Would You Walk Through A Forest Where Souls Wander

*Warning: This book contains mature content that could also be considered triggering. SPOILERS*

Sitting at the base of Mount Fuji, one of the most beautiful mountain peaks on the face of the Earth, sits one of the most haunted forests. Aokigahara (Suicide Forest or Sea of Trees) stretches across the base of Mount Fuji for 30 kilometers. People from across the world travel to this specific forest to end their lives and release their soul back into the unknown. It is said to be believed that people commit suicide here due to the beauty of the surroundings and the last thing they see and hear is the calmness of the endless forest. Not only do people from around the world come to commit suicide here, but the best thrill seekers will come to test the unknown. Japanese citizens look at the forest as taboo and refuse to guide people through it. Citizens believe that the people who lost their lives in this forest continue to haunt the forest. It is also believed that the negative souls push the depressed to end their lives or even go as far as possessing the living. Different paranormal hunters have declined offers on traveling to Suicide Forest due to the negativity the forest holds. You have to take a risk walking through the forest during daylight hours, but when night hits you are asking to be killed.

Jeremy Bates, the author of Suicide Forest, describes the fears of suicide flawlessly. It isn’t until the end when the storyline quickly fell. Suicide Forest follows the characters Ethan, Mel, John Scott, Nina, Neil, Ben, and Tomo through their unfortunate journey through Aokigahara. The group was intending on making a heroic journey up Mount Fuji, but due to a rapidly approaching storm, they are forced to camp out in Suicide Forest. Disregarding the numerous warnings given, they went with their gut and camped. Everything seemed normal until the sun fell below the horizon. Sounds were heard but no living creature stirred. There was always this feeling of being watched, as if there was someone hiding in the trees waiting to pounce. Nina and Mel were suspicious of the forest, falling for the myth that has been passed down through generations. The guys in the group thought Nina and Mel were being pansies, which allowed them to put on this heroic face. The group followed different trails and ribbons deeper and deeper into the forest with the thought they would easily be able to find their way back, but that wasn’t the case. They found a decent camping ground and it isn’t until the sun rises the next day where their worst nightmares will come true. When they wake up, there is one person missing from the group. It all starts with one. Frantically, Nina races through the forest looking for Ben, knowing that it wasn’t like him to vanish. While searching deeper, Nina comes across Ben’s body swinging from a towering tree. One was down, many to go. As days continue to roll on and they have lost their sense of direction, different people continue to drop and weirder events continue to happen. Different sounds appear and different figures are making themselves known. Another member of the group contracts a severe form of food poisoning and struggles to keep the contents of his body inside. The other members of the group become more and more frustrated. It wasn’t until Tomo disappeared where different events became suspicious. Similar to Ben, he was found swaying in the trees, but there was something different. There was a bash against his head that showed he was murdered. The deaths of the group members didn’t revolve around suicide and depression. It was murder. That realization was the moment things became unusual. Little eyes appeared in the darkness of the forest. Different signs appeared and disappeared. When it came to the ending, that was where the interest was lost. The ending threw me for such a loop that I was dumbstruck. It was by far one of the most graphic and unusual endings I have ever read. According to Jeremy Bates and his creativity, the murderer lurking through the forest was a park ranger who had the intention that he was there to kill male travelers and abduct the wives, making them into sex slaves. The women would then reproduce. The children lurking in the forest are the offspring of rape victims. The ending turned completely around from paranormal to sexual abuse.

In my personal opinion, the ending ruined the beginning of the book. If these facts would have appeared in the beginning, there is a 99 percent chance that I would have dropped it completely and demanded my money back. The contents of the book up to the last few chapters were amazing. I couldn’t put it down. There were moments where I had to return to work but I would run over my break time just to see what would happen next. It was the surprise twist that Bates offered that took away all my interest. There were even moments where I said “Really? This is what is happening?” I was disappointed. There were so many great endings that could have been used that would have made the book phenomenal, but Bates went with the ending that was so out of character and out of plot. For whatever reason, his books are out of print and I had to spend my own money to find out that this book has one of the worst endings offered. Come on, Bates, you are going to make the culprit a sex-crazed maniac who chops out people’s eyes and tongues then rapes them until they reproduce? That was not the route I was hoping he went down, but he did. I went on a fictional journey through Suicide Forest and quite frankly the ending made me want to commit suicide. Hey, Barnes and Noble, can I get my money back?