They fear not men in the woods

McNeil (Four Letter Word) squanders the promising premise of this disappointingly juvenile horror novel. Grad student Jen's forest ranger father went missing in the woods outside their hometown of Barrow, Wash., seven years before the start of the book. Now his remains have apparently been found and Jen returns to town ostensibly for the funeral but really in hopes of proving he's still alive. She gathers old friends for a hiking trip to his last-known whereabouts to seek answers. The locals seem to be hiding secrets and mysterious figures lurk among the trees. Unfortunately, the book has little interest in its own central mystery; its development is paper-thin and its resolution easily predictable. Meanwhile, most of the horror elements are crammed into a rushed finale that feels more slapstick than scary. Instead, the page count is eaten up by childish sniping between the cast as they relitigate their high school relationships. Jen's internal monologue is full of internalized misogyny (she thinks of her mother as a "lunch-shift stripper" for getting a manicure) and jarringly cruel cracks about the people around her, but the narrative doesn't really wrangle with these thornier aspects of her character. This hike through the woods turns into a slog. (Sept.)