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A review by courtneydoss
In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
3.0
*sigh*
From the mind that created such excellent, atmospheric thrillers as The Death of Mrs. Westaway and The Turn of the Key comes a story that is not nearly as entertaining or original. In A Dark, Dark Wood is chock full of cliches, unlikable characters, and incredibly predictable twists. In fact, they are so predictable that the utter blindness of our protagonist comes off as stupidity rather than simple dramatic irony. I understand that this is Ruth Ware's first novel, so I do have to cut her some slack here, and its definitely not her worst novel, but I wanted so much more out of this than I got.
Leonora is invited to the hen party of her long lost high school bestie, Clare. Accepting against her better judgment, Nora ends up in a far flung location with a group of people that she hardly knows, celebrating her old friend's engagement to *surprise* Nora's ex-boyfriend, who she is unfortunately desperately hung up on. Something bad happens, as we are reminded over and over again throughout the novel, but what exactly it is isn't spelled out until way later due to an unhelpful bout of trauma based amnesia.
Amnesia as a plot device is not my favorite trope, and in my opinion it wasn't very realistically handled. Throughout the novel, Nora gains her memory back little by little, but for some reason can't conjure up five minutes of her day that would make the most difference until the very end of the book. I'd buy into the trauma based nature of it if it weren't for the fact that she remembers the trauma before she remembers the five crucial minutes. I don't know how trauma based amnesia works, but I'd be willing to guess that it doesn't work like that.
Nora and her relationship with Clare is both a strength and a weakness to the novel. On one hand, the depiction of frenemies and the way a beautiful, popular girl might prey on a more mild mannered, less confident girl was realistic. So, too, was the depiction of said mild mannered girl's complicity in her own degradation and victimization. Nora wants to be a confident young woman, far removed from who she once was, but back in the presence of Clare, she is once again the sixteen year old that she thought she'd left behind. We see Nora leaning into the persona of a doormat in the company of her high school friends, regressing and making excuses for the mean girl behaviors of her friends. That was realistic, but I thought that certain characters were over the top cliches of the roles they were supposed to play, (i.e. too blatantly selfish, or needy, or bitchy for the sake of being bitchy), lacking any real depth.
Despite how scathing this review might seem, I actually really like Ruth Ware, and I do plan to read the one remaining title from her catalog that I haven't yet read. I just know that she could do so much better than this book, so I can't rate it anywhere near as high as her other novels.
From the mind that created such excellent, atmospheric thrillers as The Death of Mrs. Westaway and The Turn of the Key comes a story that is not nearly as entertaining or original. In A Dark, Dark Wood is chock full of cliches, unlikable characters, and incredibly predictable twists. In fact, they are so predictable that the utter blindness of our protagonist comes off as stupidity rather than simple dramatic irony. I understand that this is Ruth Ware's first novel, so I do have to cut her some slack here, and its definitely not her worst novel, but I wanted so much more out of this than I got.
Leonora is invited to the hen party of her long lost high school bestie, Clare. Accepting against her better judgment, Nora ends up in a far flung location with a group of people that she hardly knows, celebrating her old friend's engagement to *surprise* Nora's ex-boyfriend, who she is unfortunately desperately hung up on. Something bad happens, as we are reminded over and over again throughout the novel, but what exactly it is isn't spelled out until way later due to an unhelpful bout of trauma based amnesia.
Amnesia as a plot device is not my favorite trope, and in my opinion it wasn't very realistically handled. Throughout the novel, Nora gains her memory back little by little, but for some reason can't conjure up five minutes of her day that would make the most difference until the very end of the book. I'd buy into the trauma based nature of it if it weren't for the fact that she remembers the trauma before she remembers the five crucial minutes. I don't know how trauma based amnesia works, but I'd be willing to guess that it doesn't work like that.
Nora and her relationship with Clare is both a strength and a weakness to the novel. On one hand, the depiction of frenemies and the way a beautiful, popular girl might prey on a more mild mannered, less confident girl was realistic. So, too, was the depiction of said mild mannered girl's complicity in her own degradation and victimization. Nora wants to be a confident young woman, far removed from who she once was, but back in the presence of Clare, she is once again the sixteen year old that she thought she'd left behind. We see Nora leaning into the persona of a doormat in the company of her high school friends, regressing and making excuses for the mean girl behaviors of her friends. That was realistic, but I thought that certain characters were over the top cliches of the roles they were supposed to play, (i.e. too blatantly selfish, or needy, or bitchy for the sake of being bitchy), lacking any real depth.
Despite how scathing this review might seem, I actually really like Ruth Ware, and I do plan to read the one remaining title from her catalog that I haven't yet read. I just know that she could do so much better than this book, so I can't rate it anywhere near as high as her other novels.