The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story
by Susan Hill
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Book Summary Information
Author: Susan HillIllustrator: John Lawrence
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2002-02-01
ISBN: 1567921892
Number of pages: 144
Reading Level: Young Adult
Publisher: David R Godine
Book Reviews of The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story
Book Review: The Woman In Black
Summary: 5 Stars
This is perhaps my favorite ghost story of all time. I recently finished reading her story, "The Man In The Picture: A Ghost Story," when I was directed to Ms. Hill once again by a friend helping me research the best constructed ghost stories. As a writer, this exactly what I desire to achieve. She is a master at building tension. The atmosphere she creates is not only something you observe, but you also feel it. This story in particular entails a tangible sense of isolation. The main character is far removed from his home as he travels to a rural area outside of London at his employer's request. He is a young lawyer that must take care of the affairs of a widow's estate.
The weather is as much a character in the book as the setting of the house. Both are described to perfection. Even the setup of how the tale is being told adds to the reader's experience. For some, the only drawback has been that the ending seems a bit predictable. Honestly for me, that wasn't my opinion. When the story was over, I felt empty. I wasn't done with it. I wanted more. The haunting sensation lingered long after I closed the cover. I recommend this book to anyone that wants a chilling, slow speed, highly intense scare. I can't wait to read more of her work.
Summary of The Woman in Black: A Ghost Story
What real reader does not yearn, somewhere in the recesses of his or her heart, for a really literate, first-class thriller - one that chills the body with foreboding of dark deeds to come, but warms the soul with perceptions and language at once astute and vivid? In other words, a ghost story by Jane Austen.Austen we cannot, alas, give you, but Susan Hill's remarkable Woman In Black comes as close as the late twentieth century is likely to provide. Set on the obligatory English moor, on an isolated causeway, the story has as its hero one Arthur Kipps, an up-and-coming young solicitor who has come north to attend the funeral and settle the estate of Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. The routine formalities he anticipates give way to a tumble of events and secrets more sinister and terrifying than any nightmare: the rocking chair in the nursery of the deserted Eel Marsh House, the eerie sound of pony and trap, a child's scream in the fog, and, most dreadfully, and for Kipps most tragically, the woman in black.
The Woman In Black is both a brilliant exercise in atmosphere and controlled horror and a delicious spine-tingler - proof positive that that neglected genre, the ghost story, isn't dead after all.
Spine-Chilling Horror Books
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