Unwed moms, witches, folklore, haunted woods. These components kind the nucleus of C.J. Cooke’s The Ghost Woods. Though initially printed within the UK in 2022, Cooke’s novel lands on US bookshelves in April 2025. Cooke’s story focuses on two younger girls in two totally different instances – 17-year-old Mabel in 1959 and 22-year-old Pearl – who’re each spending their final days of being pregnant at Lichen Corridor, owned by the Whitlock household. Simply the title Lichen Corridor conjures up some creepy imagery however the historical past surrounding the situation is simply as creepy.
Within the midst of the woods stands a home known as Lichen Corridor.
This place is shrouded in folklore—previous tales of ghosts, of witches, of a kid who was not fairly a baby.
Now the woods are creeping nearer, and one thing has been unleashed.
Pearl Gorham arrives in 1965, one among a string of younger girls despatched to Lichen Corridor to present beginning. And she or he quickly suspects the proprietors are hiding one thing.
Then she meets the mysterious mom and younger boy who stay within the grounds—and collectively they start to unpick the secrets and techniques of this place.
As the reality involves the floor and the darkness strikes in, Pearl should rethink all the pieces she knew—and threat what she holds most expensive.
Mabel is not sure of how she grew to become pregnant, she simply was pregnant sooner or later. Pearl is aware of how her being pregnant got here to be, however she is nonetheless despatched to Lichen Corridor. She loses her job as a nurse due to her being pregnant, however that have would possibly turn out to be useful in a house stuffed with younger girls who would wish some medical help. Mrs. Whitlock retains a really strict home, the ladies are assigned jobs to assist with the upkeep of the home. Her husband is just not wholesome in both timeline, and their grandchild (whose dad and mom died beneath mysterious circumstances earlier than the novel’s begin) initially suits the mould of the “creepy child.”
Each Mabel and Pearl really feel one thing is somewhat “off” with the Whitlock household and as they study extra concerning the darkish historical past of Lichen Corridor, they understand one thing darkish and haunted could also be hanging over the place the place they’re pressured to spend the ultimate days of a serious bodily transformation as they put together to present beginning. The truth that Mrs. Whitlock usually refuses reaching outdoors of Lichen Corridor for medical help provides much more stress to those younger, anticipating girls.
The place to begin…I suppose the environment. Cooke steeps her narrative in a dismal, foggy dread that hangs over the whole lot of the novel. These younger girls are marked as tainted or fallacious due to what they’re going via, which makes dwelling in a strict dwelling that’s probably haunted much more harrowing. There’s an area people story of a witch, Nicniven that haunts the background and mushrooms/fungus that creep in all places. That aspect jogged my memory of the fiction of T. Kingfisher and Jeff VanderMeer.
Nevertheless, there are slivers of hope poking via that gloomy fog. Pearl is that driving drive of hope. Maybe as a result of she is a bit older than a few of the different women, she’s received a stage of maturity offered by her wider expertise on the earth. She tries to grasp Mrs. Whitlock’s grandson, she tries to grasp the haunted nature of her scenario.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t comment on the timing of this novel being launched in america as a result of it has main themes in widespread with Grady Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Women. Each are set at a time when unwed, expectant moms are handled just like the scourge of society and contain supernatural components. I don’t assume the timing is something greater than coincidental. That stated, the standard of each novels may be very excessive.
That is the third novel I’ve learn by Cooke over the past 12 months and a half and just like the earlier two, I used to be very impressed by this novel. I used to be pulled in very strongly to each Mabel and Pearl’s narrative and will really feel the mounting dread that suffused each timelines. Cook dinner tackles a strong social injustice and provides layers of horror and dread for a creepy, and enthralling studying expertise. I’m much more inspired to dive into The Nesting and The Lighthouse Witches, which together with The Ghost Home kind a free non secular trilogy of her fiction.
Really helpful
© 2025 Rob H. Bedford
Commerce Paperback | Berkley
April 2025 | 384 Pages
https://carolynjesscooke.com/
Assessment copy courtesy of the writer, Berkley Publishing
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