In the Night Wood

Let me preface this review. I really wanted to like this book. I thought Oh! A Gothic thriller set in modern times! What a perfect read before Halloween. All I can say now is... YIKES.In the Night Wood is about a couple who move from North Carolina to the United Kingdom, in Yorkshire. Erin inherited her ancestral estate, Hollow House. Charles, a professor and Erin's husband, has been studying Erin's ancestor Caedmon Hollow and the book he wrote back in the early 1800s, In the Night Wood. Together, they see this move as a fresh start after the passing of their daughter, Lissa, a year ago. Something lurks in the Eorl Wood that lies beyond the house though. Something dangerous. Charles must unravel the mystery of the Hollow House, Caedmon Hollow, and In the Night Wood before it's too late.What did this book do right? If I'm being honest, and I am, not a lot. Really. Not. A. Lot. The setting was gorgeous. The woods seem beautiful, lush, alive, with a hint of mystery and creepiness. Only a hint though. Let's not get too carried away here. The Hollow House seemed like a beautiful Victorian house. The wood carvings would be something I could stare at all day. The library. Oh... the library. Just set me up with a nice big cuppa, a good book, a fluffy blanket, maybe some popcorn, and I'm set. Leave me there, I'll be quite happy. The invented folklore of the town and the myths surrounding the Hollow House were intriguing. I'd read a book about the Horned King and the fae in the Night Wood happily. But likely not a book by this author. Sorry. Annnnnnnnnnnnnd........ That's it. That's all I liked about this book.Jolly ol' England This book takes place in England. Because it was written by an American author, this book might be quite enjoyable for an American who has never been to England and just watches Downton Abbey (great show, please hurt me more, but doesn't represent modern-day England). Please, if you come to England, don't expect the "Ooooh hullo. Welcome to our beautiful country! Good show, old chap!" with the super posh British accents. No, no. Expect "Oii mate, get me a pint!" or whatever. Unfortunately, I feel like the former is what this book expects England to be like. We get a few examples of this throughout the book. Mrs. Ramsden, or Helen, the housekeeper constantly calls Charles and Erin Mr. and Mrs. Hayden. When Erin insists she and Charles don't expect her to call them Mr. and Mrs. Hayden, Helen says "I'm sorry ma'am. I fear out different stations in life preclude such intimacies." then goes on to say "Mr. Harris (the groundskeeper) wouldn't approve." You might assume this book takes place in the early 1900s or so with talk like that. NOPE! Charles has a Macbook and Frozen is out, has been out for well over a year since it was Lissa's favorite movie. Bangers and mash. We have to be told in the book what bangers and mash is. Okay, fine, maybe not everyone knows what that is. There's a man in the pub who is always playing draughts or as the solicitor, Ann puts it, "what you Americans so quaintly call checkers." Thanks for that. The owner of the pub is, for some reason I can't figure out, called "the landlord." (I asked my husband about this and he was like yeah no.) And the cherry on the cake? Charles explains to Silva (we'll get to her in a minute) that back in North Carolina, the temperatures are usually in the eighties. Did someone not give him the memo that the UK doesn't operate in Fahrenheit and operates in Celsius? Silva, who is British, doesn't even question it. She's just like oh yes, I totally understand what that temperature means (spoiler: she probably has no clue). Sure, it takes a while to transition from Fahrenheit to Celsius. I would know, but I still make the effort.All the characters, or lack thereof. Let's start with Charles. He's a prick. Why? Well, here we go. Charles cheats on his wife with a woman named Syrah Nagle (what a name). On the day of Lissa, his daughter's birthday, he decides to break it off with Syrah. His "private birthday gift to his daughter." Yeah. Lissa, unfortunately, dies on her birthday. Charles says Erin blames him for her death, and honestly comes across like it wasn't his fault. And then you find out how Lissa died. Sorry, Charlie Boy, that was 100% your fault, you selfish git. He doesn't feel remorse for cheating on his wife, instead checks out the solicitor Ann, and a woman he ends up working with, Silva North. I have to give him some credit for attempting to get Erin out of the house a few times, but beyond that, there's not a lot of effort made on his part to try and pick up his marriage. It's pretty heavily implied