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exorcismemily's review against another edition
4.0
"No matter what dreams you pour into it, this is still the Murder House.
The Woman in the Dark is a good dark thriller with horror tones. I loved hearing about the house and seeing everything unravel! I wish that it would have ended up being a little bit more sinister in the end, but I still had so much fun reading it.
I figured out some stuff in advance, but it didn't lessen my enjoyment. I was captivated the entire way through the story. I don't want to give away anything, so I'm not going to say much else. I'll definitely be checking out whatever Vanessa Savage does next, and dark domestic thriller fans should definitely pick this one up!
The Woman in the Dark is a good dark thriller with horror tones. I loved hearing about the house and seeing everything unravel! I wish that it would have ended up being a little bit more sinister in the end, but I still had so much fun reading it.
I figured out some stuff in advance, but it didn't lessen my enjoyment. I was captivated the entire way through the story. I don't want to give away anything, so I'm not going to say much else. I'll definitely be checking out whatever Vanessa Savage does next, and dark domestic thriller fans should definitely pick this one up!
kitkat175's review against another edition
2.0
This book is about a family that moves back into there father's childhood home, which also happened to be the scene of a triple homicide. Can Sarah uncover the secrets of the Murder House before another family is destroyed?
This book was creepy, but a decent read. I did not expect much from this book I did find this book on sale. I felt like the house changed everyone not just the dad but everyone in that house. Can we just talk about the daughter for a couple of seconds, she was a harsh bitch and the fact that she told her father everything because he kept rewarding her and giving her jewellery. Something was wrong with the daughter in this book. She was so mean to her mother. I liked this book and I am glad that I read it but I have read better Murder Mystery reads. I will probably give this book to one of the little libraries that are near my house. Also the last thing I would do is move into a haunted house where people were murdered, I would go so far away from it. I got threw this book, which means I didn't DNF it, which means it's better than most books that I have read. I think the only character that I liked in this book was Joe. This book I felt was a slow read and just not anything special. I don't know if I'll be picking up another book by this author, because this one just kind of fell flat for me.
This book was creepy, but a decent read. I did not expect much from this book I did find this book on sale. I felt like the house changed everyone not just the dad but everyone in that house. Can we just talk about the daughter for a couple of seconds, she was a harsh bitch and the fact that she told her father everything because he kept rewarding her and giving her jewellery. Something was wrong with the daughter in this book. She was so mean to her mother. I liked this book and I am glad that I read it but I have read better Murder Mystery reads. I will probably give this book to one of the little libraries that are near my house. Also the last thing I would do is move into a haunted house where people were murdered, I would go so far away from it. I got threw this book, which means I didn't DNF it, which means it's better than most books that I have read. I think the only character that I liked in this book was Joe. This book I felt was a slow read and just not anything special. I don't know if I'll be picking up another book by this author, because this one just kind of fell flat for me.
djgroupi's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book was okay. Interesting enough for me to finish but the story didn't totally grab me.
tatyanavogt's review against another edition
4.0
I wanted to know how it ended, even though I was annoyed by the characters actions. Overall it was pretty good.
paulabrandon's review against another edition
2.0
This is one of those books that can only exist if your main character is a complete and utterly useless numbskull. Sarah Walker deserves some sort of medal for being the most incapable protagonist in recent domestic thriller memory. As the novel starts, she has just emerged from a dark place after the death of her mother. All that progress is lost when it appears she overdoses on drugs. Her husband, Patrick, decides the best thing to do is sell up and move into his childhood home, which has just come on the market.
Except, 15 years earlier, said house was the site of a grisly triple murder. Roll eyes here.
Sarah and Patrick and their two kids, Mia and Joe, move into the house. Sarah is determined to make a go of it, despite the house's history, which she just can't get out of her head. But there are unexplained cold spots in the house. Markings left on the walls from the previous occupants won't go away even after painting over them. But forget any ideas about this being a haunted house novel. It's not. It's a bizarre element in what is otherwise your standard unreliable female narrator psychological thriller.
Husband Patrick slowly but surely starts becoming a different person. Paranoid, short-tempered, close to violence. (And no, he's not being possessed by the house.) Patrick is clearly an abusive husband. He controls their finances (he makes Sarah use her mother's inheritance to purchase his childhood home.) He berates Sarah, belittles her, gaslights her, tells her she's not good enough. And for about 80% of the book, Sarah just puts up with it! Granted, she's scared she'll lose Joe, as he is actually Patrick's child with another woman, but it just goes on too long.
The book hits a holding pattern as we wait for the plot twists that we can clearly see coming from about 60 pages in. Patrick is mean and evil and controlling. Sarah finds way to excuse his behaviour. Daughter Mia is a complete snot to her mother, telling her everything is her fault. Rinse and repeat. The problem is that Sarah is mildly aware of her situation, and just refuses to do anything about it. It was utterly infuriating. It's not fun reading about a protagonist who essentially is just sticking her head in the sand for nearly the whole book. And really, even in 2019, when this was published
It was well-written enough to keep me reading. But it didn't offer anything new or original. It was very predictable, and that simply couldn't overcome the tedium of having such a clueless, useless protagonist who refused to believe, for far too long, what was right in front of her eyes.
Except, 15 years earlier, said house was the site of a grisly triple murder. Roll eyes here.
Sarah and Patrick and their two kids, Mia and Joe, move into the house. Sarah is determined to make a go of it, despite the house's history, which she just can't get out of her head. But there are unexplained cold spots in the house. Markings left on the walls from the previous occupants won't go away even after painting over them. But forget any ideas about this being a haunted house novel. It's not. It's a bizarre element in what is otherwise your standard unreliable female narrator psychological thriller.
Husband Patrick slowly but surely starts becoming a different person. Paranoid, short-tempered, close to violence. (And no, he's not being possessed by the house.) Patrick is clearly an abusive husband. He controls their finances (he makes Sarah use her mother's inheritance to purchase his childhood home.) He berates Sarah, belittles her, gaslights her, tells her she's not good enough. And for about 80% of the book, Sarah just puts up with it! Granted, she's scared she'll lose Joe, as he is actually Patrick's child with another woman, but it just goes on too long.
The book hits a holding pattern as we wait for the plot twists that we can clearly see coming from about 60 pages in. Patrick is mean and evil and controlling. Sarah finds way to excuse his behaviour. Daughter Mia is a complete snot to her mother, telling her everything is her fault. Rinse and repeat. The problem is that Sarah is mildly aware of her situation, and just refuses to do anything about it. It was utterly infuriating. It's not fun reading about a protagonist who essentially is just sticking her head in the sand for nearly the whole book. And really, even in 2019, when this was published
Spoiler
"Oh, no, my husband can't be a gaslighting psychopath," simply doesn't cut it as a plot twist anymore. Yes, he can, and we've had the exact same plot twist in 500 other books now!It was well-written enough to keep me reading. But it didn't offer anything new or original. It was very predictable, and that simply couldn't overcome the tedium of having such a clueless, useless protagonist who refused to believe, for far too long, what was right in front of her eyes.
clioreads_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mrsbear's review against another edition
4.0
This was a good listen. The narrator was great and usually I zone out listening to a female narrate. I think she made the story much more enjoyable and suspenseful.
snarkbrarian's review against another edition
slow-paced
1.75
This book was not for me at all. It was dull and read kind of like a lifetime movie. It wasn't badly written or anything just very tropey for me.