In a Dark, Dark Wood is a psychological thriller by author Ruth Ware.
The Girl on the Train kind of put me off psychological thrillers. I hadn’t read one for a really long time, and I was starting to get excited about them again. Since people have recently really been loving Ruth Ware, I figured this book was a good place to start.
Here’s the cover of In a Dark, Dark Wood:
Love this minimal look.
And here is the synopsis of In a Dark, Dark Wood from Amazon:
“What should be a cozy and fun-filled weekend deep in the English countryside takes a sinister turn in Ruth Ware’s suspenseful, compulsive, and darkly twisted psychological thriller.
Sometimes the only thing to fear…is yourself.
When reclusive writer Leonora is invited to the English countryside for a weekend away, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. But as the first night falls, revelations unfold among friends old and new, an unnerving memory shatters Leonora’s reserve, and a haunting realization creeps in: the party is not alone in the woods.”
Finally, here’s my review of In a Dark, Dark Wood!
I really enjoyed this book.
A little beef with books like this: Number one, they’re sometimes plugged in a way that irks me. For example, Reese Witherspoon plugs this book on the front saying it’s scary.
It is not scary.
Suspenseful? Yes. Page-turner? Yes. Scary? Definitely not.
Maybe to some people that’s just semantics, but to me I was actually more nervous reading the book than I should have been, because I was anticipating it getting scary.
This also happened in a different capacity with The Girl on the Train. It was pegged as “The Next Gone Girl.” Gone Girl gave me nightmares for at least a month and I’m still messed up about it. Comparing that to The Girl on the Train.. I had it figured out about a third of the way through and found it boring. It’s not even worth making a comparison.
So stuff like that really irks me.
Don’t get me wrong, though, this book did a great job of holding back information that I wanted to know and kept me reading until I found it out.
It definitely didn’t disappoint, even though it wasn’t what I was expecting. Not only was it thrilling and mysterious, it also had a lot of character/relationship building/history that I really enjoy reading. It definitely added to the effect.
Other awesome stuff:
The characterization in In a Dark, Dark, Wood was excellent. Early on in the book, I was physically frustrated by it because I hated some of the characters so much. That’s awesome. If you can make me have a physical reaction to a character in a book, that’s good writing.
Overall, 4/5 stars.
If you’re looking for an interesting thriller but you don’t like scary books, this is for you!
Happy reading!
– Paperback Patronus