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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
I think it’s called Eel Marsh House? but I could be wrong, he didn’t mention it much
I had a hard time making the transition from the movie to the book and put this down several times. Apparently my brain has let it go that I could read this with a fresher eye, and I enjoyed this quite a bit.
This is a simple tale, a very pure tale, stripped down to its bare, yet thickly detailed essentials. There is weather, and remoteness, and families, and the unspoken, and packed luncheons, and bicycles, and dogs, and madness, and trains, and carts. And that is very nearly all.
This is a simple tale, a very pure tale, stripped down to its bare, yet thickly detailed essentials. There is weather, and remoteness, and families, and the unspoken, and packed luncheons, and bicycles, and dogs, and madness, and trains, and carts. And that is very nearly all.
I wanted to read this book before the movie came out. It is a decent read, with a good story. However, the language took a while to get accustomed to, which made it harder to delve into the suspense. The story is not wholly original but is still quite intriguing. All in all it is not the best ghost story I have ever read, but it is fairly good.
This book starts as the quintessential and classic ghost story, told around a fire at Christmas. It is set in the cold, windy, and rainy moors of England at a decrepit estate of the late Mrs. Drablow of Eel Marsh where young London solicitor Arthur Kipps is sent to take care of paperwork and see to the funeral of the client. To get there, Kipps travels the eerie moors to Crythin Gifford, a quiet and salted town just past Nine Lives Causeway. Quickly, Kipps notices a gaunt woman in black near the church and events do not stop there. Eventually he reconciles the fact that the estate is haunted after hearing the sound of a pony and trap that isn't anywhere to be seen, a child's scream out in the fog one night, a rocking chair that keeps rocking without a visible body, and finally more of the woman in black. By the end of his stay in Crythin Gifford and the closing of his duties there, Kipps becomes convinced that something more sinister is at play once the Woman in Black affects his own family and life.
A huge part of what makes a good story for me is whether or not the ending is good. A poorly written ending (we've all read time at some point) can cause an entire story and any gained empathy unravel. Along similar lines, when I read a ghost story or a gothic novel, I want it to have a really good plot line and the ending needs to be suburb. With this book I almost gave up because the story, while it is good, moves a little slowly at first. I was worried that the scary scenes and the plot twists would all be quite tame. What makes this book good for me was the ending. I absolutely did not see it coming whatsoever, even though there were plenty of hints in the beginning that I missed.
When I got to the ending, mainly the last page or two, I was blown away and had to re-read it a couple of times just to make sure I got what happened. Without this ending, this book would have been mediocre and not truly scary. While some of the scenes are a bit frightening, namely the rocking chair and the woman in the window when Kipps saves the dog, some of the others were not that scary. I think there is a huge difference between these because when it comes to describing and image scene versus a sound heard, it is much easier for readers' imaginations to see a visual versus try to hear what is mentioned in the book. The way this book is written to sound can also cause some problems when it comes to auditory scares versus visual. Now, if there was a sound track to play as you read this book, this would be a completely different story!
While the scary bits are good and the ending is SUPERB, what the author does perhaps best in this book is set it up as a creepy gothic ghost story and filter in all of those lovely creepy bits to keep the story fed with that gothic vibe. It starts out early with the cheery Christmas turned to ghost stories and continues as Kipps begins to tell his story, how the fog just slowly creeps in covering everything. Add in some rain, some dark forest, strangers, creepy AF place names (Eel Marsh, Crythin Giffords, and Nine Lives Causeway), a dead elderly woman who had no friends and never left her house, a huge and dilapidated house, abandoned child's room with rocking chair, strange sounds in the forest, ghost children's screams, a quicksand pit, the windswept and salty moors, a dog that barks at "nothing," and a scary woman in black who no one else sees. I am sure that I am missing a few things here also. While the overall story is good, the usage of all these small elements that create a mood is really what keeps this story going up to the end.
Overall, I had so much fun reading this! Don't let the language get you because the overall story and the ending really make up for any slow lags in the beginning and middle. I do think this would be an excellent story to read at Christmas, to keep the old ghost story tradition alive, or just to read in the rainy autumn months when we all crave something a bit spooky.
