The Forest

by Justin Groot

On an Earth with titanic forests instead of oceans, highly trained rangers brave the depths to bring back footage of treacherous landscapes and ferocious beasts. It’s a dangerous job, but it has its when a trio of ranger recruits stumble across a strange artifact, they begin to unravel a mystery with planet-spanning ramifications. The only problem is, if they’re going to uncover the truth, they have to survive the worst the forest can throw at them first.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror

211 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 25, 2015

Reviews

[sophia the first · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author wrote a trilogy based on a Reddit post. Basically what if all the earth’s oceans were replaced by a massive jungle? The main characters are explorers who go into the jungle and fight a bunch of massive animals and bugs and try to figure out what’s going on.

Random thoughts:
1. They only got paid 500,000 American dollars a year to trek into the jungle and be chased by all manner of terrifying insects and stuff. Are you kidding me? I would need at least 5 million. You’re going to traumatize me and let serious threats be placed on my life and only give me 500,000 dollars? But upon reflection I guess that’s what being a soldier is and they don’t even get that much money.

2. You know the books that have the most vivid, interesting side characters and the main character is a mediocre white boy? (Spy School, Ready Player 1, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson…) This book also suffers from mediocre white boy syndrome. I think authors do that so any dude can just imagine himself into the main character role because he has absolutely no characteristics. Helloooooo, girls exist too. It’s like all this good stuff happens to this mediocre white boy, and he’s just kind of gifted the main character role but it’s totally uncalled for. Idk if that makes sense. I just feel like often, in these kinds of books, there’s a side character who screams main character energy and we just ignore them because they are non-white, a girl, a redhead (we see you Ron), half-goat (go Grover), etc.

Wait I thought a little more and it was never specified that the MC was white, but I think it was pretty obvious he was supposed to be white. The author does get diversity points for side characters.

3. So tell me why every single female in this book was either a romantic interest or painted as a stone-cold meanie? (Or both, post-rejection but not going to spoil). The girl characters either had to crush on the main boy characters or be totally unloveable. Another vague confusing rant of mine but if you get it then yay.

4. A guy friend of mine told me to read this, we’ve been friends since 5th grade. He developed a crush on me this year and it’s weirdddd but that’s why I read this book through a strong feminist lens. The crush is unrequited because he sees girlfriends as things to win, and this book supported that subtle objectification mindset in my opinion so that’s why I was kind of a hater about the anti-feminist elements.

But really it was a decent read overall.

[Dominic · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are so many things wrong with this book, I'm not even sure where to start. The Forest is a great concept for a book, set in a world where the oceans are replaced by giant forests, occupied by enormous, carnivorous creatures. It follows the story of a forest ranger who needs to go on expeditions into the forest.

However, Justin Groot failed miserably at making this any good, and I had to force myself to finish. The whole book reads like it's just a first draft that the author thought was "good enough", and then moved on. There are so many things that just haven't been thought through. I'm going to list issues I had with The Forest below.



1) It is never properly explained what the point in the rangers' expeditions are. They seem to spend a few days wandering in random directions, getting attacked by giant creatures, and then wandering back to the coast again. They wear body cameras, and it's suggested that the data will be used to get an idea of what's in the forest, but how? They don't have maps, or even a plan of where to go and what to look for. They just wander around at random, which is completely useless for anybody trying to map out the forest.

2) Way too much of the book is just descriptions of action scenes where the group is attacked by one giant creature after another. It's incredibly repetitive. The following quote pretty much sums up a huge portion of the book:

"But before I even picked myself up again, I realised things were about to get worse, because pillbugs never run like that unless something was chasing them, and sure enough after the pillbugs came a huge, towering, horrifically gigantic praying mantis, enormous serrated forearms folded up near its thorax, the thorax itself like a thick electric-green rocket booster."

Ignoring the fact that "a huge, towering, horrifically gigantic praying mantis" sounds like something a 10 year old would write, this bloated sentence is a perfect summary of the book. One big creature attacks the group, then they fight it off/escape, then another comes, then they fight it off/escape, repeat ad nauseam.

