Through the woods

Through the Woods is a horror anthology of 5 different short stories, and I mean SHORT. Each story can be read in ~5 minutes or less, which might be off-putting to people because of how expensive the book is. Through the Woods honestly felt like a mixed bag, with me liking only 2 of the 5 stories: A Lady's Hands Are Cold, and The Nesting Place. The rest of the stories, while certainly not bad, just didn't leave a big impression on me. Here's how I'd rank each one of them:

#5: Our Neighbor's House
My least favorite of the bunch. I liked the art of the environment and red/white sky, but the story was just eh. The ending was also predictable.

#4: My Friend Janna
The scribblings on the notebook were creepy. That's about all I can say for this one, the rest of the story feels like you're just going through the motions of a horror film, and ending was also not surprising.

#3: His Face All Red
Probably the shortest story here, I was shocked by how vague the ending was, but I think the bizarre ending is really what makes this story memorable. There's a lot of room for interpretation and thought.

#2: A Lady's Cold Hands
The art was awesome and unlike the rest of this book, this story had a style and theme to it. The song was chilling, and the ending was satisfying.

#1: The Nesting Place
Easily the best the story in the book, and what I hoped the rest would imitate. This is the longest story, and the writer's comfort with slightly longer stories really shows. There are actual characters, the dialogue is good, and the story wasn't short enough that it had to suddenly end. A great read.

Through the Woods is a genuinely creepy read. One of the things that affects me most in horror is what is not seen, so I wasn’t entirely sure that it would work for me in graphic novel form, but Emily Carroll’s stories have the right level of suspense and things lurking in the dark. They don't have neat conclusions either, leaving you with that sense of unease.

There’s a few visual references to Little Red Riding Hood but this is not a fairy tale retelling (although Grimm’s original stories do have a similar level of macabre). Don’t go into the woods alone or at night, is common phrase throughout horror, or just simply our childhoods where our parents try and keep us from playing somewhere potentially dangerous. These stories play on that idea, some are about going into the woods and coming a cropper or others are about people who simply live in the woods…and then something awful happens to them.

The books itself is gorgeous. The cover is all textured and there’s a lot of muted colours, and monochrome with red, which is a particular aesthetic I love. There was some variety in the style too, which shows a greater skill in the artist than pages and pages that all look the same. Yet it all comes together into a package that feels right.