The Forest of Missing Girls - Nichelle Giraldes

 

"Lia Gregg always hoped to outgrow her fear of the woods surrounding her childhood home. The dark, menacing trees have long been the site of whispered legends and disappearances of girls like her. But after a breakup sends her back to live with her family, the woods feel more sinister than ever. 

When a teenage girl disappears from their backyard, Lia's childhood fear becomes terrifyingly real. The missing girls are no longer just faces on the news. Now, the danger is closer than she imagined, and her younger sister could be next.

As Lia digs into the disappearances, she begins to suspect her mother knows more about the forest—and the horrors within—than she's letting on. To save her sister and uncover the truth, Lia must confront the secrets lurking in the trees and the darkness they conceal…before it's too late."

What Worked for Me:

Small town creepy history really sold this read to me from the beginning.  I absolutely love small town secrets - the more sinister, the better.  We get to meet a lot of characters as the town begins to search for the missing girl which I immediately tried figuring out who might be involved with the crime. Giraldes does a great job of building tension within the small town because it is more likely than not that someone near by knows what happened or was involved. We get some details about a few of the past disappearances including Lia's memories about the more recent ones.  However, I do wish we had gotten some more lore of the town and the disappearances in the past. 

I loved how the forest worked as its own character.  It was a constant foreboding presence that seemed to follow our characters wherever they went. It was interesting to see Lia's connection with the forest between her good memories of her childhood combined with the sinister feeling that the answer to the missing girls was out there. The other POV in the book also had a connection to the forest that was different than Lia's.  Again, an interesting contrast to the other views we get in the book.

The reveal about what happened to the missing girls really toed the line for me on if it worked or not.  When we first get some hints revealed, I thought for sure I was reading too much into it and that I must be misunderstanding.  But as we got more clarification and the implications of that information became clear, I really enjoyed the direction the book headed in. Giraldes did a great job of really holding the reader's hand the right amount where I felt like "this is weird, but I'm trusting this author knows what she's doing." I do think it won't work for some readers as it is an odd choice, but I really liked it.

What Didn't Work for Me:

I wanted more out of Lia's character.  She felt a little underdeveloped for me but in a way where it was a little like she was acting as a reader stand-in.  It felt like were were told a lot of things about her like her feelings about her mother and relationship with her ex but the way that information impacted her actions throughout the book just didn't quite come together for me.  I was much more interested in her sister as it was her best friend that was taken. 

I really wanted to learn more about the past disappearances and how the town handled (or didn't handle) them.  Despite the current missing girl, the other girls in the past almost seemed to be forgotten and I would have expected Lia's investigation to maybe look more into the past missing girls to try and find a link or pattern. 

Overall, this was a really great atmospheric read.  The small town creepy vibes were well woven throughout the book.  I do wish Lia was a little more developed and for us to get some more information about the past disappearances.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC.  Publication date was November 11, 2025.