These long action scenes describing being attacked by various giant creatures might be cool on a visual medium, but reading them over and over again in a book just gets boring after a while. It's the same thing each time, just with a slightly different creature.

3) Why does only one member of the group carry an assault rifle while the others all carry 10mm pistols? It's even mentioned that the pistols are pointless:

"And you know that the 10mm I lost wouldn't dent hardly anything anyway."

Again, ignoring the child-like grammar, why aren't they all carrying assault rifles then? They could each carry a rifle and a sidearm. It makes no sense whatsoever.

4) There's very little consistency between the sizes of the creatures that they encounter in the forest. There are "Winnebago-sized" bugs, and snakes the size of subway trains, but the iguana is only 20 feet long? There's also very little consistency between how regularly they encounter creatures in the forest. For some reason they go for hours at a time without coming across any creature at all, then get attacked by loads of different creatures all at once. Shouldn't a giant forest be swarming with creatures?

5) The dialogue is pretty terrible throughout the book. Here's a great example:

"How was the flight?" he asked.
"It was fine," said Li.
"Yes," I said. "It was fine."

Did the author seriously read that back to himself and think, "Yep, sounds good. That's definitely how human beings talk."?

6) At one point we're told:

"In the 80s the US army tried sending a full battalion of soldiers into the forest" who ended up getting almost completely obliterated.

Why the fuck did anyone think sending a battalion of soldiers in was a good idea? Seriously, what was the end game there? To kill a few insects? What were few hundred men going to do against a giant biome that covers most of the surface of the Earth? I can't think of a single benefit to a suicide mission like that.

7) After Tetris, Li and Zip find the strange stones, they decide to go straight to the news when they return because they think this means there's a huge conspiracy that the feds are covering up for some reason.

"At best, Li and I were probably headed for jail. At worst, the government would find a way to make us disappear. I couldn't see a way out."

First of all, why are they assuming any of that would happen? All they know is that they've found a couple of strange stones in the forest. Plus, they haven't even bothered to try and ask other rangers about them. Their plan is to go straight to the news. It doesn't make sense. But anyway, they risk their own lives to expose this conspiracy, which literally amounts to some strange stones found in the forest.

When they get picked up when they leave the forest, Tetris considers murdering all of the soldiers in the van. Why? All they know is that they saw a few random stones... Why do they think they're in such deep shit?

8) When Tetris and Li met doctor Alvarez, she started explaining the top secret history of the forest to them, even though nobody asked her to, and she doesn't even know who they are. Plus, there was the insanely cliched hologram of a "slowly-twirling molecule" when they walked into her lab.

9) When being told about their mission near Hawaii, they're not told anything other than they have to go into the forest to investigate an "electromagnetic anomaly" (another cliche). Also, why are Tetris and Li the "obvious choice" for this mission? Because they accidentally saw some stones? If they already have a top secret base on Hawaii, why not send some guys who already work there?

10) Hollywood: "I've been staying off the radar." - whilst drinking in a bar right near the ranger training centre.

11) "When Li turned away, I saw Hollywood's eyes flit downward along her body. Suddenly I was furious. What right did he have to ogle her in public?" - even though Tetris has been doing the exact same for half the book. In fact, all (i.e. both) female characters in the book are partly there for Tetris to develop a child-like crush on them.

12) They know where the electromagnetic anomaly is, so why don't they air drop them right near it, rather than making them walk for days through the forest towards it? Surely that's much safer.

13) On page 156, it says, "I closed my ears and listened". This is clearly a mistake (or, at least, I hope it is) and goes to show how this book desperately needs to be heavily edited.

14) When the giant centipedes are attacking the Hawaiian base, Tetris and Li come across a guy whose back is broken. Tetris immediately picks him up in a fireman's lift. Surely anybody would know not to do that to somebody who might have a broken back.

