owenglasgow's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Moderate: Grief and Child death
amylia_k's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Death, Child death, and Grief
echosong's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Narrated from the perspective of a future Arthur Kipps, The Woman In Black, follows him as he writes down his experience from when he was a young lawyer looking from a promotion that changed his life forever and his hope that by writing it down, he will finally exorcise the ghost haunting him. Primarily set in a small village suffering from constant intense fogs, Arthur meets, from a distance, the titular Woman In Black, when he’s sent to get a recently deceased woman’s affairs in order, the story documents what happened to him on that week.
Character wise, there is not that much character development. Other than Arthur and his deteriorating state, all the other characters are static, with the reader finding out more about them, but none of them being developed further than their initial meeting.
While I enjoyed the writing style, which I feel lends itself to a narrator of the 1800s, it is difficult to get through the first part of the story. It’s only around chapter 6 that the ghost shenanigans really start and I was at my most interested.
Graphic: Grief, Child death, and Murder
Minor: Misogyny
ggcd1981's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Spoiler
Jennet Humfrye, a titular mulher de preto, faz sua primeira aparição para Arthur no funeral da Sra. Alice Drablow. Kipps nota o traje de luto antiquado da mulher e sua aparência assustadora; embora jovem, ela é horrivelmente pálida e doente. Quando o protagonista menciona a mulher para seu companheiro no funeral, o Sr. Jerome, este fica profundamente assustado - e Arthur percebe que ele foi o único no serviço capaz de ver a mulher. O jovem advogado a encontra novamente quando chega à casa em Eel Marsh - desta vez, Arthur tem certeza de que a mulher deve ser uma aparição fantasmagórica. Depois que Kipps descobre um pacote de cartas escritas por uma mulher chamada Jennet Humfrye para Alice Drablow, a história da vida das duas mulheres se torna mais clara: parentes e talvez até irmãs, Jennet e Alice estavam ligadas para sempre por uma transação terrível. Quando Jennet ficou grávida de um filho ilegítimo, ela foi forçada a abandonar o bebê aos cuidados da Sra. Drablow - ela o fez apenas depois de avisar a mulher de que o filho nunca seria realmente dela. Jennet perseguiu os Drablows ao longo dos anos até que finalmente conseguiu acesso à criança; ela planejou fugir com ele, mas o menino, Nathaniel, afundou no pântano ao lado de sua babá em um terrível acidente de charrete de pônei. A raiva, o ódio, a perda e a dor da mulher de preto são traduzidos em uma terrível malevolência quando ela se tornou a figura que assombra a casa em Eel Marsh, assim como a cidade de Crythin Gifford. Sempre que ela aparece, uma criança local morre - um efeito prolongado de sua obsessão por seu próprio filho perdido.Spoiler
Uma coisa que poderia ter atrapalhado foi a sensação de perigo constante ao cachorro Spider que era o companheiro de Arthur enquanto em Eel Marsh. Minha alta sensibilidade a morte de animais me impediria de gostar muito de uma obra em que o cachorro é morto, felizmente não foi o caso aqui.Graphic: Injury/injury detail, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Terminal illness and Animal death
ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
“And then, standing among the trunks of the fruit trees, silver-grey in the moonlight, I recalled that the way to banish an old ghost that continues its haunting is to exorcise it. Well then, mine should be exorcised. I should tell my tale, not aloud, by the fireside, not as a diversion for idle listeners—it was too solemn, and too real, for that. But I should set it down on paper, with every care and in every detail. I would write my own ghost story. Then perhaps I should finally be free of it for whatever life remained for me to enjoy.”
“Whatever was about, whoever I had seen, and heard rocking, and who had passed me by just now, whoever had opened the locked door was not ‘real’. No. But what was ‘real’? At that moment I began to doubt my own reality.”
“The weather might change, the wind drop, the sun shine, Eel Marsh House might stand quiet and still. It would be no less dreadful. Whoever haunted it and whatever terrible emotions still possessed them would continue to disturb and distress anyone who came near here, that I knew.”
- other Gothic & Victorian English (& Irish) ghost stories
- Laura Purcell
- Edgar Allan Poe
- THE SEANCE, by John Harwood
- THIS HOUSE IS HAUNTED, by John Boyne
Graphic: Child death, Grief, Car accident, and Death
morgianlefaye's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Moderate: Death, Grief, and Child death
Minor: Alcohol
rivercat0338's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Moderate: Animal death, Death, and Child death
Minor: Grief and Pregnancy
batcaves's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Grief, Alcohol, Animal death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Child death, Injury/injury detail, and Death
jojoana's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.25
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief
pipkins973's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Graphic: Murder, Grief, Animal death, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury