Through the Woods

Story

‘It came from the woods (most strange things do).’

Through the Woods is a spooky graphic novel by Emily Carroll, telling five mysterious stories about the strange things that can happen in the woods. In Our Neighbour’s House we see what happens to three young sisters after their father disappears. In A Lady’s Hands Are Cold a young bride finds herself in a nightmarish new life with her Bluebeard-like husband. And in print for the first time is His Face All Red, the story of two brothers and a monster from the dark wood.

Why we chose it

Our teeneage Extreme Readers group loved the combination of exciting short stories and fascinating illustrations - every time you look you see something different. The illustrations are stunning and the way the text is incorporated into the drawings is unusual and original.

The stories started online and were published as a book because of their online popularity - an example of the influence of technology and social media development on where stories today can be found, consumed and created.

Where it came from

Emily Carroll was born in June 1983 in Ontario, Canada, where she still lives with her wife and her huge ginger cat. She has been influenced in her art by Japanese woodcuts, and takes lots of story inspiration from horror stories and the darker fairy tales. She loves Angela Carter and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Marquez’s book One Hundred Years of Solitude inspired her strip The Death of Jose Arcadio.

His Face All Red was first published online on Halloween 2010, and was the story for which Carroll first gained recognition.

Where it went next

She has won many awards, including, in 2015, an Eisner awards, the Ignatz, and the British Fantasy Awards for Through the Woods .

Associated stories

Since then, she has written and illustrated many more books and strips online and in print, including Margot’s Room (2011) and When I arrived at the Castle (2019). She has collaborated with independent video game company The Fullbright Company on Gone Home, and with game developer Damian Sommer on The Yawhg, and with authors such as Marika McCoola on Baba Yaga’s Assistant. Other stories include The Hare’s Bride (2010) The Prince and the Sea (2011) and The Worthington (2018). These, like most of her work, are quite scary and not for younger children.