The Willows

Two friends are midway on a canoe trip down the Danube River. Throughout the story Blackwood personifies the surrounding environment—river, sun, wind—and imbues them with a powerful and ultimately threatening character. Most ominous are the masses of dense, desultory, menacing willows, which "moved of their own will as though alive, and they touched, by some incalculable method, my own keen sense of the horrible." American horror author H.P. Lovecraft considered it to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature.

Thoughts and quotes while reading:

The writing was very poetic and spooky. The wording was buttery and foreboding. The description of the gong, and the buzzing that swarmed around them, as well as the weighted atmosphere above their heads fully immersed me in the fear that our two main characters were experiencing. Thanks G, it was a great short read.