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What does the dark dark wood got to do with it?

In A Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

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It’s one of those books where the “mysterious events of the past” are mysterious only because the narrator isn’t telling you about it.

Leonora, 26 years old is a crime author and lives a solitary and lonely life.  Then, she receives an email from a woman she does not know, inviting her to a “hen party” for a friend she has not spoken to for a long time.  But she goes.  This hen party is for the wedding of Leonora’s childhood friend Clare.  A wedding which she was not invited to.  It’s held in a modern glass house in the middle on the woods with four other of the bride-to-be’s friends.  Of course, there are mysterious happenings, secrets unravelled, and maybe a little murder?  Okay, you know there’s a murder since the book opens in the present time then Leonora is in the hospital with injuries and the police have told her that somebody has died.  But she does not remember what happened.  So it goes back and forth between the present time and flashbacks to the hen party events.

You have to suspend a lot of disbelief with these random thrillers/ psychological mysteries with big twists.  But the way the characters act are so far from how a normal person would act that I just can’t.  The heroine is, to put it bluntly, a bit pathetic.  She is hung up on the first and only boyfriend that she had when she was 16.  And the main incident that led to her sad life could have been avoided by a single text.  And that’s also the incident that led to the whole series of events years later.  And the motivations are so questionable.  She’s just not a very compelling lead character to me.
Par for course in these kinds of books, it is thankfully short and quick.  Of course you want to hurry up and find then end to the mystery.  But you know what?  I didn’t even care enough to take guesses and try to figure stuff out like I usually do when reading these kinds of books.  It was a bit boring.  I didn’t like it.  Oh, and contrary to marketing, it was not scary at all and the woods weren’t really a huge part of the story.  Just for a little bit of atmosphere.  It could have happened at a remote farmhouse or something like that.

Young Women in Impossible Situations

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

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Bingo, The Turn of the Key: Free! (borrowed from an in-law)

Bingo, The Death of Mrs. Westaway: Fauna (the magpies on the cover play an important role in the book)

The Turn of the Key: This mystery is a retelling of The Turn of the Screw (which I’ve never read). The only reason I read it was because I got a free copy, and while I didn’t exactly like it, I also found that I needed to know what had happened and didn’t really want to put it down. The story involves a nanny traveling to the wilds of Scotland to care for the children of two parents who are often absent. It’s sort of a haunted house story, as the house–fitted out by its architect owners with the latest technology–has a mind of its own, with alarms going off and lights turning on and off seemingly at random.

The story is structured as a series of letters the nanny is writing to her lawyer from prison, after she’s been convicted of murdering one of the children. The mystery revolves around learning which child died, and who actually killed them and why. There’s also another twist, which explains some of the nanny’s motivations.

As far as these things go, this book wasn’t bad. I didn’t love it and I’ll never read it again, but it certainly held my interest and I actually liked the twist at the end.

The Death of Mrs. Westaway: I found that I wanted to read more Ruth Ware after finishing The Turn of the Key, and this one was pretty highly rated. It’s the story of a poverty-stricken tarot card reader, Hal (Harriet), receiving a letter informing her that her grandmother has died and left her a significant inheritance–except it’s a case of mistaken identity and Hal isn’t the woman’s granddaughter. In desperate need of money, she decides to go along with a charade to see if she can get the inheritance anyway. Upon meeting the family of the deceased Mrs. Westaway, it’s clear that something is not quite right in this family, and that somehow, she is actually connected to them.

Just like The Turn of the Key, this held my interest and I finished it quickly. I found it to be a little scarier, with one scene that I still have trouble getting out of my head. Hal’s recklessness in pursuing the inheritance keeps the story interesting, and the family of Mrs. Westaway is full of the usual assortment of characters who aren’t quite what they seem (the creep isn’t actually a creep, the nice ones may be psychotic–you know the drill). The end of this one wasn’t nearly as satisfying as The Turn of the Key, and I found the antagonist’s motivation to be a little weak. Still, it was exciting, and again, as far as this kind of story goes–it was pretty good.