15) "Actually, there's one thing that does scare me," said Li.
"What's that?"
"That fucking tablet," said Li. "Because whatever made that tablet - it isn't dumb. It might even be smarter than me. It's smart, and for all we know it might be evil too. And that's the scariest fucking thing I can imagine."

There's literally no reason for her to assume any of that.

16) Too many jarring references to Yelp, Tinder, etc.

17) "Probably the majority of the dragons were now occupied, ..."

Again, terrible grammar. This book needs a major edit.

18) On page 201:

"... a voice beside my ear breathed a single word:
"TETRIS""

Why capitalise a breathed word? In fact, there's a major overuse of capitalised dialogue in this book.

19) It's revealed that there are thousands of warheads pointing at the electromagnetic anomalies around the world. Why? Nobody knows what they are, so they're going to bomb the planet? That's such a dumb idea.

20) For the entire book, I was waiting for the actual plot to get going, but it never really did. The plot should have been about the rangers properly investigating the stones, and answering a load of questions along the way. Instead, we get a load of long, drawn-out action scenes, with very little pay off. There's not even any tension in the action scenes because nothing is at stake. I don't care about the bland characters and I don't even know why they're in the forest to begin with.



What happens right at the end is the first thing in the book that I thought was interesting. The entire book should have been condensed down to a few chapters, and then the story should have been based on what follows. If the author is trying to make me purchase a sequel to find out what happens, then he can forget it. Finding out what happens next isn't worth putting myself through another novel like this.

[Catherine Cai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had so much fun reading this. The tone of the book is the perfect, unexpected mix of dark and whimsical, and the dreamscape of The Forest involves some seriously delicious imagery. Like, The Forest has pretty much everything you might want in a sci-fi novel: literally lush descriptions, a plot jam-packed with action and overgrown monsters, lovable and often exaggerated (and diverse!! strong women!! PoC!!) characters, plus writing that exhibits such playfulness and downright irreverence at times that you get a pretty good sense of what a fun goofball the author must be at a party (or convention..?)

P.S. I have to rebut a few points in Dominic's review, because I disagree with them so completely. The review criticizes the writing for including descriptions like "horrifyingly gigantic" that sound like they came from "a 10-year-old," but I appreciate the freshness and humility of, for example, describing "orange goo" leaking out of an insect as exactly that.
This reviewer also said the references to Google, Yelp, etc. are "jarring." But I loved how that the mention of these super familiar fixtures contrasted against the totally alien world of The Forest. That had to be done intentionally, and I tip my hat to the cheekiness of it.

[Цветозар · Rating 3 out of 5]

Втората книга от тази поредица съдържа фактът, че е продължение на тази книга в титлата си, факт, който аз лично смятам за малоумен, тъй като тази книга също трябваше да е титулована "Гората: предистория на Бледа Зелена Точка". Съмнявам се, че съм единственият човек, който очаква една книга да стъпва на двата си крака, вместо да се подкрепя единствено върху сериализация, за да задържа интерес. Даденост е, че ако ще бъде поредица, трябва да има загадката за продължение, но преди това трябва да завърши една история, а "Гората" не завършва нищо.

Не е лошо като за най-голяма моя кавга с този роман, тъй като преди края не усещаш как край всъщност няма. Книгата е лекичка и кратичка, езикът не е ненужно пурпурен, а екшън сцените са доста готини и запълнени. Хубаво е и че сюжетът не дееволюира до прост YA романс, тъй като главният герой е яко във френдзоната.

Вторият ми проблем обаче идва с worldbuilding-а на Грут. Не мога да бъде убеден, че цялата история на човечеството ще се развие по абсолютно същия начин, ако океаните са огромни гори пълни с огромни, свръхагресивни същества. Брегът изисква вардене, а книгата ясно описва как това не е много ефикасно дори с модерни оръжия. Вярно, че праисторическите хора са се сбивали с мамути, но това вече си е друго.
Подхвърля се леко обяснение за океаните, че има някакви въздушни кораби, които заменят нормалните кораби, но това не обяснява как Япония примерно лови риба, или в този свят шушито е несготвено насекомо месо от горните листа на гората?
А да не говорим как липсата на океани коренно променя почти всяка митология/религия от нашата синя точка, или как прясна вода от изпарения няма да стигне за нито една река.

