Book Review of These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant
We are so excited to share our These Silent Woods book review! We heard a lot of hype for this mesmerizing novel of suspense and are always on the hunt for a good thriller book. Kimi Cunningham Grant’s These Silent Woods did not disappoint.
This is a thriller book blog post featuring These Silent Woods book review and discussion, plus book recommendations for other similar thriller books we think you might enjoy.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links which, if purchased from, may result in a small commission, at no cost to the buyer.
Slowprose Review Format
Generally speaking, we don’t think of ourselves as “serious” reviewers, so our format may be a little different. Here is what to expect when you are reading Slowprose book reviews:
- Cover Review – doing the cliche of judging a book by its cover.
- Book Blurb – we share the book jacket or Goodreads blurb about the plot.
- Intrusive Thoughts – these are the general thoughts and feelings we have about the book while reading it.
- Book review – our overall review and star ranking of the book
- Book aesthetics – this is how gorgeous we thought the pages of the book were, or how easy/hard it was to read, or how good the narrator was if it is an audio book.
- Book recommendations – we talk about the author’s other books or other books that remind us of this book in some form or fashion. Basically, this is our catch-all to talk about anything else that we want to.
To see our full review system, including our method of assigning and weighting stars, go here.
COVER REVIEW – These Silent Woods
This fantastic picture of the outstanding thriller book These Silent Woods was taken by Joanna over at @bamabookgal and is used here with her permission! Go check out her engaging and inviting Instagram – you will be glad you did!
These Silent Woods gets 3.5 stars for this cover.
In terms of thriller books, covers featuring woodland scenes are pretty common. We like the context this one gives, with a long look of the woods in the remote Appalachian mountains with the cabin tucked in the corner. It does give a little different perspective than those with a close up of the woods.
In terms of creating interest , it does a pretty decent job. If we were to be strolling by in the library or book store, it might catch our eye and want us to pick it up to read the blurb.
After reading the book, our rating didn’t change but we do like the cover because it does give a visual that goes with the story. Decent cover!
BOOK BLURB – These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant
Given our extreme irrational fear of ever being a spoiler of an epic plot twist, we will just share the book insert or book blurb found on Goodreads to provide the information in terms of the plot:
These Silent Woods
No electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world. For eight years, secretive army vet Cooper and his young daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. And that’s exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he’s got a lot to hide.
Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin’s shelves and the beautiful but brutal code of life in the remote setting of the Appalachian wilderness. But as an eight-year-old daughter she’s starting to push back against the sheltered life Cooper has created for her—and he’s still haunted by the painful truth of what it took to get them there.
The only people who know they exist are a mysterious local hermit named Scotland, and Cooper’s old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them food and supplies. But this year, Jake doesn’t show up, setting off an irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation really is.
Suddenly, the boundaries of their safe haven have blurred—and when a mysterious stranger wanders into their woods, Finch’s growing obsession with her could put them all in danger. After a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding—or finally face the sins of his past.
INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS – These Silent Woods
Bronson Pinchot is the audiobook narrator – didn’t sound like we expected, but was pleasantly surprised.
Doesn’t start off with a bang, but more of a slow build up
Scotland – good or bad?
Cooper – good or bad?
Such a building undercurrent of quiet tension.
Most stressful Walmart run ever.
Ok honestly, can’t blame him.
Did she see them?
Dammit Marie.
Ugh at calling him Daddy
Wait, what?
SCOTLAND OMG
THESE SILENT WOODS BOOK REVIEW
Slowprose Star Rating – 4.0 Stars
“The thing about grace is that you don’t deserve it, you can’t earn it, you can only accept it. Or not.”
We have found that an outstanding thriller book usually falls into one of two categories:
- Thriller books that are wild rides with heart-pounding suspense that make you hang on for dear life and have an absolute blast in the process.
- Thriller books that are more of a slow burn that seep into your bones and stay there, elevating the book to something more meaningful and significant.
