Michelle Paver’s new novel wears its heart on its sleeve to try to be in the best tradition of the Gothic novel. In 1966, the story of Edmund Stearne is brought back into the public’s imagination by a lurid tell-all book and a renewed interest in paintings he made whilst in prison. The book then flashes back in time to 1906 and recounts the story of Stearne and his family, in particular his daughter Maud.

There are demons, and ghosts, and visions, all set in the gloomy, dripping atmosphere of the Cambridgeshire Fens. There are family secrets and revelations and a spooky house. The narrative moves between Maud’s account and the diaries and notebooks of Edmund, all building to a climax where Edmund, convinced that there is demonic possession afoot, kills someone with an ice-pick and a hammer. Nice.

I struggled to get into this, to be honest. Fans of the genre will no doubt enjoy it, but the tropes and themes felt a little too overdone, the characters a little two-dimensional (cue lots of locals taking in dialect) and it just all felt a bit too light. Just not for me, I’m afraid.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

I have both enjoyed and been a little disappointed by various works of Paver's in the past.  I really enjoyed this, though; just the right amount of chilling.  I very much look forward to what she comes up with next, as it seems that she's back on form.

I’m a fan of Paver’s work. I’ve read a few of her books and have been impressed overall. Wakenhyrst is no exception. This is a fantastic example of gothic horror. I knew as soon as I started to read the book I was onto something special. I wasn’t disappointed. Wakenhyrst is a bizarre and unsettling blend of supernatural horror, madness and a repressive society. The sad tale is told with compassion. I was gripped as events unfolded and Maud’s father descended deeper into darkness. Paver does a great job of bringing the period the novel is set in and the society to life. This was a pleasure to read. I don’t often read historical fiction and prefer crime or gothic horror. I liked the way the novel is structured using a story-within-a-story framing. There are a few books by the author I haven’t read and these are definitely on my TBR list.

Maud Stearne is entrenched in a patriarchal system, railing against it as best she can. Every key decision in the household is made by her overbearing, haughty father- to the extent that he sacrifices her mother’s life when it hangs in the balance during childbirth, against medical advice, with detachment and calm.

Although the Hall is situated in the beautiful Suffolk Fens, Maud is never permitted to do justice to her natural affinity with nature. Her father’s repressive nature and internal aversion to his surroundings combine to prohibit her efforts to explore the marsh and immerse herself within it. 

Edmund Stearne’s descent into a full breakdown is inevitable yet still shocking; Paver charts the decline of a bookish yet superstitious man credibly and vividly, breathing new life into the gothic horror mystery. Tense, vivid and mesmeric, ‘Wakenhyrst’ is a disquieting examination of internal prejudices, frustrations and the effects of obsession.

On a long train journey over the weekend I sat down with Michelle Paver’s Wakenhyrst, and I devoured it at one go. 

There. That’s probably all you need to know but I feel I ought to make a bit more of an effort to tell you what I loved about it, and the book certainly deserves it. It’s a complex, compelling, dark, twisted, wonderful, readable book. 

It’s set in the early part of the twentieth century and it’s the story of Maud, a child when the story begins. Stuck in a house on the edge of the fens with a wealthy but eccentric father, an irritating younger brother (who, being a boy, is granted seniority) and a long-suffering mother whose endless pregnancies almost all seemed destined to end in miscarriage or death, Maud has a grim coming of age. 

I quote from the blurb. “When [her father] 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.”

There was so much to love about this book. The sinister fenland with its lingering spirits is drawn as a place that would drive anyone mad. Even Maud, a practical young woman, begins to believe in evil things that creep around the corridors of Wake’s End, the house, at night. The characterisation is wonderful, the story telling extraordinary, so that I was drawn into it and just kept reading and reading and reading. 

If there was one thing I didn’t like about it, it was the prologue and epilogue that brought the story into the 1960s. Yes, there was information there that tied up the loose ends of the story, but I didn’t feel it was necessary and slightly weakened the whole thing for me. Not much, though, and certainly not enough to stop me recommending it to anyone looking for a darkly satisfying read. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Maud is a lonely child, growing up in a corner of the Fens in Edwardian Suffolk, without a mother and ruled over by her father. When, one day, he finds a medieval painting in a graveyard, unnatural forces are awakened that drive him beyond the point of obsession and into insanity. For Maud, this is the beginning of a battle to survive in a world haunted by devils, protect her beloved Fen, and uncover the demons of her father’s past.

