I think I remember some comments about how the movie was a campy style of horror. It left me completely unprepared for this read.
This is horror alright. I'm unsettled while writing this, actually. I think it's that most of it is more or less plausible. You take away the supernatural bits, and it would still scare you white.
The young, naive, isolated wife, the selfish husband, all the subservient vibes she has going and the way he gaslights her. That conception scene that's bound to leave me with nightmares.
Reading how the noose and net is slowly tightened, the way she's cut away from anyone that could help her, was harrowing. At some point I had to tear myself away to work and shop for groceries, and even though I was horrified, I did not want to.
It's an unstoppable read. And way better and scarier than I though it'd be. Cheers to Levin. He was always leery of the way the movie turned popular, but there is certainly nothing wrong with the quality of his book.
4
