December Group Read #1- The Willows

[Lena]

Thank you Kelly.
Jennifer I think most of us found the river lovely but hard to navigate, lol.
I want to read Wendigo now.

[Quantum]

Barb wrote: "I've got to say too, I got a chuckle reading the final line. Not that it didn't work but reading that line alone without hearing the rest of the story might make one scratch their head!"

yea, i liked that last line.

[[deleted user]]

I'm with many others, that it took me a little to get in to this short story. At first the description was tedious, but made sense at the end when the landscape is a character all its own and the reason for the suspense. I can completely relate to the psychological thriller part (as someone who has been in the woods in the dark, and as someone who was abandoned on a river by her older brother (while tubing) when she was 8--I still believe the shoe I saw in the woods by the river must surely have belonged to the "person" my mind conjured up in the distance--no joke). Our minds try to create recognizable shapes, and when we are fearful of the unknown, these exact things, that happened in the story, can happen to us. I think that's why I found it so convincing and "scary."

[Lena]

Personal experiences/knowledge will always make it scarier. Sometimes scary comes later. I was just nauseous after seeing Blair Witch, then later on at night I had nightmares about being lost in the hill country with rednecks messing with me for kicks.

[Quantum]

Liz wrote: "and as someone who was abandoned on a river by her older brother (while tubing) when she was 8--."

oh yea, i'm that horrible older brother who locked both of his sisters out of the house--i did let them back in before it got dark, though.

[Perry]

Jennifer wrote: "I'm not sure how to do spoiler tags so I'll keep my review vague..."
Jennifer, when you make Comments, just above the right corner of the box you'll see: (some html is ok). Click on that and go down till you see: •spoiler. Cut and paste those two instructions at the beginning and end of the bit you want to hide.

[Monica]

I'm 50 % percent into it and loving it. The feelings are so well described by the author that I almost can feel what he feels.

[[deleted user]]

Alex G wrote: "oh yea, i'm that horrible older brother who locked both of his sisters out of the house--i did let them back in before it got dark, though."

I wouldn't say horrible. At least you gave in, in the end. My brother just went about his merry way. I didn't see him again until the landing. My tube had a hole. I waited on the bank of the river, totally alone, for what felt like forever, before my dad and grandpa came by in their canoe.

Lena wrote: "Personal experiences/knowledge will always make it scarier."

I totally agree, Lena. Being able to relate, even in some small way, makes this story much scarier. I think just about everyone has had some experience of letting their imagination "run wild;" but; I guess what I'm trying to say is, I don't think I would have found it as scary had I not experienced that abandonment on the river as a kid.

[Lena]

Was he grounded?

[Tiffany]

I know I am a bit late, but I am going to join in on this one.

[Lena]

It's short jump in!

[Laurie (barksbooks)]

I started the audio on the drive in to work this morning. I'll only say that I'm glad I did this in audio because I may not have finished it otherwise. It is a very slow starter.

[[deleted user]]

Lena wrote: "Was he grounded?"

Ha! Yes. He was punished for the rest of the camping trip. My father made him do all the heavy lifting, the dishes, and camp tear-down.

[Laurie (barksbooks)]

Someone further up wasn't familiar with spoiler tags. To mark a passage of text with a spoiler tag you need to type in a little html before and after your spoiler text.

Like this with NO spaces between the bracketed text and the brackets. I had to do it this way so it would read in this post. First one is placed before your text, the second one at the very end of your text. The / closes the spoiler.

< spoiler > < /spoiler >

[[deleted user]]

A nasty bout of the flu kept me from starting on time, but I've just begun and it's pretty atmospheric in the first few pages.

[Tyler]

I am 75% through right now (I'm slow I know, i'm in some sort of reading slump I guess, but almost there!) and i'm really enjoying it! It's very atmospheric and because my spouse was talking in another room I put my headphones on with some creepy instrumental music so I could read and...it went along with it all too well
(view spoiler)[gongs and all (hide spoiler)]

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

I too intentionally selected music to play in the background while reading 'The Willows'!

[Dani]

I actually enjoyed this short story. Glad this was selected for our Dec pick. I'm starting to read through the thread and will post more when folks are finished. Glad we read this!

[Joel]

Lena wrote: "Thank you Kelly.
Jennifer I think most of us found the river lovely but hard to navigate, lol.
I want to read Wendigo now."
I just read The Wendigo yesterday. It's in the same vein as The Willows and also really good. The Willows spurred me to read more Blackwood, and there is a massive mega-pack available on Kindle Unlimited (contains 36 stories/novels), so I grabbed it. The short stories I have read are pretty strong, but I ended up speed reading the novel because it didn't hold my interest.

[Perry]

Jesse wrote: "A nasty bout of the flu kept me from starting on time, but I've just begun and it's pretty atmospheric in the first few pages."

