The Haunting of Black River Forest – 3.5 Star Review

A forest of blood and corpses. The land of a cold-blooded psychopath.

Welcome to the January 24th stop on the blog tour for The Haunting of Black River Forest by Jaydeep Shah with Lola’s Blog Tours. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, exclusive content, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which means there is no additional cost to you if you shop using my links, but I will earn a small percentage in commission. A program-specific disclaimer is at the bottom of this post.

About the Book

The Haunting of Black River Forest
A Horror Adventure Short Story
by Jaydeep Shah

Published 14 December 2021

Genre: Horror, Short Fiction
Page Count: 40
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A forest of blood and corpses. The land of a cold-blooded psychopath.

In Black River Forest, it’s best not to wander too far off the beaten track. There’s no telling what you might find.

Mia and Oliver have long wanted to explore the forest, and one cold, rainy October day, a week before their fifth anniversary of the day they met, they finally make the trip.

But they’ve heard the rumors as well. The haunting. A psychopath hidden somewhere amidst the towering trees. Too many missing. Too few answers.

It’s only rumors, though. Stories. And stories can’t hurt you. Yet as Mia and Oliver venture deeper into the Black River Forest, they’ll soon discover that there’s more haunting this quiet woodland than hikers and bears.

The psychopath is very real. And he’s excited to meet them.

From Jaydeep Shah, author of Tribulation, the first book of the Cops Planet series, “The Haunting of Black River Forest” is a bloody, spine-chilling story best read with the lights on.

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“The Haunting of Black River Forest is a horror book that would certainly make the reader’s hair to stand up at the back of their neck!” ★ ★ ★ ★ – ILoveUniqueBooks.com

Excerpt

After walking for three or four miles, the trio hadn’t found a way out of the forest.

Their hearts were beating in fear and their legs were tired from walking.  

“When will we find the way out of this creepy forest, man?” asked Mia, her arm linked with Oliver’s.

“I wish we hadn’t come here,” said Oliver. “But we have no choice except to keep trying to find the path.”

“I just hope we get to the right path before . . . he finds us,” said Jany.

“That’s what I’ve been praying to God for this whole time,” said Oliver. “I don’t want to encounter him.”

“Right. I just want to escape,” said Mia. “However, if we do meet him, and if he tries to block our path, I will kill him with my axe.”

“You must be kidding!” said Jany. “Please don’t say that again. I’ve seen enough horror.”

“What did I say wrong?” said Mia. “If he finds us, we must fight him and kill him. Otherwise, he will kill us.”

Walking, walking, and walking. Eventually, the trio reached a divide in the path. Following Mia, they took the left.

The trio walked for one more mile, until they saw something that stopped them in their tracks. Skeletons. Hanging on almost all the trees ahead, as far as their eyes could see. Not one, not five, not ten, but at least a hundred skeletons, swinging on the trees in the breeze.

Jany gaped at them, her eyes filling with tears.

Oliver felt a chill furling through his body.

And Mia stood completely petrified; somewhere inside her, a voice said: My heart may stop beating if I let the horror possess my senses.

My Review

My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Consider liking my review on Goodreads

I was granted complimentary access to The Haunting of Black River Forest by Jaydeep Shah as part of my participation in a blog tour for this title with Lola’s Blog Tours. Thank you to all involved in affording me this opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.

The Haunting of Black River Forest is a classic psycho stranger in the woods sort of horror and it hits hard and fast. I easily read the whole story in one quick sitting and it absolutely kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way!

With that said, I wish I could praise it more enthusiastically, but the dialogue/character interactions frequently felt a little too much like theatrical third wall breaking for the purpose of exposition. It was distracting. Despite this critique I do think this short story shows the bones of great storytelling, and I’d be curious to read something longer by this author. Something with more pages in which the author can really develop the characters and do a little more showing rather than telling.

About the Author

Jaydeep Shah is an avid traveler and the author of gripping horror, thriller, and romance stories. As a bachelor’s degree holder in Creative Writing, he aims to entertain as many as people he can with his stories. He is best known for Tribulation, the first book in the “Cops Planet” series.

In addition to those books, The Shape-Shifting Serpents’ Choice, Jaydeep’s first young adult flash fiction written under his pen name, JD Shah, is published online by Scarlet Leaf Review in their July 2019 issue. Currently, he’s endeavoring to write a debut young adult fantasy novel while working on a sequel to his first apocalyptic thriller, Havoc.

When Shah is not writing, he reads books, tries new restaurants, and goes on adventures.

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Giveaway Alert!

There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of The Haunting of Black River Forest. These are the prizes you can win:

– two winners win a $50 Amazon gift card and an ecopy of The Haunting of Black River Forest through Bookfunnel (US Only)

– 18 winners win an ecopy of The Haunting of Black River Forest through Bookfunnel (INT)

Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.