Syndrie
I’d say that this is one of those stories where the horror lies more in the unseen than the seen.
There’s no obvious boogeyman character to fear here, just an ever-growing sense of unease that permeates through the pages as you watch one man devolve from a kind and friendly soul into a man caught in the throes of obsession over a prehistoric ruin. This is not a story of axe murderers, it’s a story about how an even bigger horror is watching a loved one transform into somebody you no longer recognize.
I would not have guessed this was a debut novel if I didn’t already know it was before picking it up! The writing is wonderfully atmospheric and Higginson did a fantastic job at setting the scene — the story told here perfectly fits into the backdrop of an isolated sheep farm deep in the Welsh mountains. Carwyn and Rhian were also both well-developed characters that truly felt like real people. In-between the creepy stuff happening in the present day, the novel intermingles flashbacks of their story from their first meeting up through married life that really helps readers get to know each of them properly — which makes the main story hit that much harder. And although I would say this story is a little slow-paced, I’m also saying it as a compliment. Everything is given just enough time for the plot to fully develop and for all that tension to really build up to a proper climax at the end. There’s also some folklore elements that really add some extra intrigue to the story and really help flesh everything out just a bit more (if you aren’t already familiar with the Mari Lwyd, you’re about to learn).
So if you like folk horror, and don’t mind a bit of a slow burn, then I highly recommend picking this one up! (And I’ll most definitely be putting Liam Higginson on my list of authors to keep an eye out for going forward.)
I’d say that this is one of those stories where the horror lies more in the unseen than the seen.
There’s no obvious boogeyman character to fear here, just an ever-growing sense of unease that permeates through the pages as you watch one man devolve from a kind and friendly soul into a man caught in the throes of obsession over a prehistoric ruin. This is not a story of axe murderers, it’s a story about how an even bigger horror is watching a loved one transform into somebody you no longer recognize.
I would not have guessed this was a debut novel if I didn’t already know it was before picking it up! The writing is wonderfully atmospheric and Higginson did a fantastic job at setting the scene — the story told here perfectly fits into the backdrop of an isolated sheep farm deep in the Welsh mountains. Carwyn and Rhian were also both well-developed characters that truly felt like real people. In-between the creepy stuff happening in the present day, the novel intermingles flashbacks of their story from their first meeting up through married life that really helps readers get to know each of them properly — which makes the main story hit that much harder. And although I would say this story is a little slow-paced, I’m also saying it as a compliment. Everything is given just enough time for the plot to fully develop and for all that tension to really build up to a proper climax at the end. There’s also some folklore elements that really add some extra intrigue to the story and really help flesh everything out just a bit more (if you aren’t already familiar with the Mari Lwyd, you’re about to learn).
So if you like folk horror, and don’t mind a bit of a slow burn, then I highly recommend picking this one up! (And I’ll most definitely be putting Liam Higginson on my list of authors to keep an eye out for going forward.)