I am so excited to be coming at you with a review of Dread Wood by Jennifer Killick for The Ultimate Blog Tour hosted by The Write Reads, in association with the book's publisher, Farshore.
Dread Wood is a middle grade thriller novel following a group of four twelve year olds during their Saturday detention. But when they find one of their school's resident pigs to be missing, things start going downhill, landing in a pit full of horrific discoveries. As they try to look for the pig, the teacher supervising their detention goes missing, and the young students realise that something incredibly wrong is going on...
I have to say, as soon as I first read the synopsis, the book gave me major One of Us is Lying vibes. Karen M. McManus is one of my favourite authors, and so that instantly pulled me in, and I knew I had to sign up for the blog tour. For the most part, I wasn't disappointed. Killick has managed to write really great characters; the kids are funny, witty, and pretty much act like I would imagine pre-teens to in 2022. The atmosphere is also nicely done, as I feel like the descriptions would definitely manage to spook a younger reader.
Something else I really enjoyed was that the book actually quite informational when it comes to animals, but not in an in-your-face kind of way. I learned some interesting things about spiders, for instance, and I found that pretty cool.
My one qualm with this book is that it felt a bit too much like I was reading One of Us is Lying at first, with the Breakfast Club vibe of it all. I realise that that's the nature of the trope at this point, but it kept me from fully enjoying the story at the beginning. The story and characters definitely come into their own later on, though, so I can't hold it against the book too much!
Overall, I did enjoy the read, and I'm grateful that I got the opportunity to review it. Make sure to check out all the other reviews that are a part of this tour!
Casey