Интересно е изпълнението, донякъде. Мисълта зад света може да се опрости, книгата не е идеалистична, прилича повече на екшън филм със сай-фай елементи върху хартия, което не е лошо нещо, не може всяка литература да претендира с философия.

[Jacob R · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.2
A very fun and interesting premise that delivered on the monster/creature aspect. However, I felt like the writing was choppy and failed to create any world building, when this easily could have been a greet immersive world/series. It did pick up more towards the end of the story and I hope the momentum continues in the second book.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of fun but very amateurish. But what do you expect from someone who turned a Reddit post into a book.

[Mehdi MK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huh
That was a quick and interesting ride!

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick entertaining sci-fi read

[Shh I am Reading Leticia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. Visit me at: Shh I Am Reading for more reviews.

This story has such great potential but it unfortunately fell flat for me. It needs some refinement, such as world building and some major character development.

One would assume that the containment of these monstrous creatures would be the forefront. Animals migrate. As our fossils and current animal migrations, they go where food and water are. I cannot see these animals and insects being part of these forests where oceans once resided. The other issue is that these creatures see us humans as food, we're significantly smaller than them. We're dessert on a good day.

Some of the lack of world building would be the jarring references to modern day conveniences like Google and Tinder. One would think that these forests would mean that the history and legends, myths of that Earth would be far different. Humans explored constantly throughout history, I would think some of that forest was part of the history.

It's really too bad there was little work done on this because seriously, that's an awesome story idea! It makes you think of Jurassic Park and Predator but with giant, carnivorous bugs and animals. Eep!

I know I'd never be able to be a ranger. I faint at the sight of small centipedes now, I can't imagine them as two or three times the size of me. No thanks. Nuh uh.

Good on Justin for trying. I just hope a bit more effort is put into future novels.

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not nearly ready for publication. The whole world is only given surface-level thought without any of the WHYs that make sci-fi/fantasy engaging. It's a smattering of ideas without applying rigorous thought to repercussions and reasons and differences.

As a result, none of the foundational details make sense. Why are the Rangers are so poorly equipped and so highly paid for a job with no compelling reason; why are there "coastal cities" with an impassable, dangerous, and not remotely forest as the "ocean"; how would society and its myths and resources be different?

It's a lazily imagined world. Oh, and the references to Tinder, Yelp, Google, and the like will be so jarring you'll consider dropping the book.

Disappointing. I had such high hopes (and frankly positive bias) after having enjoyed the initial short story almost a year ago. And it still could have had redemption if the conclusion weren't similarly rushed and basic.

On the plus side: Some decent forest action

[Rob Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea is pretty cool and I thought the writing was decent. It's a bit heavy on action scene descriptions and maybe a bit light on character development but it's a quick read and I'm glad I read it. By the end of the book I was engaged enough that I wanted to see how it was going to turn out and then .... it ended. I hope there is a follow-up.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF.

There were quite a few fundamental flaws to this novel, which a professional editor would have never let see the light of day.

1. What are the stakes of the three characters' choices to go into the forest? I have no idea why anyone ventures into the forest, other than for entertainment value. Since I don't know what they're trying to do, other than make tons of money capturing crazy footage, I don't know what the stakes are for their choices, other than death. However, since it's the beginning of the novel and I don't know these characters, I don't care if they die, so that stake isn't well-established enough to be a true stake. The set-up here--three characters try to survive in a forest in order to make money--is therefore extremely superficial, and it's very obvious that it's meant purely to get to the first plot point. It's like seeing the support struts on Godzilla; it took me out of the story, and, worse, bored me.

