Name: Aina's review of These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant
Item: These Silent Woods
Rating: 5
Author: Aina

Kimi Cunningham Grant

A Novel

These Silent Woods

Aina

The thing about grace is that you don't deserve it. You can’t earn it. You can only accept it. Or not.

I can't help but think: Consider how much has happened How a life can veer and stretch and retract and shatter. How it feels in this moment, as though things could crumble yet again with just the slightest alteration. Tenuous, this life. Nothing sure at all.

Plus, if there is one thing I have learned in this life of mine, it's that the mind is the cruelest of all weapons. Battles, skirmishes, they did their mean work and then they were over, but the wounds on the mind remained: scabs, welts, pockmarks. They never really went away. They could come back, strike again.

That's the nice thing about books. You can experience all different people and all sorts of places through them. All in the safety. and comfort of your own home.

It’s terrible to lose someone you love, terrible. Makes you hurt in ways you didn’t know you could hurt.

Captivating. The end had me all choked up. 

Jillian Roberts

I had to think on this one before reviewing it. So I went into this book blind and had absolutely no idea what was happening for like half the book. But once I did understand what the story was about I was intrigued to see how it would go. Personally, I would say this isn’t a thriller. It is more fiction for me that had some suspenseful parts but never really gave thriller vibes for me. It was a strong book, written really well, but wasn’t sure what the plot line was trying to accomplish. Which could be a me thing and I just missed it. Why I’m still thinking through it. I also don’t want to spoil anything too this is just one that requires a lot of thinking to see what I feel about it. 

Priscilla Stanfield

Sonia Grgas

Good story, but I felt very manipulated. It was one of those books that made me want to yell “take your blinders off already” at the main character. I wanted to feel more sympathy for him but just couldn’t.

lian ‪♡

I don't usually write reviews, but this book had me in tears. It was so beautifully written and will stay with me forever. A must-read!

Keely Calagos

This is not a thriller, nor a traditional mystery but reading this book felt like waiting for a jump scare in a movie, you don’t know what you’re waiting for and you know it’s coming but it still catches you off guard. Or watching a video of a kid attaching a string from their loose baby tooth to the door handle, you feel mildly ill but can’t look away.

This is a slow burn, ~280 page, beautifully crafted book about grief, the toll war takes on your mind/body/spirit, unconditional love, and survival. I had so many ‘ahhh this is it’ moments that ended up to be nothing. And then just when I let my guard down, BAM! The book swaps between timelines, slowly but surely giving you more insight into Coopers past and in turn their inevitable future.

When I wasn’t reading, I was thinking about Cooper and Finch…I ADOREE Finch - clever and wise beyond her years, I was invested in her character and loved her little eight-year-old defiance and poetry rambelings.

I went into this book pretty blind as to what it was about so I was not expecting to cry, but I’ll admit my eyes were a bit watery *ahhh the heartache*.

5/5 stars from me ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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This is an incredibly well-written book with complex themes and characters. It explores the meaning of doing anything for family (whether blood or otherwise), no matter the cost. You may question your morals and what you would do for those you care about most. At the same time, it will make you think about different ways of life and whether we truly need all the "stuff" around us to be happy. It's easy to connect to the characters and become invested in where they will end up. I haven't had a book move me to tears in a very long time and this one did just that. 

Hannah Colbert

Elizabeth Wood

A solid 4 ⭐️ book. Loved that it was written from the father’s POV in first person. That was a unique touch. A sweet story about grace, forgiveness, and love. I really liked this book, but there was something missing for me to give it 5 stars - still haven’t been able to pinpoint it.

Melyssa Tromberg 

I am completely conflicted about this book.  

I was absolutely wrong about the reason why Cooper fled into the woods with Finch. I expected it to be because Cooper was a hard boiled detective who crossed the wrong mobsters, or he was a regular person who inadvertently witnessed a major horrific crime and had to flee.  The reason was actually mundane, and based on Cooper's own stupidity.   

The plot was interesting in  the beginning, but as more and more of Cooper's story was told and I came to learn the reason why he was in the woods with Finch, he lost most of my sympathy.  From about the halfway point to 75% of the way through, I was rating this book 2 stars in my head.  Things changed near the end.  

 I still question Cooper's morality.  He let Scotland take the fall for the "murders" of Cooper and Finch.  They got to live happily ever after, while poor Scotland did life for two murders he did not commit.  Then, Cooper decided to let Finch reunite with her grandparents.  Had the statute of limitations on his assault and kidnapping charges run out?  Finch was still not an adult.  Her grandparents still had legal custody.  How did Cooper avoid prison?  The grandparents just "forgiving" Cooper for keeping them from their granddaughter for 16 years makes no sense, especially the way they were characterized throughout the book.  Did poor Scotland get out of prison when Cooper and Finch rejoined the world, or had he already died?  I really have no idea why I am giving this book 4 stars, other than because I love the idea of grace, and the message that grace is a gift, not something you earn.

