amiasmoon 's review for:

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

3.5

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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In a Dark, Dark Wood has been one of my first steps into adult thrillers. A genre where I'm not really well read. It follows a writer named Leonora who gets invited to a hen party by her old best friend, Clare (If you don’t know what a hen party is, I don’t blame you. I didn’t know at first either, but it is a party where the bride invites her friends to a party as a countdown for a wedding). The more she is there the more questions she has. Her life becomes a blur as she loses her memories. It is Ruth Wares debut novel and while you can tell, she has a lot of skill and potential. 

My main issue with this story is that it is sorta boring for the first half. All the plot that happens is needed for the last half, obviously but… I wished there was some more intrigue. Flashback scenes or scenes from Nora’s novel would’ve been nice. I did wish we had learned more about her writing other than being a crime writer. I read it over a weekend and I think my reading experience would’ve. Been worse if I read it any slower. Because if it took me days to get through the first half I would’ve been skimming.

I liked the characters a lot. It is always nice to see gay couples just existing and not being written weirdly. Tom and Nina were definitely my favorite side characters.

I'm so glad Nina wasn’t the one who killed James because I was getting scared.

Everyone had a solid realistic personality. Flo got on my nerves

but ultimately I felt so horrible for her. At first, I thought why the hell does Nora care so much about a guy who was a dick and dumped her but later.. I… oh… my… got sad about straight people.

Clare

being the killer was definitely a satisfying result. At first, I was afraid it wouldn’t be. It can’t be hard with a “locked room mystery”. Because for me I’ve already considered everyone. If there were to be a different character itd feel too random.

Clare felt like a cunning and popular teenage girl who had grown up and just gotten worse. One who felt little to no guilt, unlike Flo. I imagined her as the Animal Crossing villager the whole time idk.

Overall it was an enjoyable read and I may pick up another one of her books from the library in the future.