The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood
Short Horror Story on Audio

Perhaps Blackwood's most celebrated story, The Willows was influenced heavily by his own trips down the Danube River. It tells the story of two campers who pick the wrong place to sleep for the night, a place where another dimension impinges on our own. H.P. Lovecraft considered this the finest supernatural tale in English literature.

I read this for HA's December Group Read. Actually, I listened. The book was free @ Amazon and the audio add-on only $2.99. Bargain!

If you follow my reviews, you probably know I have very little patience for slow starters and this is most definitely a slow starter. Fortunately when it comes to audio, I can and will usually stick it out. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. This time it did and it’s given me one more reason to add to my “Why I’ll Never Go Camping Again” list.

The beginning is filled with an abundance of descriptive prose. The first hour basically sets the scene for the nightmarish dreamlike conclusion.

Two friends head out on a canoeing adventure ignoring, and slightly oblivious to, all of the warning signs that they should go ANYWHERE but where they’re headed. They set up camp somewhere on a small island. Unfortunately they’ve chosen the wrong location. As the eeriness continues to settle in, I found it absorbing and a little terrifying and even slightly humorous as one of our protagonists attempts to make excuses for everything happening to them – even though we know he doesn’t really believe any of his own words.

It’s worth a listen. The narrator is very proper and keeps things moving despite the sometimes slow pace of the narrative and though it ends too abruptly for my liking it did give me a decent case of the creeps.