 

I Am Ambivalent, Hear Me Roar

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

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The hardest reviews are not the ones about good books, or about bad ones (in fact, writing reviews about bad books is easy and so much fun it’s almost worth reading a bad book for. Almost). The hardest ones to write are the ones about books that were just okay. The Woman in Cabin 10 is one of those books. It’s bubblegum. It’s popcorn. It’s cheese, but not the good kind, no, the average kind from the supermarket that’s good as sandwich filling but not much else. Better than Velveeta but not quite Belgian abbey cheese. There’s plenty of cheese to be found, though. It even has a couple of holes. 

Laura ‘Lo’ Blackwood is a travel journalist whose boss sends her on a luxury cruise through the Norwegian fjords. And by luxury I mean luxury. The cruise ship caters to the one percenters. It has only ten cabins, but also a sauna, a spa, a jacuzzi, a library, two dining rooms, a lounge, and a staff ratio of about 2:1. The night before Lo enters the ship, though, a man breaks into her house, locks her in her bedroom and makes off with her purse. Shaken but undeterred, Lo proceeds to board the ship, determined to make the best of it and finally force her boss to promote her. But when the woman in the cabin next to her suddenly disappears, Lo finds the entire ship disinterested. When she presses the staff, they insist the cabin next to her was empty and that no guests have gone missing. 

The idea of a missing person on a cruise ship is a fairly intriguing one, and not implausible; it has happened more than once, such as in the case of Rebecca Coriam, who disappeared off a Disney cruise several years ago (Disney, predictably, tried to hush it all up and was less than helpful). The problem with this particular plot is two-fold: there’s a credibility issue, and there’s the fact that Lo is a maddening protagonist. 

Characters don’t have to be perfect; in fact, I prefer it when they’re not. But there’s imperfect, and there’s annoying. Lo is a nervous wreck and as a reader I wanted to slap her several times during the novel – for not thinking things through, for alienating everyone else on the ship, and for generally being a high-maintenance nuisance. Part of this has to do with the plot – there’s no fun in it if everyone believes Lo – but she’s annoying as all fuck. The second part that bothered  me is the dime-a-dozen resolution of the plot. The idea behind the novel is intriguing, but the resolution is something I’ve read or seen dozens of times before. The writing’s not half bad, but I feel like it’s a waste of a good idea. 

Ultimately, while I did enjoy reading this, it kind of petered out as I read along. It started strong – Lo’s not half as annoying off the ship than she is on it , plus I’m down with the eat-the-rich vibe it’s giving off – but it all kind of ends up as a big, grey goop of predictability and stereotypes. And that’s a shame, because Ware is not a half bad writer. I will read some of her other books. I just hope they’re better than this one.

I didn’t see that twist coming!

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

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The book opens  with our protagonist, Rowan, writing a letter to a lawyer/solicitor from jail, begging for him to help her. She tells him that she is innocent of a crime of murder that she did not commit and that she needs his assistance with her trial that is coming up soon. She wants him to help prove her innocence so she begins her tale.

If something seems too good to be true, it usually is – or so the saying goes.  When Rowan comes across an ad seeking a nanny to live in a remote area of Scotland, it sounds too good to be true. The pay is high, the house is beautiful, and the family seems lovely. She is warned that previous nannies have quit due to the house being haunted.  She arrives in a remote area to find a creepy Gothic house with a terrible history and is quickly left alone with three of the family’s children when strange things begin to happen.

The author does a great job of building suspense.  When creepy things begin to happen, Rowan begins to question her sanity but continues her investigation.  In typical Ruth Ware style, there are multiple plot twists and misdirection.

I have to admit, I didn’t see the last twist coming and am still thinking about it days later.   While its not my favorite Ruth Ware novel, its still a great story worth your time.

A good entry point, but less good continuation

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

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Hal Westaway is working as a tarot reader on the West Pier in Brighton Beach, doing what she can to scrape by. But just because it’s winter and off-season doesn’t mean the loan shark she borrowed a paltry sum from a few months ago stops sending notices.

