Reviewed by Dennis

TITLE: Silent Woods

AUTHOR: Ofelia Gränd

PUBLISHER: Beaten Track Publishing

LENGTH: 57 pages

BLURB:

When Daniel’s husband Anders takes the family camping in the woods, Daniel can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right.  He almost dismisses his fears as nothing more than his dislike of the great outdoors, but when the couple’s five-year-old son Axel goes missing, his worst fears are confirmed.  A search party reveals something more sinister than either man could ever have dreamed of encountering in the woods. Can they find Axel and save him before it’s too late?

REVIEW:

Daniel has never been an out-doorsy kind of guy, even the park is too much nature for him, but his husband Anders loves everything nature. So when Anders decided to take Daniel and their two kids, 5 year old Axel and 3 year old Maja camping for a couple days, Daniel was non to excited, but to make his husband as well as their two kids happy he went along with it. As soon as they arrived Daniel couldn’t hide his nervousness and of course what kind of loving husband would Anders be if he didn’t give him a little teasing about it.

While walking the trail to where Anders had already mapped out where they were going to stay for the night, Daniel thought it was awfully quiet and already being on edge didn’t help his nerves that the woods were so quiet. Reaching the campsite and pitching the tent they got themselves ready for a long day and night ahead of them.

The next day while hiking Daniel went ahead with Maja while Anders had stayed back with Axel but when Anders finally caught up with Daniel; Axel was nowhere to be found. Daniel asked where he was and Anders said that Axel had run ahead to catch up to Daniel but Axel never got there. Anders being the calm one of the two tried not to panic and retrace his steps to see if he could find Axel, but when he returned to Daniel, Axel was still missing. Not knowing what else to do they called the police, only to find out a secret that the forest is keeping; people being drowned in a nearby lake by some known as “The Neck”. The Neck calls his victims with the beautiful music he plays on his violin. Has Axel been taken by The Neck, and if so can Daniel, Anders, and the police get to him in time to save him?

Silent Woods would make a great summer camp story to be told over a camp fire and one that would make me look out over a lake before going for a swim. Ofelia Gränd has a great suspense story that makes you laugh while at the same time keeping your mind on edge. The banter and love between Daniel and Anders is just cute and Axel and Maja are just too adorable. The way Ofelia has written what is going on makes you feel like you’re in the forest along with the four main characters. When Daniel realizes how quiet the woods should not be, you can feel the eeriness Daniel is feeling and feel how loud the silence must be.

The silence only gets worse when they discover that Axel has disappeared and the fear you know Daniel and Anders are feeling only amplifies the deafening silence. Go get Ofelia Gränd’s Silent Wood to find out if the silence ever goes away.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Beaten Track Publishing

Amazon

ARe