My second cheat read by Gary McMahon this year.
There's a melancholic feel that infests McMahon's prose, and this book is no exception.
A therapy group take a weekend retreat to an old house deep in the Lake District, an English version of the Cabin in the Woods trope - but with Gary McMahon at the helm, you know you're not in for any cliched old nonsense.
The stones of the title are a set of standing stones near the house. There are rumours and legends that surround the stones, and the appropriately nicknamed Grief House.
Our protagonist Alice, much like the central character in Shirley Jackson's classic Haunting of Hill House, feels a deep connection to the forces that surround the house.
To say much more about the story would be a spoiler. However I will say that the Backward Girl is one of the most genuinely creepy images I've read in a horror novel in several years. Also this book contains one of the best nightmare sequences I've read outside of an Adam Nevill book.
Alice is a believable and sympathic central character. When I say believable, I mean that it's easy to believe she exists and that her actions are credible in the circumstances, rather than that we believe what she's telling us. We see the entire story through her eyes and we know she's not the most reliable narrator ever from about the halfway point. There are hints that everything happening may well be just in her imagination, which makes the ending possibly more chilling than if the sisters and the Backward girl were really there - which they could be. There are hints in that direction too.
The supporting cast are well drawn with not a single weak characterisation. The atmosphere builds beautifully and there are a few well placed shocks and sneaky reveals.
McMahon is one of the more stylish writers lurking beneath the surface of the modern British horror genre. He deserves to be much more widely read. Get out there and buy his books.
I think I will schedule the Concrete Grove trilogy for a well overdue read for the new year.
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