#Ruth Ware

[adrasteiax]

(...) her heart clutched again with the pain of loss, as if an old, half-healed wound had been struck.

Ruth Ware, from The Death Of Mrs Westaway

[bangbangwhoa]

books I’ve read in 2024 📖 no. 080

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware

“They pick volatile people, people who’re going to perform for the cameras, they wind them up as tight as they can, they engineer a bunch of high-stress situations that are practically guaranteed to make someone lose their shit, throw in some alcohol—and then they sit back and let the cameras roll and the tweets pour in.”

[thisisustrying]

midnights become my afternoons

ruth ware - the it girl // taylor swift - cruel summer // daphne du maurier - rebecca // taylor swift - daylight (outro) // richard siken - the language of the birds // f. scott fitzgerald - the beautiful and the damned // emily dickinson - a letter to her friend elizabeth holland, january 20, 1856 // pablo neruda - the rain (rapa nui)

[edwardslovelyelizabeth]

One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware

«Listen to me, if anyone is listening to this, you need to get here now. Now, do you understand me? Because this is not a game. It’s not a joke. This is life or death, and we are stuck on this fucking island with a murderer. We are— Shit. Hello—hello? Hello? Fuck, it’s dead.»

[ijustreadthisbook]

Top Five Books I've Read (so far) In 2023:

5. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (Audiobook): One of the more unique novels I've read in a while, this book bounces around in time and place slowly weaving each dispirate story together around the fictitious ancient greek story of Cloud Cuckoo Land. Each character is so well created, and the slow thrill of putting the pieces together was so satisfying. The ending made me stare at the wall for a few moments before I could come back to earth.

Read if you like: Ted Chiang short stories, The Birds by Aristophanes, Margaret Atwood sci-fi

4. Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis (Physical book): The sequel to her debut novel, Axiom's End, this book takes the monster fucking story to a whole new level exploring the concepts of attraction, loyalty, love, and humanity. The world building is incredible, the main character doesn't have that awful trait that a lot of sci-fi audience inserts have where they cannot possibly make logical connections and answer questions themselves. Cora is smart, and Ellis assumes you are smart too. Plus the recreation of 2007 era America is fucking perfect.

Read if you like: Early 2000's nostalgia, Jeff VanderMeer books, Axiom's End, 90s alien movies like Contact, Independence Day, Aliens

3. The Roughest Draft by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegmund-Broka (Physical book): I've read a bunch of romance this year, and this was one of my absolute favorites. Certainly not the spiciest I've read, but the interplay between the two points of view creates a romantic, sexual, and professional tension that is so palpable and delicious. I loved the meta narrative of two people writing a book together about two people writing a book together, and the exploration of what making art together means and the intimacy required to do it. It's a little predictable, but that's what you want from a romance novel. This was a fun book with just enough stakes and just enough stress to make the payoff so worth it.

Read if you like: Emily Henry books, movies like You've Got Mail, Something's Gotta Give, Always Be My Maybe

2. The It Girl by Ruth Ware (audiobook): I love Ruth ware. I love her. I have read everything she has written so far and will read anything she puts out. I selected this one for my list because I love the setting of a close knit school campus, a shining bright young woman with a dark secret, and the real time unravelling of a murder mystery through the eyes of someone on the ground. This book explores the idea of how little we can know about the people we are closest to, and how easy it is to blind ourselves to the truth because of what we want to be true. It's a captivating read, easily finished in a day or two.

Read if you like: One by One by Ruth Ware, Gossip Girl, Jennifer's Body

1. The Secret History by Donna Tart (physical book): I cannot believe how long it took me to read this book. It was one of those books that kept getting recommended to me, but I was worried it was over hyped and would be awful. I tried to read it about two years ago and couldn't even get through the first chapter. And yet, somehow, I picked this book up and did not put it down for a week and a half. It's incredible. An absolute masterclass on Dark Academia, tension building, atmospheric storytelling, all the things I love the most about literature with all the modern trappings of an aesthetic I have also come to love. Rich kids in a private school testing the boundaries of privilege through the POV of an outsider desperate to be accepted is one of my favorite tropes and this book is the definition of how to do it right. It's dark, its academic, it's murdery, it's the 90s, it's excellent. I'll be reading this one again.

Read if you like: A Separate Peace, Brideshead Revisited, Gentlemen and Players, The Talented Mr Ripley

[delusions-of-glamour]

My month in media - August

Film

Civil War

Anyone But You

This Is Paris

TV

Succession

The Good Doctor

The Mentalist

Love is Blind UK

Podcasts

Respect the Dead

Music

Chappell Roan

Sabrina Carpenter

Arcade Fire

Books

The Inmate - Freida McFadden

One Perfect Couple - Ruth Ware

The Woman in Me - Britney Spears

Paris: The Memoir - Paris Hilton

The Kind Worth Killing - Peter Swanson

Theatre

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

YouTube

Medusone

Jordan and McKay

Games

Neopets

[dreabastante]

Reading these two books right now. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and One By One by Ruth Ware.

[thathartleykid]

[cinelestial]

Keira Knightley will star in the upcoming Netflix film adaptation of Ruth Ware’s THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 directed by Simon Stone.

