Variations on this kind of ecstatic togetherness recur again and again in Woods, forming delightful tableaus or ominous danger signs, depending on the dear reader's level of cynicism ... About those tomatoes, plucked in fruity organic abundance: Dolan-Leach refers to them as 'lycopenes,' a sign that her mostly well-modulated prose occasionally veers into the overwrought and inflated ... Ultimately it is not sexual entanglements but anti-pesticide, anti-fracking environmental advocacy that dooms Mack's beloved Homestead. Our heroine escapes the inevitable crash with her life intact and the first-person experience fastidiously detailed in We Went to the Woods. Caite Dolan-Leach has crafted a sharp, spellbinding cautionary tale, one that reminds us that even those who do remember the past might also wind up repeating it.
... a suspenseful, sometimes heart-pounding, wholly realistic story of a group of bright young things caught up in a quest to get away from modern society’s ills and create their own lives in their own way.
Dolan-Leach begins the first line of the novel with Mack’s confession: 'I’m the wrong one to tell our story.' But if Mack is an astute observer and an outsider invested in these people and their Great Experiment, she seems like the ideal group member to tell this story. This confession frames the suspenseful novel and adds another layer to its driving question — you can’t help but keep reading to figure out why Mack has reason to leave not only society, but also this new intentional community, this Great Experiment that brought her into the woods.
... tantalizingly mysterious ... Mack—observant, curious, and apt to leap to unwarranted conclusions—makes a likable and understandably unreliable narrator. While the characters are not as well-differentiated as they might be, the setting, traced through a year of seasons, is richly realized, with believable details about the difficulties of farming with little resources and less knowledge. Dolan-Leach grounds the contemporary story in references to earlier American attempts to 'go to the woods' by Thoreau and the many founders of intentional communities in the area in which this one is located, though her attempt to integrate passages from the diary of a fictional resident of one such community into the novel fizzles out ... Equal parts slow-burning thriller and intelligent analysis of the pros and cons of intentional communities, the novel will appeal to those who would rather read about such endeavors from a safe distance than be immersed in their messy reality.
... emotionally satisfying but crowded ... Mack’s stoic exterior and sharp observations provide ballast as the secrets multiply and story lines careen toward an untidy conclusion. Readers who enjoy teeming stories with political bite will be pleased.
