I was given the opportunity to beta read “The Forest,” by Michaelbrent Collings (one of Amazon’s best sellers in horror).

It’s a horror set in a forest, so you can bet there are chase scenes through the woods from monsters (of human, nature, and unnatural sort). There are also twists that boggle the mind. The big twist I saw coming was only a small part of the revelation. (One concept mentioned through the book is about people who are smart enough to know how dumb they are. Yeah, I was the dumb kind of smart where I thought I knew everything, but I actually knew very little).

This book is definitely the type that you want to read again. I’ve only read it once as I write this review, so I’m still mulling it around and around my head because… circles are a thing.

Funny enough, “The Forest” is a fairly clean horror. It has almost no sexuality; a teenage boy likes to look at his girl friend. That’s not graphic, that’s natural. There’s a make-out session with very little details, and the married couple only talks about their struggle with romance after the loss of their child.
There’s also very limited swearing. There are a few references for h*ll, but this book would be PG… if not for the gore and psychological scares.
Yeah, it’s a horror, so every chapter has something frightening about it, whether it’s one of the multiple gruesome deaths, almost death chases, or terror caused by the unknown.

I bounced back and forth between 4-5 stars because as much as the revelation tied up loose ends, there were still plot holes about the forest itself. But let’s face it; things get messy whenever you mess with time. Considering all the twists and different happenings all at the same time, it’s written well enough to earn 4.5 stars.

This book will be available on Amazon on Aug. 18th.

PS. If you scare easily, I don’t recommend reading this while camping… or in the fog… or during a night-time lightning storm (which was my personal experience).