The Women in the Woods

by S.Q. McGrath

When Minn Bellamy and her teenaged son decide to spend their spring hiking the Blue Ridge Mountains, the last thing they expect is to stumble across a town so isolated it seems as if the supernatural has taken them back in time. Warm welcomes quickly turn ominous as mysterious circumstances force them to stay and the strangers' traditions become increasingly sinister. The townsfolk have ulterior motives, Minn's past is about to catch up with her, and the aims of the forces in the surrounding forest are far from friendly.

Genres: Horror, Novels

276 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 3, 2023

About the author

I've been writing for well over twenty years and have made quite a journey, beginning with middle grade realistic fiction, moving into young adult fantasy and science fiction, and finally settling into adult horror and thriller. My works are inspired by folklore, mythology, the macabre, obscure monsters, and the secrets and sensations that bring us shame and discomfort.
I have great confidence in my ability to craft a well-written, entertaining, fast-paced read and am always working on my next novel, producing (at present) about two a year. I write almost everything with a setting in our world and invite mystery, horror, and magic to intersect with it.
I'm so very excited to share my dark imaginings with you.

Reviews

[Kate Victoria RescueandReading]

“Time once was when a dead man stayed dead, when what was buried stayed buried, when the shadow of what is reliably became the shadow of what once was. But the days grow dark, now , and the night is short.”

This was a deep, deep story, full of complicated grief and emotions; a study on the bonds that bind us (blood or otherwise). An excellent, creeping horror chronicle that has so many layers.

Our main character is, at times an unreliable narrator; Minn states her memory is imperfect, she battles delirium, and sees events unfolding through intoxicants. Despite my lack of fondness for these types of narrators, the author manages to tie everything together as we progress into the story; the reader is does get answers to burning questions that come up in the narrative. Minn did frustrate me, but that’s mainly because of the type of person she was; a well written character, but I don’t think we’d be friends in real life.

The writing is beautiful, poetic (especially the short sections by “The Woman in the Woods”), and full of flowing prose. As a reader, I felt like I was there on this journey with Minn, present one moment, and in a wild fever dream the next. These shifting scenes from lucid to hallucinogenic just works in this folkloric story, in a way that many authors don’t grasp. I was always immersed in the story.

“Minn saw that many of the crowd members held black snakes in their hands. The men held the reptiles like limp rope at their sides as they hopped up and down and others, mostly women, lifted the sinuous things above their heads and dangled them over their mouths or eyes or necks, allowed  them to slip down their arms.”

Of note, the world building in this tale is phenomenal; there are pieces of Germanic (possibly Dutch) folklore and traditions spliced into the culture of this isolated village in the modern day American Blue Ridge Mountains. You could see how Minn or any other traveller that stumbled upon this sect would think they fell back in time. The people definitely gave off a creepy vibe, despite their outwardly good intentions.

This was an excellent read for fans of Adam Nevill’s “The Ritual”, or the movie “Midsommar”. If you enjoy a character driven fiction with thrilling elements than you’ll definitely want to grab this book!

[Happy Goat]

Full review at Happy Goat Horror:
https://happygoathorror.com/2024/06/1...

I am sincerely shocked that there are so few reviews of this book online. It is EXCELLENT.

I think fans of things like Midsommer, in particular, would absolutely love this as much as I do. The narrative style was engaging (we alternate between past and present) because it took a long while to start figuring out why this particular part of the protagonist's past was being linked in to the current situation. There were some shocking revelations, some that I suspected, some that I absolutely did not. It's a seemingly quiet horror that builds so expertly, raising the dread substantially as it goes along, until it becomes this balls out shock-fest that made me want to cry but also applaud at the same time for how bloody brilliant it is.

[Kayleigh Dobbs]

Frankly, it should be considered some sort of crime that this book doesn't have an enormous readership. It's hands down one of the best horror novels I've read this year.

[Paul John Nelson]

Insanity

S.Q. McGrath’s novel, The Woman In The Woods, begins like digging a hole on a sunny day with an old spade. The metal is loose at the wooden handle. Clangs with each earth stab. Pages pass. The mound heightens with every fling of dirt. Casts a shadow. Chapters dig deeper and deeper until the cold, tenebrous realization comes. The hole is a grave.

This is a marvellously grim tale of a woman who goes through hell in two timeframes. Like McGrath’s novel, Darkheart, it takes place in the past and the present. And also, the traumatic past of the past.

I don’t want to tell of spoilers so I’ll just say, when this story makes its turn for the worst, it’s like the spade stabbing into the flesh of your mind. Falling. Breathing the dirt as it piles upon your face. The ending is killer!

