The Woman in Black in Crazy Challenge Connection

Sep 24, 2009 Gaijinmama rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

A nice quick , creepy read which gets even creepier after you turn the last page, put the book down, and start thinking about it...I was genuinely spooked, which doesn't happen much with the wealth of werewolf and vampire and forensic/suspense/exploding heads/rotting corpse books I read for fun these days! This is one pissed-off ghost, who has every reason to be pissed off. She's out for revenge and it makes her not the least bit of nevermind whether her chosen victims deserve it or not.
After fi ...more

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Oct 20, 2010 Charlotte (Buried in Books) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ghosts

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A short little story, but no less striking because of the length.

When we first encounter Arthur Kipps he seems quite happy, although he alludes to a terrible time he has endured in the past. A widower, he has re-married and lives with his wife and step-children in a beautiful house - retired from his work as a lawyer.

On Christmas Eve the stepchildren decide to tell Ghost stories and these stories stir Arthur's memory, memories of his time at Eel Marsh House and of the Woman in Black. Memories th ...more

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Oct 13, 2013 Camilla rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: home-library-read

I first learned about ”The Woman in Black” many years ago, because when The Husband and I started dating, we talked about horror movies and we spent quite a lot of time watching most of them as well. He is very picky when it comes to horror and is not easily scared – but he spoke almost reverently of the BBC version of “The Woman in Black”, which he had stumbled upon on the telly a late night while he was all alone in a remote summer house. So, although I asked not to be told the story, it h

I first learned about ”The Woman in Black” many years ago, because when The Husband and I started dating, we talked about horror movies and we spent quite a lot of time watching most of them as well. He is very picky when it comes to horror and is not easily scared – but he spoke almost reverently of the BBC version of “The Woman in Black”, which he had stumbled upon on the telly a late night while he was all alone in a remote summer house. So, although I asked not to be told the story, it has always been somewhere in my mind as true horror.

The story is very simply about a young solicitor Arthur Kipps, who is asked to travel north to attend the funeral of a rich, but seclusive client, Alice Drablow, who lived alone in the desolate Eel Marsh House. He is forced to stay at Eel Marsh House for some time to get Drablow’s affairs and papers in order and discovers that the marshes contain much more than he had expected…

In the autumn of 2013, we went to London on holiday, and of course we had to get tickets for the performance of “The Woman in Black” – the second-longest running show in the city. And it was amazing. A small theatre, two actors and a quite unusual and brilliant way of having transferred book to play – it was wonderful and sad and spine-chilling at the same time.

So, when I recently participated in Dewey’s 24-hour Read-a-Thon, I knew I wanted something a bit chilling to keep me awake in the late hours. I hadn’t been particularly frightened before, when I had seen “The Woman in Black”, but this time, by myself in the middle of the night in a quiet house with only a few candles lit – I became quite scared. Although it isn’t the sort of tale that will frighten you with shocks and gory details, it has an amazing gothic feel that slowly creeps (like the mist on the moors) into your stomach and makes the world seem like an unreliable place – a place where you cannot trust what you think you know and bad things can happen to innocent people.

I loved the story even more in its original book form – not just for its horror and ability to affect me so much, but as much for its truly lovely prose and heartbreaking story of a man plunged into something he cannot understand, deal with or even accept exists. If you enjoy beautifully written Gothic stories that will crawl under your skin, then hurry up and find a late night, a few candles and a copy of “The Woman in Black”.

P.S. I haven’t watched the new version of the film starring Daniel Radcliffe, so I have no idea how it might be in comparison to the book, but I’ve heard that the story has been changed somewhat with more focus on being a “traditional” scary movie. I can highly recommend watching the BBC version, which has much of the same ambiance as the book. ...more

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Oct 18, 2013 Chris rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, united-kingdom, 300, horror

A good ghost story. Arthur Kipps, A young London lawyer, travels to a remote village to settle the affairs of one of his firm's elderly clients who has recently died. The woman lived in a house on an island accessible only when the tide is out. It quickly becomes clear no one in the town wants to discuss the woman or anything about her property, especially after the lawyer asks about a mysterious woman in black he sees at the funeral. What follows is a series of escalating terrors as Kipps tries ...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Marisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: horror

This book was spooky!
"Here is everything a ghost story should be: the obligatory English moor setting, a deserted house on an isolated causeway, a rocking chair in the house nursery, the eerie sound of a pony and trap, a child's scream in the fog, and, most dreadfully, the tragic and sinister woman in black." ...more

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Nov 20, 2013 Anne (Booklady) Molinarolo rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, literary-fiction, fall-2013

The writing was a bit stilted, but a good enough story. Ghost Stories are not my cup of tea.

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Apr 04, 2011 Claire rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Disappointing - I expected this to be so much more creepy than it was. Ending was great though - I liked that it wasn't trite. ...more

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Oct 18, 2021 Jessica rated it it was amazing

Shelves: z-read-in-2021, z-read-in-2022, own-classics

Re-Read: I did a slower re-read and appreciated all the buildng dread and descriptive lines so much again. Such a truly spooky ghost story. Upgrading my rating from 4 to 5 stars!

Short and spooky, with atmospheric writing (those sucking muds! that mist!) and pleasingly modern vibes for a gothic (set in the... 1950s? I guess? I couldn't quite pin it down). ...more

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Apr 05, 2014 Nancy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: still-owned, ghosts

I thought this would be a lot more frightening than it actually was. It was a good story but probably would have worked just as well as a short story.

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