A huge part of what makes a good story for me is whether or not the ending is good. A poorly written ending (we've all read time at some point) can cause an entire story and any gained empathy unravel. Along similar lines, when I read a ghost story or a gothic novel, I want it to have a really good plot line and the ending needs to be suburb. With this book I almost gave up because the story, while it is good, moves a little slowly at first. I was worried that the scary scenes and the plot twists would all be quite tame. What makes this book good for me was the ending. I absolutely did not see it coming whatsoever, even though there were plenty of hints in the beginning that I missed.
When I got to the ending, mainly the last page or two, I was blown away and had to re-read it a couple of times just to make sure I got what happened. Without this ending, this book would have been mediocre and not truly scary. While some of the scenes are a bit frightening, namely the rocking chair and the woman in the window when Kipps saves the dog, some of the others were not that scary. I think there is a huge difference between these because when it comes to describing and image scene versus a sound heard, it is much easier for readers' imaginations to see a visual versus try to hear what is mentioned in the book. The way this book is written to sound can also cause some problems when it comes to auditory scares versus visual. Now, if there was a sound track to play as you read this book, this would be a completely different story!
While the scary bits are good and the ending is SUPERB, what the author does perhaps best in this book is set it up as a creepy gothic ghost story and filter in all of those lovely creepy bits to keep the story fed with that gothic vibe. It starts out early with the cheery Christmas turned to ghost stories and continues as Kipps begins to tell his story, how the fog just slowly creeps in covering everything. Add in some rain, some dark forest, strangers, creepy AF place names (Eel Marsh, Crythin Giffords, and Nine Lives Causeway), a dead elderly woman who had no friends and never left her house, a huge and dilapidated house, abandoned child's room with rocking chair, strange sounds in the forest, ghost children's screams, a quicksand pit, the windswept and salty moors, a dog that barks at "nothing," and a scary woman in black who no one else sees. I am sure that I am missing a few things here also. While the overall story is good, the usage of all these small elements that create a mood is really what keeps this story going up to the end.
Overall, I had so much fun reading this! Don't let the language get you because the overall story and the ending really make up for any slow lags in the beginning and middle. I do think this would be an excellent story to read at Christmas, to keep the old ghost story tradition alive, or just to read in the rainy autumn months when we all crave something a bit spooky.
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
One of the best ghost stories I have ever read!!! Way better than the movie, which of course is the case for most texts.
**SPOILER ALERT**
And for all of you animal lovers out there, consider this a service: the dog does NOT die, so read on with confidence!
**SPOILER ALERT**
And for all of you animal lovers out there, consider this a service: the dog does NOT die, so read on with confidence!
As a disclaimer, I received this as a book giveaway, but that did not bias my view of this novel.
In an culture where soulless vampire and zombie books are the norm, Susan Hill's ghost story is a refreshing work of suspense. She artfully blends language and plot, immersing her reader in an intriguing story. While the introduction was a bit dull, the rest of the book flowed seamlessly and quickly to a heart-wrenching conclusion. A fascinating little tale that will make your toes curl.
It is rare I sit and read a book from start to finish without pause. While not fitfully compelled to finish this novel, I simply could not put it down. A fine work, and a perfect Christmas present from Susan Hill and the fine folks at David R. Godine.
In an culture where soulless vampire and zombie books are the norm, Susan Hill's ghost story is a refreshing work of suspense. She artfully blends language and plot, immersing her reader in an intriguing story. While the introduction was a bit dull, the rest of the book flowed seamlessly and quickly to a heart-wrenching conclusion. A fascinating little tale that will make your toes curl.
It is rare I sit and read a book from start to finish without pause. While not fitfully compelled to finish this novel, I simply could not put it down. A fine work, and a perfect Christmas present from Susan Hill and the fine folks at David R. Godine.
If you are a fan of Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House or Matheson's Hell House, this book will likely be a letdown. Hill's story is obvious and derivative. There is one real moment of tension for the reader for one character, and it's a dog. The characters are barely developed. There is no reason to care about them, the ghost, or indeed anyone in the book as they are mostly one-dimensional. Otherwise, the story lays a Victorian sheen over a modern setting, and it uses elements of the Gothic, but none of it is original or important in any way to the story. The writing is poor in other ways, too. At one point, the narrator describes a car as capacious. A page or two later, the narrator describes a chair as capacious. This same sort of issue happens again later in the book. Most glaring, though, is that the story is telegraphed, so there is no real tension or horror, and I have found this to be an issue in other works by Hill as well. I desperately want more good ghost stories, but I don't think Hill will deliver them.
