Through the Woods

A hauntingly beautiful anthology of five twisted fairytales that, to me, felt like stepping into a pastoral Twilight Zone and stayed in my mind for days after the final page. Carroll’s artwork is eerie and subtle, and the limited color palette turns scenes of the mundane into a visual nightmare.

The stories are well-paced and spooky, and in my opinion, best read during a dark summer thunderstorm.

This graphic novel collection of horror stories is the perfect companion to ease you through the final stages of autumn and into winter. I’ve been a huge fan of author/artist Emily Carroll since her earliest webcomics, and this book perfectly captures how her gorgeous art and inventive use of space combine with poetic prose to invoke the feeling of the creepiest fairytales and fables. Carroll has a real mastery of the horror of the unknown and unexplained, and her stories provide no easy answers or cheap twists but instead linger long after the end. Even years later, I still get… show more.

In this collection of five original horror stories author Emily Carroll embraces the macabre and bloody roots of folktales, crafting resoundingly spine-chilling yarns featuring nasty monsters, plaintive ghosts, and smiling revenants. Short, creepy, and shocking, these genuinely frightening fairy tales (and others from Carroll’s oeuvre, she’s a master of the form) would make for a terrific (in every sense of the word) anthology series, and her innovative art style and storytelling techniques would be sure to inspire the filmmakers who would bring her dark vision to the screen. If you enjoyed A24 films such as The Witch you’ll definitely want… show more.

Through the Woods is an atmospheric collection of stories in graphic novel form and delighted my creepy little heart. Not scary at all, but definitely intriguing, this collection is part ghost story and part creature feature. The illustrations were tantalising and masterful at capturing my attention. It reminds me of the way fairytales were horror stories to me when I was a child—chilling cautionary tales where little girls like me could be baked into pies and eaten or turned into feral dogs who never saw their family again. It also gives me Ito vibes in the pure weirdness of some… show more.

Five terrifying but lovely graphic novel stories that explore the dark, terrible woods in this sinister fairy tale of a book. These vignettes entice while also terrifying and the illustrations are the perfect mix of dark and sinister that makes me think of Tim Burton or Edward Gorey.

We are huge suckers for story collections – especially scary stuff that makes you turn the page. Through the Woods is a terrific graphic book of supernatural stories that remind us of classic, old-fashioned heightened/horror anthologies – everything from the Brothers Grimm to old TV series like The Twilight Zone or Night Gallery. In her non-GN life, Susan also writes kids’ TV and considers the episodes she wrote for the old Nickelodeon series, Are You Afraid of the Dark? a major career highlight. If you can write something that’s short yet punchy – and still scary – that’s… show more.

First off, this one may skew towards a slightly older audience (say, young adult), but I think many mature tweens would appreciate it. Though it’s not a novel but a collection of five supernatural horror stories (graphic collection?), all of them are dark and twisted and chilling the way original Grimm fairy tales were before they got Disneyfied. It reminded me of reading Poe, if Poe was also a kick-butt illustrator, because it really was the visuals that startled and stayed with me the most. They aren’t all that graphic or explicit; most of them are suggestive and even shadowy… show more.