PS  The first time Cooper met Scotland, the author said Scotland was carrying an automatic AK-47.  You cannot legally buy automatic weapons in the US, so I don't know if the writer meant that Scotland had an illegal weapon, or if the author just does not understand the difference.  Referring to semi-automatic weapons as automatic is one of my pet peeves.

shellybn

I am completely conflicted about this book.  

I was absolutely wrong about the reason why Cooper fled into the woods with Finch. I expected it to be because Cooper was a hard boiled detective who crossed the wrong mobsters, or he was a regular person who inadvertently witnessed a major horrific crime and had to flee.  The reason was actually mundane, and based on Cooper's own stupidity.   

The plot was interesting in  the beginning, but as more and more of Cooper's story was told and I came to learn the reason why he was in the woods with Finch, he lost most of my sympathy.  From about the halfway point to 75% of the way through, I was rating this book 2 stars in my head.  Things changed near the end.  

 I still question Cooper's morality.  He let Scotland take the fall for the "murders" of Cooper and Finch.  They got to live happily ever after, while poor Scotland did life for two murders he did not commit.  Then, Cooper decided to let Finch reunite with her grandparents.  Had the statute of limitations on his assault and kidnapping charges run out?  Finch was still not an adult.  Her grandparents still had legal custody.  How did Cooper avoid prison?  The grandparents just "forgiving" Cooper for keeping them from their granddaughter for 16 years makes no sense, especially the way they were characterized throughout the book.  Did poor Scotland get out of prison when Cooper and Finch rejoined the world, or had he already died?  I really have no idea why I am giving this book 4 stars, other than because I love the idea of grace, and the message that grace is a gift, not something you earn.

PS  The first time Cooper met Scotland, the author said Scotland was carrying an automatic AK-47.  You cannot legally buy automatic weapons in the US, so I don't know if the writer meant that Scotland had an illegal weapon, or if the author just does not understand the difference.  Referring to semi-automatic weapons as automatic is one of my pet peeves.

sophia n

wow idk what happened but i feel like i read a diff book than everyone else reviewing this because i did not love it. i didn't hate it either, but it was very mid, which at first after finishing i thought, well, still 3 stars ... but i can't really think of anything i liked about it actually. so. 2 stars. i feel kinda bad like clearly i missed something that everyone else seemed to get, but idk. 

i'm just going to say it, this was boring. i didn't really care all that much beyond just cursory interest for any of these characters. and i wouldn't call this a thriller or even a mystery. maybe a loose mystery, but any mystery elements are revealed pretty quickly, i kept waiting for more ... and there was none. if anything, this is literary fiction that uses a few mystery tropes, and i think if i'd known that going into it, my reading experience might have been very different. but expecting thrilling and mysterious elements made me also LOOK for it. and there was zero payoff. the ending made me annoyed lmao. also the setting didn't do much for me, i've read a lot spookier and better isolation-in-the-woods stories that were actually tension-filled at this point that this one was just like. okay, and? again just was so boring for me and i genuinely don't know if it was just my issue with mismatched expectations or if it was the book itself.

Jasmine

I initially requested this book because of all the high reviews, and that was probably one of the more intelligent things I’ve done this year. The desire to never put These Silent Woods down is weird because this story progresses somewhat slowly, but that doesn’t equate to a loss of interest like most other books would. The character building is phenomenal, and that allows for an insanely perfect ending. Just know that you’re probably going to need tissues for the last little bit of this book. 

This is a book that will tear down your belief in humanity and then build it back up stronger than it ever was before. I know I tend to be a little liberal with my stars (I’m always just going to be legitimately stoked to have the access/privilege to read), but this is one of those stories that will stick with you after. 

Thanks so very much to NetGalley, Minotaur Books/St. Martin’s Publishing, and Kimi Cunningham Grant for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Cheri McElroy

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book gutted me. Coop, Finch, and Scotland, living in the woods, grieving and growing, and learning about grace, will always have my heart.

Bonita

Akansha

We have our first disappointment of the year. I was so pissed off at this book that after finishing it I cleaned my room because I just needed something. 

This book is basically about a man who kidnaps his daughter and hides with her in the wood for 8years taking away her childhood and gaslights her into believing that he did it out of love because he was just not ready to accept that he needed help and he should take it and become the father a daughter deserves and legally fight for her custody and as if that was not enough in the end he let's an innocent man take the fall for him and move on with his life unbothered. In between all this he also meets a woman who instead of putting some sense into him says she understand what she did and also marries him in the end. And the daughter after growing up says I would have done the same. 

Also I went into this book thinking it's a thriller. The only thrill happens after 75% of the book with a girl who goes missing but I still don't understand why will the author introduce the element only to do nothing with the twist? 

lexie

I would have given this book 5 stars if it was defined as a contemporary fiction because I don’t believe it was a thriller. 

The whole story was very slow but the ending did make me cry which is why it gives me 4 stars. 

Aina &
These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

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These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant