The Killing Woods

by Lucy Christopher

Overview

The latest thrilling adventure from the author of the Printz Honor Book STOLEN -- now in paperback!

Ashlee Parker is dead, and Emily Shepherd's dad is accused of the crime. A former soldier suffering from PTSD, he emerges from the woods carrying the girl's broken body. "Gone," he says, then retreats into silence.

What really happened that wild night? Emily knows in her bones that her father is innocent -- isn't he? Before he's convicted, she's got to find out the truth. Does Damon Hilary, Ashlee's charismatic boyfriend, have the answers? Or is he only playing games with her -- the kinds of games that can kill?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545461009
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	01/07/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.50(d)
Lexile:	HL660L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

Lucy Christopher's novel STOLEN was named a Printz Honor Book by the ALA and received England's Branford Boase award and Australia's Gold Inky for best debut. In a starred review, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY called it "an emotionally raw thriller...a haunting account of captivity and the power of relationships." She is also the author of FLYAWAY, a novel for younger readers. Lucy lives in Monmouth, Wales. Visit her at www.lucychristopher.com and follow her on Twitter @LucyCAuthor.

Editorial Reviews

12/16/2013
Printz honoree Christopher (Stolen) returns with another tense and nimbly crafted psychological thriller. Last summer, Emily Shepherd's father, a veteran suffering from paralyzing PTSD, returned home carrying the corpse of Emily's high school acquaintance Ashlee Parker. Now he's on trial for Ashlee's murder. Though Emily believes in her father's innocence, few others do, and Emily's association with her father leads to her ostracism. The narrative alternates between the perspectives of Emily and Damon, Ashlee's boyfriend, who awoke the morning after her death hungover and with little memory of the previous night. Embittered by the death of his own father in the war, Damon blames Emily for the added pain of losing Ashlee. Christopher gracefully explores the agony of combat-related PTSD, its effects on its sufferers and their families, and the capacity for violence, while refraining from making the novel feel issue-driven. Despite the growing attraction between Damon and Emily, they keep their secrets and memories to themselves, investigating Ashlee's death separately, which maintains an intriguing duality. Two meticulously constructed voices assemble a dark and unnerving puzzle in this immersive mystery. Ages 14–up. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Emily Shepherd’s life is upended when her father, a war veteran, walks out of the woods with the dead body of her classmate Ashlee Parker in his arms. He is charged with Ashlee’s murder, even though he cannot remember committing it; he suffers PTSD related to his military service, and it seems likely that the evening’s raging thunderstorm caused him to mistake his surroundings for the war zone, perceive the young girl as an enemy, and strangle her. Beautiful and popular, Ashlee was dating the equally handsome Damon Hilary. Many questions arise from her mysterious death. Why was she in Darkwood? Did Emily’s father know Ashlee? Was he stalking her before her death? Emily has a hard time believing that her broken father could ever have done such a thing. He has been so quiet and withdrawn. Then she finds a sketch her father drew, of a deer being chased by wolves. The deer’s eyes are unmistakably Ashlee’s. Emily and her neighborhood friend Joe play amateur detective to seek out Ashlee’s killer. Meanwhile, Damon has questions of his own. In alternating chapters, he works through a blank spot in his memory from that night. He thinks that he was the last person to see Ashlee as they played a dangerous game of chase with his friends in Darkwood, but he cannot seem to locate her pink game collar or her cellphone. Emily and Damon become unlikely allies as they come to consider a scenario that no one sees coming. Set in the woods at night and involving a life-changing secret, this murder mystery is a riveting story of teenage games gone wrong. Christopher’s use of alternating chapters occurring at the same point in the story timeline enables readers to follow two protagonists on their tremulous journeys. All in all, this is a very well written thriller. Reviewer: Toni Jourdan; Ages 14 up.

Children's Literature - Toni Jourdan

★ 2013-11-20
This taut, psychologically realistic murder mystery knits trauma, danger, tragedy and hope into one cohesive tale. In a horrifying opening scene, Emily watches her father return from the forest carrying what looks like an injured deer but turns out to be a girl--dead. Dad's having a flashback to the military event that gave him PTSD. As a soldier, he'd accidentally killed a civilian; did he kill this girl, Ashlee, as well? Ashlee's boyfriend, Damon, awakens hung over the next morning, confused that Ashlee's not in his bed. They'd been in Darkwood the night before with his mates, playing the Game. Ashlee gave Damon hallucinogenic drugs, and he can't remember how the night--or the Game--ended. Damon and Emily alternate chapters in distinct first-person voices. Damon's traumatized by Ashlee's murder and his father's military death; Emily's devastated that her sometimes-violent yet "scared of everything" father--possibly innocent--is pleading guilty to manslaughter. Darkwood's thick forest, high peak and leftover war bunker make a vivid setting. Readers will be riveted by slow, potent reveals about the rough nature of the Game, Ashlee's insistence on danger and adrenaline, and what happened that night. The answers hurt, but they feel right and they make sense. A sprout of hope at the end is fragile and unforced. A gripping, heartbreaking, emotionally substantial look at war wounds and the allure of danger. (Mystery. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews

Praise for THE KILLING WOODS:

*"A gripping, heartbreaking, emotionally substantial look at war wounds and the allure of danger."--KIRKUS REVIEWS, starred review

"[A] tense and nimbly crafted psychological thriller."--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Praise for STOLEN:

"Complicated and beautiful -- it left me doubting my emotions and missing a place I'd never been." --Maggie Stiefvater

"All the tension of lightning, all the terror of thunder. A stunning, scary, and beautiful book." --John Marsden

*"An emotionally raw thriller...a haunting account of captivity and the power of relationships." --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review

Michael L. Printz Honor Book

ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults

USBBY Outstanding International Book

From the Publisher

03/01/2014
Gr 9 Up—Emily Shepherd looks out the window in the early morning and sees her father carrying something through the woods. A deer? No, it's the body of a teenage girl. And Emily knows her: it's Ashlee Parker, a classmate, and girlfriend of football star Damon Hilary. Emily's dad, who suffers from extreme post-traumatic stress disorder, is accused of the murder, and it is up to her to find out what really happened in the woods that horrible night. The first two-thirds of the story is taut, suspenseful, and very intense: characters are revealed in complex layers, and the woods take on an eerie personality of their own. Teens will read voraciously, seeking out answers and the truth, instantly recognizing Emily and Damon as unreliable narrators. However, the novel gets bogged down with repetitious dialogue and descriptions. In the early chapters, Christopher dribbles out details in deliciously tantalizing ways, but at the story's midpoint, the author withholds too much, and the plot begins to move at a snail's pace. At the peak of the action, intensely exciting moments are broken up by mundane details that kill the lightning-fast pace. Ultimately, though, like Chris Lynch's Inexcusable (S & S, 2005), this is a fascinating discussion of teen violence, self-denial, and conspiracies of silence. And even though readers will likely guess the culprit before the protagonists do, they'll still be hanging on to every word until the end.—Laura Lutz, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City

School Library Journal