The Ghost Woods by C.J. Cooke
In the midst of the woods stands a house called Lichen Hall. This place is shrouded in folklore - old stories of ghosts, of witches, of a child who was not quite a child. Now the woods are creeping closer, and something has been unleashed. Pearl Gorham arrives in 1965, one of a string of young women sent to Lichen Hall to give birth. And she soon suspects the proprietors are hiding something. Then she meets the mysterious mother and young boy who live in the grounds - and together they begin to unpick the secrets of this place. As the truth comes to the surface and the darkness moves in, Pearl must rethink everything she knew - and risk what she holds most dear.
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The Ghost Woods was such an atmospheric read and, having read Republic of Shame, this more mythological depiction of mother and baby homes was even more heartbreaking. This book does a great job of depicting feminism, loss of independence, the breaking of societal norms, and the exploration of love in all its forms. For a horror novel it managed to be both extremely relatable and realistic. Although this one wasn’t as exciting or as intricate as The Lighthouse Witches, I highly enjoyed the suspense and the folklore based horror elements. It wasn’t “thrilling” in the sense that I was at the edge of my seat, however it did shock and surprise me and I found it to be a very enjoyable read. If you’re looking for a good Scottish-based mythological thriller, look no further.
We follow the main narrative of two young women. Pearl, who shows up to Lichen Hall pregnant, disgraced from her family, and fired from her nursing job. She’s angry and ready to get this over with and return to her life. While she’s there, she meets the young women who arrived before her, all who have had their babies, yet none having left. And they’re keeping secrets from her, she can tell. Then we begin to jump back and forth to the past, to Mable’s point of view. Mable came to Lichen Hall 6 years previously, pregnant with no idea how it happened or who with. As her naivety shelters her from the horrors of the world and her current situation, she begins to fall into the dark grasp of Lichen Hall. Although she forms a tight-knit bond with the women there with her, there’s something dark haunting the woods around the hall, something that may end up destroying the careful life she’s built.
One thing I love about Cooke’s writing is the ties to the past. They bring in historical fiction elements into the story without dwelling too much in the past. Yet the ties between the women of the past and the women now show just how deep the connection to those who have lived previously goes. I also think the jumping timelines helps keep the pacing of the book really well balanced. The folklore elements were my favourite part, however. I love a good mythology and Scottish folklore is some of the most dark and beautifully haunting and tying that into a horror novel made for such a great fantasy-based thriller. Witches and faeries, curses and creatures. The way they’re wrapped up in this story makes it all seem almost part of our real world, something that could truly happen.
The relationships between the women in this story is what made it really fantastic. They’re tied together not only through the shared horror of their treatment in this mother and baby home, having their children sold away from them, but from complete and total isolation from the outside world. When they have no one but each other, they do a great job of forming this miniature society of support and love. As we are introduced to the little boy who lives on the grounds, we get a deeper look into the fate of the children born in this place, and the difference that a supportive network can make on motherhood. They say it takes a village, and this book depicted that perfectly.
This book was beautiful and sad in the most interesting of ways and I think paid a great homage to the women in real life that have experienced horrors in some form or another at the mother and baby homes peppered across the world. I did give it 4 stars, however, just because the ending was a little rushed in my personal opinion. I did love how it all ended up and it fixed the “too perfect” problem from Cooke’s last books ending for me, I just think it could have taken a bit more time to get there. This is a great book if horror/mythology is something you enjoy!