"Out of the Woods" by Hannah Bonam-Young

Originally Posted 2/20/25

Quick Overview

I listened to the audio book narrated by Victoria Connolly, and it was about 10 hours and 40 minutes long. Overall, I liked the book but I'm not really sure I'd recommend it or want to read it again.

In Depth Review

The following is pretty much copy/pasted from a review I wrote on Storygraph about the book. I gave it 3.75 stars there:

Overall I liked the book. I don't regret reading it. However, I'm not really sure I'd recommend this book or want to read it again.

My fiance and I listened to this audio book while on a road trip and the voice actress did a phenomenal job! The book itself though, especially in the beginning, had my fiance and I asking each other "do... do people really act like this?". It felt sort of frustrating because the characters seemed to have the problem of just not talking to each other. So often throughout the book it felt like "if you just spoke to each other, these problems would get better". Or, similarly, the main character could think through things and verbalize them in her head, but just not to her husband. And that sort of thing makes me personally a bit frustrated because it feels like "oh my god just talk to your husband".

That said, the whole arc of the book is a couple learning how to effectively communicate with each other. To be closer to each other, feel safe talking about what is truly on their minds, etc. The characters definitely grew on me as the book went on, and especially during the last half and especially last quarter of the book I was really on the edge of my seat wanting to know what happened next (getting visibly frustrated any time Google Maps chimed in to say something cutting off the book). While communication is something I think my fiance and I are incredibly good at, I think most couples are closer to communicating like the main characters do in this book, than communicating like my fiance and I do. Similar to what I said earlier, there were times though where my fiance would turn to me and go "have these people just never had a difficult conversation in their entire relationship?"

I think the book definitely did what it set out to do - it wrote a story about a couple learning to communicate with each other better, and the sort of difficulties that come along with that. The main character also obviously suffers from anxiety, and again I think that part was written well. I was emotionally invested in the book, and it made me feel things which I think is a good sign for any piece of media.