Book Review

In The Night Wood, by Dale Bailey
Not a bad little book. A "scary" story. I put scary in parentheses because haunted/supernatural stories play to fears I just don't have anymore. And also it's about a creepy wooded area, which is hard for someone who lives nearly surrounded by woods to be frightened of.
But it was enjoyable since the dark overtones are of a fairy tale nature. Like the old fairy tales that were gruesome and disturbing. A tale like that is the basis of the plot but it unfolds as more of a psychological thriller. A man moves himself and his strained marriage to England to research the origins of the author who had written the horrific fairy tale that had enchanted him as a child and intersected with different events throughout his life. He discovers that it's based more in real life events than he could've possibly imagined. And yet it's written in a way that leaves the reader wondering if it was real or just the haunted imagination of a man carrying a lot of guilt. Three sets of lives in the past and present are woven together against the backdrop of the morbid storybook and tied together nicely at the end.

It's a well constructed book and those who are into the genre will enjoy it a lot. I like it but I'd have to leave it at just "like" for me. Not because it's bad but because it's not my thing, so to speak. It didn't entrance me and the real-life crises that were unrelated to the spooky book were kind of a downer, although the end indicates that happiness will be found again.
Worth the time to read once.