If you go down to the woods today… (…you might want to take an extra torch or two): Shadows of the Woods by Duncan Thompson #bookreview #ShadowsoftheWoods #damppebblesblogtours

Faceless shadows, a night that will never be the same, and a sinister force. If you go down to the woods tonight, you’re in for a sinister surprise.
When a stag party decide to camp in the woods, they soon discover that a malevolent force has them in their sights. As the unknown creeps ever closer, Joe and his friends must survive. To survive, Joe must learn to fight. If he fights, he could lose it all.
A rollercoaster ride of blood, sweat and tears, Shadows of the Woods will keep you hooked, all whilst throwing nostalgic homage to slashers of the late seventies and early eighties.

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Hi and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Shadows of the Woods! Chuffed I get to kick off this one! Thanks to Emma Welton @ damppebblesblogtours for the tour invite and to Panther Publishing for the e-copy!

I was just thinking I needed a horror fix when Emma waved Shadows of the Woods at me, so I didn’t have to think twice, I signed up, got the book, started reading it right away, on a beautifully balmy day in May. There’s just something about reading horror in the sunshine that tickles me. Maybe because it reminds me of childhood summers spent reading Stephen King in the garden and reading horror in the garden now makes me feel a little nostalgic? Or maybe because if you get chills from reading a novel while basking in the sun, you know it’s a good one. Honestly, I’m not sure I’d even dare read this in the dark, lest I see the shadows move a little too much… Perhaps I should point out that I have an extremely vivid imagination that has no difficulty whatsoever transposing a book’s creepy crawlies to my own life.

Admittedly, it doesn’t take that much to have me jumping at shadows. I mean, who knows what is lurking in them?! Shadows of the Woods takes that primal fear a step further: what if we shouldn’t be afraid of the evil hiding in the shadows, but of the shadows themselves? When night falls and shadows are all that is left, how are you supposed to protect yourself? Because naturally, torches will blink and ultimately falter, cell phones and batteries will die, fires will peter out, and before long there is nothing between the person and the shadows that are stalking him…

Joe takes his brother and two mates out in the woods for a stag party. One of the guests reckons they should have gone to Amsterdam instead, and I really do think he was right! I’ve never been camping, I’ve never seen the allure, or perhaps I saw too many films in which camping went wrong, in any case, if I were ever so inclined, I sure as hell am not anymore! A sacrifice was made in the woods before Joe and his crew arrived (yes it is described, it’s an animal and it doesn’t suffer much, but I’m just putting it out there for those of you who can’t deal with any kind of animal cruelty) and some sort of shadowy demons have entered the mortal realm. It gets bloody and a little gory, but the aspect that got to me was the feeling of “there’s nowhere left to hide” that permeates the novel. Reminiscent of an 80s slasher movie, the night seems endless while the characters are desperately trying to make it ‘til morning.

Shadows of the Woods is an atmospheric kind of horror with the sort of intangible monsters that are somehow way scarier than whatever werewolves, vampires, axe-wielding madmen and the like can throw at you. I thoroughly enjoyed it and if you’re in the market for a quick, fun but scary story, this may be the one for you!