A Book A Week

"There's a reason why we keep thoughts inside our heads for the most part---they're not safe to be let out in public."

Ruth Ware's The Woman in Cabin 10 found quick success after its publication in 2016. On the heels of other female-driven thrillers like Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, it seemed like Ware's novel was the next "must-read". Never one to miss out on a book that everyone seems to be reading, I quickly snatched up a copy. As has happened with far too many books on my shelf, The Woman in Cabin 10 sat there, unread, for the next couple of years. I'm on a mission this year to put a dent into my ever-growing "to be read" list, so I decided to finally dust off my copy of Ware's novel and see what all the fuss is about.

Like many of the "girl" books that have come before it, The Woman in Cabin 10 wastes no time in introducing the titular "woman" and the traumatic event that is supposed to shape our sympathy for her. Lo Blacklock's night of drinking ends as she stumbles into her modest apartment. She awakens in the night to find an intruder clad in black and burglarizing her home. After what feels like hours of torture and uncertainty, Lo escapes and is left with unrelenting paranoia and fear.

If the trauma of that night weren't enough, Lo has just had a fight with her longtime boyfriend and is expected to take a cruise for her job as a travel reporter in just a few days. Eager to escape the drama of her personal life and to further her budding journalism career, Lo boards the exclusive ship for its maiden voyage. Little does she know that her escape is about to become the biggest nightmare of her life.

I'll admit that up to this point, I couldn't see what all the hype was about. To this reader, it seemed like Lo's troubles were mostly self-inflicted, and I couldn't really get behind her as a character. Fortunately, Ware took the story in another direction. Lo boards the ship and meets the woman in the cabin next to her. That first night, she is awakened by the noise coming from that same cabin. Lo looks out of her window just in time to see a body being thrust overboard. When Lo runs to cabin 10 to notify her shipmate, she is shocked to find the room empty. In fact, there were no guests booked to stay in the cabin and all passengers and crew are safe and accounted for.

As soon as The Woman in Cabin 10 revealed itself to be a locked room mystery, I was hooked. The impossibility of what Lo witnessed combined with her overt paranoia shrouds the entire novel in suspense that doesn't break until the twist is revealed. Even though I never truly connected with Lo as a character, I found the mystery too intriguing to pass up. Ware takes the conventions established by other similar books and shifts them enough to make The Woman in Cabin 10 stand as its own unique story. I'm certainly happy that I pulled it off my shelf and finally gave it a read.

For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2019, 10)