Thank you NetGalley for this digital arc for a honest opinion and review.

Michelle Paver always manages to astonish me with her in depth detail research and haunting settings . I believe she could write a book about Disney world or even santas work shop and make it deeply moving and eerie.

This book is set in rainforest, focusing on a professor escaping a haunting accident where his infatuation of love has been killed in a car accident. He’s middle aged never experienced love and is into insects he’s on a journey to forget what happened and maybe clear his mind of Penelope and his guilt over her death.

So he travels with an archeologist and a few interested parties who are invested in finding a Mayan wonder or sacred site. Alas it’s been discovered before or hidden.

He’s not the nicest if people he’s not likeable even though he’s moany self involved and completely bonkers I did enjoy reading this story. I read it in two days not being able to put it down apart from sleep.

I learned about ceiba trees, mancids, toads and frogs . How wasps aren’t as bad as I thought they were .

I can whole heartedly they say I will never want to be in a rainforest climb a snowy peak but I’ll
Gladly read anything Michele Paver writes , so involved with the characters , I adore everything she writes i devoured it.

I wonder where her nice horror will be , maybe in Japan or Scotland or even America. I’d enjoy her take on anything the amount of personal experience and research shine through .

Excellent job profoundly wonderful storytelling

I liked the summary and always have a love for bugs and wild nature setting. But I didn't like the diary format and I had really a hard time with the main character.
Not really eerie and horror per se. But some parts was pretty neat in term of chilly ambiance.
I just found the plot a bit light and a real dislike for the self pitying thoughts of the lead.
I didn't really enjoy the ride for those reasons but it is well written and the story is mostly good so I will recommend this book to my audience. .

Michelle Paver is possibly best known for her YA fantasy series Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. However, she also has a strong following among fans of horror and supernatural fiction. Her standalone novels Thin Air and Dark Matter are built on a similar premise: individuals in eerie, extreme landscapes—whether Himalayan peaks or the expanse of the Arctic—start losing their grip on reality and are haunted by ghosts, real or imaginary.

Paver’s Wakenhyrst, published in 2019 and set in the Suffolk Fens on the eve of the Great War, was a departure of sorts, being more of a feminist Gothic thriller with echoes of M.R. James and folk horror.

Rainforest sees Paver return to her winning formula of historical “explorer horror.” The narrator is Simon Corbett, an English professor who, in the 1970s, joins an archaeological dig in Central America—ostensibly to assist on the project but, in reality, for personal reasons: namely, to study the particular mantids living in the area and, at the same time, to distance himself from some unsavoury events back in England. Although the story is told from Corbett’s perspective, in the form of a journal he keeps at camp, he is an unreliable narrator, and the reasons for his temporary exile are revealed only gradually over the course of the book. This adds to the suspense and enhances the novel’s readability. Corbett, it must be said, is also a highly unlikeable character. And although by the end of the novel he becomes a more nuanced figure, it is difficult to shake off the highly obnoxious impression he evokes for most of the time.

The strongest aspect of Rainforest is its atmosphere, with colourful descriptions of flora and fauna (based on the author’s own experiences) that are at once awe-inspiring and unsettling. References to indigenous rituals add a dark tinge to the story, and some scenes are particularly horrific.

This is, on the whole, a gripping read—albeit not particularly innovative, especially for readers of Paver’s earlier fiction.

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2025/07/rainforest-by-michelle-paver.html

I was excited to read this as Dark Matter is one of my favourite books. The story follows Simon, an entomologist, who travels to the rainforest following the death of a woman who he had become infatuated with. I found him a difficult character to like; he’s self-pitying, selfish, and often judgmental, which made it hard to sympathise with his predicament. I think because of this I found the ending somewhat anticlimactic. That said, Michelle Paver’s writing is excellent as usual. I enjoyed the diary format and her vivid and detailed descriptions of the rainforest. However, unlike her previous ghost stories, this one lacked the sense of dread and eeriness that made those so compelling. While this novel didn't live up to my expectations, overall it's an enjoyable read, just missing the tension and unease I was hoping for.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC.

This was such a creepy book. The supernatural elements yes, the danger around every corner yes, but also, the main character himself was a bit of a creep. There was a lot I enjoyed about this book, but what elevated it beyond a very well done, atmospheric horror, was my mixed feelings around our protagonist. We meet him straight away knowing he’s grieving a woman. As we go through the book, we come to understand their relationship and the torment he suffers around her death. I veered dramatically (and frequently) between feeling quite sorry for him and then feeling like he was self-centred and couldn’t see the harm he caused to others. This spiralling conflict made for a really interesting read.

