Hayden has had a hard life. Her mother mysteriously disappeared when she was a child, she was expelled from school for some strange occurrences, she’s spent most of her life in therapy and her father is losing his mind.
When she turns eighteen, she inherits the house she grew up in — as her mother’s will instructs — so she returns to her old town, to where her mother vanished and where things are still… strange.
Hayden doesn’t believe in the supernatural, but it becomes hard to ignore the unusual things that keep happening to her and her best friend Del.
When she starts to dig deeper — into her past, into her mother’s disappearance, into why the boy she left behind is still there and now works at the strange facility that has set up in town — Hayden discovers something no one would believe unless they saw it with their own eyes.
This is paranormal fiction at its best. The story is chilling and mysterious, and the subject matter is fresh and different. Filled with ancient mythologies and legends you probably haven’t come across before, after reading this book, you will want to head to Google to find out more.
The book is brilliantly written. You will be pulled into the story world from the first chapter, showered with mysteries that will worm into your brain and gifted snippets of clues and pieces of the puzzle so you can uncover all the secrets as you read.
Scattered throughout the book are all sorts of interesting texts — journal entries, therapist reports, articles and letters — to help you piece everything together. And the story has been infused with current and real theories around the supernatural, inter-dimensional travel and physics.
This book will make you think and question. It provides some amazing ideas to discuss and explore, and it shines a bright light on the power of knowledge and information.
But also, and most importantly, it’s great story telling. It’s a gripping and all-consuming read that will leave you begging for more.
This is Katya De Becerra’s first YA novel and it sets the bar high. If you like YA fantasy/supernatural/paranormal, this is a must read.
Title: What the Woods Keep
Author: Katya De Becerra
Publisher: Allen and Unwin, $16.99
Publication Date: October 2018
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781760637309
For ages: 13+
Type: Young Adult Fiction
