In 1917, four friends and photojournalists set out in the woods looking for answers. Why have so many hikers and hunters gone missing in the area of Shiny Creek Trail?The two couples anticipate a great adventure, one they’ll tell their kids about someday. No one imagines the evil lurking in a remote cave. A horrifying discovery leaves one person dead and two others missing.Two months later, Paul, … months later, Paul, one of the four, returns to the forest to find his wife. But will he find her before someone—or something—finds him?
Silence in the Woods is the long-awaited prequel to Shadow in the Woods and delves into the frightening territory of the supernatural and the human mind.
more
“He should be used to the screams by now.”
Silence in the Woods came onto my radar when J.P. Choquette reached out to me through my website. The cover looked intriguing and when I saw it was set in 1917 in the woods, I was sold.
I have a thing about barely reading or not reading synopsis’ at all, and for this one, I didn’t read more than 1917 and the woods! That was it, I went in blind and I was glad I did. It really ramped up the creepy factor once the book takes off.
We follow two couples, Allan and Deidre with Jane and Paul, as they hike into a remote area of Vermont. Reports have been coming in for thirty years about hikers going missing and within that time, sightings of a mysterious creature have become a frequent thing.
Is it Bigfoot?
That’s what the group wants to find out.
I enjoyed the interpersonal dynamics at play throughout the book and considering when the story takes place, it was a refreshing look at couples talking and interacting without technology. I’m not too sure about when “portable” cameras became readily available, but that was pretty much the only usage of technology in the entire book.
Choquette did a fantastic job of making the woods as claustrophobic as I enjoy them in horror, and with the addition of the mysterious cave that they take refuge in, it made for a really classic feeling horror story. Simple set pieces and only a few characters.
The only thing I found later on, and it’s tough to relay this spoiler-free, was that at one point I struggled with who exactly Paul was engaging with – Deidre or Jane. It felt a bit jumbled for a few chapters, but then once that spot worked out, it was smooth sailing again to a great ending.
This story is a stand-alone book, but from what I see it is part of the three-book collection, Monsters in Green Mountain. I’m excited to look into the other two books in the future.
This one is a high recommendation for anyone who likes creature features set in the backcountry.
As a new Vermonter, I’m fascinated by local folktales. None are more popular here than those telling of the possible existence of Bigfoot, a hairy, ape-like creature that is said to dwell in the wilderness.
J.P. Choquette’s Silence In the Woods is the first in the Monsters in the Green Mountains series that centers around supernatural and unexplainable phenomena taking place in the remote parts of Vermont.
On a warm September day in 1917, two couples, the Rogerses and the Warnings, set out on a hike up Shiny Creek Trail, where people have gone missing for decades. Paul Rogers is a photojournalist who dreams of finding evidence of Bigfoot and writing an article that would garner the attention of National Geographic and take his career to the next level.
What starts as a pleasant excursion among nature turns more ominous by degrees as the hikers move farther into the woods. As darkness approaches, they are forced to find shelter from an unexpected storm in a remote cave. Before the night is over, the group are attacked by a mysterious presence that seems to materialize out of dark fog. Fear, isolation, and the unknown gradually cause grudges that festered to come to the surface. The group scatters, and Paul Rogers makes it out of the woods, only to end up in a mental hospital in northern Vermont.
Two months later, and still struggling to remember the details of his ordeal, Paul escapes the institution and returns to Shiny Creek Trail to find his wife and friends who are still missing. He also wants to prove that what he saw in the woods was not a product of a diseased mind, but real evil waiting for its next victim. Will Paul find Jane, Allan, and Deirdre, and get the answers he is hoping for?