The pacing of this was excellent, there was just enough reflection on the past whilst keeping the action moving in the present. The unveiling on past events made you question the character’s behaviour. He takes quite radical and Ill-advised steps in an already dangerous environment, and we need to understand his past to see why.

The rainforest is integral to this story. It was fascinating to see the character’s conjugation of danger alongside the real jeopardy around every corner. His dismissiveness of the safety advice and guidance he’s offered, really highlights flaws in his personality. Flaws that explain a lot about actions he has taken, and chooses to take as the story unravels.

I found this completely gripping, totally atmospheric, creepy and menacing. I’ve only read three books from this author, but this is certainly my favourite! Couldn’t put it down.

I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

Bugs, sweat, unfriendly plants, and maybe ghosts. In this book we follow Simon, a pompous Englishman who thinks he's too good for jungle camp and makes his disdain known to all involved. We get a first row seat to the whole mess as we read his diary in which he does nothing to improve our perceptions about himself.

The whole book had an old timey feel to it, and not only the diary style, or how he kept addressing a mysterious doctor in his entries, but also the use of highbrow vocabulary which reminded me the feeling of reading a classic H. G. Wells book. The story moved a bit slowly to begin with, but the unnerving dread kept creeping in steadily.

With lush description of the jungle foliage (aka rotting vegetation), creepy crawlies and a touch of the supernatural, Rainforest by Michelle Paver will appeal to readers who enjoy exploration horror and ghost stories.

I found this book to be atmospheric with vivid descriptions and horrific premise.

Doctor Simon Corbett, an entomologist, is an interesting character who feels like a man possessed. His career is in shambles, and he lost goes to a rainforest to save his career while mourning and examining his 'relationship' with a young woman with whom he was obsessed. He is a bit of an odd fellow; he becomes obsessed easily, is haunted by his actions/choices, is socially awkward, and his thought processes are a bit bizarre. He loves insects, but particularly the mantids. He journals his thoughts, what he does in a day, and about those around him.

His interactions with others at the archaeological dig are odd, but they are all a bit odd, a bit off, a bit peculiar. He is not sure what to make of the native Mayans/tribe members. He also must deal with the jungle with its harsh beauty, dark shadows, biting insects, deadly predators, and lush vegetation. He has many expectations for his time in the rainforest but doesn't seem to have much to do. He is asked to help, but he wants to look for Mantids and to tackle his demons.

This was an interesting book as I mentioned. It examines obsession, stalking, paranoia, social awkwardness, predilections, nature, native culture, loneliness, and mental health issues. For most of the book, I wondered if what was happening was real or if he hallucinating the entire thing? This was an odd one, yet I could not put it down. I enjoyed how the book had a sense of foreboding, dread, and danger. This book has a heavy feeling like one might get on a humid day.


Coming in at 240 pages, Rainforest proved to be a fast read. As I mentioned it's a bit different. I have a feeling this is going to be a polarizing book. It's eerie, full of creepy characters, vivid descriptions and atmosphere galore. Be sure to read the author's note at the end of the book.

How bad must a secret be to make you run halfway across the world to a rainforest? That is what Simon Corbett is doing: running away from something so bad, and into the arms of parts of the Amazonian rainforest that has yet been explored. But what will he find there? Or what will find him?

This was a strange and atmospheric story, of a man's guilt and what it drives him to do. A great read!

This was the first novel I've read by Michelle Paver. I'd heard great things about her other novels so was looking forward to it.

Dr Simon Corbett, an entomologist, escapes to the jungles of Mexico to try to get over his grief following his girlfriend's death. It's soon apparent that he's an unpleasant character - obsessive, judgemental (of everyone except the girl he was stalking it seems), creepy, self-obssessed and self-pitying. As a result, I had little empathy for him as he became more disturbed and felt that if the story had ended differently I wouldn't have been upset. I was almost waiting for him to get his comeuppance.

Nevertheless, it was a quick read and Paver has skillfully captured the menace of the rainforest, its vastness and mystery, with detailed description of the flora and fauna.

Down the years I have read a fair bit of Michelle Paver, she is best known for her long running Middle Grade early historical fantasy series Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, which between 2009 and 2022 spawned nine books. She has also written lots of mainstream adult fiction and is well known to horror fans for her highly regarded and atmospheric ghost stories Dark Matter (2010), Thin Air (2016) and Wakenhyrst (2019).