[SugarC]

This here was such a wild ride. Alternating between a past and present tense of a delusional and intense fever dream state! I was gripped by such detail to how the MC was feeling along with the surroundings, felt like I was a fly on the wall watching it unfold. Also the way the description of the characters was painted i could picture them as if they were directly infront of me. The entire time I kept thinking of "Midsommer" and couldn't get it out of my head.

[Bethany]

Goodness, what a rollercoaster!

Minn just wants to get away with her son, Peter. After getting lost in the mountains / forest, they stumble across an isolated village. At first, it seems okay. Welcoming almost. But that quickly changes. Something sinister is happening and not only is Minn dealing with this... she's facing the memories of some weird stuff that happened last year.

Told in present day (Minn and her son hiking) and then in the past (a year ago where we learn about Minn as an art teacher and a troubled student she meets) this book is a roller-coaster. Truly.

'The Village meets The Wicker Man' this book genuinely put me on edge. I was unsettled. I was uncomfortable. The isolation of Minn and her son being with these people made me feel claustrophobic, as if it was me stuck in this location. The scary idea of this isolated, lost in time town, is only heightened by the fact someone, or something, supernatural, seems to be in the forest... blocking any kind of safe escape.

I was obsessed with what was going on, and then the book took us back a year ago, and I was obsessed with what was going on then too! It was impossible to put down being so invested in both these timelines. The characters were odd: do I like them or not? Alright they have my sympathy and then wait, what? What is going on?!
And then everything kind of changes... secrets are revealed and the only thing that seems to be among us is the truth. It's not so pretty. And it's rather shocking! This book had two plot twists that I did not see coming. The author did such an amazing job. So clever!!

This book is hard to discuss without risking spoilers and trust me, you don't want it spoiled!! If you like horror, all things weird and not so wonderful, then this is for you. This book is intense. Haunting. Eerie. It'll get inside you head. It'll freak you out on your next hike. It'll make you not want to trust anyone. You might cry, or throw up, but it's so worth this daunting read. Again, if you like horror, this will be the read for you.

I'm thrilled to have found another awesome indie horror author! 🖤 Thanks for scaring me! 😂

[Ziggy Nixon]

Life begins in pain; life ends in pain.

Even after waking up this morning from a deeply disturbed sleep, where I tried to recount and make sense of the last several pages of S.Q. McGrath's "The Women in the Woods", I was no less clear on the several story-lines this book had presented, or better said, tried to tie up at the end. Or, as I found myself still asking after re-reading the last twenty pages or so, had it all happened or even really, truly ended? Bluntly put, for a story - and an incredible and stylishly presented one at that - that had so much going on, my only lasting thought will remain : was ANY of that real?

The madness drives out the weak.

Now I apologize on two counts already in this review, both for seeming to be incredibly vague about some issues as well as perhaps veering dangerously into spoiler territory. I will say this right off the bat: if you belong to a bookclub of like-minded individuals, this would be a good read to test your group's mettle and ability to tackle what I can only refer to as a distinctly hallucinogenic tale that covers different pairings, different timeframes, and what appears to ultimately be a distinctly sick individual that accompanies us on this journey. A journey mind you that I again want to underline may have taken place or may just be the imaginings of someone who may or may not have been suffering from deep grieving and/or a level of psychosis I can only guess to its true extremes. Or it may just test your group's tendencies towards violence as I can see this being a contentious selection to say the least.

The limbo seemed almost less bearable than a horrible, straightforward explanation.

On one hand, McGrath does create what at first seems to be a very believable if not somewhat unusual set of scenarios. If we ignore for a moment the folklorical and fantasy-esque thoughts of "the woman in the woods", our protagonist Minn, short for Minnow (yes, she was named by hippies) seems to be a rather plain woman, working as an art teacher at the local high school. By all indications, she seems to have a good head on her shoulders and lives a moderately comfortable life with her teenage son, Peter, and their cat, um, oh yeah, Beetle. Please know up front that nothing untowards happens to Beetle except for causing another of our cast to have a severe allergic reaction. So that is the least of your potential psychological worries that could occur by reading this book.

The atmosphere around her … had morphed into surreal, delusory dreamscapes, strange and unreliable.

Along the way though, cracks begin to appear in Minn's basic existence if you will. She is quite close to her twin brother, Wolf, who lives nearby and essentially acts as Minn's conscience in many ways. From the get-go, Wolf's rather brusque and even over-bearing nature struck me as suspicious… but hey, for two kids that were essentially left to fend for themselves as youngsters as their parents (whoever they were) and/or the others in their commune didn't really give a damn (or weren't sober enough to know the difference) about them, they turned out okay. But a lot of folks, not just Wolf, are really worried about Minn even from the beginning, though we aren't sure why despite all the hinting and even concerns expressed. OK, her son Peter seems to have moved out to go live with his Uncle after a bit of a dust-up with his single Mom (another unknown parental unit being his dad, or perhaps better said, donor…), but hey, for us kids of divorce in the 70s, it's all rather tame. Or is it?

