like?
Once details from Cooper’s past are
revealed, their circumstances become very clear and I felt torn between the
beauty of their natural environment, and its isolation (and loneliness). Both
Cooper and Finch are wonderfully drawn and appeared to me vividly as
flesh-and-blood characters, utterly captivating my heart. I don’t cry easily,
but by the end I was blubbing like a little baby, utterly heartbroken. I loved
to witness the bond between father and daughter, and the sacrifices Cooper has
made to keep them together. As a slow character study, this was as good as it
gets, with the natural environment as a perfect backdrop. And unlike other
novels with similar themes and backdrops, this one never ventured into the
realm of disbelief or the over-the-top melodramatic. Even in its most dramatic
moments, the characters stayed true to themselves and remained utterly
relatable. This is not an easy balance to achieve and shows the author’s skill
as a writer.
Summary:
All in all, THESE SILENT WOODS was one of my favourite novels of 2021.
Atmospheric and compelling, it pulled on my heartstrings and utterly captivated
me.
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