Rainforest

The atmospheric new novel from Sunday Times bestseller Michelle Paver

By: Michelle Paver

Narrated by: Richard Armitage

'Phenomenal. All of the stars... Easily my top read of the year so far' Reader Review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
'Profoundly wonderful storytelling' Reader Review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
'Incredible! Really was an experience like no other' Reader Review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The jungle watches. The dead remember.

The virgin rainforest seems a paradise to Englishman Simon Corbett. A last chance to salvage his career. A final refuge from a terrible secret.

But the jungle is no Eden. It hides secrets of its own. It does not forgive.

As Simon is drawn deeper into its haunted shadows, he learns to his horror that the past will not stay buried. For there are places in the forest where the line between the living and the dead is thinner than the skin of water.

A terrifying supernatural tale from Sunday Times bestseller Michelle Paver, author of Dark Matter, Thin Air and Wakenhyrst.

What readers are saying about Rainforest:

'Rarely have I finished reading a book, immediately returned to the first page and started reading again. Rainforest is utter brilliance.' Carly Reagon

'No one does terrifying like Michelle Paver.' Sharon Bolton

'Paver has proved once again that she is master of the ghost story. With its vivid, brilliantly realised setting and creeping dread, I found this a truly terrifying read.' Rebecca Netley

'Intoxicatingly weird...Takes a stalker story and makes it uniquely her own. She has cemented herself as our modern day MR James.. I can't wait to see what she does next!' Sarah Pinborough©2025 Michelle Paver

Critic reviews

No one does creeping dread like Michelle Paver. With Rainforest, intoxicatingly weird and also prescient, she takes a stalker story and makes it uniquely her own. She has cemented herself as our modern day MR James and as her number one fan I can't wait to see what she does next!

A stunning tale of love, death and what comes after set against the sumptuous backdrop of the rainforest. Rarely have I finished reading a book, immediately returned to the first page and started reading again. Rainforest is utter brilliance.

No one does terrifying like Michelle Paver.

With her latest novel, Paver has proved once again that she is master of the ghost story. With its vivid, brilliantly realised setting and creeping dread, I found this a truly terrifying read.

Michelle Paver is best known as a children's author, chiefly for her wonderful Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, but she can turn a creepy, noirish ghost story for adults with the best. This is the tale of an English scientist in the rainforest in Mexico and his encounters with bloodthirsty spirits. As ever with Paver, this is based on thorough research into the terrain and the folklore of the story. Oh, it's got some nice mantids too.

Rainforest is a powerful and scary tale . . . freighted with unquiet spirits and hallucinatory potions and set at a time when white travellers had scant respect for either the terrain or the people who had lived in harmony with it for centuries . . . skilfully woven into a sumptuous and graphic evocation of the jungle in all its luxuriant and baleful glory, its beauty and its dangers, and the effect it can have on the imagination (Lynne Patrick)

Where the green abyss devours the mind. Hauntingly beautiful.

Michelle Paver treats the jungle as something alive and quietly watchful. Darkness, insects, and the brutal ancient rules of the forest.