I absolutely loved the atmosphere of this book. It is dark and spooky, with an air of menace from the very first page, which is entirely down to Michelle Paver’s brilliant writing because nothing overtly scary actually happens for the majority of the story.

Maud is one of the best characters I’ve read recently. Considering that she’s a child and a girl in Edwardian times with literally no power to do anything, she’s surprisingly ballsy. Her courage and intelligence made it impossible not to care about her. And the way she gets revenge on her father without ever attracting suspicion to herself or placing blame on anyone else is just brilliant.

I hadn’t read any of Michelle Paver’s books before Wakenhyrst, but I will definitely be correcting that in the future.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Deliciously atmospheric & gorgeously written, this is a superb gothic thriller that will keep the pages turning late into the night!  In an ideal world I'd have read this on a cold night in front of a roaring fire with no one to disturb me! Erudite style & subject matter won't appeal to everyone but the right reader will love it as I did. An unforgettable read that really got underneath my skin. Highly recommended.

I don’t normally read historical crime fiction or gothic based fiction but there was something about the blurb for Wakenhyrst that caught my interest. Little did I know what I’d let myself in for!

Wakenhyrst wasn’t just this historical crime thriller that I was expecting; for me it turned into a bit of a historic psychological thriller. Anything that happened to Maud’s father, Edmund I questioned whether it was actually happening, whether someone was causing these things to happen or whether Edmund was just mad!  This could actually say more about me and my love of psychological thrillers – the way Ms Paver has written the story made me doubt whether the events I was reading about were real!

Our leading lady Maud, I really didn’t know what to make of her.  She’s lived an oppressed life in the shadow of her brother, working as her father’s secretary.  But she’s a bright lass and someone who is passionate with a dark side.  There is a lot that happens in Maud’s life that is out of her control and as she grows up, she grows in confidence to take control of her life, manipulating those around her. Saying that, I loved her friendship with Clem the gardener; there is a feel of innocence that comes with first love which is endearing

There is a thick air of mystery to the story. The household is shrouded in secrets. I really liked the sinister, gothic feel I got from Wakenhyrst and I’ll be looking out for more!

Before I begin I must confess – I clearly have a thing for historical fiction. Didn’t think I ever would do but I do. So I guess there’s that. We discover something new about ourselves each week.

The other thing I must confess (and this I’ve known for a while now) is that I love, love, love when books tells us the ending (or half the ending) and then the story builds up towards it. If done properly this can be such a hook as people (me) feed desperately on anticipation and try to work out exactly how the story will unfold.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the story is in the journey.

We begin Wakenhyrst in 1966 knowing that Maud’s father, Edmund has been detained in an asylum for years. We are told that one summer day he butchered the first person he saw while Maud looked on. We (the reader) don’t know who he killed and we (the reader but also the other characters) don’t know why he killed them and in such a horrible manner.

But Maud is here to tell us. Her home is in a state of disrepair and so, as an old woman, she is finally selling her story. What unfurls is Maud’s life told by her and interspersed with extracts from her father’s diary which helps paint a picture of what he was like but also what life must have been like living with him.

Remember when I said this about books where you know the ending – If done properly this can be such a hook as people (me) feed desperately on anticipation and try to work out exactly how the story will unfold. 

So was it done properly? Oh yes, I like to think so.

But look – if you’re after the gothic horror/ gothic ghost story that marketing seem to be painting this story as then you’re not going to get it.

This is more a tale of what has gone wrong in a young woman’s fraught life. Now Maud is such a riveting character which is a good thing as this story about her life is told through her eyes.

Maud is an intelligent, repressed child  who remains an intelligent, repressed young woman but as she grows so does her sense of injustice at the way the world treats certain people. As this sense of injustice grows so does her anger and she uses her anger and intelligence to survive life as best she can.

As Maud navigates these paths of life, simultaneously her father is navigating some completely different paths. When you read her father’s diary entries (entries Maud has also read) you see the depth of what a hateful, privileged, misogynist he truly is.

It’s also via these diary entries that we see his descent into madness.

Now we never fully understand exactly what causes this. Is it mental illness exacerbated by the constant consumption of religious material depicting hell? Is it religious fanaticism taken far too far? Is someone gas-lighting him? Is there something truly disturbing out there in the fen? Or is it a combination of all those things?

Oddly the reason(s) why Edmund goes insane isn’t the most riveting part. In fact, the diary entries which document his thoughts and eventually his fears are the least interesting bit about this story. He is a vile character that we (and Maud) rightfully hate but while his diary gives us insights into his mind and eventually his story crosses path with Maud’s I don’t want to spend a lot of time swimming in his thoughts.

