in a dark, dark wood by Ruth Ware: A Review

“For some reason his words made me shiver. Perhaps it was the tree trunks, like silent watchers in the growing dark.” in a dark, dark wood, Ruth Ware

I will give Ruth Ware this: in a dark dark wood begins with a compelling hook. Imagine one day you get an invitation. Imagine that your childhood best friend is getting married and her maid of honor has invited you and a select group of other people to spend a weekend away for her hen do (that’s British-speak for a 48 hour bachelorette party). Now imagine you haven’t seen or spoken to that childhood friend since you skipped town a decade ago. Would you go? Oh, and the hen weekend is in a glass house in the woods in the middle of nowhere. That is the choice that faces Nora, the main character, in the opening chapters of the book.

In some ways, this novel follows the same patterns as a lot of contemporary domestic thrillers like Girl on the Train or The Woman in Cabin 10. When the novel opens, Nora is in hospital. There has been an accident but she can’t remember what happened; she thinks someone might be dead. The story line moves back and forth between Nora’s present, trying to piece together what happened, and her past when she reluctantly agreed to go on the hen weekend. As the novel shifts from present to past and back again, Ware does the same with Nora’s character development, revealing her solitary life in London and eventually her back story as a girl (known as Lee to her friends) growing up in Reading. As the reader pieces together the fragments that Nora remembers with her past experiences as Lee, darker secrets are revealed. What’s interesting is that despite following the popular style of genre, Ware also gives a nod to classic locked room mysteries – six guests in a house in the woods, no cell reception, everyone seems to know something that the others don’t, and then something very bad happens…

I don’t want to say too much about the plot in case you are planning on reading in a dark, dark wood but I did like the interplay between classic and contemporary thrillers in this novel.  (And Flo, the maid of honor and bride’s bff who turns out to be a little Single White Female, is pitch perfect). The one issue I had with the book is that much of the plot hinges on a romantic relationship that has left Nora brokenhearted and explains why she lives such a solitary life. That would be understandable, except that the relationship ended ten years ago when she was sixteen. Maybe I’m just not a romantic, but to me that was a little hard to believe and left me feeling a little apathetic about some of the events that occurred as a result.

If you have read in a dark, dark wood, send me a note and let me know what you thought. Until next time, happy reading!