A group of friends goes on a hike in search of an ancient spring deep inside the forest. Mythical stories come from the woods – tales of gnomes, fairies, and other not so benevolent creatures. Everything changes for the group when they run into a hiker that mysteriously vanished in the area weeks ago. She is malnourished, dehydrated, and hurt, but she keeps raving about the danger in the woods, repeating one incoherent word over and over in a foreign language. By the time they turn back the way they came, it’s too late.
There’s something ancient in these woods.
Something far more dangerous than fairies and gnomes.
And it’s after them.
It Lives in the Woods by Boris Bacic. Book #4 in the Creature Encounter series. Narrated by Gary Davis. Published by Findaway Voices, 2023. Runtime of 7 hours.
*Trigger warning: talk / fantasy of sexual assault talk, animal death.
I love the group-of-friends-hiking-lost-in-the-woods sort of stories. :D I was psyched to read It Lives in the Woods! Sounded right up my alley, plus, I enjoy the work I’ve read by this author so far. So alright! Let’s go!
Without spoiling anything, the monsters are pretty cool. A monster that I have not seen in modern horror stories before. Very interesting choice, and very interesting take on it.
It did feel a little confusing as to how many of the monster there was… Is it only the one? If there was only one, how did it attack so many different groups around the same times? :/ Did I miss something? It sounded like there were a few of them at first, but then at the end it was only the one? :/ Hmmm….
The characters are ok. The brother is the only one I really liked a lot. The main character, Dylan, spent his time waffling over if he loves his girlfriend or not. It was tiresome! Not to mention how dumb he was to believe in Bogdan’s lies. Come on, my dude…. don’t be that dumb!!
Speaking of Bogdan, geez what an asshole! I know the point was to hate this jerk and the author does a great job at that…. I hated him so much! Could not wait for this jerk to get killed. >.<
The military characters were kind of random. :/ I didn’t mind theme, but it felt like their part of the story was unfinished and a little disjointed. This part of the story was also confusing…? Not enough set up or backstory for this group, and definitely no clear answers at the end (of their part of the story that is).
The narrator was ok. Most of the characters sounded the same. Some characters should have had accents but didn’t, if that sort of thing annoys you…? The PoV shifts around between multiple characters constantly and some times it was briefly unclear who is talking. 
There are a few possible trigger warnings parts. The jerk character talks and fantasies about sexual assault on women and even attempts sexual assault on one of the female characters. There is also a scene at the end where a rabbit is killed. D: Both scenes are easy to fast forward, but still…
It Lives in the Woods has a great folklore monster that we rarely see in horror stories now days. The plot is fun, but also a little bit confusing. The ending was also a little bit confusing as to what was going on and we don’t really get satisfactory answers. I like this book ok.
Creature From The Book Lagoon 