Title: The Night Will Find Us

Author: Matthew Lyons

Release date: October 20, 2020

Ah, the one that got away. Back in 2020, I want to say June(?), this book came through Kendall Reviews for review consideration and I jumped all over it. Back then, unfortunately, my Kindle could be a huge jerk and, while I accepted it, the PDF that was sent to me was completely unreadable. It happens. Not as much lately, but it didn’t matter what I did – straight PDF emailed, file converted to a MOBI, file converted to an EPUB, my Kindle wouldn’t display it in any way that allowed me to read it.

So, I had it purchased, but as review requests were stacked up, I put it aside onto my ‘normal’ TBR and it slowly made its way to the top of the heap.

And then it arrived.

And I wanted to just straight kick myself in the face for having had it wait there.

THIS BOOK IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANT TO READ.

THIS BOOK IS EXACTLY WHAT I WOULD WRITE.

Look, if you took Nevill’s ‘The Ritual’ and then threw it into a blender with A.M. Shine’s ‘The Creeper,’ and even a bit of David Sodergren’s ‘Maggie’s Grave,’ you’ll have an idea of what you’re in for.

What I liked: The story follows Parker, his cousin, Chloe, and their friends, Nate, Adam, Nicky and Josh (those two a couple), as they head into the woods of New Jersey to celebrate high school graduation.

Parker is struggling. His father has disappeared and his mom has turned to alcohol. With his downward spiral now evident with his friends, it makes for an occasion that should be an exciting time, but instead is awkward, tension-filled and making for short-fuses.

Look, this alone would’ve made for a solid ‘things are creepy here in the woods’ novel, but Lyons decides to completely throw us to the figurative wolves by having them go to an area that the soil itself is embedded with an ancient evil.

ANCIENT EVVVVVVIIILLLLL!

YEEEEESSSS!

God, yes. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

You know how much I love that.

So, Lyons gives us an explosive, emotional, completely unexpected scene, very early on that sets things in motion. We get a phenomenal obstacle, with great barriers and throughout, Lyons continues to push us ever forward, towards the darkness that awaits in an abandoned setting within.

Every something new was introduced, I wanted to pump my fist with glee, as this goes everywhere I wanted and more.

On top of that, we get resolutions for every single character, which is very rare indeed.

The ending was magical and even the epilogue dropped the ‘horror’ volume a few degrees to give us some closure and an update on how things went on after all was said and done.

What I didn’t like: Honestly, there was only one thing within the entire book that I scoffed at. I suspend my belief throughout 99% of reading anything, but this was the rare case where Lyons continued to beat people up and have them beat up. That was why, when one character ends up at the bottom of a cliff and seemingly ‘walks it off’ I was put off by that moment. That doesn’t happen. They were beat to hell and already on death’s doorstep, so even a two foot fall would’ve hurt them. Yet, they seemingly fall a solid ten-to-twenty feet and had almost no reaction to it. That was a hard one to push aside.

Why you should buy this: Man, just look at the title. And consider this. Ancient evil in a forest. Teens trying to survive. Both each other and the thing that dwells there. If that doesn’t have your hackles up and your credit card out, I don’t know what will.

This hummed along, and has easily cemented itself alongside so many great books on my ‘best creepy book in the woods’ list. Lyons nailed every single aspect of this.

Outstanding.

5/5