Reviews with content warning for Death - The Woman in Black

“And then, standing among the trunks of the fruit trees, silver-grey in the moonlight, I recalled that the way to banish an old ghost that continues its haunting is to exorcise it. Well then, mine should be exorcised. I should tell my tale, not aloud, by the fireside, not as a diversion for idle listeners—it was too solemn, and too real, for that. But I should set it down on paper, with every care and in every detail. I would write my own ghost story. Then perhaps I should finally be free of it for whatever life remained for me to enjoy.”

TITLE—The Woman In Black

AUTHOR—Susan Hill

PUBLISHED—1983

PUBLISHER—Hamish Hamilton

GENRE—gothic ghost story; felt like a La Llorona retelling maybe?

SETTING—England, but I have no idea what time period 😅, maybe early 20th c? could be earlier though… (still not sure how the house had electricity all the way out where it was but)

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—Ghosts!, turn of the century? England, life in London vs life in the country, modernism vs superstition, what motivates a haunting, death, grief, vengeance

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (It was a three-star plot but a five-star story—BRUTAL ending though 😰)

BONUS ELEMENT/S—<SPOILER>The dog didn’t die! lol 😝</SPOILER>

STORY/PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

PREMISE—⭐️⭐️⭐️

EXECUTION—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Whatever was about, whoever I had seen, and heard rocking, and who had passed me by just now, whoever had opened the locked door was not ‘real’. No. But what was ‘real’? At that moment I began to doubt my own reality.”

Have been curious about this book for a while now and decided to give it a read this #SpookySeason and had a lot of fun! I liked how the MC never doubted for a minute that what he was seeing/experiencing was something supernatural and that his preoccupation was mainly about what he should do about that and what does that mean in terms of his conception of reality? And what can he do, if anything, to help? I also liked the motivation for the ghost’s haunting and thought the ghost’s movements and activities were very believable.

Final thoughts: Definitely one I recommend adding to your TBR if you’re a fan of the traditional British/Victorian/gothic-style ghost stories.

“The weather might change, the wind drop, the sun shine, Eel Marsh House might stand quiet and still. It would be no less dreadful. Whoever haunted it and whatever terrible emotions still possessed them would continue to disturb and distress anyone who came near here, that I knew.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

CW // drowning, death, child deaths, death by vehicular accident (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—

other Gothic & Victorian English (& Irish) ghost stories
Laura Purcell
Edgar Allan Poe
THE SEANCE, by John Harwood
THIS HOUSE IS HAUNTED, by John Boyne

Content Warnings

morgianlefaye's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Content Warnings

folded_between_pages_of_books's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

4.0

Content Warnings

rivercat0338's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Content Warnings

batcaves's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Content Warnings

jodieworton's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book was an intriguing surprise. I’ve never watched the film and got the book from my local charity shop. The book is short but still in depth and moves quickly throughout the story.

We are introduced to Arthur who lives with his second wife and step children, one evening they are recounting ghost stories, this seems to hit too close to home for Arthur and he leaves the room. We are then taken back in time to when Arthur is a newly qualified lawyer and has been given a new job of working on the estate of a recently deceased elderly woman.

It seems straight forward at first, but when Arthur arrives at the town and speaks with locals with why he is visiting, it becomes clear that there is an underlying issue at the premises he has been sent to sort through. What we learn is very sinister, we are reading a proper ghost story,

The narrative keeps you on the edge of your seat right until the very last page! I LOVED how it was written and felt the creepiness throughout the pages!

Moral of the story, don’t piss off the Woman in Black.

Content Warnings

jojoana's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

Content Warnings

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