The Woman in the Dark

The Woman in the Dark is Vanessa Savvage's debut novel. Now, I'm not too sure about that cover, but what's inside was a really good read!

When Sarah's mother dies, she falls into a bit of a tailspin. Hoping to have a fresh start and a new outlook, her husband Patrick convinces her to take her inheritance and buy his childhood home. He has such fond memories of this house and his time in it - it was 'perfect' in his words. And he wants that for Sarah and his two children Joe and Mia. But the house isn't quite perfect - it's actually known as The Murder House. Yes, a mother, father and child were murdered in the home after Patrick's family moved out.

Ahh, a nice set-up with lots of possibilities......I love a good spooky house story. But is show more it the house? Or the people living in it? Savage does an excellent job at keeping both options on the table.

The relationship with Sarah and Patrick begins to deteriorate, as does their own mental states. As readers, we want to shout at Sarah to just get out now. Take her kids and run. The teens are not exempted from the what's happening either. And yet, they all stay..... (and as a perquisite of spooky house stories - yes, there's a scary cellar - and you shouldn't go down there either.)

The Woman in the Dark is told from Sarah's point of view. But there's also someone else - is it the person that Sarah sees watching the house? Italicized chapters darkly hint at the past. Savage keeps the reader guessing with many supporting characters that are all just a little off. The suspense builds with many red herrings, possibilities, what-ifs and more as the book progresses. Shades of Jack Nicholson and redrum.

I found Savage's writing to be really addictive - I was always trying to squeeze in just one more chapter before putting the book down. I'm quite looking forward to what she writes next. show less

“No matter what dreams you pour into it, this is still the murder house”

For some strange reason, a woman agrees to move her family into her husband’s old childhood home. Despite the previous occupants being murdered there. Despite it being known as the murder house. Despite the fact that she, and the children, hate the house.

This immediately tells you what to expect. What I did not expect was that the author was trying to recreate elements of The Shining. In Wales. Unsurprisingly this did not work.

I was promised a chilling psychological thriller with hints of gothic style haunting. I ended up with a disappointingly unbelievable attempt at gaslighting, which quickly became repetitive and boring. The characters were very show more unlikeable. The protagonist was weak and pathetic. Even her one true friend was not realistic and would have moved on a seriously long time ago. The ‘bad guy’ was obvious from the start, as was the husband’s mania. The ending was also a little too convenient and dull, and with the haunted elements suddenly glossed over and forgotten.

Unfortunately, this had all the usual cliches without any of the fun. show less

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

He sees the beautiful Victorian house he grew up in, with its pitched roof and gabled ends---a fairy-tale house before it became the county House of Horrors. He sees happy memories of a childhood lived by the sea. He doesn't imagine blood on the walls or whispering ghosts. He doesn't see the Murder House, but I do.

Sarah grew up with a mother who suffered from agoraphobia and a father who left, her childhood was less than ideal. When she meets Patrick, as a young nineteen year old, he sweeps her off her feet with his pretty face and pretty stories of a charming childhood. When he introduces her to his show more newborn baby boy Joe, she is swept up again. Her friend Caroline warns her that she is losing herself to Patrick but Joe needs her and she agrees to a pleading Patrick to get married. An abandoned college degree, birth of a daughter, and deep depression over her mother's death, has Sarah slowly seeing underneath all the pretty facades.

With my mother's money, I could make my husband's dream come true. But in doing that, I'd be destroying every dream of my own.

Woman in the Dark, has a strong Amityville Horror vibe with elements of The Girl on the Train. The story is mostly told all from Sarah's point of view with little snatches of a mystery person's pov. If you're familiar with the aforementioned stories, you'll know pretty soon where the story is headed. There were plenty of secondary characters to try to throw you off and have you second guessing supernatural or psychological, but most of the feelings of dread found here are from the knowing what Sarah is about to go through. The writing style, especially in the beginning, used a lot of short choppy sentences that gave it a staccato flow for me. This worked and didn't work for me, not a personal style favorite but when put together with how Sarah, her husband, and her two kids are portrayed in the first half, isolated or detached from one another, the style fits. The second half flows more smoothly as the pace picks up a bit, the reader starts to learn more as Sarah and her family start to interact and blind spots from only getting Sarah's point of view, start to fill.

I'm thinking of the dozen cracks in his control that have grown since we moved here.

