I really did like this historical fiction mystery thriller. I also really enjoyed that this book focus on the realtionships between sisters. I thought the book had a slow start but a big bang at the end. I also really liked how this book focused on the investigative elements and just crime solving. I also like learning more about the time period. It was hard to see the ending coming and it was a really intreastingr read! ( )

I really did like this historical fiction mystery thriller. I also really enjoyed that this book focus on the realtionships between sisters. I thought the book had a slow start but a big bang at the end. I also really liked how this book focused on the investigative elements and just crime solving. I also like learning more about the time period. It was hard to see the ending coming and it was a really intreastingr read! ( )

June Hur’s The Forest of Stolen Girls just came out last month and it was one my most anticipated reads of the year! I am also excited to have read it together with my friend Kat! Last year, I fell in love with June Hur’s debut book The Silence of Bones and have been so excited to read more from her. Like her first book, this one is a historical mystery set in Joseon (Korea). Though this time, instead of the 1800s, we step into 1426 Joseon. And in particular, we travel to the misty, forested Jeju Island where our main character Hwani grew up.

Hwani hasn’t been back home in five years, not since the “forest Incident” occurred, when her and her younger sister went missing in the forest and when finally found, were in a state of unconsciousness close by a crime scene. After this, the girls’ father accepted a higher ranking detective job on the mainland and left with Hwani, leaving behind his younger daughter to apprentice with the village shaman.

During this time, Hwani mostly looses touch with her younger sister and has no memories from the forest incident. But when her father turns up missing after returning to Jeju Island to investigate the recent disappearance of 13 girls, Hwani finds her way back home, looking for answers. It would seem that before her father went missing he had found some clues that point to the disappearances being linked to that day 5 years ago in the same forest. Now Hwani must once again face this forest and her past to hopefully find her father and the truth. Is her father still alive? Are his disappearance, the disappearance of the 13 girls, and the forest incident all connected? Why did her father go to investigate an area outside of his jurisdiction in the first place?

One of my favorite parts of this book is the wonderfully mysterious ambiance created through the misty, secretive forests and the forgotten and hidden past of the characters. I had fun trying to piece together different possibilities of what might be going on. I was able to guess some general things, but other parts I didn’t guess at all! While I loved the writing in this one as much as in Hur’s first book, I do think I preferred the story and characters in the first a little more. At the same time, seeing the dynamic between the two sisters was interesting in this one.

The Forest of Stolen Girls: 4/5 Stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ( )

Beautifully told story with a decent mystery. Although the mystery is the backbone of the story I think in reality this is a story of sisters with a strong dash of feminism added to it. ( )

YA Historical Fiction mystery. Two sisters, a missing detective father and 13 missing girls. Brought together by their missing father after 5 years apart, the sisters begin a quest to discover the mystery behind the missing girls and to seek out what happened to cause the disappearance of their father while trying to figure out how their relationship can come back together. This was a different type of mystery, taking place in 1462. It was ok, took a while to get into. ( )