Both are great in their own right, just different.
These Silent Woods is the latter of these two.
This is not a thrill a minute, can barely catch your breath type of thriller. This is the unfolding of a story told in a quiet way by the main protagonist, Cooper. It uncovers layers and secrets in a beautifully rendered tale of guilt that helps you understand why the circumstances are the way they are and makes you start to feel for these main characters.
There are suspicious nuanced characters and tense situations that leave it solidly in the thriller book category, so it is captivating to read, and although it is a bit slow at times, particularly in the beginning, it does continue to hold the reader’s interest.
For the slow portions in the beginning, it is absolutely, unequivocally made up for by the ending.
There is something magical and completely satisfying about a book that has a great ending, and, make no mistake about it, These Silent Woods has a really great ending. It was completely unexpected, and it absolutely hits you right in the feels. So so so good.
These Silent Woods got a 4 star rating from us immediately upon finishing the book, but we continue to think about it, and it might get bumped up to a 4.5.
This is one of the best thriller books we have read in a while, as it pertains to thriller books that fall into the 2nd category mentioned above. Highly recommend!
Slowprose Star Rating – 4.0 Stars
BOOK AESTHETICS – THESE SILENT WOODS
We listened to this audiobook and really enjoyed it in this format. If it didn’t say on the cover that it was read by Bronson Pinchot, we would never have realized it was him. He did a good job narrating this book, and we actually think of his voice when we think of Cooper.
Grant’s evocative prose was so good here, that the more tension filled scenes had us holding our breath even with an understated narration, which is a hallmark sign of a great work of suspense.
Sometimes we recommend (beg, plead!) for people to listen to a book because the audiobook is so amazing (see – Butcher & Blackbird) and other times we immediately turn off an audiobook because we can’t stand the narrator or we think the book experience will be better if we read it.
In this case, we think this book could be enjoyed either way. If we would have read it, we would have loved it. Listening to it, we loved it.
Slowprose Feature – Book Content Creator
Typically we have two books going at once – one audio and one physical.
Most of the time, when we listen to an audiobook we don’t have a physical copy of the book to take pictures of. We love to feature pictures of the book because, well, we are nerdy like that. We love book pics!
So, we figured that reviews of audio books would be a great opportunity to feature other content creators and their incredible book pictures!
In this post, you have seen the incredible picture from Joanna over at @bamabookgal featured. Please do go visit her beautiful feed and support fellow book nerds and creators!
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
This is the first book from Kimi Cunningham Grant that we have read, and after seeing her ability to create enduringly memorable characters, we looked to see if she had other books published.
This is actually her third novel. She is also the author of Fallen Mountains and Silver Like Dust, garnering rave reviews by Publishers Weekly, & Kirkus reviews, among others.
We had no idea until we started working on this review that Kimi Cunningham Grant has a new book coming out June 18, 2024! Super exciting!
As you can tell from our These Silent Woods book review, we will certainly be adding it to our TBR and look forward to it being our next read when it is released. The book is called The Nature of Disappearing.
This cover certainly seems similar to These Silent Woods – wondering if the story is continuing or is a different story/different characters? (We typically don’t like to read blurbs because we like to go into a book blind). Regardless, we get the feeling it will be another poignant story of survival.
Until that book is released, we wanted to give you a book recommendation as something we think you will enjoy if you liked These Silent Woods.
Lisa Jewell writes really good thriller books, and we would recommend you look at any of her titles.
If you want a thriller that really hits an emotional note, we recommend Then She Was Gone. This book stayed with us long after we were done reading it, much like These Silent Woods.
You can find all these and more in our storefront, Slowestuff Books From The Blog storefront.
We hope you enjoyed our unconventional These Silent Woods book review! It was definitely exciting to learn that this author has a new book coming out in 2024. Looking forward to reading that one, given how much we loved These Silent Woods.
If you want more book posts, check out the Slowprose section of the blog where we have more book reviews, book lists, favorite authors and more.
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Happy reading!
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