So when she gets a letter informing her of her grandmother’s death and her place in the will, Hal has a choice to make. Of course, she knows that her grandparents have been dead for years, and the names don’t match, and she is not the Harriet Westaway the executor meant to contact. But… she also doesn’t know how she’ll come up with the 3,000 pounds a very scary man will be coming for in a week.

A very scary man is a very scary thought and a powerful motivator. Hal takes the train north to Trepassen House, her “grandmother’s” estate, to meet her “uncles” and hopefully get a few hundred pounds to ease some of the debt. She’s got a birth certificate ready to fake and a dummy Facebook profile to read up on the other Westaways before she arrives. But old Mrs. Westaway had something different in mind….

A confession: I often look up the plot of thrillers about 50 pages in. It is a terrible habit and I don’t know why I do it. So usually I can’t comment on how surprising the twists and turns of suspense and thrillers are, as is the case here.

I’ve read from Ruth Ware before: first The Turn of the Key, which I listened to and found so nervewracking that I had to stop listening to it at night; then The Woman in Cabin 10, which I thought was fine but a little disappointing; and her most recent book One by One, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I think Ware executes most ideas well and is a pretty solid choice if you’re looking for a new thriller author, but I don’t necessarily think she’s a break-the-mold type. Which is fine, but I could see her plots getting formulaic if you read them too close together.

I liked Westaway well enough, although it’s definitely not my favorite of hers. I would have loved a little more scenic imagery and heightening of emotions, but this is one of her earlier books and I think she gets better over time.

One gripe to pick with a character’s actions: Hal is literally destitute, can’t afford to waste any money. But one of the first scenes has her donating 60 pounds that a client mistakenly overpaid her (and couldn’t be reached) to charity! Not even taking her cut from it! The scene is supposed to show that Hal is principled and won’t take money she didn’t earn, so that she really has to grapple with her choice later on, but what it showed me is that she’s stupid! 60 pounds! That could have paid her bills or bought her food! No principles are worth getting beaten up by a very scary man!

I also found myself annoyed with the audiobook. I think the book is a little long and drags especially in the beginning, which is only more clear when you have to listen to someone read every… word… aloud. I ended up switching to a physical copy about halfway through.

All in all, I wish I would have started with this one, so that Ware’s later works seemed like a natural progression. I don’t think I’ll be picking up any of her other backlist titles, but I will probably read anything new she puts out.

maybe THIS is what Quibi was supposed to be?

Snow Flakes by Ruth Ware

Treasure by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Slow Burner by Laura Lippman

Buried by Jeffrey Deaver

The Gift by Alison Gaylin

Let Her Be by Lisa Unger

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These little collections are great in a very specific way; the stories are quick, unique from each other, and can be accessed through both the Kindle and Audible. If I have just a few minutes to listen while doing chores, I can pop in and out without needed to re-immerse myself in something long and complicated! If I have a long line at the Post Office, I can stand and read the majority of a story while I wait. Low impact, low commitment, and decent amounts of satisfaction. Like snacks! Or Quick Bites! Or…Quibi? Nah, that one was doomed from the start.

Speaking of DOOMED, these pieces are all whirling around DECEPTIONS! Amazon describes them as “six different stories, six different deceptions”- how MYSTERIOUS. *cue lightning crash*

Unfortunately, the deceptions aren’t always different: for a few of these stories, the deception was that they were presented as worth reading. Ha!

Snow Flakes 3/5

My first Ruth Ware! This collection served as an introduction to…oh wow, all of these authors! I really enjoyed the setup of this piece; children on an otherwise uninhabited coastal island are put to work by their father. Something is coming to get them, but the children are unsure and the father is unclear. They spend their days hauling rocks to build a wall. Who- or what- will this wall keep out? The family came to the island years ago, after running in the middle of the night from a war torn city. The war still rages on, but the little family has remained untouched since their departure- until something very big happens, of course. I cannot say more without spoiling things- which is going to be a problem with a lot of these write ups! The bite-sized mystery format doesn’t give me a lot of space to play, as these stories are tightly wound and quick paced. Now that I am aware of Ware (I’ll see myself out) I will add some more of her work to my ever-climbing TBR list.

