REVIEW: The Tangled Woods

The Tangled Woods
Author: Emily Raboteau

An American middle-aged man discovers the horrors within himself while on a resort vacation with his family in this short story by Emily Raboteau. The Tangled Woods is the fifth story in the Dark Corners Collection, an Amazon/Audible original series of horror stories by bestselling authors. Each story in this collection is creative and different. These ain't your mama's Halloween tales. While some of the horror elements in each might seem a bit over-used at first, each writer put their own spin on it and made it their own. In the end the stories aren't really scary, but horrifying in other ways. Sometimes reality is far more frightening than made up monsters.

Reginald Wright, a film critic, is the main character in this story. He expects to experience everything that is wrong with America on this trip to an over-priced resort with his kids and wife....and he does. But he also discovers that he just might be part of the problem. I loved how his self revelation was wound around a backdrop of very dark imagery. Some of us only see the bad in others....but never in  ourselves. Raboteau rips off Reginald Wright's blinders and shows him......himself. Wouldn't that be truly horrifying for every one of us? Imagine if we suddenly saw ourselves as we really are.....not how we imagine that we are. Eek!

Great story. Not really scary or horrifying, but very thought provoking. I identified with the characters as they spent time at the resort doing all those tourist trap things. That really pulled me into the story because my own family has spent time at similar resorts and looked at other kids and parents behaving badly. And, as we all do, we ignored our own faults, choosing to raise an eyebrow at the bad behavior of others. Again....   eeeek!

There are a total of seven stories in the Dark Corners Collection. I'm reviewing them all separately because they are by different authors, most new to me. Emily Raboteau is the author of several other books and short stories, most dealing with race issues. After enjoying this story, I'm definitely going to read more by this author. Her themes are hard-hitting -- this story really struck home with me. I see that this story has some low ratings on Goodreads -- perhaps the topic really hit home with others as well, in an uncomfortably raw and truthful way??  Or perhaps we are all getting tired of racial, political and social commentary because we feel powerless to scrape the shit off ourselves and fix things? Yes, the main character is detestable, immoral and a complete narcissist. But -- in today's world, aren't we all at least a bit that way ourselves? Aren't we all part of the problem? Just some thoughts.....

The audio book, narrated by JD Jackson, is just over an hour long. Jackson has a nice, easily understandable voice and read at an even pace. All in all, an emotional story rather than a scary one. The audio provided a nice listening experience, even though the truth behind the story was disturbing.