Review: In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

Leonora (Lee/Nora) only leaves the confines of her London flat when absolutely necessary.  out of the blue, she receives an invite for a "hen party" of a friend she hasn't spoken to in ten years. Reluctantly, she agrees to go, more out of curiosity than anything else. The plan is to spend the weekend at the Glass House, a home buried deep in the English countryside. There, she joins an unlikely combination of individuals, all with some connection to her once best friend. The weekend starts off challenging, the differing personalities and possessive nature of the friend they share in common causing one disruption after another.

Forty-eight hours later, Lee/Nora wakes up on a hospital bed. There's been an accident, yet she can't remember anything that transpired the night before. The one thing she does know: someone is dead. Slowly and steadily, she patches together the jumbled memories to solve the puzzle of the previous night's incident. In doing so, she must confront a past that she'd rather left buried.  She must come to terms with what happened years ago so that she may open her eyes to the madness that stands before her.

I do love me a thriller with a dark, reclusive setting. As if the location is not remote enough, slowly and steadily the small group is removed from all forms of communication with the outside world.  As a reader, that left me yelling at the characters (much like I do in a horror movie) to wake up and realize something is about to happen.  Obviously, if they did we wouldn’t have this intense thrill-ride of a novel to read, so I’m willing to let them suffer to their fate.

Without a doubt, this is a fast, intense read. Short chapters keep the pacing going, filling the reader in on details of the past while proceeding on with the current storyline. The reader follows the protagonist on her path to find answers.

Everything about this setting is dark, even though much of it transpires within the daytime. The tone of the prose is dark as well, surrounding the reader in a cloak of potential danger and despair. We know it’s right around the corner and we’re desperate to find out what “it” is, but the journey to get there is as chilling as the actual act itself.

While the writing itself isn’t overly complex, this allows readers of all sorts to become quickly invested in what is about to transpire. Undoubtedly a chilling tale, it’s not so terrifying as to dissuade readers of a weaker constitution to read it as well. This is the perfect book to curl up with on a rainy night.  I’ve read it twice, just as captivated and enthralled when I read it a second time.

Reminiscent of a classic Agatha Christie tale, a psychological thriller that will captivate the attention of readers of all varieties. Highly, highly recommended.