[blogthefiresidechats]

Best 10 Books in.....Suspense/Thriller

I’ve comprised a list of the 10 best books from the suspense/thriller genre. This list is in no particular order and this list is only my opinions based on what books I’ve read in the past. Enjoy! A group of people gather at a lodge deep in the woods but it doesn’t end up being the retreat they think it is when a snow storm strands everyone there and people end up dying off one by one. My…

[the-final-sentence]

'Your secret is quite safe with me.'

Ruth Ware, from “Miss Marple’s Christmas”

[knitwittykninja]

Pattern: Pioneer Braid Scarf

Yarn: Loops and Threads Facets color Flames.

What better way to spend a winter storm than with a good Agatha Christie novel and a bit of knitting?

My knitting and crocheting has been slow going lately due to my baby wanting to be held a lot 😆. I haven't quite figured out how to hold her and knit/crochet at the same time.

Plus side, I've been reading a lot more, cause you can do that with one hand! I only recently got into Agatha Christie via reading Ruth Ware, and the Kenneth Branagh movies. Death on the Nile is the second Poirot book I've read, and it's pretty different from the movie. At least the characters are.

[cafalla]

2024 READING - COMPLETED BOOK 5/12

I finished in a dark, dark wood last night (308 pages).

Despite having read half of this book at the end of January, I finished reading it in February, so I'm counting this as my first February book.

This is the most "modern times" book I've read since starting this reading resolution challenge. Because of this, I found it quite a speedy read. The mystery kept me hooked, and I found all the characters interesting and engaging, especially the character of Nina. I couldn't help but imagine Karlach from Baldur's Gate 3 when reading her lol.

I will say, the final confrontation and motive reveal felt a little lacking to me.

I also was a bit annoyed with how the MC still believed the orchestrator was "not like this" when they have been blatantly expressing the whole book that they were, in fact, "like that".

This isn't even touching on the fact that the conflict between the MC and the boyfriend could've been easily resolved from the very beginning if they...idk, just gave each other a phone call?

Either way, I enjoyed this one! I am very excited for the next book I have lined up to read. But after that, I have nothing on deck, so I'm going to need to go thrifting again here soon for another pile of books. x

—

Total books read: 5 Total pages read: 1,432

[azazel-dreams]

In a Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[fictional-llamas]

This was a great book to read in the fall! Kind of spooky, lots of mystery and tension. It follows the main character, Hal, as she pretends to be the granddaughter of the recently passed Mrs. Westaway in the hopes of getting an inheritence but finds that the family is hiding something. I loved trying to figure out what was really happening. Definitely suggest for mystery lovers.

[a-skirmish-of-wit-and-lit]

Book Review: In A Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

I have mixed feelings about this one.

On the one hand, I liked the locked room mystery (more like mansion) of it all, with all the characters stuck together in an isolated, dark forest-enveloped house made of glass for a weekend as part of a hen party. For my own part, I've always thought there was something delicious about embedding an entire plot around friends with complicated history, especially if they're forced into close proximity. There's something intensely gripping (and often times problematic) about friends who have petty hang ups or jealousies, who are still reeling with past insecurities or secrets, people who only reveal their real selves in sly, selective fragments by mistake or calculation. I particularly like this in mysteries and thrillers. I like it because it creates a bloated tension between the main characters that must be popped at some point. Or, in this case, will build between them until it dies in one way or another.

In this story, Nora gets invited to a hen party out of the blue, even though she hasn't seen or heard from, Clare, her ex-friend from high school, who is also the bride-to-be, in ten years. There's serious hesitancy on Nora's part about going, but also a desperate curiosity to see what's become of Clare, too. It makes for weighty friction from the outset. A web of conflicting emotion, action, and reflection that grows all the more tangled as the plot continues to progress, which I enjoyed.

I also liked that Nora was a bit of an insipid heroine. Is she frustrating as hell? Absolutely. Do you want to rip out your hair at her lack of self-awareness or insight? Without a doubt. Yet, I think it's this quality to her character - her marked oblivion, her complete and utter unreliability - which is actually the driving force behind the novel. That's what keeps you invested.

As a reader, it doesn't take long to connect the dots, to figure out who the nefarious one is in the house, or why, so the suspenseful irony of the book comes not from finally unmasking the murderer ourselves but from wondering why the hell it takes Nora so long to arrive at the obvious conclusion herself.

(It's fine if others disagree with me on this point, but that was my takeaway.)

I was disappointed in a few areas while reading this, though. For one, I thought the author could have leaned into the dark and woodsy environment more. I feel like an opportunity was lost to make the story feel more remote, more atmospheric. Like something insidious was lingering just outside of plain sight. (Because, for Nora, it was. In more ways than one.) I also didn't care for the beginning much. It was slow, the character interactions one-note, grating, immature, and catty--even for characters in their mid-20's. Things picked up midway, but I think I would've enjoyed this more had the suspense started to unspool earlier on.

All in all, a mixed bag read for me but worth a gander! I will say it was easy to see some It Girl seeds taking root here because Clare radiates that pick-me, I'm-always-the-center-of-everything It Girl aura, so that was a fun catch.

3/5 stars

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