Through the Woods by Emily Carroll (review)

In this collection of five graphic (in both senses of the word) horror stories complemented by an evocative introduction and a downright spooky conclusion, comics artist Emily Carroll spools out the dark threads that underlie fairy tales and folklore and winds them toward more unsettling destinies. The book riffs on “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Bluebeard” as well as more generic terrors of infestations, possession, and kidnapping. Monstrous doppelgangers, eerie hauntings, and intimate betrayals come to vivid life in Carroll’s manipulation of perspective, color, and panel size as well as her frank depictions of figures whose bodily boundaries have been breached by supernatural invaders. Eyes blacken and bleed, faces contort and discolor, teeth jumble and connect with almost audible clicks, shadowy presences overtake whole bodies. Her use of bright red smears splashed against black or more sedately colored backgrounds is highly effective, evoking images of blood and stimulating uncanny narrative connections. Perhaps more frightening, however, are the panels where the horrors are merely suggested, allowing the carryover of imagination from more explicit imagery. The tales are all delightfully ambiguous in their endings, forcing reader investment to bring about closure in a technique that practically guarantees that fan-pleasing frisson will last beyond the closing of the book.