The Thing in the Woods

Horror Hall of Fame Novellas

by Harper Williams, Margery Williams Bianco, Ben Tucker (Narrator)

Dr. Haverill is asked to fill in as local physician for the skittish Dr. Lennox in a small Pennsylvania town. The locals seem to be a superstitious bunch, prone to fearing traveling in the woods at night and with good reason. It seems a series of vicious attacks have occurred by what appears to be some kind of large animal. As the bodies begin to pile up, Dr. Haverill starts to question whether the responsible party could be something beyond humanity.

Writer Margery Williams Bianco (writing here under the pseudonym Harper Williams) is perhaps better known for writing the children's classic "The Velveteen Rabbit", but this dark slice of mystery horror fiction was found to be admired by none other than H. P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft scholars have noted in particular a distinct influence that this book had on his famous story "The Dunwich Horror".

Also please note that this book is of its time and features racially insensitive language in the early chapters. Those who are concerned with such language should be advised.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy, Classics, Adult

6 pages, Audiobook

First published January 1, 1913

About the author

More than one author on Goodreads is named Harper Williams. One of them used it as a pseudonym for

Reviews

[Wreade1872 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally finished this.. thing. God that was disappointing. This one feels like it should be a lot better, there’s a lot of angles and changes of perspective with regards to characters but it’s really hard to know how much of this is intentional. A lot of the intriguing elements might just be down to poor confused plotting.

It starts off, wildly racist... but also as a nice bit of weird fiction. There’s also a nice change of perspective early on were i was sure i knew who the badguys were but it turned things around. This is the only time one of those turns actually works.

Eventually around 20% a new character arrives, like when van Helsing shows up in Dracula it seems we’re about to get some answer’s. However all the conversations and comparing of information we’re expecting happens between the pages, and apparently goes nowhere.
Then the story just goes on, with the main mystery just sort of forgotten about... it’s really annoying.
There’s also a romantic subplot which doesn’t really add much.

Instead we get another more boring mystery introduced, which i did suspect would eventually tie in with the main mystery, but also suspected that if it did it would be in a boring stupid way, and i was correct on both.

We also have another new character who is clearly in disguise, i mean this isn’t a spoiler as soon as he turns up, your sure he’s some sort of detective or something. There was a certain Hound of the Baskervilles vibe by this point so i thought it might be an american Holmes-like superdetective but it was a much dumber reveal.

It only feels like we get back to the real mystery maybe 30 pages from the end and it does that really bad plot design were information always seems to come out of left field in large dumps, instead of building up naturally.

And you know what, it also doesn’t actually make sense.. thinking this over there are a lot of things which just don’t line up.
Anyway, i don’t want to think about this, somewhat intriguing, but confused mess anymore. By the way, my early thought was that the monster was going to be a giant Moth creature, which also sprayed some sort of chloroform gas to incapacitate its victims as it attacked.
That would have been kinda cool, it also would have matched the data a lot better than what we got in the end.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be quite an enjoyable book. I found it by accident at a secondhand bookshop and it intrigued me. The characters are enjoyable and the first person perspective is well written enough that the narrative is engaging. The plot is perhaps a little easy to guess in our story saturated world but was likely quite ingenious at its origin. It has the feel of Dunwich horror and The Great God Pan but is longer which makes for a more enjoyable read in my opinion. Very worth the time :)

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's an okay book if you can tolerate the few racist remarks the main character makes at the beginning. But it seems to be one of those supernatural stories, the one which seems deathly worried about ever uttering concretely any actual statement about the supernatural existing, so the werewolf is never clearly seen by anyone, his body washed away in the stream, while the "w" word itself is never even used once throughout the book !

[Jennifer deBie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness! The lady who wrote The Velveteen Rabbit, which broke my heart as a child, also wrote a pretty awesome werewolf story? People contain multitudes, and it's amazing.

Yes, the story begins very... problematic with a black character portrayed as stupid, lazy, and superstitious. However, Williams (or Williams -Bianco) also plays on this perception, because it's not just superstition keeping this man out of the woods at night. There's something very real to fear in the trees, and the way she builds on that tension is truly masterful.

Very, very glad that I stumbled onto the audio book on my classic literature podcast, because this is one forgotten gem that really shouldn't be forgotten.

[MH · Rating 3 out of 5]

First published in 1914, this is actually a pretty good horror novel, with a nice sense of rural isolation and weirdness. Its slow, but it works for this style of horror, and it manages to have just enough uncertainty about the Monster right up until the end.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella starts out wonderfully, very strong five-star material, but becomes less interesting the further in one goes. The author was brilliant at setting up her situation. Unfortunately, she then seemed to be somewhat bereft of knowing what to do with it. I hoped the ending would pick up, and it does. It was barely enough to save the book from a three-star rating.

The protagonist is a young doctor named Austin Haverill who just graduated and needs a bit of a break before opening his practice. He finds a placement as a substitute country doctor for another doctor eager to leave his family practice for three months or so. The young doctor applies and is immediately accepted. The doctor he is replacing seems eager, maybe even too eager to depart for Europe. Why is that? And there are some odd things people are doing and saying in this remote backwater, Cooperstown. What is going on? It's downright Lynchian!

This story is a slow and really effective build as we get to know the characters and the situation. It started out in masterful style, direct and thoroughly competent. But then, as I indicated, the plot hit a wall. New unnecessary characters were introduced, and there was some floundering around, hints at a possible romance and the like. The story finally comes together again at the end to bring a satisfying conclusion.

