Through the Woods

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Nameless Narrative: "A Lady's Hands Are Cold", "His Face All Red", and "In Conclusion" play this trope completely straight, as none of the characters get called by name. "In My Friend Janna", only Janna and the main character, Yvonne, get names. Other characters, such as Yvonne's sister or the people who come to see Janne the fake psychic go nameless. Only in "The Nesting Place" does every character who appears on screen get a name. Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Little Hannah has blonde hair to show her childish youth and innocence compared to her brown-haired older sisters. I See Dead People: Yvonne can see something like a ghost that is haunting Janna which nobody else seems to notice. At the end of the story, after Janna has either died or disappeared, Yvonne's little sister sees one too, now haunting Yvonne instead...

He Who Must Not Be Seen: The man with the wide-brimmed hat never appears in-person, only showing his hat, arms, and hands, to create an aura of foreboding and build up tension as to what his true intentions for the girls are. Fortunately, he's actually a very nice man who is implied to be The Grim Reaper ushering the girls' souls to the afterlife. Monster Is a Mommy: "Rebecca" is actually a mass of worms inside Rebecca's stolen skin and wants Bell's skin for her children, so they can leave their spawning pool. Bell seizes on this and saves herself by horrifying the monster with stories of the dangers its children would face in the city. In "A Lady's Hands Are Cold", one of the first wife's dismembered body parts is her desiccated hands/fingers, which later reach out to the second wife with intention to kill her after she's fully reassembled. A bloody handprint later appears on a window, which is left there by the husband as he is brutally murdered by his dead first wife, whom he murdered to inherit her wealth and mansion. The whole book is magnificently executed... is all dextrous and varied and absolutely masterful... Carroll...lures us in only to do terrible, wonderful things to our heads and hearts."--Amal El-Mohtar "NPR " Mary is a brunette who wears brown colors, which represents stability and a down-to-earth nature. Being the oldest sister, she was put in charge of looking after Beth and Hannah by their father before he left to go hunting. Ironically, it is Beth who takes charge, especially after Mary sinks into denial when they realize after the third day that their father died in the snowstorm.Disappeared Dad: Justified. The father of the the three girls died from the extreme cold after going out hunting for food in the woods.

In His Face All Red, a man grapples with his jealousy of his charismatic brother – a brother this man knows cannot be alive. When you finally learn the meaning of the title of this particular story, it’s a wonderful – terrible! – realization. This book is full of gorgeous, terrifying tales of mysterious wooded misadventures that creep right into your brain and seduce you."--Lucy Knisley, author of RELISH: MY LIFE IN THE KITCHEN Talking the Monster to Death: Bell saves herself from the monster by convincing it that its plan to use Bell as a host and move to the city, where there would be many more hosts available, would end terribly for its children. Break the Cutie: Happens to the second wife. Being nearly killed by the violently possessive corpse of the first wife and listening to her husband's dying screams as he is gruesomely murdered leaves the second wife with quite a bit of trauma. This is symbolized by her eyes turning into creepy dark eyeshadows and her previously immaculate hairstyle coming undone by the end.

Never Say "Die": The story itself never directly mentions death, only alluding to it via characters suddenly disappearing after meeting the man with the wide-brimmed hat. Already revered for her work online, award-winning comic creator Emily Carroll's stunning visual style and impeccable pacing is on grand display in this entrancing anthology, her print debut. Dying Candle: The "ghost" haunting Janna appears to kill her just as candle that Yvonne was carrying goes out. Teeth figure prominently in many of the stories, and the artwork (especially when people are eating), often associates them with blood and violence. Glamour Failure: It's implied something is off with Rebecca when their teeth seem to undulate while eating at dinner. We eventually learn this is because the worms wearing her skin have replaced all the flesh beneath it, and the teeth are suspended in place by individual worms. Bell learns that they got to her brother when his teeth do the same.