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aisclaradm's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Amazing and terrifying. I had seen and loved the film and thought that maybe knowing the story would make the experience of reading it less enjoyable, but the slight differences in the story to the film and the way the suspense is written made it as spooky and fascinating as it could possibly be. Everything made sense, and every action by the protagonist was rational — I felt utterly engrossed in the story, and felt truly chilled as I read it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Grief, Death, and Car accident
Moderate: Terminal illness
Minor: Vomit
crow_ley's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This is my favourite book of all time, just read it after 4 years again and loved it. this is such a classic, gothic ghost story and it really sucks you in to the world, i felt like it was all happening to me which made it so much more terrifying. i struggled to put this book down, it is amazingly well-written, i would strongly recommend!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death, and Mental illness
Moderate: Car accident, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, and Animal death
booksojwhi's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Death, and Grief
Minor: Animal death
tillynancy's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident, Child death, Gore, and Grief
markedwithanm's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
1.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Death, and Child death
agnela's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A huge disappointed but still better than some other books I've read in 2023. Could be better if I would have read it younger. It git me spooked out at some point, and would be great for a chilly autumn evening. But the writing could have been better. Now it was just boring and a bit annoying not mentioning it took me out of reading flow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, and Death
atalea's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Car accident and Child death
ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
“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
Graphic: Child death, Grief, Car accident, and Death
hannahelizza556's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The book is very different to the film which was a really good surprise. The book opens with Arthur Kipps as an old man with his family. It isn't until towards the end of the story that the reader finds out about Eel Marsh House. I really wanted to keep reading this book, the length of the chapters were quite short which added to the suspense so kept reading.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Child death
nyssa_jo's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Car accident and Grief