REVIEW: IN THE HOUSE IN THE DARK OF THE WOODS

RATING: ★★★★☆

GENRE: Dark, folk/fairy tale thriller.

IN THE HOUSE IN THE DARK OF THE WOODS is the winding story of a woman who leaves her home to forage in the woods and ends up wandering into a strange world.

The protagonist, a woman referred to only as Goody (a universal term for a married woman in early America, similar to how we would use “Mrs.”), winds up meeting two women who on the surface level seem helpful and lovely, but have more sinister intentions: Captain Jane, a guide of sorts in this dark wood, and Eliza, an unusual woman bound to her home at the center of the forest.

As she attempts to find her way home and struggles against Eliza, who is trying to keep her as a companion, Goody learns that she can harness the power of true sight, which allows her to view the seemingly idyllic home in the woods, and the women of the woods, as they truly are—and nothing is as pretty as it seems. Laird Hunt mixes some historical and political themes into this dark fairy tale: there are some hints of witchcraft here and there, mixed with the standards held for (assumedly) Colonial-era American women. As a fan of early American literature, I really liked these elements and felt as though they organically contributed to a real sense of time and place in this story.

I’ve seen some complaints in the Goodreads reviews of this book, and I wanted to give them some attention and maybe some clarity for people who are scared off by them. IN THE HOUSE IN THE DARK OF THE WOODS borrows folktale elements and adds a slowly-building, ultimately terrifying undercurrent, but can at times be a bit obscure and easy to get lost in. While some reviewers felt that this was a weakness, I think this may actually be a strength—at times, I felt as lost as Goody in the woods, wondering how all of these small pieces will come together, how all of these characters are related, and who is actually seeing this world in an authentic way.

REVIEW: THE FEVER by Megan Abbott

THE FEVER by Megan Abbott

RATING: ★★★★☆

SIMILAR READS: Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman.

GENRE: New adult horror/thriller.

I have had an interest in witches for a very long time–specifically, with the Salem witch trials. In fifth grade, my class held a history fair where we could pick any historical topic we wanted, research it, and make a huge, three-part poster about it. I picked the Salem witch trials and made an aptly creepy poster: painted black, with red paper and printouts of 17th-century illustrations of the hysteric courthouse and its flailing girls, pointing their fingers at their next accused witch.

In college, to my excitement, we studied Salem as a phenomenon, looking into the various theories that have been made about why these girls, in this specific environment, acted the way they did. Was it a mass-spread anxiety borne by a community that faced massive amounts of death each winter due to the harsh conditions? Or a demand for a marginalized group in society–young girls, who virtually had no autonomy–to claim a sort of power? Or a game gone too far?

There have been multiple similar incidences since Salem of communities suddenly falling into an unexplained, shared hysteria, one, in 2012, affecting 18 teenaged girls in a Le Roy, New York high school, who all simultaneously fell ill with unexplained seizures.  Parents clamored for answers: what was the school hiding? What was making their daughters sick? Was it hazardous waste?

I’m not sure if Megan Abbott has revealed if this incident in Le Roy served as inspiration for THE FEVER, but it certainly feels like it was. And, unsurprisingly, I absolutely loved it.

Deenie, Lise, and Gabby are best friends attending Dryden high school and experiencing the awkwardness of the coming-of-age years: beginning to experiment with sex, or at least entertaining the idea of doing so; navigating the sometimes brutal social climate of high school friendships; and struggling with the concept that they are slowly being seen more as “young women” and less as children.

On a seemingly normal morning, Deenie and Lise are sitting in class when, suddenly, Lise collapses to the floor, seizing in the middle of class.

Lise is taken to the hospital, and the rumor mill begins: she’s pregnant, she’s on drugs…

Did she go to the lake? One student posits.

The Dryden lake is a green, thick mass of algae and god-knows-what-else. Local legend has it that a boy died in the lake and anyone who comes in contact with it gets sick. Deenie, Lise, Gabby, and other girls at the high school have been to the lake–recently. But Deenie brushes aside any of the rumored causes: if it was caused by the lake, wouldn’t the other girls be getting sick, too?

And that’s when it begins: Gabby faints during a band concert. A slew of high school girls are suddenly dropping like flies in the middle of class, seizing, vomiting, twitching, experiencing hallucinations. Deenie is one of the few girls not affected.