he just stays with Erin to keep doing his research about her ancestors and have access to the Hollow House. Erin. Oh, Erin. Out of all the flat, lifeless female characters in this book, you, my dear, are the worst. Erin's still grieving the loss of Lissa. Everyone goes through grief differently, I know firsthand. And losing a daughter is really rough, I'm sure. But she's constantly overdosing on pills, drinking, drawing, or sleeping. That's it. That's her life. She doesn't leave the house. She barely talks with Charles or anyone else. She just doesn't do anything. Want to go see a therapist? No. Want to go to the pub? No. Want to go for a walk? No. Want to do anything? No. She hates England, for god knows what reason. Like this... "She sat him at the kitchen table, fetched him the water - lukewarm; they had yet to discover the virtues of ice in this benighted country..." What? WHAT? First of all, have you ever heard of an ice cube tray? Put water in a tray, freeze, AND PRESTO ICE CUBES! Also, in my British house, the water coming out of my tap is cold when I turn on the cold tap. Shocking, I know. I don't feel like there's much to say about Cillian Harris (the groundskeeper), Helen, or Silva. At best, they are just kind of there. What I will say is for some reason, there are no boys in this village they are living in. Just girls. All the kids are girls. Oh, and all the girls look like Lissa, even when they don't look like Lissa. And they are all around 5 or 6 years old. And the are all named Lissa, Livia, Lorna, and Laura. Cool. Then there are the two women Charles are attracted to. Syrah Nagle and Silva North. Why? Why are the characters named like this? Why do all the names have to be so similar?Just one big Y I K E S I've got so much more I could go on about. How everyone in the town talks about how they wouldn't read Caedmon Hollow's book to their children. Well yeah, I don't think anyone would read their kids the story about how Cinderella's stepsisters sawed off their toe and heel to get their foot in the slipper and when Cinderella was married, the stepsisters had their eyes plucked their eyes out by birds. Or how Ariel got her tongue cut out, was rejected by her prince, turned into seafoam, and her sisters murdered the prince. Sure, those stories aren't appropriate in a modern setting, but there's no reason to comment about how you wouldn't read a Victorian children's book to your kid now. The book seemed so long, and so short all at once. A lot of things happened, but also, not a lot of things happened. The book dragged on and on at times and didn't at others. It was so awkwardly paced, it was hard to read. Just like this paragraph. You're welcome. And then my favorite game popped up in the middle of the book. Charles quoted 'The Raven' by Edgar Allen Poe to Silva. Silva couldn't believe Poe used the word "quaff." So here's a list of words I couldn't believe were written in this book. Sepulchral. Lacuna. Piecemeal. Surcease. Gelid. Opalescent. Thus. Thence. Moldered. Vertiginous. Betimes. Affixed. Capacious. Bifurcation. Riven. Sloughed. Portent. Bemazed. Interstices. Sibilants. Capricious. Laving. Descry. Flotilla. Triumvirate. Rumpsprung. Libidinal. Spurious. Klaxon. Sordid. Officious. Epiphyte. Suppurating. Panoply. The list goes on and on really. Some advice. PUT DOWN THE THESAURUS AND NO ONE GETS HURT!This book is 2 star out of 5 stars. Yeah, I don't think so. Gothic, sure. You got some of the Gothic elements down. Thriller? No. No. Please. Not even a horror. Fantasy? Yeah, okay sure I'll give you that one. But not a thriller. Not a horror. I am still on the fence about the Gothic thing. Maybe come to me later on that matter. Folklore is good, descriptions of the house and forest were really nice, but everything else was extremely lacking. Harper Collins provided a copy of In the Night Wood through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to read this book!

somewhere between 3.5 and 4 stars. Charles is the reason I hate men tbh but the atmosphere and concept and imagery is very very nice

**I was provided a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review I really enjoyed the concept of this story. I felt the writing was very atmospheric and that you could really picture being in this small Yorkshire village, but overall I felt it was very slow. The bits that had to do with Hollow and the supernatural were interesting, but it just took a lot of time to get there. I felt like I had read the majority of the story before anything really happened. I was hoping for a dark, engaging Victorian-inspired story, but it just left me wanting just a little bit more.