Rating: 
Summary: Enter At Your Own Risk
Review: A well written book from begining to end. No detail left out and nothing over done. Superb, excellent writing!
Rating: 
Summary: A Page Burner
Review: A well written book from begining to end. No detail left out and nothing over done. Superb, excellent writing!
Rating: 
Summary: not a walk in the park
Review: after reading this book, a secretary of the interior who sees a national forest in terms of board feet might not seem so scary. an old fashion campfire tale of three young women lost in a peril filled primeval forest. author exploits atavistic fears and headline horrors successfully. straightforward narration and steady pacing, without gimmicks or gadgets.
Rating:
Summary: In the Forest of Harm
Review: As the author of "In Limbo", a similar story of adventure, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
A bit more graphic then I would prefer at times, but one can get past that.
Nope, camping out will not be the same for me and I will cherish my friends even more than I have thus far.Good Job, Sallie!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Bissell does one thing well---she knows the lay of the land and the names of all the trees and flowers. This kind of authenticity always fleshes out a story. The story itself, however, had some flaws. The author seemed to have said to herself, "How many things can I put into this to make it sell?" The extreme violence, crude language, cliffhanger crises, and stereotypical minor characters were distracting. The mystery remains unsolved, the snake presumably gets away, and the bad guys get their comeuppance, but the motivation does not ring true. Why is the villain so obsessed with killing Mary Crow under such difficult conditions when it wasn't even his problem? A smarter one would have hired a hit man, at the very least. The mountain creature is right out of Stephen King; the snake pit is out of True Grit, and the grub-eating is from Follow the River. If the reader wants a good yarn (and true) about women surviving in the wilderness, read Follow the River by James Alexander Thom. I stayed with this one to the end, but except for the trees and flowers it was a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Bissell does one thing well---she knows the lay of the land and the names of all the trees and flowers. This kind of authenticity always fleshes out a story. The story itself, however, had some flaws. The author seemed to have said to herself, "How many things can I put into this to make it sell?" The extreme violence, crude language, cliffhanger crises, and stereotypical minor characters were distracting. The mystery remains unsolved, the snake presumably gets away, and the bad guys get their comeuppance, but the motivation does not ring true. Why is the villain so obsessed with killing Mary Crow under such difficult conditions when it wasn't even his problem? A smarter one would have hired a hit man, at the very least. The mountain creature is right out of Stephen King; the snake pit is out of True Grit, and the grub-eating is from Follow the River. If the reader wants a good yarn (and true) about women surviving in the wilderness, read Follow the River by James Alexander Thom. I stayed with this one to the end, but except for the trees and flowers it was a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible, Astonishing, Disturbing
Review: First of all, let me say to any prospective readers of Miss Bissell's exceptional novel: pay no attention whatsoever to the dubious reviewer who gave this book an undeserved one star. I, personally, would give this book 6 stars if I could. This was one of the best thriller novels I've ever read--ever. And I've read over 280 mysteries and thrillers, including nearly all of John Grisham's, Tami Hoag's, Sue Grafton, and the like, so I feel as if I have a certain sense of what is good and what is not. But I digress... Attorney Mary Crow is quarry in this novel. Quarry plain and simple. It would be impossible to describe to you the level of tension behind the innocent-looking cover of this novel. Mary and two of her friends go for a camping trip in the Nantahala National Forest after Mary has just won a conviction against a very bad man in court. After Mary her her two friends get to Nantahala, violence erupts. A hideously ugly and filthy man beats and rapes Alex and leaves Mary's other friend for dead, after kidnapping Alex. Mary and her other friend go looking for Alex.
Enter the rapist-murderer that Mary just battled in court.
He begins pursuit of Mary in the Nantahala. So, not only does she have the vicious man who brutally raped and beat and kidnapped her friend, she also has another very dangerous man on her trail. This book is full of non-stop action, written by an incomparable writer who is not afraid to let her heroines get hurt. (She's kind of like Ridley Pearson or Tami Hoag in this regard). Unlike the romance novelist heroines who come out of the battle with nary a scratch marring their mooncalf features. Read this book. It is incredible, astonishing, disturbing.
Rating:
Summary: Cliched and amateurish
Review: I bought this book because the prologue caught me. Unfortunately, it feel apart in chaper one. I've finished chapter five, and I'm done with it. It's going in the charity bag. The prose is amateurish and uninteresting -- it's stiff with cliches, and the author "tells" the reader too much instead of letting the story tell itself. (Example: the introduction of Joan and Alex.) Also, the perspective is odd -- it feels to me like a book written by a man. The author appears to be "looking at" the female characters (external perspective), but slips easily into an internal perspective with male characters. In Henry Brank's introductory chapter (for example), the perspective was immediately and clearly internal. We are not "looking at" him, we are seeing with his eyes. This might change further into the book, but I find the prose style so dull and irritating that I'm not going to bother finding out.
Rating:
Summary: A great read!!
Review: I can't believe this is a debut novel -- I can't wait for more books by Sallie Bissell. In The Forest of Harm is a thriller that also celebrates the courage and determination of women. My favorite part is when Mary is watching her friends walk away from her and she thinks of them as her "War Women". This is not a case of "Mary Crow saves the day". It is a team effort between her and her two friends, friends that have never been in the strange woods before that Mary knows so well. The twists and turns of the plot are intruiging. The whole idea of the women being attacked by a madman, and then tracking that madman to save their friend, totally unaware that a very different kind of madman is tracking them -- it made for incredibly suspenseful reading. I don't agree that with other reviewers who say that it showed more victimization of women. I thought it showed the triumph of women and their grit and determination despite being faced with a situation they never expected to encounter in their wildest dreams. As to the reviewer who said that one of the murders was left "unsolved", I think that is because Bissell is saving that for one of her upcoming books about DA Mary Crow.
Rating:
Summary: Promising, but flawed debut by new writer
Review: I felt compelled to finish this one (if only to review it adequately) but there were times I wanted to put it down because of the excessive, graphic violence in several places- including a rape scene with such detail that I truly became sick to my stomach. Some readers, however, might consider this a recommendation for this book, depending on their tastes (not me). I'm able to stomach violence if there are other redeeming factors to a book, but this one didn't have strong, compelling characters or other qualities to balance the violence.
The story itself focuses on Mary Crow, a woman who lost her mother to a violent murder and rape and whose entire life has been shaped by that traumatic event, eventually leading her into a life as a lawyer, prosecuting criminals. After trying several especially grueling cases in a row, she decides to take a vacation with two of her best friends. But two men (one with vengence on his mind against Mary, the other a deranged bad guy living in the woods) end up making the camping trip more terrifying than fun.
There isn't anything particularly surprising about this book and you'll see what's coming ahead of time. If your interest is held by violence and you don't care much about characters seeming real, you won't mind reading this one - and your interest will be held. But I felt less than satisfied.
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