Rainforest is her first release since 2019 and is deeply disappointing. Thankfully, like most of her horror stuff, it is a short read being little more than 200 pages long. Set in a remote part of the Central American area of the Amazon, the descriptions of nature and the rainforest were one of the few worthwhile features, and it is only a shame the central character did not have the same depth. Written in a diary style narrative and set in the early seventies, Simon Corbett is easily one of the most dislikable characters I have come across in years. He never did anything particularly horrendous but was a sorry excuse for a human being and I regret spending so much time with him. You simply cannot build an entire story around a pathetic wimp of a man and expect readers to be engaged and entertained.

The story underwhelms from start to finish. Corbett, who is a botanist, heads to an Archaeological dig in the Amazon and is given very little to do and begins to see weird stuff, possibly connected to a woman he briefly dated back in London. He is more interested in hunting insects than helping with the dig and is dismissive of his colleagues and natives as he becomes more unhinged. The dig goes on in the background, which he contributes nothing to, perhaps the story might have had more legs if he actually did something useful rather than annoy his colleagues.

Fans of this book will undoubtedly argue this was literary fiction, maybe so, but it was also dull, predictable and totally underwhelming. The backstory spills into what went down with the young woman Penny, which was quite interesting as she was much younger than him, and after the big ‘reveal’ I felt like asking the author “is that it?” As Corbett goes off the rails (all rather mildly and gentlemanly) you might think of other, more brutal tales set in remote forests which feature significantly more actions. Sadly, there are no monsters in this story except the odd jaguar, to eviscerate the cast and put the reader out of their misery. As it is written in a loose diary format we only see Corbett’s interpretation of everybody else and as he is a miserable bore the cast is painted in the same droll colours. He is also dismissive and uninformed about the local natives who support the dig.

The book lacks the sense of isolation, dread, and creeping paranoia from Paver’s other horror fiction and ultimately the main plot is incredibly flimsy. The main character spends much of the story in a camp moaning about mosquitoes, and it’s only in the final stretch when things lived up before the big anticlimax. For a moment I thought he was going to go crazy Fitzcarraldo, but the author dials back in favour of something more restrained. There was a fun scene when he experiments with the local drugs but ultimately he was an annoying idiot at the start of the book and 200 pages later he was still an absolute plonker with very little character development along the way. Rainforest has little in the way of redeeming qualities and even the title is boring as hell.

This is a quick read and was more of a novella. Perfect for a little bit of mild horror but without any major scares. It reminded me of The Island of Dr Moreau in some ways (no creature feature or anything like that, just something about the tone).

Simon, and pretty much everyone else, was very much a dislikeable character who I wasn’t rooting for at all and I didn’t really care about what happened to him. I felt sorry for him at times, particularly his past relationships and the way he was treated, but not enough to change my opinion of him in the current timeline or how he treated Penny.

It was atmospheric and had some vivid descriptions of the setting. Perfect for a “summerween” read (I read it in the Summer) but also great for a quick Halloween read (it publishes in October).

After a terrible tragedy, entomologist Simon Corbett seeks refuge in an expedition to the Mexican rainforest.

However, what haunts him finds him again after he climbs the Temple after sunset, ignoring the “superstitions” of the indigenous Yachikel.

Now something new walks in a rainforest already haunted by the recent death of the village shaman.

Fans of Thin Air and Dark Matter will enjoy this new ghost story in the same historical diary style.

Rainforest by Michelle Paver

Thank you very much for the opportunity to read this book it wasn’t really my thing to be honest. Thanks

I always really enjoy a point of view written as a diary. The main character is almost hideously unlikable at least to me and I did find the gradual unveiling of his problematic motivations really contributed to building dread in the story.

I read a lot of Michelle paver in the past; from the Wolf Brother series, which I read with my eldest when he was growing, up to her adult fiction. Dark matter is, in my opinion, one of the best ghost stories I've ever read. I remember feeling somewhat disappointed in comparison with Thin Air and I'm still processing how I feel about Rainforest.

I appreciated in her author's note, Paver does address preemptively, the concerns about some of the views and relationship behaviours of the indigenous peoples in the story and includes a lot of references which I appreciated. And certainly as someone who is not expert in this area, I wouldn't want to pass judgement, but she does at least seem to have done her research which again tracks with the real historical references that she use, for example in the wolf brother series. I do do wonder if there's a way of including this at the beginning as well as I had some worries while reading.

I found the dialogue in this novel. Really drew me in and as always with paver, I absolutely adore the descriptive nature of the prose. Peter has a way of bringing you into whatever environment she is writing that is just lovely even in as oppressive and frightening setting as apparently the rainforest.

I read an arc copy and was very grateful for the opportunity to do that. From a practical point of view there was a change in font from around 70 to 80% into the book. I'm sure this will be picked up in editing.

