REVIEW: Through the Woods (graphic novel) stories by Emily Carroll

Through the Woods is a graphic novel collection of short horror stories. I checked it out from the library.

I tried to avoid spoilers, but there are mentions here and there of things that could be considered spoiler-ish.

Review:

This collection includes "Our Neighbor's House," "A Lady's Hands Are Cold," "His Face All Red," "My Friend Janna," "The Nesting Place," and a linked introduction and conclusion story.

I had previously read "His Face All Red" online and absolutely loved it, so I was looking forward to reading this collection. It did not disappoint. Every entry is delightfully creepy and makes effective use of color and text placement. It's not the best collection if you want your horror to end with answers and everything tied up, but if you like chilling moments and general creepiness, I'd say give this a shot. I wouldn't say this volume was gory at all, although there's blood, disturbing moments, and body horror that often particularly focuses on teeth.

I don't think there's a single story I disliked, although my most favorite of the bunch was probably "His Face All Red," and my least favorite was probably "A Lady's Hands Are Cold" or possibly "My Friend Janna."

"Our Neighbor's House":

Told from the perspective of the middle daughter in a family. The three girls' father goes out hunting and tells them to travel to their neighbor's house if he's not back in three days.

This was probably the most confusing one of the bunch. I still enjoyed it a lot. It was a good choice on Caroll's part to leave the story's scariest aspects to the reader's imagination.

"A Lady's Hands Are Cold":

A girl's father arranges her marriage to a man in an isolated manor. At night, she hears someone singing a sad song and is eventually driven to find the singer.

This reminded me strongly of "Bluebeard," although there were enough differences and things left unexplained that I wouldn't call this an adaptation of that story. I loved the way Carroll used color and text placement and size to draw readers' eyes along particular paths.

"His Face All Red":

The story of a man who feels jealous of and eclipsed by his brother.

I loved this one, even though it left me with lots of questions. The part where the man went down into the hole was even more effective when I read it online and "going down" involved literally scrolling down, but this was still really good in print.

Carroll just gives readers hints of the man's emotions rather than spelling them out - the way he phrased things, shadows under his eyes. So good.

"My Friend Janna":

The story of two friends, Yvonne and Janna. Janna says she can see ghosts, although it's just a scam cooked up by her and Yvonne. Janna's ghosts aren't real...but maybe there's something else that is.

You could read this as a "parasitic ghost" story, but it's told from Yvonne's POV, and there are aspects to her phrasing that made me wonder if it was really (or also?) another story about jealousy, similar to "His Face All Red." 

Overall, I liked this, although there's one page that was frustrating because the text was (deliberately) difficult/impossible to read.

"The Nesting Place":

Now that both of Bell's parents are gone (dead? disappeared?) she has nowhere to go except her brother's place when her boarding school closes up for the summer. However, that also involves staying with her brother's beautiful fiancee, Rebecca. 

This story was the most direct in its horror, actually showing you the monster(s) close-up and allowing the main character to speak to it - if the creepy close-ups of teeth bothered you in the previous stories, be warned that the teeth in this one are worse. However, this still had several instances of Carroll's very effective off-page horror - the last image of Madame Beauchamp was particularly chilling. 

Introduction and Conclusion:

I didn't initially realize these were connected until the panel that showed the girl in the last story had the same lamp as the girl in the first. The introduction is about childhood fear of the dark. The conclusion blends that with Little Red Riding Hood. And again with the creepy teeth...