Let The Woods Keep Our Bodies
By E.M. Roy
Ghoulish Books, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-943720-89-7
196 pages, Ebook
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Every town has its secrets. And sometimes, it’s best to leave those secrets alone.
But for the people who like to dig deeper to uncover the truth behind a mystery, they are not content to accept the secrets. They want to know them, break them down and understand them. They want to reveal what those secrets try to hide.
Tate Mulder is one such person. A young adult who has lived in Eston her whole life, she is well aware of the rumors and urban legends surrounding the woods. In fact, she grew up hearing all about them. And like every good truthseeker, she kept a notebook of everything she could learn about anything related to the woods in her town. But not just that; she was also curious to learn about cryptids, Bigfoot, UFOs, conspiracy theories, etc. She dove into these subjects, hoping they would lead her o the answers she wanted to uncover.
As she says on page 105: “I think there’s more to every story. Even the ones we think we have all the answers to.”
And even when she has some kind of answer, she keeps digging for more.
Her girlfriend, Leo, is not the same way. A young adult Tate’s age who lost her parents when a child, Leo lives with her aunt and uncle near Tate’s house. Tate befriends her one day and they develop an intimate relationship, all the while exploring Tate’s many theories and speculations about the woods. Tate basically drags Leo into her quest for the truth, and while Leo is slightly interested because her parents died in the woods and she too hopes to find answers, she is mostly of the opinion that Tate is seeing things that aren’t there.
Tate, however, is convinced. And, actually, her conviction that there is something in the woods – something supernatural and otherworldly – drew this reader in too. I wanted to know the truth, just like Tate did.
After all, the story begins with Tate missing. And just like Leo, I want to know what happened to her.
This story was written in a “before” and after” series of events. It starts with the present in one chapter, and goes to the past in the next. Which is fine for me, because it gives me the chance to find out everything that happened leading up to Tate’s disappearance. It also gave me the chance to learn more about these characters and what kind of lives they lived. Even so, it did get a little confusing towards the end, but I caught on to the sequence of events when I kept reading.
I couldn’t help thinking of Tate like a “Fox Mulder” character – because of the Mulder name. Probably because Tate is so much like Mulder. She wants to believe. Plus, she wants to know the truth behind a great mystery: Why did she see her future self dead in the woods as a child? Tate is on a mission and she is determined to get the answers she is seeking no matter what. You could say she is obsessed with her quest. A lot like Fox Mulder. Plus, the character Leo has red hair, like Dana Scully. And so, even with the character Tate being Black, they seemed to be an AU version of Mulder and Scully, investigating a local phenomenon.
I really enjoyed reading this Let The Woods Keep Our Bodies by E.M. Roy. There was just so much mystery, suspense, supernatural events and even horror of the many unexplained things that happen in this story. Many scenes had me on the edge of my seat and left me hungry for more, finding this book hard to put down. It’s a really good story and I’m grateful I had the opportunity to read it. It had a very satisfying although sad ending and I came away from this book satisfied that reading it the whole way through answered all the questions I had. No stone is left unturned and the explanation for the mystery in that town is believable. The characters were memorable and I often felt like I was right there in the story with them. Which added to the scariness during certain parts of the book. The author did well in writing this book and I would love to read more of their work.
Five stars
Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
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