Three stories in and the super creepy story The Willows (an HP Lovecraft favourite!) by Algernon Blackwood has impressed me deeply.
Not only for the story and it´s mysterious vagueness itself but for the setting. It is a story taking place in and mentioning places I often have been to myself!
It is about two canoeing adventurers going down the Danube passing by many bavarian villages and towns (Straubing the place I was born is expliciticly mentioned!) describing in great detail the landscape leading up to Passau, the place where it passes the river Inn and then going down what used to be Austria-Hungary (back in 1907 when the story was written) where they end on a sandy island in today´s Slovakia getting beached and crowded by mysterious creatures hiding between the imposing willows at night. That whole last act gives The Blairwitch Project a run for its money, and the dense atmosphere together with the detailed description of a landscape very familar to me made for a great read!
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