The Woman In Black

So remember that time when I said I wasn't going to buy any books this year? Well, I kinda went and failed that by purchasing my very own copy of The Woman In Black by Susan Hill. I originally read this donkeys ago in secondary school where we also got to watch the film adaptation from the eighty's. I vaguely remember the film being a little on the silly side (the part that really stands out in my memory is the woman in black flying through Arthur's window with a manic grin on her face... this never happens in the book and whoever decided it should happen in the film should be slapped) but I absolutely loved the book. So much so that years later when I saw that the play was coming to Edinburgh, I rounded up some friends and convinced them it would be good. You have no idea how skeptical people can be of going to see a horror on stage ("But it won't be scary!").

But there we go. It's a short book, my edition has bang on 200 pages, but it certainly packs a decent punch! In some ways, it's quite a typical ghost story; the woman in black is always kind of floating around at a distance so our protagonist can't quite decide if she's dangerous or not. A lot of the spinetingling is due to Susan Hill's writing which I found to be absolutely fantastic despite the fact that I needed the Dictionary.com app glued to my hand. At least I learnt a lot of new words!

One of my favourite aspects of this book has got to be the setting: Eel Marsh House is isolated, impressive, daunting and you get a real sense of coldness at the thought of having to spend the night there. I also love the fact that the villagers of Crython Gifford exhibit traits typical of a little farming village with their apparent suspicious attitude towards the house and the woman in black.

It's true that not much happens but I personally liked this about the tale as it added to the suspense. The only negative thing I will say about this book is the stupidly long sentences as I would get lost half way and have to restart.

The main reason why I read this book was in order to refresh my memory for the new movie which I hope to watch sometime this week!

Rating: *****