These Silent Woods

These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant, first published in 2021, is a psychological thriller. It explores the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as the lengths that a man will go to to remain with his daughter. Cunningham Grant is a two-time winner of the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Prize in Poetry and has written three other novels which, like These Silent Woods, center around themes of history, familial bonds, and nature. Her novels situate these themes alongside current political issues; for instance, Fallen Mountains (2019) is a mystery set against the backdrop of fracking in a small Pennsylvania town. Similarly, These Silent Woods deals with veterans who struggle with their wartime experiences while trying to adapt back to civilian life.

This guide uses the first paperback edition published by Minotaur Books in 2021.

Content Warning: The novel and this study guide depict assault, gun violence, violence toward animals, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Plot Summary

Cooper has been living in a cabin in the woods with his daughter, Finch, for eight years. Each year, his friend from the military, Jake, arrives with supplies to help them get through the winter. However, this year, Jake fails to appear, forcing Cooper to venture into the world for only the second time since moving to the cabin.

Their nearest neighbor, Scotland, visits Cooper and Finch frequently. He brings newspapers that discuss Cooper’s past and watches them from his home. Although Cooper is suspicious of these actions, Finch grows close with Scotland, who brings her gifts.

Cooper decides that he needs to go to Walmart for supplies. Although he takes Finch with him, he forces her to remain in the truck, hiding under blankets. During his trip, Cooper is overwhelmed by the lights, the number of people, and the myriad options in the store. He struggles to interact with a man who sees Finch moving in the back of the truck under the blankets. On the way home, he allows Finch to enter a store with him—her first time in the store and her first time interacting with people other than Cooper, Jake, or Scotland. The experience scares Cooper and threatens their isolation, as he worries over whether they were seen.

When they return to the cabin, Finch sneaks off alone and discovers a camera lens cap in the snow. Convinced that it is Scotland spying on them, Cooper takes Finch to their hunting blind to watch. They witness a young woman taking photos of the area, which causes Cooper to have a panic attack—a legacy of his experiences fighting in the War in Afghanistan.

Cooper slowly reveals his past through reflections and flashbacks. He fought in Afghanistan alongside Jake and killed two civilians, a memory that still haunts him. When he returned home, he and his girlfriend, Cindy, had Finch, but just a few months later Cindy was killed in a car accident while Cooper was driving. As Cooper struggles to deal with the grief over Cindy’s death and to raise Finch on his own, Cindy’s parents—nicknamed “the Judges,” though their surname is Loveland—attempt to have Finch taken from him. Through it all, Cooper battles his PTSD, often having nightmares and visions of civilians carrying weapons, and once pulling out his gun in a crowded diner.

Given everything that he experienced in his past, his PTSD, and Cindy’s father’s employment as a judge, Cooper feels as though he is left with no choice when Child Protective Services takes Finch from him. He goes to the Judges’ home, ties them both up, and kidnaps Finch, eventually bringing him to the secluded cabin on Jake’s property.

Shortly after seeing the girl in the woods, Jake’s sister Marie arrives with supplies for them and reveals that Jake has died. Although Marie intends to leave the following morning, a snowstorm forces her to stay for several days. She quickly bonds with Finch, making Cooper understand how little human interaction, especially with women, Finch has had in the woods. Slowly, Marie also forms a bond with Cooper, who struggles with his feelings for her and his desire to remain isolated.

One day, the town sheriff arrives at the cabin, searching for the young girl—Casey—that Finch and Cooper had seen in the woods. They find out that she has been missing for several days and was last seen by her boyfriend. As Finch and Cooper hide in the basement during the sheriff’s visit, Marie is forced to lie and say that she is alone. When the sheriff leaves, Marie confronts Cooper about his past, and he reveals everything to her.

Meanwhile, Finch recognizes Casey from the picture on the flyer and reveals to Cooper that she has been secretly visiting her and watching her. The last time Finch saw Casey, she witnessed Casey’s boyfriend fighting with her and shot him with a rock.

Finch’s revelations force Cooper to make a choice: He can withhold the information they have from the police and risk the truth about Casey never coming out, or he can go to the police and risk their life of isolation. Ultimately, several things convince him that he needs to go to the police: the danger Casey’s boyfriend poses to Finch, his desire to impress upon Finch the importance of doing the right thing, and Marie’s insistence that Casey’s parents deserve to know what happened to her.

Cooper goes to the police station to turn himself in and instructs Marie to take Finch to her grandparents’ house. However, before he can do so, a bystander tells him that someone else—who turns out to be Scotland—got there first. In order to protect Cooper and Finch, Scotland had told the police how to find Casey’s body. Knowing that there were images of Cooper and Finch on Casey’s camera, Scotland also tells the police that he killed them and destroyed the physical evidence, thus allowing Cooper’s identity to remain concealed. Cooper returns to the cabin without talking to the police. Thanks to Scotland’s confession, Cooper and Finch are now presumed dead, and Casey’s body is found with evidence that implicates her boyfriend in her death.

Marie decides to stay with Cooper and Finch at the cabin. They live together for the next eight years until Finch turns 16. By that time, Marie has convinced Cooper to allow Finch to return to her grandparents and attend school. At the conclusion of the novel, Finch is 19, having finished high school and her first year of college. She returns to the cabin where Cooper and Marie live together.