INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER
SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
An NPR Best Book of the Year, 2015
A ShelfAwareness Best Book of the Year, 2015
An Entertainment Weekly Summer Books Pick
A Buzzfeed “31 Books to Get Excited About this Summer” Pick
A Publishers Weekly “Top Ten Mysteries and Thrillers” Pick
A BookReporter Summer Reading Pick
A New York … Pick
A Publishers Weekly “Top Ten Mysteries and Thrillers” Pick
A BookReporter Summer Reading Pick
A New York Post “Best Novels to Read this Summer” Pick
A Shelf Awareness “Book Expo America 2015 Buzz Book” Pick
What should be a cozy and fun-filled weekend deep in the English countryside takes a sinister turn in Ruth Ware’s suspenseful, compulsive, and darkly twisted psychological thriller.
Leonora, known to some as Lee and others as Nora, is a reclusive crime writer, unwilling to leave her “nest” of an apartment unless it is absolutely necessary. When a friend she hasn’t seen or spoken to in years unexpectedly invites Nora (Lee?) to a weekend away in an eerie glass house deep in the English countryside, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. Forty-eight hours later, she wakes up in a hospital bed injured but alive, with the knowledge that someone is dead. Wondering not “what happened?” but “what have I done?”, Nora (Lee?) tries to piece together the events of the past weekend. Working to uncover secrets, reveal motives, and find answers, Nora (Lee?) must revisit parts of herself that she would much rather leave buried where they belong: in the past.
In the tradition of Paula Hawkins’s instant New York Times bestseller The Girl On the Train and S. J. Watson’s riveting national sensation Before I Go To Sleep, this gripping literary debut from UK novelist Ruth Ware will leave you on the edge of your seat through the very last page.
more
I could not put this book down! Such a great read.
An engrossing read! A story told well.. A Wonderful Weaving… Did you know??/
I absolutely loved this book! Read it while I was on vacation and I just couldn’t out it down. READ IT!! Ruth Ware is one terrific author! EXCELLENT READ!!
Probably the easiest book I’ve read on a flight! In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware was a fast paced psychological thriller. Despite the fact that I had nothing else to read, I couldn’t put this book down, literally!
This is about a single 26 year-old writer, Leonora, who lives in London. She’s lying in a hospital bed with injuries and absolutely no memories of the accident she was involved in. Rewind to the past, where she has been invited to a bachelorette party for one of her old friends.
The story unravels from there. I was captivated by the question why Leonora was in the hospital, why was she invited to the party and even why she went in the first place. The plots changing between past, present and childhood was beyond enjoyable! I was entertained by it all!
This is my second Ruth Ware novel and I found it was masterfully written! The characters were intriguing, the plot twists were exquisite and the pace is what truly did it for me. This is what I look for in a psychological thriller!
If you’re looking for a tense, fascinating and dark thriller, that is quite a page turner, look no further than In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware. Her writing is seriously addictive and I had a hard time putting this one down. I highly recommended this one. I’ll be going on a wee bit of a bender and reading some of her other books too!
Read my full review here: https://bit.ly/2XWhMGK
Woohoo great!!
I was held captive with this book!! Stayed up the entire PM to read it! Brilliant!!
I’d give this one 3.5 stars. While it was a page turner and entertaining, I found it a bit predictable. But, still a good read.
I love the way Ruth Ware weaves a story!
So stupid. I knew it was a set up. I only bought it because Drew Barrymore highly praised it. I know now that we have very different tastes. I didn’t find it scary except that I had paid for it.
Interesting story.
This is a story of Leonora who is invited to a weekend away from a long lost friend. Her friend, Clare, is getting married and has invited Leonora to a “hen do” (British for a bacelorette party). Leonora hasn’t seen or spoken to Clare for 10 years, and she finds it odd that Clare wants to see her now. At the maid of honor’s insistence Leonora agrees to go.
There are only 6 people invited to the “hen do” and none seem to have much in common. It is revealed during the weekend why Leonora is invited by Clare, and soon things start to unravel and people end up dead. The next thing Leonora knows is she is in the hospital with memory loss and a cop sitting outside her hospital room door. Leonora starts to piece together what happened, and becomes even more in danger than she was before.
This book was fine. Not worth the hype, that is for sure. It is a quick reading murder mystery. It was easy to figure out the killer pretty early on, but I kept reading to see how it ended. All the characters were pretty shallow. You don’t end up liking any of them. The ending was a bit crazy – seemed like the author gave up. It wasn’t well thought out or made much sense. Really made the main character seem dim witted.
Eh – I wouldn’t bother. It could have been a lot better.
I received a warm recommendation for the book as a fan of the genre. Unfortunately…
The beginning is boring. It is not difficult to guess what was the mystery all about and who the criminal is. The background story is closer to the improbable than the reliable, and the plot is banal rather than original.
When Lenora is invited to a long, lost friends hen party (bachelorette), but not the wedding, she’s completely baffled. Despite not seeing each other in ten years, she and Nina, another friend decide to go. It’s not your usual bachelorette party. Isolated in a woods, trap shoot for entertainment and a Ouija board that spells out MURDERER. Someone will end up dead!
I enjoyed an British author. I also enjoyed the last 25 pages alot. But the rest of the book seemed to drag on at times. I would read Ware again for sure.
Thoroughly enjoyed. Held your interest and looked forward to the ending of the story and yet didn’t want it to end
Very predictable, repetitive in some parts, but a good read if nothing else available.
First Ruth Ware book I’ve read and will look for others
In a Dark, Dark Wood is a Great, Great Book. A page-turning mix of modern psychological thriller and traditional country house murder mystery.
The setting is perfect – a modern house with huge picture windows. As one of the characters remarks, it is like a lit stage and the house guests are the players on show to a hidden audience in the surrounding wood. It’s miles from anywhere, no mobile signal, the landline goes down and there’s even a sprinkling of snow to make the characters feel more cut off.
And the set-up is perfect too. Out of the blue, Nora is invited to a hen party for her former best friend whom she hasn’t seen for ten years.
Author Ruth Ware must be an Agatha Christie fan. Not only are there elements of And Then There Were None – as alluded to in the text – but also there are nods to The Sittaford Mystery and The Hollow.
I loved the way the plot unfolded. Just like the rhyme from which the novel takes its title, a little more suspense is added with each chapter. Ideal for TV adaptation.
Thrillers are my weakness! From the opening scene, I kept thinking, “No! Don’t do it.” Delicious spine-tingling storytelling.
Good read, very entertaining, unsettling and creepy at points, slightly long winded at times.