I miss the liquid of your insides and the soft leather of your flesh.

But parallel to Minn's school life - she's an art teacher by the way and probably has the same attitude about same as many of us reading this do (i.e. nice life if you can get it and make enough of a salary to, well, eat) - she's gone on a hike outside Asheville, NC with her son … all the while noting we also get glimpses to the recent past when she is eventually stalked, kidnapped, and then charmed by another, somewhat odd and mysterious student who just happens to be a multiple foster home reject. And a suspect in a recent satanically-themed murder. So yeah, our brains are being divided throughout like goo on a slab (I was horrible at dissection in biology classes) while we juggle all this in our heads.

The trunks spun like the bodies of long caterpillars from the earth to the sky,

I should note as well that I couldn't help but feel some kinship throughout as I, too, have been "lost" on a hiking trip outside of Asheville, even though technically my father and I only managed to find the "old trails" (the markers having grown with the trees and I looked "too high" according to the ranger). No worries, we at least made it back after our night in an "enchanted" round clearing with about 50 deer around us none to pleased with our presence … but thank goodness for the paper mill(s) near Asheville, nothing you could be blind and eventually make it back to "civilization" by following your nose!

We are the strength and the beauty and the life.

Then things get weirder and weirder and weirder (we're back to the book now, no more paper mill comments, I promise). While Minn and her son are hiking, they stumble across a community of free-living and - based on our own societal norms - very odd community that embraces not only a matriarchal system of "governance" (as do I, having seen the last 60+ years how poorly the patriarchy has done) but has some rather unusual sexual norms as well. Yeah, yeah, not going to get into those and trust me, if you're looking for sexy sexy times from same, um, no. It all fits into the story-line but it's nothing that will clarify anything in terms of what is really happening around us. Neither will the ghosts (are they?), the ceremonies or any of the other activities (again, see my comments about any of this happening) taken solely on their own provide even a smidgeon of revelation, at least not in a picture that resembles anything more than the views in a fog-shrouded forest might. And trust me: the Great Smoky Mountains are called that for a reason!

The clouds descended from the firmament, masked the faithful, obscured the land.

Things do get some clarification as we go along, which naturally if I mentioned any of them here, would spoil the hell out of things. So just brace yourselves and maybe read the last quarter of this book when you've got enough coffee in you to have your heart-rate already sped up to full consciousness levels. Again, I truly and honestly got up this morning and re-read some bits, because even if there is a discovery at the end by what I assume were very real and very tangible emergency personnel, that discovery did not include any other parts of the final sequence of events which I would have thought would have at least led these folks to utter a few "holy scheisses" or something similar. I mean, the fact that they didn't find the, um, special "Osterna" sculptures nor a meeting hall full of… meeting hall stuff just had my brain shutting down and me smiling the kind of smile Jonathan Pryce had on his face at the end of the movie "Brazil". I'm just so happy here in my little world…

The web of disquietude woven by fear winds its quivering threads through tree and fern.

And that wouldn't be so bad but my wife took the day off work and keeps poking me to see if I'm okay or not. Needless to say though, this is yet another incredibly well-imagined and nigh perfectly executed book by SQM. The prose is outstanding and, again, almost poetic in its beautiful rendering. Not as truly terrifying as "Strings" but certainly an immense pleasure to read and so, so very mysterious! There's nothing left to it except to say I can't wait to knock out a couple more offers from her catalogue! So if you see me sitting peacefully on a park bench smiling the smile of a content madman, well, you'll know what I've been up to.

[Stephanie]

This is my first read of S.Q. McGrath's work but I doubt it will be my last. I came to this book as a folk horror fan, feeling there were elements in it which would appeal to me - and there are: a cult, woods, isolation, strangers, all the expected elements of the folk horror chain.

The mysterious start to each chapter from the 'woman in the woods' really sets the tone, with its almost otherworldly language, and is an original means of weaving in a story thread, hinting at what lies within the woods even when part of the story might be taking place in an urban setting.

Human relationships are explored and I think, the realisation at the end, the discovery of the true relationship between Minn and Peter is a truly powerful twist, something which drives you to examine the nature of grief and what it can do to a person, particularly the love of a mother for her child.

It is also interesting how I initially regarded Minn as an unreliable narrator, with her twin, Wolf, being the 'solid' element in the story. Again, the rug was pulled from under my feet as past and present combined and the tale reached its climax. Every perception you build up of each of these characters is in some way picked apart, in a very clever manner.

