The Forest of Stolen Girls

By: June Hur

Narrated by: Sue Jean Kim

Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Suspenseful and richly atmospheric, June Hur's The Forest of Stolen Girls is a haunting historical mystery sure to keep listeners guessing until the last word.

1426, Joseon (Korea). Hwani's family has never been the same since she and her younger sister went missing and were later found unconscious in the forest near a gruesome crime scene.

Years later, Detective Min - Hwani's father - learns that 13 girls have recently disappeared from the same forest that nearly stole his daughters. He travels to their hometown on the island of Jeju to investigate...only to vanish as well.

Determined to find her father and solve the case that tore their family apart, Hwani returns home to pick up the trail. As she digs into the secrets of the small village - and collides with her now estranged sister, Maewol - Hwani comes to realize that the answer could lie within her own buried memories of what happened in the forest all those years ago.

Praise for The Forest of Stolen Girls:

Junior Library Guild Selection

©2021 June Hur (P)2021 Listening Library

Critic reviews

"The Forest of Stolen Girls is a haunting, breathtaking tale that will have readers on the edge of their seats. With its lush and atmospheric prose, complex character dynamics, and an immersive mystery I was ravenous to uncover, I could not turn the pages fast enough! Hur is an absolute master of mystery, and I will be reading her gorgeous books for years to come." (Adalyn Grace, New York Times best-selling author of All the Stars and Teeth)

"Haunting and lyrical. Beware, this tale will draw you deeper into the forest than you want to go." (Stacey Lee, award-winning author of The Downstairs Girl)

"A brilliant historical fiction mystery that is suspenseful, gorgeous and absolutely riveting! Hur brings Jeju Island during the early Joseon period completely to life in a rich, evocative manner that reminds me of watching my favorite historical Kdrama.... I adored this book from start to finish!” (Ellen Oh, author of the Prophecy series)

Whispers and Shouting ruin the story

A decent historical mystery ruined by the performance. Do not listen to this book with headphones or ear phones. The performer whispers for the majority of the book and then actually shouts into the microphone. Your eardrums will thank me.

Top 10 Books of the Decade

I read a lot of books for fun and even more history books for work. This is one of the most interesting and well-written books that I’ve read in the last decade. If you’re a fan of Veronica Mars or historical dramas, this is a must read.

Amazing!!

I fell in love with this author and haven't had enough yet! I can't wait to read more by her!!!

Enjoyed this!

I love stories from the Joseon era and this book is very well written. The story was was engaging and woven together masterfully.

An Eerie and Intriguing Read

The forest of Stolen Girls is an atmospheric and well paced story with an interesting concept. I really like the authors writing style and I ended up reading it really quickly. Everything can be improved upon but I feel like reviewers are way too nitpick-y

Great story and plot!

Ermagherd what a ride! First of all I'm glad I got through this book during the day! I'm a huge chicken and my mind ran wild with the setting and feel to this book. It didn't help that because of the cover being black and white and the font in read that's basically how I pictured every scene. Was in this Noir setting, with the occasional pop of color. Either way got major creep vibes because of that. And all I kept picturing was a creepy forest so that didn't help either. I guess what I'm saying is the imagery and vibes given off from this read were off the charts.

I loved the story and plot, though there are some parts that I did find unnecessary and seemed to drag on a bit. But the clues man, oh my gods, the clues are like RIGHT THERE and when you get to the end and think back to everything that was said it was almost like TOO OBVIOUS. Like HELL-URRR I'd get hit in the head with a lemon even if I saw it coming from a mile away. Anyways, it was good. I liked that it kept you on your toes, but didn't like that once we got to the big reveal it went on for a bit longer than needed (in my opinion). There were times I forgot the book is a historical fiction, but was brought back to the time when something was mentioned. The writing was so well done!

I loved the dynamic between Hwani and Maewol, it was very interesting to see how they interacted with each other even though they were estranged. It's also always interesting to get two wildly different perspectives about one person and see what influenced that mindset. I enjoyed their differences and the partnership they had going on. I liked that things weren't always so great between them? Like there was tension and they would fight and it felt like an actual sibling relationship and didn't sway too much one way or the other

Recommend

This book is a great way to learn some of Korea’s history while being super intrigued with the true crime-ish plot. Loved the main character’s personal growth and the ending filled my heart!

meh...

Well written and narrated, just boring story. Really struggled to finish, kept waiting for the plot to thicken..