Blog Post # 3: Book Review

My first book for this class was In the Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware. Here is the summary: What should be a cozy and fun-filled weekend deep in the English countryside takes a sinister turn in Ruth Ware’s suspenseful, compulsive, and darkly twisted psychological thriller. Sometimes the only thing to fear…is yourself. When reclusive writer Leonora is invited to the English countryside for a weekend away, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. But as the first night falls, revelations unfold among friends old and new, an unnerving memory shatters Leonora’s reserve, and a haunting realization creeps in: the party is not alone in the woods.

         It was an interesting book. The majority of the book is just about how the characters get together for the trip. Then towards the last 10 ish chapters things unravel and it gets intense. It's interesting to see the story from the past as the present and the present as the future. 
         Through flashbacks, Ware slowly unspools the mystery, setting a truly spooky scene as six relative strangers gather at the isolated Glass House, celebrating the upcoming marriage of Nora’s former friend Clare Cavendish, with whom she had lost touch 10 years before. In classic Agatha Christie fashion, the first half of the novel is masterful in the slow build of suspense. Clearly, something is very wrong, but it’s unclear whether it’s Nora, Clare, Flo, or some outside intruder who is responsible for the chills and the deepening unease. However, the success of the first half of the novel does speak to Ware’s ability to spin a good yarn. Recalling such classics as And Then There Were None, she creates a unique setting for the psychological scares, and her characters, while somewhat stock, have enough depth to fool even savvy mystery fans for a while. Like the Glass House itself, this novel is “a tiger’s enclosure, with nowhere to hide” and with a constant undercurrent of danger. Read it on a dark and stormy night—with all the lights on.

Overall I thought it was a good book that deserved its New York Times Best Sellars award. The author did a great job, keeping the readers engaged and wanting to read more. I stayed up one night and powered through, kept telling myself that this would be the last chapter for the night, but that eventually ended up me finishing the book.