Best friends Jane and Holly have jumped into the river off Swallow's Nest Bluff hundreds of times. But one day, Holly's jump goes wrong. Her body never comes up, yet something else does-a sad creature of mud, full of confusion and sorrow. It's Holly, somehow, trapped and mixed up with the river. And if Jane can't do something to help, Holly will take everybody down with her-even the people she loves the most. Blending Looking for Alaska's theme of lost friendship with Stephen King's sense of small town horror, The Drowned Forest is a Southern gothic tale of grief, redemption, and the mournful yearning of an anguished soul.