Up next was Hunted by Carcy Coates.
Five days after Eileen vanishes into the vast, shadowed wilds of Ashlough, her camera is found washed downriver―its final, haunting images raising more questions than answers. Determined to uncover the truth, Chris and four close friends form a desperate search party and plunge into the heart of the forest, where every tree seems to whisper warnings, and every path feels like a trap.
When I first picked up Hunted by Darcy Coates, I honestly wasn’t sure what kind of story I was walking into. At the beginning, it feels like it could go either way. Is this a creature-in-the-woods type of horror story? Or is it something darker—something human? For a while, the book keeps you guessing, and that uncertainty is part of what pulled me through the early chapters.
But as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the true monster in this book isn’t supernatural at all.
The story centers around a group of friends who head into the forest to find Chris’s sister, Eileen after being dismissed by a cop named Carla. The group includes Hailey, Ana, and Flint. The forest they enter is vast, isolated, and largely untouched. It’s the kind of place where once you’re deep enough in, the outside world feels very far away.
Early on, the group begins to realize that something is wrong.
At first, the signs are subtle. Strange noises in the distance. The unsettling feeling of being watched. Tracks that don’t quite make sense. The forest, which should feel peaceful, begins to feel oppressive. Slowly the realization dawns that something—or someone—is out there with them.
At the same time, back in town, another storyline unfolds involving Carla. She’s overworked, dealing with department politics, and struggling under the pressure of piles of paperwork. She immediately dismissed Chris and his friends, but she soon realized there’s more to this story. This isn’t the usual missing person’s case.
What struck me while reading was how quickly I began to care about the people in this story. Even when the characters were flawed—or occasionally dramatic—they felt real enough that I found myself worrying about them as the situation worsened.
Take Todd, for example. He struck out on his own to find Eileen. He cared about her. He wanted to be the one to find her. He knew he could do it. Chris and the rest of the group didn’t know he had come. At times, I found him a bit dramatic. But even with that, the way his story ends was hard to read. No one deserves to die the way he did. His death was frightening, and it really drove home how helpless the group will become once they were trapped in the wilderness.
Anna had tried to hold the group together with strict rules. But she succomed to the monster when a trap had been set. The group tried to save her, but it was too late. Another one down. They’re being picked off one by one.
At first, I kept wondering if the story was going to reveal some kind of creature hunting them. The atmosphere Coates builds in the forest certainly leans that way. The darkness, the silence, the sense that the forest itself is swallowing people whole—it all creates the feeling of something monstrous lurking out there.
But eventually it becomes clear that the monster is human.
And in many ways, that makes it worse.
The man responsible is cruel, vindictive, and deeply disturbed. He enjoys the chase. He enjoys the control. The woods are his playground, and the people who wander into them become his prey. The violence isn’t random—it’s deliberate, almost ritualistic in how he stalks and terrorizes his victims.
Once his identity is revealed, it actually makes a lot of sense.
His position in town gives him just enough authority and protection to keep suspicion away from himself. At the same time, he operates under the thumb of the mayor, which creates a dynamic where he feels both powerful and resentful. The woods become his outlet. What he does out there is a way for him to release the anger and cruelty he carries.
Looking back, the clues were there.
The way he treats people at work. The atmosphere he creates around himself. The subtle hints that something about him isn’t right. When the truth comes out, it feels horrifying—but not unbelievable.
One of the things I appreciated most was Carla’s persistence throughout the story. She’s exhausted, overwhelmed, and dealing with a department that isn’t always supportive. But she refuses to walk away from the case. Even while struggling with her own depression and burnout, she keeps digging, keeps asking questions, and keeps pushing forward when it would be easier to let things go.
Her determination is one of the reasons the truth eventually comes to light.
And that determination led Carla to find an emaciated Eileen. She also sent the search crews who found Chris and Flint. Hailey, who had wandered into the monster’s hideout, stole his motorcycle and ended up in the hospital. She lost a leg, but she was still alive. Anna, though, had succumbed to her wounds. She was buried with her family and friends in attendance. Todd was located and would be brought out of the forest, too.
This isn’t just a survival story about hikers trapped in the woods. It’s also about the ripple effects of violence. The families who are left behind. The people who keep searching even when the odds look terrible.
By the end of the book, I realized that what started as what I thought might be a monster story turned into something much more grounded—and much more disturbing. The real horror wasn’t a creature hiding in the trees.
It was the reminder that sometimes the worst monsters are simply people who choose to become one.
Hunted ended up being a tense and emotional read for me. It’s dark, uncomfortable at times, and definitely not an easy story. But it kept me thinking long after I finished the final page.