In my opinion, a good ghost story is difficult to pull off. Too often, the story veers off into lurid gore, overdone camp, or worse, sheer boredom. Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black succeeds where so many others fail, writing a truly frightening tale of a haunting in the remote northern reaches of England in the early 20th century.
Arthur Kipps, middle-aged and living with his second wife and her children, revisits his youth when, as a young solicitor (apparently a dangerous job for British males, at least in novels), he is sent to the village of Crythin Gifford to oversee the processing of an elderly widow’s estate. Strange things begin happening, a malevolent woman in black appears, and Kipps is drawn into a terrifying experience that reaches far beyond the village.
This was a story that had me having to force myself to keep my eyes on the page I was reading, resisting the urge to skip ahead just to end the anxiety and dread each bump, each scream, each murky mist brought to my mind. Hill’s ominous foreshadowing begins from the very first pages, giving the reader a old-fashioned ghost story that had enough atmosphere and chills in an understated horror novel that doesn’t disappoint. The comparisons to Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House are apt and well-deserved.
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[...] tradition of The Turn of the Screw and The Haunting of Hill House and is every bit as frightening. I’ve said before that it can be difficult to write a really good ghost story, and it’s true, but in this case, [...]
What if “Susan Hill” is a pen name for a author who loves The Haunting of Hill House?
Do you know something I don\’t?
Susan Hill was apparently born with that name – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Hill
I would love to see the play! Yet another reason to visit London.
Oh I looooooved The Woman in Black. It’s creepiness really creeps up on you and before you know it you can’t put the book down and it won’t let you go and it’s scaring the heck out of you but you just have to keep going and going until the book is over and it’s nighttime and you can’t sleep thanks to the book.
Wow, what a sentence. LOL Can you tell it freaked me out a bit? Still, it was a really good read. Glad you enjoyed it.
This one sounds good….I hope it really scares me!
I love this story. I got to see a play of it last year and it was so fun. Unfortunately I’ve read 2 other books by Susan Hill and was completely underwhelmed. On the basis of The Woman in Black though I would probably give another of her books a try.
I’ve been waiting on this Amazon order and can’t wait to actually get my hands on The Woman in Black.
This one sounds good….and very, very creepy. I hope that you did not read this alone at night?? I made the mistake of reading Stephen King’s Bag of Bones alone in the evening. It was also in my first apartment, a basement apartment that housed the boiler which made all kinds of freaky noises, so you can guessed how much I was traumatized after that!!
Isn’t it a great read? The ending totally spooked me, and I was reading it broad daylight!! Another good read of hers is The Mist in the Mirror, only available from Amazon UK.
I read this earlier this year and I agree–very well done!! A nice element of creepiness without going over the top. Good ghost stories are hard to do well!
I loved Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, so this must go on the list!
Lesley, your review prompted me to add Susan Hill’s book to my TBR list. I have goosebumps of anticipation, it sounds so good.
I hope those of you who have yet to read it enjoy it as much as I did!