![]() ![]() That there is some subtext just feels like a bonus. Bottom line, these are all just wonderfully scary horror stories. The subtly of how she conveys her themes is skillful and lovely. While Mabel’s distrust of her brother’s fiancée never feels out of place, the reveal feels both shocking and earned.Ĭarroll never feels like she’s pushing her metaphors about women’s bodies and lives being in control of forces outside themselves. In the book’s final story, “The Nesting Place,” the quiet distress builds to outright horror. In the elegantly paced “A Lady’s Hands Are Cold,” her twisting page layouts, poetic language and art saturated with bright blues and crimson reds lead the reader down a frightening path that turns in unexpected places. ![]() Carroll does creeping dread like no one else working in comics.īut when Carroll wants to show us actual horror, she’s unafraid, and her visions are as beautiful as they are terrifying. There’s no overt horror in this tale, but the tension is in the waiting, in the inevitable fate of our narrator. In the first story, “Our Neighbor’s House,” the protagonist narrates her sisters seeing a mysterious stranger before they each disappear, leaving her alone to face what’s to come. Much of Carroll’s power is in what goes unseen. In Carroll’s world, everywhere is haunted everything means you harm. Part of Carroll’s gift is how she transforms her influences into something completely new. It’s one part Shirley Jackson, one part Grimm’s fairy tales, one part Junji Ito, but so much more. The five stories here (plus an introduction and a conclusion) take us deep into the world Carroll has created. It’s not that all of these stories are about these specific issues, but even in the more horrific stories, there’s an undercurrent of this just being what life is like. I thought about these things while reading the gorgeous collection of Emily Carroll’s stories, Through the Woods ( Margaret K. I know I don’t give them too much thought. ![]() But women just live with these things for the most part. We ache, we hurt, we feel emotions we don’t always understand. Nevermind that women live in bodies that are often confusing. Is this street safe? Should I ride in the elevator with this man or wait for the next one? Is this person my friend or just waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of me? It’s not like all women live every moment in fear.īut there is an underlying current of danger for so many women. Don’t get me wrong - there are so many great things about it, too. ![]()
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