They Fear Not Men in the Woods

De: Gretchen McNeil

Narrado por: Justis Bolding

For fans of Midsommar, Catriona Ward, and Sarah Gailey, this addictive modern horror novel unfolds like a movie with a climax you’ll never see coming

When Jen Monroe hears her father's remains have been found, she returns home to disprove his death, only to find the forests of rural Washington are hiding horrors beyond imagining

Seven years ago, Jen Monroe left behind her hometown of Barrow, Washington after her father, a forest ranger passionate about protecting old trees from the aggressive logging business that runs their small town, vanished seemingly into thin air. She vowed never to return...until she gets a text from her estranged mother. Her father's remains have been found.

It seems impossible to Jen who has always believed her father is still alive, and she returns home, determined to find out what really happened. When her ex-boyfriend proposes a camping trip into the woods in her father's memory, it feels like the opportunity Jen had been hoping for: to find her father. To find the truth.

But what she finds lurking in the ancient, impenetrable forest may be deeper, darker and deadlier than she could have ever imagined. And it has no intention of letting her leave.

Deeply unsettling and thoroughly creepy, this is feminist horror for those who have always known there’s something waiting in the woods.

©2025 Gretchen McNeil (P)2025 Recorded Books

Not bad, but I didn’t love the ending

I realize I’m not the target audience for a lead character like our protagonist here, but I do love horror set in the forest. So I listened all the way through, and overall They Fear Not Men in the Woods is alright — I just felt unfulfilled by the ending.
Perhaps because I had trouble connecting with any of the characters, filtered through the perception of Jen’s first-person Intro to Feminism self-righteousness, which I could have been on-board with if her views were ever really challenged by the narrative. But the characters she believes are less than her, are in fact less than. The author does a decent job in humanizing them before the inevitable given the genre, especially Todd, but mostly I found I couldn’t care because our protagonist didn’t really care.
As a very casual hiker, I did find the dives into navigation and survival to be quite interesting. The wilderness descriptions are great. Once the story gets going, the middle is the best part by far. If you think films like The VVitch or Midsommer had a “positive” conclusion, you may more than I did. And the narrator does a fantastic job, as well.