Book Thirtyfour: In The Woods

In The Woods, Tana French



I've had a lot of weird neuroses in my life. I've been able to overcome some of them (fear of flying, fear of open water) and some still linger (what if gravity suddenly gives out one day and we all float out into space?), but I just recently added a new one to my menagerie. And that is a horrible, gnawing worry that I will die before I finish the book I am currently reading. Yes, totally stupid, and something I shouldn't spend time worrying about, because, to be perfectly honest with myself, this will probably happen to me at some point since I am always reading something, right? And I have to die at some point, right? (We can't all be as lucky as Bella and Edward.)

Well, the other day, as I was well into this book and totally hooked on the plot and characters, I mentioned this fear to Chris and we had an illuminating conversation about it. He wondered if I shouldn't start rating books based on this criteria. Meaning, as I'm reading any given book, how worried am I that I will die before finishing it? Chris decided it should be called it the Anxiety of Mortality Index and it can be applied to anything you have read. The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments, for example? That would get a two (out of ten)--great book but no cliff hangers there. In The Woods? Two days ago I would have given this a big, fat ten.

Well, now that I have finished In The Woods, I'm going to change that score to a big fat zero. Seriously, I could have actually died before finishing this and not missed much of anything. Which is too bad because what a promising start! We're given two juicy mysteries, and the better and more intriguing of the two isn't ever solved by the end! I can't even bring myself to go into it here, since I'm still riding this wave of disappointment, but go ahead and read any of the one-star reviews at amazon and you will know exactly how I feel.