Number 87 - Starve Acre - Andrew Michael Hurley

 I finished this a few hours ago and it hasn't quite settled yet.  I'm not entirely sure it's going to.  I think that a picture of this book will be included in the dictionary next to the word unsettling from now on. 

I picked this up on the strength of that cover, with the verse around the pages as seen in the second picture.  On the top edge of the book the last line reads  “T’is part of his game To vary his name”  

The book follows Richard and Juliette Willoughby as they struggle to move on after the death of their five year old son Ewan. Whereas Richard has thrown himself fully into  his work to the point that they forced him to take administrative leave,  Juliette has taken the opposite path and retreated into herself.  She hasn't left the country home -the Starve Acre of the title - in months.  Richard has found projects to keep himself busy at home particularly the search for remnants of a legendary oak tree in the field across from the house.

This story is the definition of a slow burn.  Hurley takes his time drip feeding us information, dropping hints as to the nature of events at Starve Acre.  Juliette truly losing her mind or is something else at work? All may or may not be revealed.

Hurley's prose is immaculate and dispassionate.  He never asks us to feel sorry for the couple, he merely presents us with their behaviours and allows us to decide for ourselves. The atmosphere builds steadily. Events take a turn for the strange after Richard discovers the skeleton of a hare in the field. His absolute disconnect from reality is demonstrated by his reaction to those events.

The end of this book sent a genuine shiver down my spine.  For a horror aficionado like me, that's an achievement by the writer.  

As with any book, your mileage may vary but I found this to be a creepy and effective slice of folk horror. I recommend it highly.

This special edition with the writing on the page edges is available through Waterstones.  the regular edition is available from all good bookshops (and probably some bad ones).

Number 36 - The Wrack Line - Robert Edric

 

Another cheat read from my expanding collection of PS Publishing novellas. 

This one thankfully wipes out the memory of that other one a few books back and restores my faith in their publishing choices.

This book lives in the hinterland between literary and genre fiction. There's no overt horror, or supernatural going on in this story, but the tone is perfect for a really creepy horror story.

Our unnamed first person narrator travels to a chalet in a decaying seaside town for a break from his existence.

He sees a woman standing in the dunes near his chalet.  Then she turns and wallks away. There's no clue where she disappeared to or who she was. His meetings with a few of the locals add more layers to the mystery of who she was,

The sense of deacay and sadness almost radiates from the page. The mannered prose conjures an atmosphere of something not quite right, although what that something is isn't at all obvious. 

The atmosphere may be ominous throughout, but there's very little drama in the story.  Not much happens at all Even for a 90 page novella, it's short on incident. That's not to say it's boring, at no point can that be given as a criticism.  but the whole thing feels quite slight once it's over, which is a shame because I really enjoyed reading it.

One thing that did bug me... he stays in this chalet for at least six weeks.  It has no running water.  the only source of water is a nearby standpipe.  Also no electric or gas.  I found myself wondering where he relieved himself, and how did he cook all the supplies he bought in the local shop.

Minor criticisms aside, I would actually recommend this quite highly. It's a well written contemplative and atmospheric piece of fiction. We feel as lost as the nameless narrator throughout, with time blurring much the same way as the sea blurs with the sky on the horizon of the view from his dilpidated chalet.