Into the Woods

By: Josh Soule

Narrated by: Scott Cluthe

Length: 3 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Into the Woods is a novel of suspense set in the late 16th century by Josh Soule.

John, Thomas, and Henry had grown up in the small village of Carn and were now adults and still the best of friends. They were each different. John's artistic inclinations had led him to leave their village to study art in Paris, but while he knew he would always miss that city, he was coming home to Carn for good.

And while they had played together as kids as they were growing up in Carn, some things didn't change. The woods were still as dark and foreboding as they had been years earlier, when the three friends would dare each other to enter. The ancient legends of evil monsters still lingered in the minds of each of them.

Thomas had taken to staying awake at night now to protect his herd from predators, yet a moment's rest had given something ample time to slaughter one of his cows. Thomas wanted the men of Carn to rise up and confront the beast, but the others were not so sure.

When the three friends unite to solve this mystery, they soon discover that the truth about the creature is much more troublesome than they ever feared.

©2019 Josh Soule (P)2019 Josh Soule

Very emotional ending

I am not a emotional person but in ending i become emotional, Great Audiobook s

Enough mystery to keep you interested

This is an interesting quick listen. I didn’t care much for the narrator as he has 3 voices and that’s it. It made it difficult for differentiation between characters. As far as story goes, the end is a well done twist. The pace of the book is fairly slow, enough that I almost stopped listening. Minus the gore that is briefly described, this book is appropriate for teens.


—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Three life-long friends; 1 monster; 1 big surprise

Even though the genre is not my favorite, Josh Soule has written a compelling novel that is beautifully narrated by Scott Cluthe.

Good Short

I enjoyed listening to this short book with good narration. It is about 3 longtime friends trying to track down a killer of the livestock and prevent it from getting the villagers. It has good character development with twists and turns a surprise sad ending. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. Thank you

great break from my normal reads

I'm really picky with my narrators, but Scott isn't a bad one.
the story moved along well, and I really enjoyed it.

Who Is the Beast?

You’ll figure out what the beast is that threatens the village of Carn very quickly, but the truly intriguing question is “who is the beast?” Josh Soule lays out his mystery quite well. Three old friends are reunited when John returns to Carn from Paris in the late sixteenth century. He has a secret that is greatly disturbing him. His friends Henry and Thomas are arguing with each other. Thomas has lost a cow to the beast and wants to hunt it down while Henry is more concerned with keeping the villagers from panicking. It’s an awkward situation made worse by Henry’s monstrous temper, but the novel sees the three men struggling to restore their friendship while they try to find the monster. The reader will spend all of that time looking for clues as to which of them is secretly the beast.

Soule plays fair with the reader giving out clues, but there were a couple of things that struck me as odd about the story. At one point, several corpses—victims of the beast—are discovered and again “not to panic” the villagers, the decision is made not to tell anyone what was found. In fact, by the end of the novel it is clear that a couple of villagers have known what was going on and who was responsible from the beginning, but didn’t share their knowledge even though doing so would have completely averted all the tragedies in the tale. There are also some minor issues with the setting of the story. For example, Soule uses the term rifle and musket interchangeably—they are not interchangeable and rifles weren’t invented yet. But these are ultimately small issues which do not harm the overall story.

In the final analysis, this is a novel about four people (I include the old priest who helped raise two of the boys) who care deeply about each other and there’s a definite sense of growing tragedy as they try to figure out how to protect the town. If you like a historical mystery that is strongly grounded in the characters, you’ll like Into the Woods.

I received this book for free from Audiobook Boom in exchange for an honest review.

Into the woods

I found the story very boring. A creature is killing animals and one man tries to catch it.Pandering to what they think is his imagination his two friends join him. Scott Cluthe gave an good narration.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.' 

I really enjoyed this short story

I thought this had a great story to it. The characters were good. A surprise ending which I like. If your looking for a quick read give it a try.

Oustnding Story With Great Characters

While this isn’t the perfect book, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I rarely say I can’t put a book down, but I really couldn’t. There are just nonstop twists and you’re almost disoriented. By the end, the surprise ending just blows your mind.

Wow

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I listened to this at 1.5 times speed because the narrator spoke really slowly. Other than that it was a great book with lots of twists and turns. I was guessing the whole time.