Sarah's Review of In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

In a Dark, Dark Wood, by Ruth Ware, our main character, Nora, hasn't seen her high school best friend, Clare, for ten years. They haven't even spoken since the day Nora walked out of her high school, never to return.

Then, out of nowhere, Nora receives an invitation to Clare's hen do. Wanting to put her past behind her, and vowing to attend with a mutual friend who she has remained in touch with, Nora decides to go.

But right from the start, things seem off. Clare's maid of honour is high strung and almost seemingly obsessed with Clare, even copying the way she dresses. And the guest list is just as absurd.

If Nora was slightly uncomfortable before arriving, she becomes even more so after she meets Clare after those ten long years. Nora realizes that even though time has passed, some secrets can never stay buried.

And then to make matters even more confusing, Nora wakes up in a hospital bed, badly bruised and covered in blood, with only patchy memories of what happened the night before. But one thing she does know for sure is that someone is dead.

This is Ruth Ware's debut novel, however I read it after the Woman in Cabin 10. It was the main reason I picked it up.

In a Dark, Dark Wood was a very good read. It hooked me right from the beginning and the characters were so easy to understand. Also, the plot line was very sequential and everything fit in. At times I had "hunches" as to what was going to happen or what had happened in the past that Nora was hiding, and, even though those hunches were proven correct, the entirety of it was not overly predictable. You think one thought, but then the reasoning behind it or how it comes to be is not what you expected.

Ware's writing is so well laid out and she has the ability to entangle you into her story and the world she has created. The characters were easy to follow and each one had such a unique personality that it was nice to see how they all fit with and interacted with one another. Especially since none of them really knew each other before showing up for the hen (bachelorette) party. You could get a good sense of who they were, and as the story unfolded you saw the profoundness of their personalities take hold.

Ruth Ware's psychological thriller really takes you into the depths of what the human mind at it's darkest is capable of. And that you never really know what people go through or what they are thinking, no matter how well you may know them. You come under the realization that even one decision can have the ability to affect so much more than you could ever imagination. Even years down the road, one little lie has the ability to completely destroy a person's life.

In a Dark, Dark Wood is a page turning, murder mystery, that dives into the deep psyche of what one person could do to create their own reality and how intertwined our lives really are with those we are close to.

I highly recommend this novel, especially if you have read and enjoyed her other books. It is a quick, easy, dark read, that pulls you in right from the beginning. A page turning, murder mystery.