Hope you're feeling better now, Jesse.

[Laurie (barksbooks)]

Good choice everyone. This was definitely a slow starter for me but I enjoyed it in the end. I finished listening to it last night while sanitizing cages at the shelter and someone knocked on the window and I was so into the story that I nearly jumped out of my skin!

[Lena]

Thank you for being an animal angel Bark!

[Vicki Willis]

I finished it as well. It was a long slow build. It got better and better as it went on. I ended up liking it, but not loving it. Well worth the read.

@Bark so funny!

[Monica]

I finished it and really enjoyed, except for some repetitiveness. I already got some other stories by Blackwood.

[Tyler]

I just finished it! It was entertaining. A quick atmospheric story. That last line gave me pause for a minute. I enjoyed it and am glad I read it :)

[[deleted user]]

Perry wrote: "Jesse wrote: "A nasty bout of the flu kept me from starting on time, but I've just begun and it's pretty atmospheric in the first few pages."

Hope you're feeling better now, Jesse."

Thanks, Perry, I'm feeling much better. And I just finished the story.

[Andrew✌️]

I am more or less at 50% of the book. It started like an adventure, with a description of the nature and the river in particular. The, distress growth with the succession of pages, becoming horror and fear for an unknown danger.
A great story!

[[deleted user]]

I finished the novella and I'll just post what I used for my review:

The last half of the novella is excellent, but the first half often bogs down in Blackwood's slow reveal. That's fine for the opening as it builds the sense of atmosphere and environment rather brilliantly. But pages of the narrator arguing with himself over the validity of his suspicions . . . it brings out the "let's get on with it!" in me. That said, Blackwood's setup is more than finely delivered as the story works its way to closing pages worthy of Poe. Interesting read and my first (I'm ashamed to admit this) Blackwood.

[Latasha]

Aww it's ok Jesse, we all had to start somewhere & sometime. :)

[[deleted user]]

Yeah, no worries, Jesse. This was my first Blackwood as well.

[Joel]

I must say that I am sort of surprised that some are lamenting the "long" or "slow" buildup which comprises only the first two chapters of a four chapter short story. The strength of Blackwood's writing shows in that even those who had trouble with the opening seem to have come to appreciate the story by the end.

[Quantum]

Jesse wrote: But pages of the narrator arguing with himself over the validity of his suspicions . . . it brings out the "let's get on with it!" in me."

me too! it is, methinks, the malaise--or hypercritical attitude borne from a plenitude of media and rapid lifestyle--of the twenty-first century reader in modern society.

[Beth]

Just finished! I agree with most of you - the beginning was slow while he established the setting, but as the story went on, it got better and better. Very nice read!

For a moment, I wondered if it was supposed to be one of those vague "is it all in their heads, or real?" Types of stories. But nope, I think it was real in that story.

I wonder what happens to them after the final page.

[[deleted user]]

Beth wrote: "I wonder what happens to them after the final page."

Yes, thank you, Beth! I couldn't help but wonder, "What now?" as I finished.

Maybe we should all come up with something.

[Leslie]

For those that are finding it a slow read I recommend you stick with it. I tried to read this 2 months ago and stopped because I found it slow, but having it as a group read helped me power through and I was not disappointed.

[Laurie (barksbooks)]

I'd also suggest trying it in audio if you can. If you grab the free ebook at Amazon you can than add the audio. I believe it cost me $2.99. I can power through almost anything on audio.

[Latasha]

Me too. That's what I did. I got the Irish sounding narrator. He was great!

[Marti]

I read The Willows during the 3 hours I was trapped on a bus in a laughably small amount of snow that essentially shut the city of Portland (OR) down. I was glad I had a way to escape the situation by reading, but I don't think it helped the growing feeling that I was never going to get home and the bus would turn into a Lord of the Flies situation.

Background aside - I loved The Willows. The writing style felt a lot like a more-accessible Lovecraft, to me. I love stories that creep up on you, that give you only a taste of the horror so your imagination can do the rest.

I think this passage is beautiful and perfectly encapsulates the story:
(view spoiler)[
"When common objects in this way become charged with the suggestion of horror, they stimulate the imagination far more than things of unusual appearance; and these bushes, crowding huddled around us, assumed for me in the darkness a bizarre grotesquerie of appearance that lent to them somehow the aspect of purposeful and living creatures. Their very ordinariness, I felt, masked what was malignant and hostile to us."
(hide spoiler)]

[Joel]

Hummingbird, I agree with your assessment of the similarities between Blackwood and Lovecraft. Lovecraft was a fan, and he does mirror Blackwood in ways, but much weirder and vividly. I think Lovecraft is the king, but it was great to finally discover Blackwood for the first time with this group read.

I also enjoy horror that lets your imagination do the work and requires some effort from the reader. It seems some had problems with this aspect of the story though.