Shadows Of The Woods by Duncan Thompson | Blog Tour

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Faceless shadows, a night that will never be the same, and a sinister force. If you go down to the woods tonight, you're in for a sinister surprise.

When a stag party decide to camp in the woods, they soon discover that a malevolent force has them in their sights. As the unknown creeps ever closer, Joe and his friends must survive. To survive, Joe must learn to fight. If he fights, he could lose it all.

A rollercoaster ride of blood, sweat and tears, Shadows of the Woods will keep you hooked, all whilst throwing nostalgic homage to slashers of the late seventies and early eighties.

A Night Terror that you won't be forgetting any time soon.

Shadows Of The Woods is like a bullet to the jugular!  Holy crap this book was good!  The title gives us insight into two sides of the same coin.  A shadow instantly made me think of the claustrophobia, the darkness creeping in ready to take us.  One misstep, the sound of twigs being snapped underfoot…was it someone out there or our active imagination?  My gut feeling whilst starting this book was that shit was going to hit the fan fairly quickly…boy was I right?! 

The opening was both sweet and utterly destructive.  A marriage proposal whilst out camping with the backdrop of fireworks, dead romantic, right?  Well, in any other location it probably would have been.  Insert the heady mix of paranoia, shadows creeping into night affected vision and eerie sounds would make anyone question their decisions.  The ambiguous opening has you confused and questioning the characters reality…just what the hell happened?  An accepted proposal.  Dangers lurking in the night.  A trashed tent.  An animal or something more sinister?

Joe is a highly competitive young man.  He takes his fitness very seriously and prides himself on not only his physique but his fitness levels.  He’s engaged to the love of his life, Linda, and he’s setting off on his stag do with his friends and his brother, Tony.  No weekend in Amsterdam for Joe, nope, He’s having a camping weekend in the druid forest.  Maybe in hindsight Amsterdam would have been safer.  I connected immediately with Joe’s inner narrative and his need to care for everyone.  A big brother.  He’s definitely the groups conscience. 

Arriving at the Druids woods instantly has that look over your shoulder, lock all your doors type horror.  The ice-cold water drifting down your spine, all that was missing was the creepy string quartet to make you soil yourself all that quicker.  The camping trip doesn’t go according to plan and deciphering motives and behaviours of the antagonists was both puzzling and exciting.  Shadows Of The Woods had me aching for answers to my questions but in all honestly its best to just let the novel guide me to the truth.  You are in seriously good hands with Duncan Thompson. 

The events contained within that night opens some big ass cans of worms.  Reminiscing about childhood, relationships with siblings, romantic relationships  Duncan Thompson weaves a web so intricate but so beautifully human that we can’t help but become invested in not only the human aspect of the story but the supernatural part too. 

Joe discovers all manner of horrific things in those woods and it will take everything that he has to survive.  As I turned the pages of my kindle, I’m pretty sure my eyes were bugging out of their sockets with the fear that became instilled in me.  Duncan Thompson has truly highlighted the battle of good vs evil and the truth is a heavy load.  No-one leaves Shadows Of The Woods unscathed.

Shadows Of The Woods is an adrenaline fuelled trip of a lifetime.  It’s the type of book where you constantly tell yourself “just one more page”  and before you know it you’ve read the final one.  You really won’t sleep after finishing this in the dead of night!

Thanks to Emma@ Damppebbles book tours for a copy of the book and my place on the blog tour, always a pleasure.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Duncan has spent most of his life in a small market town in West Yorkshire — the same town in which most of his stories are set under the guise of Ravenfield. Duncan has been writing works of fiction since the age of seven. In those early days, his stories often involved himself and his friends being transported to fantasy worlds. However, as a teenager, Duncan fell in love with horror movies and his writing took a whole new direction.

Duncan still lives in West Yorkshire with his partner and their two young children. He also has slight obsession with Spider-Man and the actor Bruce Campbell, as well as having an addiction to vinyl records, coffee and Lego.

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