Book Review: The Woman In Black by Susan Hill
Publisher: Vintage
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 978-0-099-56297-9
This is a well-constructed ghost story with an interesting introduction. It is narrated in 1st person which works well as it comes across as a traditional orally told ghost story. It is a little while before you learn the narrators name but this just adds to the intrigue.
The main character is a solicitor who has to travel to a remote community to collect paperwork from a recently deceased clients house but the locals are reluctant to reveal any information and refuse to go anywhere near the property – all except one person wh transports him across the causeway at low tide and comes back for him again later. The ghost story itself revolves around the ghost of a woman in black who appears numerous times, a bump bump in a locked room in the property in question and a drowning in the Marsh.
It is cleverly written and you are led expertly from one scene to another, the end is chilling and if you believe in ghosts it should lead you to beware.
This is only a short book at 200 pages but everything is covered and wrapped up neatly with no loose ends. I makes for a good, quick easy read which is quite enjoyable in a weepy kind of way.
Personal read 4/5 purely because I don’t really like ghost stories at all.
Group read 3.5 as it may make an enjoyable change from heavier subject matter. I do think a book club would struggle to find thins to discuss unless they have paranormal experiences