The virgin rainforest appears to be a paradise to Englishman Simon Corbett—a last chance to salvage his crumbling career, and a final refuge from a haunting secret.

But the jungle is no Eden. As Simon is drawn deeper into its shadowed depths, he discovers that the past refuses to remain buried. In this eerie, atmospheric tale, the boundary between the living and the dead is as thin as the skin of water.

In true Michelle style, the writing is exceptional. Her attention to detail and the depth of research that goes into her work are second to none. Drawing from her own experiences in the jungle, the prose feels remarkably immersive and vivid—you can almost feel the humidity, hear the cacophony of the rainforest, and sense the lurking unease beneath the canopy.

I loved the lush setting and evocative descriptions, which brought the story to life. That said, this wasn’t my favorite of her novels. The male main character, Simon, was quite difficult to connect with. While Michelle is careful to contextualize his attitudes and language as reflective of the period, it did create a barrier to fully engaging with his point of view.

Although there were a few genuinely chilling moments that I appreciated, overall it didn’t deliver quite the same spooky impact as some of her previous ghost stories. Still, I enjoyed the book love Michelle’s writing. Even if this one didn’t resonate with me as deeply as her other works.

Dark, creepy and gripping, the story unfolds through the main character Simon's journal. with secrets from his past and present keeping the reader hooked. The rainforest where the story is set is brought vividly to life creating a very atmospheric and oppressive scene.

That was a great read.
I loved it, It is beautifully written and peopled with some weird characters. The Rainforest is beautifully done, brought to life in descriptions that are vivid, detailed and immersive. The jungle is merciless and fraught with creatures that want to end you both natural and supernatural. I actually felt like I was there when reading this story.
It is a supernatural horror story but it is also a story of obsession. It tells of One man’s attempt to put his past right. This guy – the main character is such a terrible person and says some truly despicable things through his journal. This and the sense of dread that permeates the book made me expect much more from the ending. I felt a bit let down by the ending. Apart from that I loved this book and will be reading other stuff by this writer.

3.5 Stars

I'm probably gonna sound really negative about this one because it's always easier for me to talk about the parts of a book that I don't like 😅 so before I get into it, I did enjoy this. It's a super quick read (just over 200 pages) and has many of the qualities I've enjoyed in this author’s previous work. Michelle Paver’s writing, as always, is absolutely stunning. Her descriptions of nature and the rainforest were vivid and immersive. I found myself highlighting so many parts in the last quarter of the book because the imagery was just so beautifully done. She really has a way of making you feel like you're there, surrounded by the wild.

However, the story itself felt a little underwhelming this time around. The final act was fast paced and full of tension, but the climax arrived so quickly and resolved just as fast. After all that build up, it felt like it was over in a blink. The key moment towards the end was something I’d anticipated, but when it happened, it lacked impact for me. It was mentioned almost in passing, and I think it could’ve benefited from more descriptive detail to really drive home the horror and weight of it. Maybe I’m just used to more graphic horror, but it felt like a missed opportunity to make the payoff land harder.

Having read Michelle Paver’s other books, I was expecting that same sense of isolation, dread, and creeping unease. But here, the protagonist spends much of the story surrounded by other people, in a camp or with a guide, and it’s only in the final stretch that he’s truly alone. For me, it didn’t evoke the same chilling atmosphere as Dark Matter or Thin Air, which both gripped me from start to finish with their remote, claustrophobic settings.

I also struggled with the protagonist's arc. He starts out as a genuinely awful person and says some pretty vile things about the local people and their culture, and while there is a hint of remorse by the end, it felt fleeting. I really don’t think the ending gave us enough of a redemption to justify just how terrible he was in the beginning. That lack of character development made it harder for me to feel satisfied by the conclusion.

If you're already a fan of Michelle Paver, i still think you'll find some enjoyment in this but I definitely wouldn't recommend this one as a starting point for new readers 😬

The main character in this is THE WORST. Which I know is a point. A great, creepy story and the rainforest setting really adds a layer of weird and oppressiveness. The only thing I would say is it's quite hard to be really rooting for the main character to live when he's so incredibly annoying.

Set in 1973, the story follows Simon Corbett as he joins an archaeological expedition in Mexico. The story is told through Simon's journal as he tries to come to terms with his past. The more time he spends in the rainforest, Simon becomes increasingly haunted by both the past and the rainforest itself.
Michelle Paver writes well and this is an excellently researched book. The mystery and horrors of the jungle are vividly brought to life. Unfortunately Simon is an obnoxious and opinionated main character. Through the medium of his journal, we only have his point of view. I found it impossible to build any rapport with Simon and so I didn't feel invested in the story. In the end this was a disappointing read.