Book Review: "In the Night Wood" by Dale Bailey

When it comes to atmospheric horror and ghost stories, the most iconic ones have already been written. For example: the stories of MR James and Mary Elizabeth Braddon, all the way down to stories by Shirley Jackson and Stephen King. However, there is still room for the classic ghost story yet. Given the fact that Susan Hill succeeded with her “The Woman in Black” and, with my personal favourite book by her - “The Man in the Picture”, we can see that there is not only room for ghost stories, but there is also a massive audience for them. Ghost stories, in the season of winter, have fascinated us for decades and decades, well over a century and still, we have many more to discover. Nowadays, ghost stories seem to be making a steady comeback with the ghosts not just being old and reminiscent of a different age, but also with a horror that was previously unknown and unavailable to us. For example: “The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson uses the house to haunt the girl rather than a physical ghost. Ghosts have been manifestations and projections as in Kate Summerscale’s “The Haunting of Alma Fielding” and have since become commonplace as the unrested spirits of people far before ourselves. In the book “In the Night Wood”, this is something we see yet again.

Charles Hayden has failed at nearly everything in his life and now he wants to start anew by writing a biographical piece about a man called Caedmon Hollow. Caedmon Hollow was the author of a fairy tale that almost continuously haunts the author throughout his life, the fairy tale is called “In the Night Wood”. As he mourns the loss of his daughter, he also tries to repair his marriage with his wife who is a descendant from the author, Caedmon Hollow. As his wife gives up her job, the couple moves into the mansion left behind by Caedmon Hollow and discover that there are far more secrets and twists inside that are far darker than they ever thought that they were going to be.

One thing I thoroughly enjoyed about this book was the use of atmosphere. Everything was a feeling before it was an action. You could really witness the atmosphere building up especially around the house belonging once to Caedmon Hollow. It was really well written with a good piece of the modern placed in the heart of something which reads almost like something from a Victorian Short Story. From start to finish, there is a constant feeling of unease brought about by the atmosphere which helps move the tension in the story along as well, as the secrets of Caedmon Hollow’s former home are discovered then the atmosphere becomes almost heavier.

The story and characters though somewhat dated, do not suffer as a result of the atmospheric description. It feels like everything is of the correct pace in the book as well. Though it is short and it sometimes feels like the development of character is lacking, the way in which the character encounters and addresses the action makes up for it.

In conclusion, this is a perfect ghost story for the winter. I have no idea as to where I found this and why I bought it as I do not remember, but what I can tell you is that the perfection of the ghost story lies in its ability to pull you away from everything that you thought was possible and impossible and make you believe, even for a second or two, that these ghosts are well and truly here.