The only reason this did not reach the full 5* was because I felt the cult aspect needed a bit more explanation.

[Adrielle Reina]

I’ll do my best not to spoil anything in my review.

This book is if Midsommar and Shutter Island had a gruesome baby. The payoff is fantastic, especially if you enjoy slowburn folk horror. But you have to be patient and let everything unfold (and trust me, it does).

Character driven horror can be difficult to pull off, but this is Sarah’s wheelhouse. You will always love and hate her characters, and The Women in the Woods is no exception. To build a world of terror the way she does is hard, especially when needing to keep pacing for a horror novel. This is where readers will truly see how much Sarah’s storytelling shines.

And while this book is a work of horror, it’s also a tale of grief, and how that can transform us in ways where we don’t recognize ourselves or our surroundings anymore. I would even say that the Drink of Dreams mirrors the absolute zombie-fied state we find ourselves in when we go through trauma.

The issue then, isn’t so much cults, but how horror is reflected from ourselves and our innermost thoughts. How memory can be affected by experience and want and tragedy. Horror holds up a mirror to who we are, and isn’t that the most blood chilling thing we can do? Be honest with ourselves.

Fantastic book.

[Summer R Jones]

Thank you to the author and the publisher or publishers for all your hard work! I'm leaving this review voluntarily and happily! Take a look!

This book was definitely weird and unsettling. I definitely said wtf by the end of it all. This in not about witches or entities, so if that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere, but it certainly does deal with some strange women living in the woods and their ways of life. There is not dealt with trauma in here, and it goes back and forth between timeliness, so it might be a little confusing to some, but otherwise, it's really good. I enjoyed the darkness in this book and not only that but just not knowing what was going to happen next.

Going Hiking in the mountains sounds wonderful dosent it... but what if you get lost? And what's if you end up finding this strange village run by women? And what's if there is something far more sinister at work than a warm welcome and a smile? Something isn't right here, and Minn is going to find out how wrong things are soon enough.

This, amongst other things, makes me wonder why people go hiking. I wouldn't want to get lost, and something happened to me. Just makes me shudder thinking about it all. Just makes me realize it truly is hard to trust anyone out there.

[Sarah Ferguson]

Thank you to the author for sending me a copy to read and review 🫶

I really enjoyed reading this. The pacing was great, I enjoy a slower burn that ramps up a few notches every so often with an explosive end.

We follow Minn, her son Peter and her brother Wolf through 2 separate timelines. During a hike, Minn and her son get lost in the woods and stumble upon a village where they seek shelter for the night. The second timeline is from a year prior where Minn is starting to feel uncomfortable about an unusual student paying her a lot of attention. Each story really grabbed my attention from the start and kept me guessing where things were leading to.

The present day storyline was very folk horror. The villagers leave an unnerving feeling and questioning their intentions. They have very unusual rituals and general way of living which is unsettling.

Things got to a level of questioning reality for Minn, I really felt her grief throughout the story which was interesting to read as we learn of how unaccepting she was to her reality and I could really feel her desperation at points.

Although this was folklore horror and there were some real uncomfortable parts, I really appreciated the level of trauma and varying levels of grief, which is that different take on horror.

[BookReviewMystic | Tabitha S.]

Where are my horror fans at because you all are going to want to read this! When I say this book was crazy, I mean it. The author did a great job “dangling the carrot” until just the right time, then drops one WTF moment right after the next.

The story is told in two timelines; one from a year previous + one from the present. They switch back and forth but weave together perfectly at the end. This reminded me so much of the movie Midsommer but was WAY more unhinged. It is heavy on the TW/CW but they are not listed in the book or on the author's site.

[Veronica Hooper]

Why am I not seeing more of this book around social media platforms?!? This book is amazing!! It is one of the best horror books I have read in a LONG TIME!! If I could give more than 5 stars, I would!! Definitely recommend!!

[anna petersen]

3.5

kind of freaked out that my high school english teacher wrote this nightmare fuel. the story connected well and i literally gasped when i figured it out, but this book was big time messed up. checked all the fucked-up boxes.

[Meridith Brankamp]

By far my favorite book I’ve read by an independent author! I was blown away by the vivid writing, twisty storytelling, and perfect thriller pace. Perfect spooky season read. Thank you S.Q.!!!

[Sarah Kelderman]

Wow

Well-written, chilling novel, with a twist at the end. It definitely had me surprised. Highly recommend worth a read. No regrets.

[Wayne Neylan]

Went in blind with this one just from recommendations. Was great read and good twists

[Collette]

Saw all the plot surprises a mile off and just wasn't for me

[Daniel Gower]

This was written, with a heady folk horror atmosphere. I just never felt completely engrossed in the tale.