Books Like The Forest of Stolen Girls

Some of the earliest stories and fables warn people against wandering alone into the woods and forests. For large parts of history, these areas represented the unknown and were filled with danger and mystery. Even in the modern age wooded areas still inspire a sense of unease and creepiness, especially for those unfamiliar with them. For these reasons, woods and forests are still popular settings for authors who want to keep readers on edge. For example, in The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur, a young girl, Hwani, and her sister go missing only to be found unconscious in a forest near a gruesome crime scene. When thirteen girls go missing years later near the same forest, Hwani’s father who is a detective, decides to investigate only to vanish as well. This prompts Hwani to face her buried memories of what happened in the forest all those years ago and go search for her father. For more novels where woods or forests feature prominently in the story, check out the following books like The Forest of Stolen Girls.

Dark Pines

By Will Dean

Dark Pines is the first novel in the Tuva Moodyson Mystery series by Will Dean. The protagonist, Tuva Moodyson, is a young deaf reporter working for a local paper in the remote Swedish town of Gavrik. Tuva is tired of covering run-of-the-mill stories so when a body is discovered in the large and dense forest bordering the town she believes it could be her make her career. Her search for the truth takes her deep into the forest, but there are those who don’t want their town to be portrayed in a bad light, so she has to tread carefully. Tuva is terrified of the first, which she describes as bigger than New York City, especially as her disability makes it an even more dangerous place to sneak around.

Pine

By Francine Toon

Pine by Francine Toon is set in a small village surrounded a a pine forest in the Scottish Highlands. Lauren and her father Niall lives there alone since the disappearance of her mother a decade ago. When the two return home from a Halloween outing they two encounter a woman, dressed only in a flimsy gown, on the road. Niall drives her to their home, but the woman doesn’t say a word during the entire encounter. When Lauren wakes up the next morning the mysterious woman is gone and even more strange her father claims to have no knowledge of her. Later, when Lauren thinks she sees a glimpse of the woman in the massive woods around town she becomes even more convinced that something strange is going on.

Our Endless Numbered Days

By Claire Fuller

Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller is the story of Peggy Hillcoat, a young girl living in a remote hut in the woods with her father, James. When Peggy was only eight years old James, who is a survivalist, took her from their home in London and told her that the rest of the world had been destroyed. The pair make a living deep in the wilderness until the day when Peggy finds a pair of boots in the forest. This prompts her to search for their owner and in the process unravel the series of events that brought her to the woods. 

In The Woods

By Tana French

In The Woods is the first novel in the Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French. The story opens in the summer of 1984 when three children do not return from the dark and silent woods near a small Dublin suburb. Police eventually manage to find one of the children, Rob Ryan, who is gripping a tree trunk in terror while wearing blood-filled sneakers. Unfortunately, Rob is unable to remember any details of what happened to him or the other boys. Twenty years later Rob is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad but keeps his past a secret. However, when a twelve-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, Rob and his partner Cassie find themselves investigating a case with eerie similarities to what Rob went through all those years ago.

The Woods Are Always Watching

By Stephanie Perkins

The Woods are Always Watching by Stephanie Perkins is the story of best friends, Neena and Josie. While the two spent their high school years as outsiders they at least always had each other, but that is about to change with college looming on the horizon. Since the two will be separated by two thousand miles they decide to take advantage of one last chance to be together. They plan to go on a three-day hike deep into the woods of the Pisgah National Forest armed with all the maps, water filters, and hiking gear they could possibly need. Unfortunately, when they take a detour off the trail they discover that bears are not the only predators in the woods.

Master of the Forest

By Artyom Dereschuk

Master of the Forest by Artyom Dereschuk is about a young man who leaves his small Russian town and heads to Moscow with the hopes of never being poor again. However, he doesn’t have much luck, and just when he almost gives up hope he meets an old geologist who offers him the opportunity to accompany him to the depths of Siberia. Since he has nothing to lose the young man agrees to go with the geologists to the largest forest on the planet and help excavate mammoth tusks. Unfortunately, in the untouched wilderness of the forest he finds that it is not just nature and other diggers he has to face, but also his own inner demons and a prehistoric creature known only as “Master of the Forest.”