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eilidhelo 's review for:
The Woman in Black
by Susan Hill
I hate my bookclub so damn much for making this our "Halloween read". Like, an unbelievable amount. Spoilers!
This is really never something I would've ever chosen to read for myself, and for a bloody good reason. Just, urgh.
I started off feeling sorry for this crazy bitch. I mean, hard lot. Questionable mental health, abandoned and pressured into giving up her kid? It's cool, I get it, you have many good reasons to be pissed. Blaming a bunch of innocent people and straight up torturing them and killing their children? Not cool. Did I mention she went after Spider the dog? Cow. Like, what's the point? What do you get out of this? Sweet fuck all. Also, why does anyone even stay in that town? Especially her sister?? I'd leg it at the first opportunity I got 'cause I'm a freaking coward.
The ending, the fucking ending. Now, I personally absolutely need a happy ending where everything is nice and wrapped up in a neat wee bow. Get that gritty, miserable, sad, unresolved crap away from me. There's enough of that in real life, I don't need it in books too please and thank you. For real, what was the point of killing his son? And his wife too (though potentially that was an unfortunate side effect as she usually kills kids)? I hate books/films/shows where the big bad doesn't get definitively defeated. I can't handle the lack of closure, especially in the horror genre which is why I usually avoid it. For all we know, that mad old boot is still out there, proper raging about things that actually weren't even anyone's fault (seriously, by her own logic it's actually her own fault tbh) and killing anyone that looks too happy. (Confirmed - there's a sequel. Joy.) Like, she WAITED for this guy to have a kid, just so she could punish him for doing literally nothing? That's just sad.
Granted, the nursery scenes were mad creepy, but on the whole I feel a little underwhelmed by this book. I'm attributing that to knowing the plot though, having seen the film. Maybe if I hadn't I would've been more engaged. I was impressed that, despite knowing the plot, the author was still able to make me feel sorry for Jennet at the beginning. However, 2 stars (and it's lucky to get that), not because I had any particular problems with the writing or anything, but because I hate stuff like this and I'm mad I made myself read it.
This is really never something I would've ever chosen to read for myself, and for a bloody good reason. Just, urgh.
I started off feeling sorry for this crazy bitch. I mean, hard lot. Questionable mental health, abandoned and pressured into giving up her kid? It's cool, I get it, you have many good reasons to be pissed. Blaming a bunch of innocent people and straight up torturing them and killing their children? Not cool. Did I mention she went after Spider the dog? Cow. Like, what's the point? What do you get out of this? Sweet fuck all. Also, why does anyone even stay in that town? Especially her sister?? I'd leg it at the first opportunity I got 'cause I'm a freaking coward.
The ending, the fucking ending. Now, I personally absolutely need a happy ending where everything is nice and wrapped up in a neat wee bow. Get that gritty, miserable, sad, unresolved crap away from me. There's enough of that in real life, I don't need it in books too please and thank you. For real, what was the point of killing his son? And his wife too (though potentially that was an unfortunate side effect as she usually kills kids)? I hate books/films/shows where the big bad doesn't get definitively defeated. I can't handle the lack of closure, especially in the horror genre which is why I usually avoid it. For all we know, that mad old boot is still out there, proper raging about things that actually weren't even anyone's fault (seriously, by her own logic it's actually her own fault tbh) and killing anyone that looks too happy. (Confirmed - there's a sequel. Joy.) Like, she WAITED for this guy to have a kid, just so she could punish him for doing literally nothing? That's just sad.
Granted, the nursery scenes were mad creepy, but on the whole I feel a little underwhelmed by this book. I'm attributing that to knowing the plot though, having seen the film. Maybe if I hadn't I would've been more engaged. I was impressed that, despite knowing the plot, the author was still able to make me feel sorry for Jennet at the beginning. However, 2 stars (and it's lucky to get that), not because I had any particular problems with the writing or anything, but because I hate stuff like this and I'm mad I made myself read it.