When the reader comes into the story, Sarah is trying to emerge from deep depression over her mother's death and a maybe suicide attempt. Patrick convinces her to give up her inherited money to buy his childhood dream home, which they can only afford because fifteen years ago, a family, except for the younger son, was murdered there. Patrick's childhood home is called Murder House. Every thing is murky for Sarah as she is on medication and trying to become herself again, this makes the story murky, along with a lot of characters. Some secondary characters worked as credible misdirections and others, like Ian Hooper convicted of one of the murders, Tom the surviving younger son, and Sarah's friend Caroline, ended up landing very flat because of how they weren't utilized correctly; introduced, tangentially boogeymen, at times forgotten, and then left to sort of drift off.

I have to face it, stop hiding. I shake my head. I always do this---eyes tight shut, hands over my ears, hoping it will all go away if I just pretend it isn't happening. I can't do that anymore.

While I mentioned the constant circling of the question between supernatural or psychological, which the story never really gives a definite answer to, and Patrick's slow unraveling sending shivers down your spine, I think a lot of women will recognize the true horror of the story to be all the gaslighting. Murder House felt like an allegoric symbol for a woman trapped, pretty veneer covering up rot, showing once again, ghosts might not be the scariest beings haunting your home. show less

Patrick Walker will not take no for an answer. He begs, pleads, reasons with his wife Sarah to move back into his childhood home. Sarah had more than one reason for being so indecisive. Her primary reason was a good one. 15 years previously a family was brutally murdered there, and the house is referred to as the Murder House.

Before Patrick thrust this idea on Sarah, they were happy. However, her mother had died months before, and Sarah went into a deep depression and even suffered a breakdown. She never quite came out of it. At some point, Sarah apparently overdosed on sleeping pills. Patrick then insists that this might be the perfect time for their family to start over. Despite Patrick's exuberance, Sarah insists she didn't try to show more kill herself, and their teenage children don't quite believe it. The children, and especially Sarah, are nowhere near as excited as Patrick to move.

Patrick says that he has been watching the house for years, just waiting for it to go on sale. When it does, and with the sleeping pill incident, Patrick insists so the family makes the move. What a fateful move it was! From the outset, they are being watched, by nosy neighbors, but also by someone Sarah swears is watching them at odd times. Then they start getting weird offerings, or gifts, at various locations about the house. When Sarah learns that the murderer of the other family has been paroled, she is convinced that he is the one doing the strange things. Meanwhile, the teens start having nightmares.So, Sarah begins wondering whether or not the house is haunted.

What a doozy! Living in such a house, weird things happening, nightmares and a paroled prisoner make for a very wary predicament for the family. Despite a lot of twists for the reader to follow, things begin to unravel slowly and things begin to show that things were not as they seemed.

As the book progressed, I liked Patrick less and less, but still could not put the book down. This was definitely due to the goings on, how the various characters were affected, especially Sarah. Vanessa Savage has written a stunning debut thriller. It was dark, twisty and compelling. The conclusion was incredibly shocking. If this is what is on tap, I will definitely be on the lookout for more.

Many thanks to Grand Central Publishing for this ARC for review in exchange for my honest opinion. show less

I wanted to only give this book 2 or 3 stars because I hated all the characters so much, but the plot and suspense was 5 star worthy. There were a few times when I was so engrossed that I jumped when my Mom called me or the phone rang or someone knocked at the door.

If you like a nail-biter, page-turner, this was a pretty good one.

The Short of It:

This story was excellent. A creepy murder house, a husband with questionable motives and his family trying to make sense of it all.

The Rest of It:

This is a very difficult time to read. Everything is a distraction and I was having such a hard time getting back into a reading routine. However, one of my students dropped this book off for me and it was exactly what I needed to get excited about reading again.

Patrick and Sarah along with their two older children, move to Patrick’s old, childhood home. The moment it came up on the market, Patrick put his regular life aside, and threw all of their savings into the home so it could be his again. Wanting to re-live the wonderful childhood he had there, he forces the rest of show more his family to uproot their lives to make his dreams come true.

But the house is not the quaint seaside home you’d imagine. It’s known as the “murder house” because of the family that lived there before. Sarah is hesitant to move, given the house’s history, but Patrick insists and bad things happen. Behind its peeling plaster are hidden messages. There are cold spots throughout the house and rot that they can’t rid themselves of.

This story reminded me a lot of The Shining. Nevertheless, it had me flipping the pages pretty fast and I like how the ending came together. There are secrets, and supernatural elements and I like how art was incorporated into the story.

If you need a quick read to take your mind off of things, I recommend this one.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter. show less

this was genuinely one of the creepiest thrillers i’ve read. disturbing with that sense of claustrophobia and foreboding... good shit