Set in the moody Suffolk Fens during the Edwardian period, Wakenhyrst is a chilling gothic-style novel. Maud Stearne is a teenaged girl living with her aloof historian father and younger brothers. As her father continues his research into a local figure he starts to become increasingly affected by supposed supernatural happenings. His paranoia increases and Maud becomes afraid for her father’s sanity. The question persists – is her father mad or is their truly something supernatural happening? Is he haunted by the sins of his past? And can these events lead to anything but tragedy?

This is an excellent read and very spooky. It wasn’t as scary as Paver’s other works – Dark Matter and Thin Air (both of which I highly recommend) – but it is still very good. Paver skilfully creates a creeping terror. It slowly builds and there is an uncertainty over what to believe. The book has multiple narratives – the father’s diary entries which show his growing terror, a third-person narrative following Maud (though we are led to believe this is written by Maud so how reliable this is we cannot know), and a look at Maud decades later in the 1960s as she is pursued for access to her father’s diary. The different narratives increase the sense of uncertainty over what is really happening but this is a highly effective device, making the book that much more chilling.

Wakenhyrst was an interesting tale that held my attention from start to finish. The pacing was good as the mystery slowly unfolded, and it was great to see Maud develop as a character along the way. There was an excellent Gothic atmosphere to the work, and I enjoyed the symbolism and the use of English folklore blended with religion. This was a solid four-star read for me, and I recommend it to fans of Gothic tales and historical mysteries.

Review will go live on 1 April 2019.

A compelling gothic tale of superstition, witchcraft and a dutiful daughter in a world determined to keep her confined. Maud is a bright innocent child, protected by her Mother and dominated by her Father. When her Mother dies in the inevitable childbirth of the Edwardian years, Maud is left bewildered by the world, whilst understanding much more than her Father gives her credit. It's a time when boys are educated, but intelligent girls are discounted. This is why her Father misses the fact that Maud has raced ahead of him whilst transcribing his writings. This work plunges Maud's Father into a psychotic depression having discovered a hidden painting of Hell, torn down from their local church.
Maud loves nature and, in turn, loves and hates her Father. She also falls in love herself but finds throughout her life, everything and everyone she does love is taken from her in the most brutal way.
Paver depicts the setting of the Fens as mesmerising, yet cruel, and completely tied up with the decent into madness of Maud's Father. I found this book compelling and powerfully written and it will stay with me for a long while.

Something has been let loose..."
In Edwardian Suffolk, a manor house stands alone in a lost corner of the Fens: a glinting wilderness of water whose whispering reeds guard ancient secrets. Maud is a lonely child growing up without a mother, ruled by her repressive father.

When he finds a painted medieval devil in a graveyard, unhallowed forces are awakened.

Maud's battle has begun. She must survive a world haunted by witchcraft, the age-old legends of her beloved fen – and the even more nightmarish demons of her father's past.

Spanning five centuries, Wakenhyrst is a darkly gothic thriller about murderous obsession and one girl's longing to fly free.

A superb gothic horror set in the wild fens of Suffolk.

I first came across Michelle Paver with her excellent ghost story Dark Matter, set amidst an arctic expedition in 1939. She followed that with Thin Air, another great ghost story, but this time set in the Himalayas in the 1930s, following the route of a previous expedition earlier in the century.

Now we have Wakenhyrst, a village amidst the fens at the turn of the century, where some unpleasant events have left long and deep scars. The book begins in mid-sixties, with a PhD student attempting to make contact with Maud Sterne. Would she be able to help her with her study of a painting known as the Wakenhyrst Doom?
This painting is to become the crux of the story we about to learn about. We go back in time to 1906 and the Stearne household who live in Wake’s End adjacent to one of the fens. The father of the house, Edmund Stearne, is a monster. He forces his wife to bear child after child, with so many being still-born or barely surviving birth. He lays down strict rules all about the house, including the requirement that he basically never interact with his own children (those who make it alive). “Father” is always about his studies, while young Maud is treated with general disdain as a female.

What changes things is his discovery at the local church, St Guthlaf’s, of a hidden painting representing the Last Day of Judgement. Painted on planks and then whitewashed over in the sixteenth century to protect worshippers’ eyes from the licentious behaviour depicted as sending you to hell, it is this painting’s discovery that sends things spiralling out of control. And there are things from the past that in due course will be uncovered.

To say more would be unfair, but the attention to detail is wonderful. You feel that you’re living and breathing in the old house, sitting on the edge of the fens with the sounds and smells that would bring.

The rural life is captured beautifully, with the poor labourers who make ends meet and need the employment of rich landowners like Stearne. Paver gives us some beautiful descriptions of things like eel-babbing and starling murmations.

But it also captures a madness that comes from an obsessional attempt to understand both the painting and studies into the lives of other obsessives.

Everything beautifully comes together in this well-told tale.

I couldn't put this down and can’t recommend this book highly enough!

Spooky and interesting, with twists and turns and never fully answered questions... kept me intrigued

I am a fan of the author and have read her previous works so I was thrilled to get an ARC of Wakenhyrst.
I have to say the formatting of the book was a problematic on kindle so I downloaded it on digital editions and it read much better.
The story is set deep in the fens, and that landscape is brilliantly and evocatively described. Because of the notebook/past writing style I struggled to get into the first few chapters and ended up re reading them for clarity but it was enjoyably different style once I’d got into it.
The story is essentially exploring the events leading up to a mysterious murder, I found the story interesting and engaging, though I struggled to have sympathy with any character except Maman. The main characters all seemed to act from very selfish motives and so I found it difficult to like them though I enjoyed the storyline. The ending also felt to me rushed and a little predicatable I kept waiting for something ‘more’ to happen.
For this reason I give it 4 stars though I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to fans of mysteries, historic fiction or lovers of the fens.
I was given a ARC by NetGalley all opinions are my own.