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Starve Acre cover art

Starve Acre

By: Andrew Michael Hurley
Narrated by: Richard Burnip
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Summary

The new novel from 'the new master of menace' (Sunday Times)  

The worst thing possible has happened. Richard and Juliette Willoughby's son, Ewan, has died suddenly at the age of five. 

Starve Acre, their house by the moors, was to be full of life but is now a haunted place.  

Juliette, convinced Ewan still lives there in some form, seeks the help of the Beacons, a seemingly benevolent group of occultists. Richard, to try to keep the boy out of his mind, has turned his attention to the field opposite the house, where he patiently digs the barren dirt in search of a legendary oak tree.  

Starve Acre is a devastating new novel by the author of the prize-winning best-seller The Loney. It is a novel about the way in which grief splits the world in two and how, in searching for hope, we can so easily unearth horror.

©2019 Andrew Michael Hurley (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

What listeners say about Starve Acre

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an unsettling tale

Andrew Michael Hurley creates the essential true-life base to power this slow-burn gothic story. Richard and Juliette have moved to the country to give their young son Ewan an idyllic childhood steeped in birdsong, close to woods, trees and earth. But we learn very early on that Ewan is dead and Juliette is manic with giref,

In flashbacks we see how 5 year-old Ewan's disturbed behaviour (vicious acts which he says 'Jack Grey'told him to do) resulted in the family being ostracised in the little community, Well-meaning but intolerable family members try to help - but Juliette's condition declines, Richard is excavating their barren field (the 'Starve Acre') where once had been a hanging tree where 3 boys has been hanged for crimes they committed at 'Jack Grey's' bidding; the hare skeleton which Richard finds... I can't spoil that part of the plot; Juliette slips further and further into the mad, untouchable isolation of grief.

Hurley is brilliant at communicating the beauty of nature: the sky is 'star-rich'; nature unfurls in all its green lustre in the spring; sounds and colours are subtle and exact. Hurley manages to make the menace grow naturally from the beauty, so that its hold over the family doesn't seem wholly unnatural or frightening. This novel, Hurley's 3rd, is less than half the length of his first The Loney (which is reviewed along with his Devil's Day on my Listener Page) and the ending sentence is a complete surprise: shocking, disturbing but somehow credible - certainly not horror as it has been billed. It's too human, too natural for that. The much shorter length makes the whole a little less satisfying than his other longer novels.

The narration helps to keep the story rooted in real life too with the Scottish and country accents which make real people we can believe in even when events are so strange..

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5 people found this helpful

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Malevolent

Quite the tale. Loved both of Hurley’s other books and this is as good or better. Powerful scene setting, slowly builds towards its denouement that is nuanced.

I understand this is the last of his folk horror trilogy, look forward to the urban setting of his next!

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A pretty grim affair

I cannot say I enjoyed this book. The story is grim and bleak and I came away feeling grim and bleak. Beautifully written, the author evokes the wild and remote countryside on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors but there is no joy whatsoever in this book. Just anxiety and grief and finally some horror. It may have worked better if you read this as a novel, as it would not immerse you in this cold grey wotld quite as much as when you are listening to it, but I really cannot recommend it as an audible book.

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    4 out of 5 stars

Another great book from Andrew Michael Hurley

Not quite as good as his two previous books but still an excellent listen. The shorter length means less time for character development. It still manages the same sense of dread and lingering doom as previous Hurley books through his superb writing. I also feel that Burnip is the perfect narrator for these books he’s on fine form yet again here. Can’t wait for the next one

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Folk horror cliche

Sorry to be unkind in this review but I was genuinely annoyed to have wasted six hours listening to this. While mercifully short Hurley's story is full of folk horror cliches – transmutation of a hare, things buried in the soil, remote village life, possessed kids, a local folk legend etc – and possessing a narrative that is full of tedious and repetitive dialogue as its thinly sketched characters rake over the same ground again and again arguing about what they believe or otherwise. Even the ending is deeply unsatisfying; a key medical issue relating to the possessed boy Ewan is dropped in about five minutes before the end!
The narration is also a bit wearing. it's delivered in a portentous tone giving little sympathy for any of the characters.

There are such better writers of this genre that deserve listening to instead: Shirley Jackson, Robert Aickman, Mr James, Arthur Machen, Ray Bradbury etc. Spend your credits wisely!

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depressing

This is bleak and depressing. Not scary either. Very disappointed in this title. was looking forward to this story.

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Fantastic and Original

This novel kept me guessing until the end. The characters were beautifully drawn. Just wonderful.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Incredible

Just stunningly written and such a powerful story. Propelled with a horrible inevitability. Didn't want it to end.

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  • Overall
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  • KD
  • 21-02-23

A couple’s son dies and they try to deal with their grief

A couple’s son dies and they try to come to terms with their grief. The husband finds the bones of a hare in the nearby field and mildly creepy things happen. I found the male gaze in this book absolutely unbearable. Despite the fact that the woman has lost her child and is clearly traumatised, the male character can’t stop thinking about sex, noting that he “stiffens” when he holds her (really), commenting on her breasts, and so on. It’s incredibly tedious and he’s just horrible. I wanted his wife to leave him and get on with her life with someone who actually cared about her well-being, because he certainly doesn’t. There are creepy elements in this book but they’re vaguely unresolved and the whole thing is deeply unsatisfying. We learn the son, Ewan, has died at the beginning, but then chunks of the story are told in flashback. Ewan had been behaving erratically and violently before his death. So did something dramatic and monstrous kill him? The exact nature of his death hangs over us until the final few pages/minutes when [slight spoiler] we finally discover that… no. It was totally mundane. An unresolved medical issue. None of this is improved by Burnip’s drifty-lilting-up-and-down narration, which might be okay for a short story but quickly becomes wearisome here. I can’t recommend this.

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Gripping. Couldn’t put it down!

This book is written very well. It really is a visceral depiction of grief and madness. Will definitely look at his other work!

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