The Girl in a Swing - Richard Adams

Title: The Girl in a Swing
Author: Richard Adams
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 395
Date read: January, 2010

A shy young man meets a beautiful woman in the company of a young girl. He finds himself swept off of his feet and married to her, bringing her with him to live in his family home. She is his erotic dream come true; she does everything she can to bind him to her and join him in his comfortable life.

Soon, however, odd things begin to happen. Things in the house are strangely damp with what looks like seawater, bodies appear under the water that aren't really there. It all winds up to a horrifying (but fairly gentle, for all of that) conclusion.

I hardly know how to describe this book. It started out very slowly, and I was wondering if I'd have the patience to work my way through it, but suddenly it captured me completely, and I read the last 200 pages in one sitting.

It is so very, very different from Watership Down that it's almost hard to believe it was written by the same author. Instead of being a social commentary, The Girl in a Swing touches upon the supernatural while tying it up to Christian theology.

I'd been warned that the book was depressing, but I actually didn't find it so. It was sad to be sure, and both troubling and disturbing, but I'm obviously no good at figuring out clues, so it took me almost to the very end, to figure out what the secret was - and suddenly, a lot of the earlier theological debates made sense.

A lot of the book takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark, and I have to admit to being tickled pink by all the references to places I know, and even all the Danish words being thrown in there - that's very rare to see.