in a dark, dark wood, by Ruth Ware
It’s past time to call this a genre – psychological thrillers with unimaginative titles involving potentially crazy women. I’m going with psycho girl thrillers.
In a dark, dark wood is classic psycho girl thriller, and it’s actually a pretty good one. My first favourite thing is that it resists the temptation to name the key suspect in the title. Other more formulaic versions were more succumbing: The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl, The Good Girl. (Good Girl Gone Bad looks like it fits the pattern, but don’t be fooled.)
The girls (and one boy) in this variant head off to the middle of nowhere (technically in the middle of the titular dark, dark wood) for a “hen” party. There’s some pretty extreme crazy but it hangs together surprisingly well, and I came away satisfied enough to order her next book “The Girl in Cabin 10”. It follows the more traditional naming convention so my expectations are correspondingly lowered, but I’m hopeful it will make for a good holiday read.
If you prefer the psycho girl thriller movie version, I strongly recommend “A Simple Favour“. This is a really nicely done PGT movie with wonderful acting and some actual surprises along the way.
Rating: Borrow it. Or, pick up a copy and lend it around to your friends.
I read them both, and the Dark Dark Wood is the best of the two….will see the movie eventually. Thanks for the recommendation!