Parents in Dryden are rushing to conclusions. In an anti-vax uprising, some blame the recent outcropping of HPV vaccines. Some blame the school for somehow not complying with hygiene and other contamination standards. As the town begins to fold in on itself, Deenie, her father, Tom, and her brother, Eli try to find out the true cause while trying to assemble some sense of normalcy, but soon, the hysteria becomes too much to handle.

I can safely say that I’m a Megan Abbott fan now. I really enjoyed the narrative being split between Deenie, Eli, and Tom–each character has their own struggles with their own darkness, their own coming-of-age-related anxieties, and their own ideas about what’s happening in Dryden. Abbott does an incredible job of slowly building a very scary narrative that only truly begins to unravel in the last few chapters, and I can safely say that I actually did not expect the actual cause of the sickness.

THE FEVER is a pretty perfect October read if you are looking for a Salem-esque feeling. An essence of hysteria is deep in the bones of this book, making it an incredibly thrilling read.

REVIEW: Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott

Hello, everyone!

Before I start my review, I just wanted to make a quick little introduction, since this is my first post! My name is Kristen. I’m a 23-year-old from New England with a degree in English, and I have had a love for books, reading, and writing since I can remember. This blog is intended to be a more in-depth version of my bookstagram, @bookishkristen, plus some little extra lifestyle blogging as I see fit! I’m pretty much a jack of all trades when it comes to my reading interests, but recently I’ve been gravitating toward women-centric reads and short story collections. Since Halloween is right around the corner, I’ve been looking into some spookier versions of these genres, and GIVE ME YOUR HAND is certainly a bit of a creepy, psychological thriller that will get you in the mood for fall.

A friend of mine recommended that I start reading Megan Abbott, so one day as I was browsing the “new fiction” shelves at the front of my town library, GIVE ME YOUR HAND immediately caught my eye.

GIVE ME YOUR HAND by Megan Abbott

RATING: ★★★★☆

SIMILAR READS: THE GIRLS by Emma Cline, GIRLS ON FIRE by Robin Wasserman, TIPS FOR LIVING by Reneé Shafransky.

She had done this thing to me, burdened me with this vile, howling thing. And now it shuddered in me always and I’d felt I might have to live with it forever. I was right.

Kit Owens is a scientist at the famed Dr. Severin’s lab, vying for a position on her team to investigate the mysterious disease that haunts (cis) women: PMDD, or premenstrual dysmorphic disorder, a severe form of premenstrual syndrome that forces women to be irritable, depressed, and pained. In extreme cases, PMDD has caused women to hallucinate and even forced them to be violent. Kit prides herself in being the one other woman in the lab, and devotes her life to her work, spending most of her day doing research; the first one to get to the lab in the morning and the last to leave at night.

But Kit is harboring a dark secret about her former best friend, Diane Fleming. In high school, the pair were inseparable: both had ambitions of becoming scientists and one day working with Dr. Severin, pushing each other to succeed so that one day, their ambitions would come true. But Diane’s secret shattered their relationship forever.

As the day of the team selection approaches, Dr. Severin announces a newcomer to the lab: Diane. And with her return into Kit’s life, she begins worrying for her own safety, not only in a physical sense, but in a professional sense: Diane was always one step ahead of Kit, just a tiny bit smarter, a tiny bit faster…and if Diane’s secret doesn’t take her down, Diane will herself.

I have read few women-centric books where the protagonist is a woman in science (I didn’t include this in the similar reads section because this isn’t a thriller, but if you are looking for more “women in STEM” reads, DAPHNE by Will Boast is excellent), and this adds such an extra element to this story. Kit experiences a lot of sexism in the office, which is not too surprising, even when the lab deals with a (cis) woman-centric topic such as PMDD. Dr. Severin, Kit, and Diane are all similarly ruthless in their claiming of the male-dominated space, and we see how that’s perceived as ruthless, cold, and unfeminine throughout the novel, but it isn’t meant to be a marker of how evil or bad any of the characters are: it’s merely an added dimension to the already complex and thrilling narrative that is unfolding with Kit and Diane’s secret colliding in a literal and physical way.

Highly recommend GIVE ME YOUR HAND, and I think I may be on a bit of a Megan Abbott kick now, at least during the spookier months…;)

Thanks for reading, and until next time, fellow bookies!