JOINT POST: OBD & MR talk about Dark and Stormy Nights
Today's topic is "it was a dark and stormy night," which strangely ended up being one of the more difficult squares to fill!
OBSIDIAN BLACK DEATH
Oh this was tough. Who knew that we would have to bang our heads repeatedly to get "it was a dark and stormy night." I actually like this square because it took me a lot of digging to find some books that fit this square.
1. The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. I chose this book to complete this square. The main plot of this book reminds me a bit of "Death on the Nile" by Agatha Christie. The book synopsis says: "In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard." I hope that we get a dark and stormy night. It sounds like it. If not, I am swapping it out for another book though.
2. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle. I personally love this book. It definitely hits on some other squares too such as "Set in New England" and I would even push this one towards the "Magical Realism" square too though it is mostly counted as science fiction.
3. Acceptable Risk by Robin Cook. This meets a lot of squares. It takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, there is reference to the Salem Witch trials, the final climax of the book takes place during a dark and stormy night. In fact I think there were a couple. I read this book when I was a teen and really enjoyed it.
MOONLIGHT MURDER
1. Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson. So, I've talked a lot about We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House, but I want to mention Hangsaman here. This is a very different sort of a book - it is shelved on GR as horror and gothic. There is a section in the book where the main character ends up wandering around a forest at night, which I remember as also being in the middle of a storm, although maybe it was just a storm inside of her own head! Anyway, I think it would qualify!
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. There are whole sections of this book that take place during dark and stormy nights, most particularly the ghostly appearance of Catherine at the window of the narrator. In my head, I pretty much set all Victorian era gothics in the middle of dark and stormy nights any way!
3. A Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth Bunce. I actually just re-read this book. It is a very well done retelling of Rumplestiltskin, and the climax of the book - the reckoning, so to speak - happens during one wild, storm-ridden night.
I'm planning on reading The Hounds of the Baskervilles for this box, because I vaguely remember that there's an event that happens during a stormy night on the moors. If it turns out I'm wrong about that, I'll find something else to read!
Other posts in the series:
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