This Wretched Valley

Rating: 3.98 leaves out of 5-Characters: 3.75/5 -Cover: 5/5-Story: 3/5-Writing: 4/5Genre: Contemporary, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Paranormal, Thriller-Contemporary: 3/5-Fantasy: 3/5-Horror: 3/5-Mystery: 5/5-Paranormal: 5/5-Thriller: 5/5Type: EbookWorth?: YesHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked Really Liked LovedWant to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.If you like the show From or the movies Blair Witch, As Above So Below, or Grave Encounters I believe you'd enjoy this book. It gave the same foundation as what I listed but with rock climbing and all that. It read very much like that show and movies; it was gory and a bit spooky. Would I like to see this as a top notch B-Rated horror movie? Hell yeah and I hope one day it is!

For those that are interested in the curious cases that have an endless amount of conspiracy theories and/or love outdoor sports this book is for you.

Four people go on a climbing expedition, all go missing, and then 3 are found dead. The 3 bodies that are found are in such condition that medical professionals and investigators are both baffled. After years there is still no explanation and the fourth person has not been found. These four people are unaware of their fate as they excitedly hike into the woods in the spring of 2019. Clay is a geology student who is working on his PhD. When he finds a cliff in the Kentucky woods that is untouched he knows it's the perfect location for his thesis. He gets together a fellow student, Sylvia, to be his research assistant, Dylan, an old friend that just got signed with a professional climbing company, and Luke, Dylan's boyfriend and belayer (which is basically the person that holds the rope at the bottom of the cliff for the climber for those like me that don't know climbing lingo). The trip starts out with everyone excited and eager and soon turns into a nightmare.

This was inspired by the Dyatlov Pass incident which is endlessly fascinating to me. Unlike the Dyatlov Pass incident while the professionals and the public in the book never learn what happened to these four people us as the readers get the full, terrifying account. I loved Jenny Kiefer's writing. I am not an outdoorsy sportsman person and have never been climbing indoors or outdoors so I'm completely unaware of any aspect of the sport. But I ended up not only knowing so much more about climbing that I did before starting the book I felt like I actually climbed a mountain. The descriptions are amazing that you can tell the author has climbing experience. While it was amazing (and a bit scary) reading about the climbing excursion this also meant that the other more sinister events of the book are very detailed as well. It was easy to feel like I was losing my mind while reading.

By the end of the book I felt like some parts were a little bit overdone in the sense they felt like they dragged on for too long. However, overall, it is a great story and a great read. Highly recommend.

I don't think this book knew what it was trying to say at any point in the story. I think Kiefer had a vague idea and just ran with it, it feels incredibly first draft. There isn't really a plot so much as a series of events I assume the author thought we'd find shocking. But it's just a jumble of happenings and the dialogue feels like walking on one of those acupressure mats with your brain. There is precisely one likeable character in this book.

The body horror in this one is amazing!! The story is fairly common and straightforward for a horror story. We know most of the end from the beginning, so it isn't a surprise. The strength of the book is the suspense. We are on the edge of our seats to see how it falls apart. The pacing in the middle is a little off, but the ending makes the slow parts worth it.