Books 2014 - The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

[byslantedlight]

Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House, unaware of the tragic secrets which lie hidden behind the sheltered windows. The house stands at the end of a causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but it is not until he glimpses a wasted young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral, that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk of the woman in black - and her terrible purpose...

I've been avoiding this book for a while, because Susan Hill has been associated in my mind with an unpleasant experience on the Return to Teaching course I did a few years ago, but I've been wanting to see the film with Daniel Radcliffe since I saw the trailer - also a few years ago now! - and so when I was trying to decide what to buy as a memory of the Gothic exhibition at the British Museum, this book just stared me down from its stand, and I decided that it was finally time...

And I was glad that I did! It's the perfect book for the Readers Imbibing Peril challenge - a real, old-fashioned ghost story, that's beautifully and evocatively written. I could feel the tendrils of the sea-fret creeping around me, and feel Arthur's frozen terror as events unfurled... *g* I wouldn't go quite as far as the claim on the cover that it's "Heartstoppingly chilling", but that's probably (sadly) because in this age of horror films I've been scared by much worse things. Not that I fancy nipping out to Eel Marsh House any time soon, and my heart would stop for a moment if I saw the Woman in Black, but I was somehow able to distinguish this as a story rather than something that might come and get me in the night... Maybe because I'm grown up enough now to know that this particular nasty isn't actually likely to - the things that frighten me tend to be a bit more real-life based, these days. But then maybe I should touch much wood before saying things like that, and remember that my imagination just needs the right circumstances to run wild... and that there was a reason I didn't buy this to read when I knew I'd be alone in a house... *g*

(Four books, any length, that you feel fit (the very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature.)
Lord John and the Hand of Devils by Diana Gabaldon
The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman
The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles
The Heresy of Doctor Dee by Phil Rickman
Frost Hollow Hall by Emma Carroll
The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill