It Waits in the Woods (2024)

“Do you have my face?”

I am now finished with the Creature Feature Collection and this one was my least favourite of the bunch because it took me a while to get into, but the last 12 pages of this 44 page story had my heart racing. This is the only author of the collection that I had read before. We are all familiar with Malerman's Bird Box, I am sure...It is a book I loved very much. But this one didn't do as much for me.

Looking for clues to her sister's disappearance three years earlier, Brenda enters the woods by herself yet doesn't come out alone. With a plot much like The Blair Witch Project (a movie I despised), this book will get your heart pumping. I have read that this is better (creepier) as an audiobook because of the hissing sounds, heavy breathing, whispers and voices our main character hears. Unfortunately, I am deaf so I had to read it. With only a quarter of the book being highly enjoyable to me, I am giving this 3.5 stars rounded down.

***You'll all be happy to hear that this is my last creepy photo review until next year! I hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween and that all the children in your lives get lots of candy. I am telling the ones in my life that I get all their peanut butter cups! 🎃🎃🎃

The novella started very strong: Ucatanani forest, a missing girl, a local legend (Opso), disappearing hikers and a would-be-filmmaker elder sister named Brenda. When reaching her 18th birthday, Brenda goes into the woods to find her missing sister. Will she find her unharmed? What about the cries for help? What about the kidnapper and his face? As soon as Brenda tries to investigate her sister's whereabouts the story turns a bit confusing and blurry. There are eerie elements and references to a sinister monster but the end is a bit too unsatisfying, maybe too modern for my taste. It was short though and for in between a scary read. Recommended for Malerman fans.

I need a full blown novel version!

The gist of this one is that Billy Goat Gruff is a scary-as-hell monster that wants to wear your face.

The premise is weird but interesting. Weird because these kids seem too talented to be in high school, and interesting because it involves what happens to a family after a child goes missing.
Ok. So, there's this teenage filmmaker, Brenda. And she's just oozing talent. Her little sister, Amanda, is also oozing talent as an actress who stars in her older sis' films. Both girls are well-liked and like each other.
So when her little sister traipses out into the woods to sneak a few beers and never comes home, Brenda is devastated. More so when her parents blame her in a local television interview for not keeping a better eye on Amamda.

Fast forward a few years and Brenda is 18. She hasn't picked up a camera since Amanda disappeared, her parents are zombies, and she's now living on her own. She's been hearing local legends about some kind of a freaky supernatural bridge that appears in the same woods that swallowed her sister. The whole thing is connected to a creature called Opso that is spoken about only in whispers when a random hiker goes missing.
She feels like whatever this thing is, it might be responsible for her sister's disappearance. But no one will believe her unless she gets some kind of evidence.
So Brenda packs up her equipment and heads into the woods to get this thing on video.

That won't end well, will it?
Hmmm. You might be surprised.

This wasn't my favorite but it was still a decent offering for the Creature Feature Collection.
If you're looking for a short horror story, you could do a lot worse.
Recommended.

4⭐Story
5⭐Audio (Get the Audiobook!!)

Lights, Camera, Go!

Oh. My. Word. It Waits in the Woods feels like "The Blaire Witch Project" with a twist. And by that I mean, the MC goes into the woods ALONE looking for her sister who's been missing for 3 years.

There is a legend, an old tale about what lies within Michigan’s Ucatanani National Forest.

All I'm saying is this AUDIOBOOK needs a warning: Do not drive or operate machinery while listening. F**K! Thanks to Ms. Lauren Ezzo, I'll have nightmares for a while! 🙌

Part of Creature Feature collection. It comes with audio. Free with Prime or KU. 52 pages/1 hour 38Mins

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall!

A creature that’s evil. A creature that’s vain. It waits in the woods. What is it? It’s Opso. A demon.

Brenda has a sister. Her name is Amanda. She is missing. For three years, now.

She went into the woods to sneak a beer, but she never came back home and went missing. Her parents blamed her sister Brenda.

Brenda blamed herself and became obsessed about her absence and decided that she had to be found.

So three years later, she went looking for Amanda. Right in the woods where she disappeared.

Will she find her? Or will she find Opso, the forest demon, instead? Find out.

Four stars. 💫💫💫💫

Three years ago, a fourteen-year-old girl (Amanda Jennings) disappeared in Michigan’s Ucatanani National Forest, never to be seen again. Three years later, Amanda’s eighteen-year-old sister Brenda, who, after all these years, wants some answers, goes looking for Amanda herself. There is a myth/legend about a wooden bridge in the forest owned by a hoofed, faceless creature named Opso who is always near the bridge. Whenever people go missing in the forest, it is said that Opso abducted them and wants to use their face. What will Brenda find in the forest? Will she finally find out what happened to Amanda? Is the tale of Opso true?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a totally creepy and captivating read. It was quite unusual and I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen. The setting in the deserted woods was spooky. This was a fast, short story. I look forward to reading more from this author.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ -Kindle Book (Available on Unlimited)

It Waits in the Woods is Book #3 of Amazon’s Creature Feature Collection

What happens when the thing of legend is real?

