Published by Vintage
Originally published in 1983
It's hard for me to find a book or movie that will actually scare me. I guess when you catch your husband naked, with a naked woman you've never seen before, and subsequently have to spend the winter in a cabin in the woods miles from civilization (I'm only slightly exaggerating, but I'll let you ponder which part), not much can match the jolt of fear I've already experienced.
The Woman in Black was originally published in 1983, but as you probably know, has been made into a movie with Daniel Radcliffe (You can check out the trailer in my pre-review here). At only 160 pages, the book is more novella than novel, and I'm interested to see how they extend the story for the movie.
The writing in this book had a lyrical, soothing quality to it, which was a fantastic balance to a creepy story that unfolded slowly. The setting was described perfectly, and was almost a story in itself - which is rare for me to say, because I'm usually all about the plot itself, and tend to hate drawn out setting details (The Night Circus, I'm looking at you!).
The story was creepy, and sad, but unfortunately, it didn't give me the actual scare that I was looking for (cut me some slack, I have no life, I need to get my thrills from somewhere other than drunkenly posting on Craigslist). Not to give anything away, but the part with the dog in the marsh? That part scared me the most, in more than one way!
I found the ending to be a little predictable, but all in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Even though it was missing the scare-the-crap-out-of-me factor I was looking for, it was still a haunting and emotional read that stayed with me long after I devoured it's few pages.
I can definitely see why it was made into a movie, and I can't wait to see if it's as chilling as the original story.
Speaking of chilling, it's Shamrock Shake season. Just thought I'd put that out there.
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