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Friday 17 December 2021

Book Review: THESE SILENT WOODS by Kimi Cunningham Grant

 



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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