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A review by smartinez9
The Lying Woods by Ashley Elston
3.0
2.5
Though I guessed parts of the denouement, I didn’t foresee the whole twist, which is always a plus. While I really enjoyed some aspects of the book—Owen’s boarding school friends, the Gus storyline, the unfolding of the conspiracy—my enjoyment was significantly lessened by the fact that I thought this was going to be more of a murder mystery/thriller. While it began that way, in keeping with Elston’s gripping This is Our Story, it actually ends up being more of an emotional YA contemporary/family drama, which is not at all what I was looking/in the mood for.
I think this was quite a solid book overall that a lot of people would (and clearly did) love, but past the midpoint I started realizing it wasn’t for me. The Noah/Maggie flashbacks felt more like a story from the 1950s then 1999 (maybe because I’m not from the conservative South?). I understood the pressure she was under, but I still didn’t care for Maggie’s eventual lack of agency, or Noah’s martyrdom. It just wasn’t something I wanted to read about, probably because I’m not a fan of second-chance romances where a long stretch of time (17 years!) has passed, largely due to miscommunication. I don’t knock them in real life, but I expect my protagonists to get their shit together a lot faster.
Though I guessed parts of the denouement, I didn’t foresee the whole twist, which is always a plus. While I really enjoyed some aspects of the book—Owen’s boarding school friends, the Gus storyline, the unfolding of the conspiracy—my enjoyment was significantly lessened by the fact that I thought this was going to be more of a murder mystery/thriller. While it began that way, in keeping with Elston’s gripping This is Our Story, it actually ends up being more of an emotional YA contemporary/family drama, which is not at all what I was looking/in the mood for.
I think this was quite a solid book overall that a lot of people would (and clearly did) love, but past the midpoint I started realizing it wasn’t for me. The Noah/Maggie flashbacks felt more like a story from the 1950s then 1999 (maybe because I’m not from the conservative South?). I understood the pressure she was under, but I still didn’t care for Maggie’s eventual lack of agency, or Noah’s martyrdom. It just wasn’t something I wanted to read about, probably because I’m not a fan of second-chance romances where a long stretch of time (17 years!) has passed, largely due to miscommunication. I don’t knock them in real life, but I expect my protagonists to get their shit together a lot faster.