I loved Malerman’s Bird Box so I was excited to read this and it did not disappoint. A slow build-up to a heart pounding conclusion. In a way this reminded me of The Blair Witch Project, but WAY better. A good comparison? Blair Witch Project/Cube Steak.
It Waits in the Woods/Filet Mignon. (Why am I always using food as a comparison?!)

All of these short stories come with an audio accompaniment and I highly suggest you listen to the audio for this story. That voice is the stuff of nightmares.

An urban legend in the woods!? ����

This is Book #3 in the Creature Feature collection on Amazon Prime (Kindle Unlimited), and so far this one has been my least favorite. I wasn’t scared or creeped out as I was with the previous two books, and this one didn’t hold my interest quite as well.

In this short story, Amanda Jennings disappears one night while in the woods (why people hang out in the woods at night, I still can’t figure out). These woods have a known urban legend, which contains a bridge to nowhere and a demon named Opso. After Amanda has been missing for three years, her sister Brenda decides to go by herself to these same woods to search for her. Ummm…. I think that’s where my problem with the story comes in.

Anyways, this was still a decent read. At only 52 pages, it is still recommended as I don’t want to miss out on any book in this Creature Feature collection!

This one!!! Holy hell, this is by far the scariest of this creature feature collection! After losing her sister in the forest three years ago, Brenda rather bravely embarks on a journey to find her and take her back from whatever may have snatched her up!

I listened to the audiobook version of, It Waits in the Woods (narrated by Lauren Ezzo) and it was so good! Very suspenseful. The story starts out detailing a local urban legend about a demon that dwells deep in the woods of Michigan somewhere near an old, wooden bridge.
After learning of the legend, the story zeroes in on a young woman determined to find her missing sister and document the journey. The perfect campfire tale!

An urban legend or is it real!!!
Set in Michigan Ukatanani National Forest sisters , but one day Amanda went missing in the Forest not heard of since.

Three years later Brenda decides to go back to the forest to look for her but there is something lurking in there that takes the same features of a face but does Brenda ever return?

This is the last book in this series I am going to read it was my least favourite of the three I have read nothing seemed to be happening up until the last 10% this book reminded me of the Blair Witch Project which was a nightmare to sit through I did like Malerman’s Bird Box actually I loved it… for me this is my last Malerman read 3 🌟

I wasn't impressed unfortunately.

This novella was longer than the others in the collection but it was the least put together.

I found the writing to be repetitive and in contradiction to itself multiple times. It just seemed to drone on for me. I also felt this story was filled with details that didn't matter and found myself working to stay engaged with the story.

The story itself seemed unfinished. This felt like an excerpt for a psychological horror thriller but just fell flat on execution.

A young woman goes missing in the Ucatanani National Forest (UNF) one night. It’s been three years since Brenda’s sister, Amanda, disappeared from the UNF and she plans on finding out what happened to her.

In this forest, there’s an urban legend of a bridge going to nowhere and a demon that terrorizes hikers and campers. Brenda is going into the forest once and for all to solve the mystery of her sister’s disappearance and whether the urban legend is real or not.

It Waits in the Woods was entertaining and gripping.
The pacing was great, and I could see

I’m really enjoying the short stories in this

I enjoyed this short creature feature story by Josh Malerman. It had a simple yet effective narrative that blended quite a few familiar horror tropes into a small page count.

Amanda disappears in the woods one evening, and the town believes a creature out of an urban legend has taken her. Amanda’s body was never found, so after three years, her sister, Brenda, takes a trek out into the forest to search for her.

I would give this a 1 out of 5 in terms of scares, but a 4 out of 5 in terms of tension building. It reminds me of a good X-files or Twilight Zone episode. It does not linger for too long and flips the classic phone concept on its head. Most stories like these have to showcase how the main character’s phone breaks right before any type of peril takes place, but this book embraces the technology and makes it part of the story. Bravo!

They say there is a smart and cruel creature who owns a bridge to nowhere and stalks whoever dares to set foot in the woods. They say this creature has lost its face and is constantly searching for a replacement. He is called Opso.

Three years ago, Brenda’s sister disappeared in the same woods. Some said she was kidnapped, some said she lost her way and perished. But Brenda who has heard about the myth is determined to go back into the woods and try to find her sister, dead or alive.

The sound of something breathing, hissing, perhaps whispering its question, the same question—Do you have my face?

Some stories are just stories. Some stories have one foot in reality. Some stories are more than stories.

Creepy indeed but I still expected more from the man who wrote Bird Box.

There's a faceless imp and a spooky forest and one very brave girl, which racks up the tension amazingly, but then it ends far too fast and left me with questions. Just three stars from me because although it was truly creepy, a really good short story should leave the reader satisfied.

So, a good story but not a brilliant one. I still won't be going out in the forest alone at night though.