Treasure 4/5

I have heard only great things about Oyinkan Braithwaite’s novel, My Sister, the Serial Killer, and if it is anything like Treasure the rave reviews are warranted! A young woman in Lagos is obsessed with becoming an Influencer, and a young man following her is obsessed with making her his wife. Wealth looms large throughout all of the stories in this collection, but it is best inspected, dissected, and twisted in this piece. The canyon between the richest and the poorest of people nears it’s widest point in Treasure, with all parties being painted as equally desperate and disillusioned. The tension that tightens as all of Braithwaite’s pieces fall into place rapidly approaches like an anxiety attack, and I am feeling sweaty just recounting this story. It’s short, shocking, mean, and strangely cool- I cannot wait to read more Braithwaite. The audio version of this piece is especially good. Adepero Oduye embodies each character with a distinct voice; she makes our narrator a professional chameleon as well, giving the whole story another surprising sheen.

Slow Burner 4/5

I have been tip-toeing around the edges of Laura Lippman’s work for a long time; I respect her history as a reporter, I have really enjoyed long-form interviews in which she has participated, and I have a few of her books waiting on my TBR, but this is my first plunge into her fiction! A woman discovers that her husband of over a decade is engaging in text-based flirtation with a co-worker, and all of the balls start rolling- just not in the way that you expect them to go. DECEPTION! The husband is so perfectly hate-able: smarmy, self-centered, oblivious, and especially delighted by his own cleverness. Our narrator plays him like an expensive fiddle; an ornament designed to be displayed, but is still surprisingly functional. I will be pursuing more Lippman; if you have any recommendations please let the fly! I am all ears!

Buried 3/5

This is the most “traditional” of the group; an Investigative Journalist uncovers a potential Serial Killer on the eve of his retirement, and he sets out on one last story. This piece was a treasure trove of twists and tropes, and I appreciate the old-fashioned feel. It’s a dark story about bad people doing worse things, of course, but it was comforting to hit the familiar beats of a “thriller”. My feelings are paralleled by another character in this piece; she is the new-media heir to the old journalist’s throne, and their clash-first-comradery-second relationship checks all of the right boxes. Murder, politics, coincidence, and live burial- what else could you want?

The Gift 1/5

A gift of true garbage, my friends! This was my first (and will be my last!) experience with Alison Gaylin, and it left much to be desired. We are invited into the world of a Hollywood starlet, her leading-man hunk of a husband, and their missing daughter. There are lies, ghosts, and psychics. Sounds potentially promising, right? Wrong! This piece read like a campfire tale told by overexcited middle schoolers. There is an obsession with wealth that is amazingly uninformed; weird descriptions of clothing, cars, shoes, and jewels that seem to have been created by little kids playing dress-up. Treasure depicted wealth with aspirational accuracy, where has the designer tags here feel like mad-libs. The wealth is not the only thing to feel cheap; the action, deception, and wrap-up feel like a kid stayed up too late procrastinating over a book report and turned something in at the last minute fueled by Sour Patch Kids and Surge fumes.

Let Her Be 1/5

Featuring one of the worst narrators I have ever had the displeasure of spending time with, Let Her Be is an exercise in personal punishment. Just…don’t read this. Gaslighting, domestic abuse, stalking, suicide attempts…all within a few dozen pages and all enacted by our narrator. The twist is barely a twist, the “deception” is cruel, and I do not want to read any more pieces including “poetry” written by side characters- we get it, Lisa Unger. You found your own high school poetry absolutely mesmerizing and there was nothing more exciting to you than sneaking it into a story and having everyone comment how it is “amazing”, “meaningful”, and “memorable”. The memorable bit gets played out and around the corner; our narrator frequently recites bits of it back to the side character. Euuugh. I will not be doing any further investigating into her work.

A 2.6 average rounds up to a 3 for the collection! This has been the most uneven collection of the Amazon Originals that I have read so far; but the good were great and the bad were terrible. The duds were “worth it”, though, as thanks to this collection I now have three more authors to read, read, read!

 



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