2. Another contrivance meant to advance the plot, but which made no sense in story: the characters' decision to go directly to media outlets when they found the monument in the forest. They immediately jumped to a conclusion that "the government will kill us for merely knowing about these," which is not supported by anything that happened previously. Again, I see the hand of the author, forcing the characters to do something because they want to advance their plot.

By the way, this was the scene I had to put the book down.

3. The characters were some of the flatest characters I've read in a long, long time. I have no idea what motivates them or, again, what the stakes of their decisions are.

4. The premise of a terrifying forest is fun, however, terror only exists when there's suspense. If you have a whole bunch of giant bugs or lizards attack the characters on every page, this makes the forest extremely boring and predictable. Give me hours of wandering in the forest with the occasional noise that might be the wind or might be a predator stalking them. Make something chase them and then they lose sight of it and now have to face the uncertainty of "is it still out there and watching us, or are we in the clear?" The forest scenes felt like they were written by someone who needed to get all of their ideas out all at once, which, ironically, made for boring scenes set in a boring setting.

5. The entire world felt flat, with none of the wonderful atmosphere that seeps from the pages in novels in which the setting itself is a character (eg, Amberlough).

tl;dr, It feels like the author is under the impression that a story is merely a series of related events. There was no start of a character arc, no central/thematic question, no believable or interesting stakes/tension/conflict.

Overall, this felt like a rough draft that's in dire need of a developmental edit.

[Carl Wills · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up The Forest from a large used book sale in 2016 or 2017 because the cover was intriguing and it seemed like it came from a small printing. Since then I've finished it twice! First when I thought it was the only book in the series, and now again that I have read the second and found that the author finished the trilogy with the release of the third book!

It is the first book in "The Forest" trilogy.

Note: I own a dark cover version of The Forest. I believe Justin Groot has released an updated version of the novel with a light cover, matching the other books in the series. I can only speak from my experience reading the first release of The Forest.

The Forest takes place in an alternate Earth where instead of oceans as we know them, towering and endless forest filled with huge and terrifying creatures exist. The Rangers are a group of elite soldiers trained specifically to enter the forest to learn as much about it as they can and most importantly, survive.

The book follows three Rangers as they go on expeditions into these forests. Although they aren't the most interesting characters I've ever read, and often feel somewhat one-sided, they absolutely work for me. The character decisions and dialog (although often cheesy or short and to the point) all make sense when taken in the context of the world they live in.

That being said, the reason I've invested in this series isn't the characters or their decisions. It's the world. Justin does a fantastic job making the forests of this world feel dangerous, spooky, and mysterious. One moment the Rangers could be eating lunch and the next they could be running from subway sized snakes! With the forest being so dangerous, Justin often has to get fairly gruesome in the descriptions of events or injury. If that sort of thing bothers you, then this might not be for you.

Overall, I love the idea of The Forest and it leaves me wanting more. It was a fun standalone read before I knew that others in the series were going to be released, but I'm very much looking forward to finishing the series for the first time.

[Nolan Christensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book presents an imaginative and intriguing setting with incredible ease of access. It's an addicting read, and I think I actually read through it (for the second time) in about two hours. But it was a good two hours, and the kind that leaves you wanting more.

Pros:
Vibrant descriptions- the forest is occupied with all manner of flora and fauna, described in straightforward manner that incites the imagination.
Character interactions feel realistic in the sense of working professionals and how brash they can be with one another in tense situations.
Mystery and tension is built and pushed along in a straightforward fashion.

Cons:
Does at times feel like a writing prompt sent directly to print- little in the way of developmental or content editing.

All in all, I like this book in the same way I like sword and sorcery fiction- good, adventurous, and otherworldly. recommend to anybody who like forests and monsters and quick reads.

[Jay Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was holding off writing anything on this trilogy of books until I finished them. And damn I had a good time reading this! The whole series was so interesting. The premise is a brainworm, after I heard it but hadn't read the book my mind was engorged with all the potential. So the premise is bonkers but the story is surprisingly real and grounded in the first book: three highly capable "Forest" rangers getting into random troubles and mishaps on their patrolling duties. Fierce giants roam and deadly flora await in the Forest and our group has to constantly survive it. All that nature wants to kill them, like in Australia.