I read this book after seeing a trailer for the movie, and it seemed short enough that I could finish it quickly in between school assignments. Overall, the prose of the novel is very good and the story is definitely very eerie; however, I felt that on a narrative level, the story wasn't all that original.
Things I Liked
1. Writing Style Hill seemed to be attempting to imitate the writing styles of 19th and early 20th century authors, and I think she achieved the desired effect. I found her prose to be very well crafted to the point where I forgot that this book was written in the 1980s.
2. Suspense: Let me be clear: this novel was not a horror novel, so don’t go into it expecting jump scares or gore. As a suspense novel, however, The Woman in Black successfully employed the techniques that encouraged readers to continue searching for answers. For example, the eerie sounds and the discovery of the letters were particularly interesting, not for creating shock but for making me wonder what was going on with the ghost.
Things I Didn't Like
1. Pace: Unfortunately, the writing style was not enough to overcome the dragging pace of the novel. If you are familiar with the work of Henry James and others, you might be more willing to forgive this, since it does seem Hill is trying to imitate the structure of tales such as The Turn of the Screw. For me, however, this doesn’t work because I lose excitement, even when great suspenseful moments occur.
2. Setting: Probably a nit-picky thing, but Hill never completely establishes the setting of the novel, particularly the time period. While the writing implies the plot is set in the 19th century or early 20th century, some things (like flashlights) made me not so sure. If the author had simply put in a date somewhere in the novel, it would have been easier to orient myself.
3. Story: Despite the suspense and clever writing, the story seemed a little lackluster. There was nothing about the ghost’s identity that seemed out of the ordinary or spectacular, and the sudden ending of the novel and its events left me more frustrated than satisfied. Perhaps a way of fixing this would be to make readers more invested in the ghost’s identity, such as writing out the letters (epistolary novel style) to create emotional connections rather than having the narrator just summarize their material.
Recommendations: Readers of suspense or ghost stories/supernatural fiction will enjoy this novel, as well as fans of 20th century prose. You may also like this book if you're a fan of The Turn of the Screw, the ghost stories of Edith Wharton, or The Woman in White.
Things I Liked
1. Writing Style Hill seemed to be attempting to imitate the writing styles of 19th and early 20th century authors, and I think she achieved the desired effect. I found her prose to be very well crafted to the point where I forgot that this book was written in the 1980s.
2. Suspense: Let me be clear: this novel was not a horror novel, so don’t go into it expecting jump scares or gore. As a suspense novel, however, The Woman in Black successfully employed the techniques that encouraged readers to continue searching for answers. For example, the eerie sounds and the discovery of the letters were particularly interesting, not for creating shock but for making me wonder what was going on with the ghost.
Things I Didn't Like
1. Pace: Unfortunately, the writing style was not enough to overcome the dragging pace of the novel. If you are familiar with the work of Henry James and others, you might be more willing to forgive this, since it does seem Hill is trying to imitate the structure of tales such as The Turn of the Screw. For me, however, this doesn’t work because I lose excitement, even when great suspenseful moments occur.
2. Setting: Probably a nit-picky thing, but Hill never completely establishes the setting of the novel, particularly the time period. While the writing implies the plot is set in the 19th century or early 20th century, some things (like flashlights) made me not so sure. If the author had simply put in a date somewhere in the novel, it would have been easier to orient myself.
3. Story: Despite the suspense and clever writing, the story seemed a little lackluster. There was nothing about the ghost’s identity that seemed out of the ordinary or spectacular, and the sudden ending of the novel and its events left me more frustrated than satisfied. Perhaps a way of fixing this would be to make readers more invested in the ghost’s identity, such as writing out the letters (epistolary novel style) to create emotional connections rather than having the narrator just summarize their material.
Recommendations: Readers of suspense or ghost stories/supernatural fiction will enjoy this novel, as well as fans of 20th century prose. You may also like this book if you're a fan of The Turn of the Screw, the ghost stories of Edith Wharton, or The Woman in White.