What the Woods Took

Cover depicting the five teens with the main protagonist, Devin, highlighted. The cover was designed by Kerri Resnick and illustrated by Peter Strain (Macmillan Publishers).

Title: What the Woods Took

Author: Courtney Gould

ISBN: 9781250340672

Publisher: Wednesday Books of Macmillan Publishers

Genre: Horror, Thriller, Mystery, LGBTQ+, Paranormal

Format: Book

Interest Level: 13-18 (Macmillan Publishers, n.d.).

Plot Summary

The woods are deep and dark and hold the answer to properly dealing with unruly teens. When you’re forced to survive, you don’t have time to be devious and make trouble for the adults around you. That’s why there’s wilderness therapy. However, on this trip, the five teens don’t just experience the typical trauma of being betrayed by their guardians, kidnapped, and forced to live in the forest. There’s something in these woods that no one is prepared for, and now they have to survive fifty days with whatever else is living in the depths of the trees.

Author Background

Known for her queer horror stories, Courtney Gould is a writer from the Pacific Northwest, currently living in Salem, Massachusetts. Her protagonists tend to be girls, and she likes to write about small towns and haunted locations. She has written three novels: The Dead and the Dark, Where Echoes Die, and What the Woods Took. (Gould, n.d.). Gould has also been blessed with some of the most beautiful cover art for her books.

Photo of Courtney Gould taken by Bekah Corral (Gould, n.d.).

Critical Evaluation

Courtney Gould crafts such a beautiful narrative in What the Woods Took. Beyond making the woods feel tangible and the teen’s journey feel believable, her character work is where she absolutely shines. The five teens are all so distinct and real that I could tell how each would react to each consecutive argument, hurdle, and terror in the night. But the crowning jewels of this work were the monsters she created. Unfortunately, I cannot discuss them without providing major spoilers. They’re supposed to be a mystery for the majority of the narrative, so I am giving a warning before you choose to read further. I will also make the text slightly lighter so you won’t accidentally read information you don’t want to know. Skip to the next colored section until you’ve read the book.

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO READ THE BOOK. I WILL BE DISCUSSING THE MECHANICS OF THE MONSTERS

I loved the mimics. I am always deeply fascinated by the question of the Ship of Theseus, particularly when it relates to memory. If a person is only their memories, then if an exact copy of a person is made with all of the exact same memories, is that the same person? The mimics present this dilemma in such a fascinating way, particularly since Hannah was a mimic for most of their trip, so the group knew and interacted with the Mimic Hannah for longer than the original one. While the dilemma was presented in a terrifying way, since the victim of a mimic is devoured in the process, it adds to the complexity of the situation, making both the characters' reactions and the problems that arise even more compelling.

The mimics also act as a wonderful tool for each of these teens to face their fears and grow from them. At first, the mimics always take the form of the person that a character fears the most or has caused the most problems for them. While the creature’s goal is to emotionally destroy their victim into not wanting to live, it ironically caused most of the teens to confront their worst nightmares and develop a new strength and resiliency; ironically, this horrible experience used a great therapy technique. Mimic Hannah also describes that mimics see humans as a tapestry of all the people they’ve interacted with, the good, the bad, and everyone in between. It’s such a beautiful way to express how our social connections create who we are, how we react, and who we could be. It makes me wonder who my mimic would turn into to lull me into such a deep depressive complacency. Who has made me who I am from the most conflict and confrontation? These monsters are brilliant in that what makes them terrifying also makes them compelling. Gould should be proud of what she’s created.

A particularly beautiful passage that I loved:

“The sky, at first ripe with fiery red and streaks of marigold, finally begins to purple. Back home, this was the type of night Devin only knew by the way headlights shone brighter against the dying light. Out here, though, every hour is distinct. Every passing minute is its own world. Every type of light has its own weight, color, and heat against her eye. She knows the velvet feeling of early evening better than she ever did back home.” p. 191-192

Creative Use for a Library Program

What saves the group of teenagers from most of the dangers in this novel is the ability to read a map. It’s a skill that is still relevant today, even in places with full access to the internet and with full access to a phone. It’s also a skill that needs to be practiced. It would be fun to have a library program where teens learn how to use a map. There can be different stages where they first have to use a physical map, then a phone map, and then a less detailed map with fewer points of reference. The program should be one where the teens get to actively use these skills. Instead of just pointing to a location on a map, they should have to use it to get from one location to another or to plan out a specific trip. This could also be a fun time to bring out older maps and atlases that the libraries have, either from the stacks or from the archives. It could be fun to see how maps change and develop over time, and how a mapmaker is an artist.

Book Talk

Five teens are forced into wilderness therapy, but no one is prepared for what lies in wait in the trees.

Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation

The main character of What the Woods Took is a lesbian, and there is a queer romance in the book. There are also mentions of suicidal ideation, sexual assault, and child abuse. One of the five main teens is a drug addict. There are depictions of teen violence and death, and all of the teens have justifiable reasons to be furious, defiant, and hateful toward their parents and guardians. All of these are issues that might cause this book to be challenged. In a book about five “troubled teens,” it’s no surprise that these teens have troubles and have had difficult and painful lives. Their problems are what bring them together and begin the story. They are also problems that real teens face, and this book offers a chance for those teens to be seen and feel less alone. Through the unique mechanics of the monsters, the text offers a way for those who read it to express their emotions and what they have experienced. These are reasons enough for this book to be in a library and available to all.

Breaking Code Silence

In an author’s note at the beginning, Courtney Gould discusses the troubled teen industry (TTI) that REVIVE, the camp the teens are forced to go to, is a part of. She mentions the horrible reality of the types of camps and programs that teens are subjected to, and brings up an organization called Breaking Code Silence (BCS). BCS is a nonprofit organization that works to dig out and highlight the real-life horror of these programs, what they do to teenagers, and the harm that they have caused. Their work is to both stop and prevent these organizations from continuing and help those who have survived them. They estimate that between 120,000 and 200,000 minors are put into these types of facilities every year in the United States (Breaking Code Silence, n.d.). For more information about their work, you can go to their website.

Reason for Inclusion

I found this book while looking in the YA section of my local queer bookstore. Their YA section is small, only taking up about five shelves on a bookcase, and this book stood out among all of the romances. The premise enticed me, though I originally assumed that the wilderness therapy was going to be more along the lines of a conversion camp than a general “troubled teen” camp. What the Woods Took ended up being a wonderful read, looking into the psychology of each of the teens and why they acted the way that they did. Sheridan ended up being the most complex, if quite frustrating, character who challenged my ideas of trust and a person’s right to withhold personal information. It’s a book that I thoroughly enjoyed and that other teens will, too. Between the five teens, people are likely to see themselves in at least one of them, allowing anyone to latch on tight during this survival horror expedition.

Courtney Gould's Other Works

The Dead and the Dark (Gould, n.d.).

Where Echoes Die (Gould, n.d.).

References

Breaking Code Silence. (n.d.). Breaking code silence. Retrieved May 5, 2025, from https://www.breakingcodesilence.org/

Gould, C. (n.d.). About. Retrieved May 6, 2025, from https://gouldbooks.com/about

Macmillan Publishers. (n.d.). What the woods took: A novel. Retrieved May 5, 2025, from https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250340672/whatthewoodstook/

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