Rainforest, the new ghostly thriller by Sunday Times bestselling novelist Michelle Paver, is the ideal read for spooky season! With a compelling but chilling uneasiness, I couldn’t put this book down!
Years ago I was addicted to the creeping dread of Dark Matter, the supernatural bestseller also written by Michelle Paver. The same addiction returned to me whilst reading this new terrifying tale. I was scared out my wits, and thoroughly enjoyed the sensation!
Rainforest is the haunting tale of tortured academic Simon Corbett. Set deep in the Mayan jungle in the early 1970s, Simon is a character that completely creeped me out with his chilling stalkerish behaviour, racist disrespect and arrogant superiority complex. He also fascinated me as his guilt and vulnerability unravelled. Yet even though his vulnerabilities are slowly exposed as the narrative progresses, Simon is a character that I feel many readers won’t empathise with. I certainly didn’t. Nor I feel was I meant to as this brilliant, irresistible, horror story captured my imagination.
All his life Simon has been obsessed with insects. At the age of 42 he travels to the Mayan rainforest to study his beloved insects, especially mantids. But really Simon is trying to save his career, escape his all-consuming guilt and get over the loss of Penelope, the young woman he recently fell ‘in love’ with. Simon’s recent feelings for Penelope were completely new to him as he had never desired women before – apart from the unreachable movie stars when he was a boy. Yet were Simon’s feelings for Penelope love? Or were they obsession?
Simon actually remined me of the spin-chilling Fredrick Clegg, the protagonist in John Fowles classic thriller novel The Collector, that was adapted into a film and nominated for an Oscar. Although very different sinister plots, Rainforest gave me that chilling sense of terror that The Collector also did.
Released in hardback on the 9 October 2025, if you are a lover of horror and love being scared out your wits, Rainforest is definitely for you. It is fast moving, character driven, so compelling and is sure to become a bestseller.
Rainforest should also be adapted into a film. It makes a brilliant story for the screen, in which I imagine the whole audience being on tenterhooks throughout!
Thank you to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to the blog tour of Rainforest. Thank you also to Orion for gifting me a proof copy, a beautiful book that I’ll treasure.
To follow the blog tour, please see below.