Recommended, especially for werewolf lore history buffs, but not highly, especially not for thrill seekers.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Thing in the Woods” is a 1924 short novel or novella by “Harper Williams” which was a pen name for Margery Williams Bianco who was probably best known for her children’s books, including “The Velveteen Rabbit.” This is work of mystery/horror for adults.

The story begins with a doctor just out of medical school agreeing to take over the practice of a country doctor for three months while he is on vacation in Europe. This new doctor tries to get to the bottom of some odd occurrences, including the strange death of a cyclist, the death of a disliked local man, and mysterious attacks on another local resident. The book is very atmospheric, and descriptive. It does have a supernatural component which only reveals itself at the end. It’s an entertaining story and kept me engaged till the conclusion.

The modern reader may well be put off by the blatant racism, which exhibits itself at the beginning of the work when we are introduced to a African-American servant who is referred to by various racial slurs. His character is stereotypically and poorly depicted. There are lesser negative references to other ethnic groups. I guess this may be attributed to this book being a product of its time.

It also should be said that this book is now in the public domain, and one can find e-book versions at no cost. However, I chose poorly in that regard. My copy was an e-pub produced by Google Books Search, from a scanned and digitized ex-library book. It had an abundance of spelling mistakes, garbage characters, and extraneous images and pages. My advice is to try to find a better e-book version that has been edited or proofread.

[Michael Benavidez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: I was given this book as a free copy through the Shadow House Publishing for the Morbidly Beautiful site.

It's funny. Many times throughout this year, I've come to realize just how little (if not at all) books I own or have read about werewolves, and yet they seem to be pervasive and everywhere in pop culture. So to read this (without much information other than it seemed to have inspired Lovecraft and ,as this Horror Hall of Fame series does, is a lesser known but an important part of horror history).

That said, it is a good read. The characters, the mystery, the build, it reads in that gothic goodness that had me thinking back to the Universal monsters. There's that old school lurk that drives the terror forward.
But as with many things from the past, some things don't age well. And I'm sure are you read, you'll find those.
All in all it's good to read werewolves again, it's good to have a pairing of werewolf lore and an extra werewolf story at the end. There really is enough in here to bite, chew, and rag around while making squeaking noises like the good creatures we are.

[Venine Alpha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was enjoyable, slow, easily imaginable. While the plot was a little simpler, I really liked reading a book that was first published in 1918, because there are many clues as to how life was back in those days. The story itself might have been a little less enjoyable at some moments, bit it was still pleasant. Lovercraft influence can be felt in this book, and that is quite enjoyable.
What I really liked, is that the book didn't end in a typical lovercraftian way where the main character ends up dead or going bonkers, but ends on a really positive note, which is quite a tiny twist which made my heart jump.
Might be a less enjoyable book for those who like constant action and progress, but for me, it was great
4,5 stars

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novella could have been really interesting, and there were some pretty cool twists and turns to the story, but unfortunately there is a lot of period-typical racism and stereotyping in the first half of the book that almost made me give up on it. The main character is also really annoying and judgmental over everything. This is definitely one of those old-fashioned stories where if someone simply looks evil, then they are.

TW: racism, animal cruelty

[Filbi · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay mystery novel that's only really notable for being a partial inspiration for the much better "The Dunwich Horror" hy H. P. Lovecraft. The central mystery is interesting enough, and Margery Williams writes playful banter very well. Unfortunately the book is rather plodding and light on action, and has some really gross racism in the early chapters. Only recommended for its historical value.

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be excellent.

[Mark Rabideau · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most interesting werewolf tale by the author of the Velveteen Rabbit. The story had a significant influence on HP Lovecraft. A good read.

[Anemone Moss · Rating 2 out of 5]

this would have been a fun little eerie tale if not for all the racism in the first part

[Crookedhouseofbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were several things that I liked about this particular edition.

First of all, the author introduction was truly an enlightening experience for me. I had no idea that this was the same author of The Velveteen Rabbit. I loved that story as a child and was blown away to realize that she had also penned this relatively unknown werewolf story.

Secondly, the appendix or bonus stories that are included.

There's one that is called "Folklore Relating To Werewolves" by Sabine Baring Gould (1865) This particular section was pulled from The Book Of Werewolves. It gave all sorts of little tid-bits of information including acts of recorded cannabilism in Scotland, Devonshire black dogs, lycanthropy in Southern France and identifiable characteristics that were once associated with people prone to lycanthropy.

The second story that was included in the appendix section is called A Werewolf's revenge by Elliot O Donnell which was first published in 1912.

Now, as for the main story, by our Velveteen Rabbit author, The Thing In The Woods:

This story filled me with conflicting emotions.

In the very beginning, I was glued to the pages. Harper has a talent with words and descriptions. The basic storyline centered around the idea of the werewolf being interpreted in a couple different ways. Was it simply a manic state rather than supernatural transformation, or was it a little bit of both?

It was an interesting take on the idea of lycanthropy. However, I found that the middle of the story was a bit bogged down with extra and, perhaps, unnecessary scenes. Essentially, I loved the beginning and the ending but not the middle.

I would also like to add that there is a trigger warning. Harper continually referred to people of color in a derogatory way. I recognized this as being a product of its time but it may bother some people...so I just wanted to mention it.

All in all, even with its flaws, I liked the book as a whole. The positives, for me, outnumbered the negatives in this instance. Great author bio, loved that it was a hidden and rare werewolf story, enjoyed 2/3 of the story. The appendix was a huge bonus, in my opinion. I thoroughly enjoyed the Folklore Relating To Werewolves especially.

I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review. I recommend it to those always looking to expand their werewolf collection and to those always searching for hidden gems from the 19th-20th centuries.