The book ends on a cliffhanger but thankfully there's another one to read and they're only cheap on Kindle/Amazon.

I'm not a mega-reader, I'm slow chipping away at books because I don't make time for reading when theres new Mario Golf, or new fighters for Smash Bros out there... and of course films in 4K HDR with Dolby Atmos spatial audio these words have to compete with! But but but. This has been maybe the most gripping, interesting book series I've read. The full journey from start to finish is a bananas rollercoaster where I'm constantly hooked on 'what comes next' 'what other paradigm shifting plot is the author gonna conjure'. I'm still haunted by some of the imagery, and mused into doodling some art inspired by this story.

It starts with three people walking through a forest that really shouldn't be there... and ends up with psychic tree spaceships. [I wanted to add more here but I also don't want to spoil anything]

[Jay Kent · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this really hard to get through. The lack of paragraphs is a giant concerns and I found myself backtracking to find where the characters came from one location or time to another. There’s a lack of description which I find doesn’t help with my experience with the book, and I found everything happens far too quickly, characters having somewhat impactful deaths in universe but hardly anything was built upon them for me to care.
After some advice I had to drop the book and find something else. The Forest is a good premise, both conceptually as a world and the finer plot, but not enough for me to ignore the quality of the content.

[Joseph DeCrisanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this series based on a Reddit post from r/writingprompts and found out that this book has its origins from a prompt that was once posted there. I ended checking out book 1 since it was cheap and I enjoyed it. This is a fun book while the premise of the book is a little absurd the author does a good job explaining how the world works. While the squared cubed law would crush most of the monsters in this book that doesn’t stop it from being fun. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

[Mona · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting premise that sadly does not get explored enough. Overall, the writing is good but not without problems. There are filler sentences totally void of any function or meaning which is very sad in a book that is under 200 pages.

The characters are bland-ish and mostly stereotypes. The plot is not very elaborate but it works. This book is a short, quick read and there is nothing extremely terrible in it. Sadly, the implementation doesn't do justice to the idea.

[Jack McGowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first third of the book feels far too fast paced for its own good, and comes off as amateur as a result. Going forward the author finds a rhythm that works, but is still held back by the way the book was written-- being posted chapter-by-chapter on Reddit.
The idea is there, and the characters have room to be improved, so I'm looking forward to reading the follow-up "Pale Green Dot".

[Rebecca Adams]

Creative

Wow! I found about this book ages ago on Reddit and just now got around to reading it. I love the concept. It’s rare to find such a uniquely new idea these days. Touch too angsty with the unrequited love though, it just makes the main character come off like an entitled asshole.

[Cullen Fetch · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise of this book is fantastic, as are many r/writingpromts premises. Unfortunately this book takes a terrible turn when a love interest is introduced and it absolutely ruined it for me. Otherwise it was fairly fun, but so were most of the responses to this prompt.

https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPromp...

[Miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A light reading (anything seems light after Helliconia, though) about a small group of young rangers who venture into the Forest, a huge mass of trees that exists in place of our oceans.
I expected a different explanation at the end, but all in all I had a good time reading it.

[Charles Finklea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wonderful premise, amateur writing/execution.

[Liesha · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea behind the story was amazing but Groot is a first time author and it reads like that. He's got a lot of potential.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book

Justin Groot shows a great and direct writing style. Great book with an very very open ending. Absolute recommendation for everyone.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

a fun sleeper of a book. very surprising. fun action from solid characters. great weekend read.

[july]

Read here.

[Cassidy Jennings · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really interesting idea, very poor execution

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging, but oddly weightless.

[Luke Buynack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing adventurous story of an alternate Earth with massive forests in place of oceans. Very fun and interesting read.