Title: Rainforest

Author: Michelle Paver

Genre: Horror/Ghost Story

Publisher: Orion

Publication Date: 9th October 2025

Rating: 4/5

Cover:

Summary:

The jungle watches. The dead remember.

The virgin rainforest seems a paradise to Englishman Simon Corbett. A last chance to salvage his career. A final refuge from a terrible secret. 

But the jungle is no Eden. It hides secrets of its own. It does not forgive. 

As Simon is drawn deeper into its haunted shadows, he learns to his horror that the past will not stay buried. For there are places in the forest where the line between the living and the dead is thinner than the skin of water. 

A terrifying supernatural tale from Sunday Times bestseller Michelle Paver, author of Dark Matter, Thin Air and Wakenhyrst.

Review:

Rainforest is such a good reading choice for Spooky Season, it is a creeping, uneasy and rather intense sort of ghost story which is short enough to read in just one or two sittings. Don’t let the size fool you, however, there is a huge amount of atmosphere and intention within these pages. The location of the unknowable and dangerous rainforest plays a huge part in building the atmosphere beautifully, coupled with the 1970’s setting which makes the whole thing feel quite removed from modern times and attitudes. I do have to say that the characters, by and large, are mostly pretty unpleasant – including our main character, Simon, an entomologist with a particular love for mantids. He is an obsessive, supercilious and rather strange man who is in the rainforest partly to escape something that happened with a woman. I don’t want to say too much as I think it’s better to go into this one without knowing a great deal and becoming swept up in the unnerving claustrophobia of this sinister tale. Rainforest is full to the brim of a rising feeling of dread throughout, seriously well written and really quite haunting – if you are looking for a quietly scary, weird and dark read for Halloween month then I would definitely recommend Rainforest. 

★★★★

Thank you so much to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for inviting me on this tour and organising it. I kindly received a copy of the book from the publisher. My review is entirely my own honest opinion.

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