I figured all I could do was write the best book I was capable of writing, and hope it was good enough. I knew some readers would be furious that it didn't stick to the conventions of the mystery genre, and I could see why - but on the other hand, I also knew some readers would be furious if I sold out my narrator in the last chapter for easy closure. I went with the third one - because that was the one that was true to the character and the rest of the book, and because I always saw In the Woods as a book about Rob and what that old mystery resurfacing does to him, rather than a book about the mystery itself. So when it came to the ending of In the Woods, I had three choices:ġ - Turn the narrator into a totally different character at the end of the book, for the sake of a neat plot resolution: shoddy and dishonest.Ģ - Have some other character do a deus ex machina and find out for him: forced and cheap.ģ - Complete the arc of his psychological journey (which for me was the core plot arc of the book) and the arc of the modern-day mystery, but leave the old one unsolved. So when he gets to the verge of remembering what happened, that's what he does: he runs. Whenever he gets close to anything that's irrevocable, he runs as far and as fast as he can - he does it in his relationship with Cassie, for example.
The thing about In the Woods is that Rob Ryan is - possibly because of whatever happened when he was twelve, possibly just because of who he is - the kind of person who's incapable of taking any irrevocable leap.
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