Horror springs up when you least expect it

This is like a cross between The Archers, Royston Vasey and The Wicker Man told through the eyes of a young farmer yearning to return to his life in The Endlands. The author provides is a lyrical description of the harsh realities of farming the bleak Northern moorlands. On one hand you could almost yearn for a life driven by hard but satisfying work, comforted by a warm kitchen fire and coddled by home cooked wholesome food. On the other, this exposes you to the gruesome realities of life in an isolated and fiercely superstitious community and to people who are despised by their neighbours and may or may not be seriously unhinged. The main character, who is also the narrator, is a disturbing man and his manipulation of his young pregnant wife is chillingly played out. My one criticism is the fact that his wife Kat is undoubtably appalled by what is going on around her, but is also inexplicably compliant to her husband’s demands and this leaves a bit of a gap in the story’s logic. Although some may say the pace is slow, this is a book that delivers its horror in short sharp bursts, and this is the thing that kept me listening to the end. I preferred The Loney but this is still a great read/listen and Richard Burnip narrated it beautifully.

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3 people found this helpful

Incredibly atmospheric

A beautiful and fearful journey into the often unsettling world of moorlands and local traditions.

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Brilliant, Emerdale Farm, by Stephen King.

Just brilliant, the blackest gothic writing. so subtle, oso chilling. He catches the bleakness of working countryside perfectly in parts of the North. The best British writer of scary fiction.

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The Devil's Own Country?

Andrew Michael Hurley’s first novel The Loney (reviewed by me here on 17/12/15) won the Costa First Novel Award: Devil’s Day is a distinctive second novel .

John Pentecost has returned ‘home’ to the small community of struggling small-holders on the Lancashire uplands for the funeral of his grandfather known as The Gaffer. Accompanying him is his pregnant wife Kat, a complete outsider amongst the tough, superstitious and ungiving extended families. John wants to resign from his teaching post and stay to help his stubborn, ageing father keep the farm of his ancestors going, whilst all Kat wants is to escape back home.

The land with its moors, crags and water, its sheep, deer and savage roaming dogs, is both isolated and dangerous, the Devil’s lair. It’s also a powerful protagonist. Another presence is the abattoir in the valley into which local lads follow their fathers ‘like pigs to the killing floor’. Ramifications of slaughter thread through the whole story with gothic noir themes of devil tales pursued partly through the character of the strangely and unsettlingly gifted girl Grace always fretting for her vanished father.

Very dark secrets about The Gaffer and about John himself are teased out, plot lines are constantly absorbing and surprising amidst elegantly controlled drama and tension. It’s thick with rumour and folklore all firmly rooted in ‘normal’, ordinary life, and eventually there is hope and triumph of a kind. Hurley’s writing is exceptionally good. The hostile landscape, birds, trees, animals and the farming in all its physical rawness are vividly created. Hurley has a great eye for beauty too – the ‘diphthong of the buzzard’; the ‘butterscotch belly of the kestrel’.

As in The Loney, the constant flashbacks are no doubt clearer on the page than they are when listening, which can be confusing. The narrator Richard Burnip is first-rate and captures all the moods of the varied narrative including John Pentecost’s stolidity and a wide range of accent, intonation and characters of all ages, including women.
Just get listening!

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9 people found this helpful

disturbing & profound

Told in earthy & evocative language, this book draws one ever deeper into the lives of the folk of the Endlands, where the tale told is as richly layered as the peat beneath the characters' feet. The truths the characters live by may be unpalatable, or even disturbing to the modern mind, but are no less profound for all that.
It is beautifully narrated, with a superb range of distinct character voices that could not be bettered if this were a full cast production. I will certainly be revisiting it again soon.

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1 person found this helpful

Slow burn - creepy but too subtle?

Well written and very descriptive imagery sets a creepy, desolate scene but the slow burn foreboding is perhaps a little too subtle

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Excellent again

Really enjoyed this book .immersive, Lovely story telling. Excellent. What's next!! Will look forward to hopefully reading something very soon from this author

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2 people found this helpful

Superb all round

The narration is perfectly suited to this grim but hauntingly gripping story of the ways in which a place can inhabit us and refuse to let us leave.

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1 person found this helpful

Creepy and moving

I thought this was a remarkable book, spooky, modern folk horror. the only thing was the narrator has a tendency to say everything in the same tone and that took some getting used to.

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Plotting….. makes me wonder why they bothered

Competent and even quite skilful writing. Characters well enough imagined but ….. but the story is mind blowing, tedious to the point of misery. Avoid, if you value your mental health and well-being. Boring.

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