Ruth Ware's In a Dark, Dark Wood produced one of the worse villains I have read since reading about Amy in Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn). In this novel we are given a glimpse into the life of Nora; a young woman of 26 living in London. She is just going about her life when out of the blue she receives an email from a woman named Flo; inviting her to a weekend getaway for their soon to be married friend Clare. It is clear from the beginning that Nora has no clue why she has been invited. She has not seen Clare for ten years; they do not email, exchange Christmas cards, or visit one another. They have simply moved on with their lives. Clare working in the theater world and Nora is working hard at writing her next book. Nora seems a bit taken aback by the invite but believes that it might be a good idea to meet up with her long lost friend; even though she has a nagging feeling that she just needs to stay home. Instead Nora, along with friend Nina take the trip to the countryside to the strange glass house they will be staying in over the weekend. If its not creepy enough that the house is made of glass; all of the people there other than Nina and Clare are unknown to her. In fact, she can not place how each of them fits into the life of the Clare she once knew. Each guest is so different from the friends she and Clare used to have. The strangest of the group is Flo, she is Clare's maid of honor, and she is completely obsessed with Clare. In fact, she would do anything for Clare. Flo is also a very fragile young woman. She seems to be consistently on edge. Which seems to continue as the story unravels.
As the weekend goes on it is revealed that Clare is engaged to James, Nora's ex. A man and a relationship that ended cruelly by text and caused Nora to run away from her life and her friends 10 years before. She just could not face the embarrassment of the way he had treated her at the end of their relationship. This revelation continues to drive the story forward; its the lies and the secrets that the main characters hide that really kept me turning the pages.
What I really loved about Ware's novel was how well weaved the tale was. Once the book hit its stride the story just kept you wanting more. I was pretty sure I knew who was behind the murder of one of the characters. But, in the end I was wrong. There is so much loss in this book. So many lies; and that is what made the novel so delicious. I gave In a Dark, Dark Wood 5/5 stars on goodreads.
Quotes that I loved:
"Shall we go downstairs and meet the cock in the hen house."
"You can run but you can't escape"
"You'd think people would be wary of spilling to a writer. You'd think they'd know we're essentially birds of carrion, picking over the corpses of dead affairs and forgotten arguments to recycle them in our work."
"You know - what really creeps me out isn't the footprints - or not as such. It's the fact that if it hadn't have been for the snow, we'd never have known."
"People don't change, they just get more punctilious about hiding their true selves."
"All that copying Clare's clothes - its a bit Single White Female, isn't it? If you ask me, she's a couple of Xanax away from re-enacting the shower scene from Psycho"
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