3.5~3★
“Most myths have one foot in a reality so distressing mythic decorations are necessary to hide a greater horror, even as they keep the story alive.”

This does read like a myth or possibly a folktale to discourage children from wandering too far from home, but it isn’t from the early days of North American history.

“Unsettling stories started coming out of Central Michigan’s Ucatanani National Forest in the late 1970s. They were the kind of spine-tingling tales sprung from grade school field trips and carried on campfire smoke.”

People disappeared where they apparently crossed a white and yellow bridge in the National Forest. But where was the bridge? Nobody ever seemed to know.

Brenda’s sister is missing, and the hunt for her has been unsuccessful – so far – but Brenda is determined not to give up. She knows the old Opso myth and thinks there must be some truth to it, because it has such specific elements.

“From a storytelling perspective, elements of the Opso myth were just odd enough to be taken seriously. Who would’ve come up with the bridge? And why? Why not a secret cave? A more interesting tree house? A disturbing hole in the forest floor?”

Needless to say, her quest gets pretty scary, but thankfully it isn’t as grisly as some of the stories in this collection. It does read more like a cautionary tale than a true horror story, which is fine with me, but I do enjoy more suspense. I think it would have worked better as a modern serial-killer-in-the-woods story.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the copy of the #CreatureFeature Collection for review.

Anticlimactic.

The story was interesting enough but the ending was … wait! what? I’m glad I didn’t pay for this. Very anticlimactic.

Frankly, I've had trouble with many of Malerman's stories since first loving Bird Box. Strong beginning and good premise here, but something is lost in the middle. The ending is good though, and one you need to think about.

I keep hoping, with every Malerman story I read, "maybe this will be the piece that makes this author finally 'click' with me!" and every time, I'm let down. So many of my friends adore Malerman's work so much and I keep thinking I just haven't tried the right piece, but I'm always left bored and wanting more. :(

I will say, however, that whoever was responsible for the sound effects and creepy voice acting in the end of this audiobook understood the assignment for sure, because that part was excellent!

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It Waits In The Woods has such an intriguing premise; a teenage girl, Brenda Jenning’s sister has gone missing in a dense Michigan forest. She has heard the old tales of a hooved demon, named Opso, on the bridge.
The writing style however felt very repetitive at times. Almost like a dark fairytale, which I would usually love if it was set within a woodland/forest! But this didn’t really suit the theme and tone of this story. The ending felt quite abrupt, I know it’s a short story but something just didn’t land for me here.
Giving it 3 stars because when the writing here was good, it was strong! Intrigue was definitely built up throughout and I liked the setting of the woods. Not my favourite of the Creature Feature collection so far, but by no means was it bad! Perhaps read yourself to make your own mind up!

FREE FOR AMAZON PRIME MEMBERS!

Another great spooky story by a ‘new to me author’. And I’ll be reading more by them too! Imagine your sister goes missing in the woods one night on her way home. The town you live in has a creepy Urban legend. Finally three years later you go searching the woods for your sister. Will you find her or the legend??

4.25 Stars — A really well executed ‘lurking in the woods’ style, eery creeper. One to enjoy in a sitting & without break if possible.

Malerman writes with a deft touch, building suspense whilst simultaneously creating a false sense of security, which is the best way to punish readers in this type of short story or Novella.

Of the first three Amazon Creature Feature stories I’ve read, I love Ankle Snatcher the most. Followed by The Pram. Then, this one. Major props to the narrator of this story though. She does the best gnarly-scary monster voice!!

3.5

Something about the reading of this story was giving me The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon vibes and I didn’t like that audio very much 😬 The story is short but it felt like it dragged on with not much happening to hook me. It picked up near the end but ultimately it was a disappointment.

Давам на разказа 2 звезди, защото успя да ме държи в напрежение, но по същество ми бе точно толкова досаден, колкото и "Къщата на езерното дъно". Явно няма да дам на Малерман нов шанс в близко бъдеще.

There is a reason many scary books take place in a forest. Deep dark woods and be creepy and scary for sure. In this short story I was pleased with Malerman’s eerie setting and description.

Creature Feature Collection 2023;
The Pram - Joe Hill ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ankle Snatcher - Grady Hendrix ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
It Waits in the Woods - Josh Malerman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
In Bloom - Paul Tremblay ⭐️⭐️
Best of Luck - Jason Mott ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Big Bad - Chandler Bloom ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sent from my iPhone

It Waits in the Woods is a short story by Josh Malerman. Three years ago, Brenda’s younger sister, Amanda went missing in the woods. Their parents blamed Brenda, who was filming instead of watching her. While the police believed the fourteen-year-old had been abducted, there was talk of Opso, the vain, malicious imp who waits in the woods by the white bridge with yellow trim, lamenting his facelessness. Now, Brenda is eighteen, old enough to escape the control of her parents, and determined to find the truth about her sister’s fate. She goes into the woods, alone, ready to camp out for as long as it takes. She documents every step, recording audio and video. And eventually, she finds something…
This slowly builds to a tension-filled nail-biter.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories.