The Boy from the Woods
By Harlan Coben
Grand Central Publishing, 9781538748145, March 2020, 384pp.

The Short of It:

Eagerly anticipated this one but it just didn’t work for me.

The Rest of It:

The Boy from the Woods is the first Coben book I’ve read and as you probably know, he has many. I was curious about his books after watching and enjoying several Netflix shows based on his books. I mean, I could not get enough of them so when I realized he had so many books available, I decided to try his new one.

The story centers around Wilde, a boy who was literally found in the woods many years ago. As an adult, he’s close to Hester, an abrasive but witty lawyer who also happens to be a popular TV personality. Wilde was a good friend of Hester’s son who died in a car accident so he is more like family than an old friend.

In this story, a girl goes missing. Her classmate is worried about her and since that classmate is Hester’s grandson, she becomes involved as does Wilde, who is kind of a rogue detective of sorts. There is a lot of back and forth about the girl who is missing and then another classmate goes missing. What is going on here? Are the two cases related?

This was a disappointing read for me. The characters are one-dimensional but my main issue was the dialogue. It was so stilted and unnatural. You say this, I say this. You say this, I say this. Plus, the plot was so ridiculous. Before the big reveal, I almost gave up on it because I just didn’t care what happened to any of them.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this one. I heard good things about it so maybe those readers are die hard fans because I tried to enjoy it and was so looking forward to it but it was choppy and just not good in my opinion.

Source: Borrowed
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