Since the new school year started, I got a little swamped in all my lesson planning and paper grading and had trouble carving out time for books. However, some of my students this year share my love of scary fiction and have made some great recommendations. The most recent one was In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware. I have to say, this particular student knows me well because this was "on point" as the kids say.
Overall, I really thought it was great story insofar as the story builds, keeps you going page after page, and then ties up nicely. The only aspect of the story that left me sort of confused was the character Melanie and what her purpose was. Other than providing an opportunity to build Flo's character, I'm not sure why she was part of the story.
The language is cool because it's clearly British English. The words and descriptions sometimes vary from what I'm used to hearing/reading as an American (such as calling a cell phone a "mobile"), but I loved it. It had me reading it in my head with a British accent, which is always fun.
It's definitely suspenseful. I really enjoyed the way the book was organized as a series of flashbacks. The way Ware writes it, we float in and out of the narrator's memory of an insane weekend in the woods with a group of people that is a mix of old friends and complete strangers. We make discoveries about characters and the events that take place as the narrator recalls and shares them. Every other chapter or so, we're back in a hospital bed with the narrator, back in "real time", putting together pieces of why she's in a hospital to start with and what happened to put her there. Then after a quick check-in, we go back into her memory and the thriller part of the story carries on.
The end has a great twist as well. Since this is "spoiler-free", I'm not going to go into it. However, I will say that it was a satisfying end in my opinion, and didn't leave a bunch of unanswered questions. There is something left to the imagination, but not in a lazy way where it feels like the author let us down and didn't provide a full resolution.
I read this book faster than I've read a book in a very long time. I couldn't stop. To call it a "page turner" is an understatement! If you like a good thriller, I highly recommend this book. Now I can't wait to get my hands on Ruth Ware's The Woman in Cabin 10 next!