I’m not interested in Edmund. His act of violent murder is the crescendo to which Maud’s traumatic youth builds but Maud’s ‘coming of age’ story is more interesting. She grieves her mother, falls in love, makes an enemy of a maid, renounces god and finds a spiritual home in the fen with its dark history and oppressive atmosphere.

For others the fen is a place of untamed, ungodly wildness whereas for Maud its an extension of her soul and so we feel that outpouring of love across the page.

The setting and description of the time Maud lives is one of the best bits of this book. I can truly picture the wetlands and the house, covered in ivy and slowly rotting while villagers are a mix of local superstition and religious fervor.

It’s sad but the close-mindedness of the time and the oppression that Maud experiences is portrayed just as thickly as the descriptions of the fen.

The writer has deftly crafted a story that slowly builds towards a rotten event. You know its coming but you don’t exactly know what takes place. You guess as you go and hope for the best but it’s like watching a train crash where you can see that neither train is going to be able to swerve.

Reading about Edmund and Maud is watching that happen in slow, painstaking motion.

If you want creepy, gothic horror then Wakenhyrst is not it. If you want a slow burn, painful, historical piece about an intelligent and angry teenage girl desperately trying to outrun her fate within society than this is it.

I know that last sentence makes the book sound terrible but this truly isn’t. It’s well written and thought provoking, it’s sad and horrific with moments of touching kindness that are far too few.

I love Maud.

We should all love Maud.

Michelle Paver appends an extensive Author's Note to her excellent new novel Wakenhyrst; in it she describes the book's genesis - the chance finds and happenings which sparked ideas which in turn formed the basis of her tale. A novel is more than just a clever assemblage of components, of course, and it's in the way she has used her raw material that Michelle Paver's skill is evident, for while her research has been extensive and comprehensive, she has made her facts work, both efficiently and elegantly, for their place in her intricate story.

    From disparate sources come an inspired conjunction: a lonely house in the eerie and forbidding Suffolk fens, a medieval 'Doom' discovered by chance, a historian writing a monograph on a fourteenth century mystic, his bright young daughter, overlooked because of her sex. Add to that a dreadful act never admitted or atoned for, a liberal dash of local folklore and a touch of the supernatural, and you have a gothic thriller about obsession, set in the Edwardian era and the 1960s, which should grip you until the final page.

    If you've read Dark Matter or Thin Air you'll know how good a Michelle Paver book is; her latest doesn't disappoint.

Set in Edwardian Suffolk is when it all begins. A painted medieval doll is found in a graveyard and something has been awakened. Well what can I say I was hooked from the fist page. Spent most of the time sat on the edge of my seat and in places holding my breath. A very dark gothic thriller par excellence. It had me reading late into the night, with all the lights on and listening for strange noises. This book gave me goosebumps on my goosebumps. An easy five stars and so Highly Recommended. 
I would like to thank the author, Head of Zeus and Netgalley for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

I'm grateful to the publisher for inviting me to take part in the Wakenhyrst blogtour and for providing a free advance e-copy of the book via NetGalley.

Having loved Paver's previous two supernatural-tinged novels, Dark Matter and Thin Air, I was delighted to see Wakenhyrst coming - and then to be able to take part in the tour.

Like Dark Matter and Thin Air,  at the heart of Wakenhyrst is the social structure of early 20th century England (England not Britain). I say that despite the fact that the previous books were not set in England: they still explored English notions of class and the way that English arrogance impinged on, and fell foul of, other cultures and places.

Wakenhyrst is, very much, set in England (with one short diversion to Brussels) and the English upper class scorn for the beliefs of the 'natives' that featured in Thin Air is here turned back on itself as a dilettante Edwardian gentleman, researching the obscure fifteenth century mystical biography of one Alice Pyett, goes to dark places despite (or because of?) his rejecting the beliefs of the 'lower orders'.

Edmund Stearne is a man 'of spotless reputation' but, to his daughter Maud, a forbidding and pernickety father ("You know my dislike of manhandled newsprint") who enthusiastically administers physical punishment. To his Belgian wife he is a tyrant ('It was Father who had decreed what Mama ate, read, did and thought...') As a girl, indeed as a woman, Maud is slighted, discounted, disregarded. Edmund knows what he wants - his wife pregnant (she suffers an endless series of miscarriages - Maud comes to dread 'the moaning'), his daughter silent in the nursery, and servant girl Ivy at his disposal ('Nor did he regard what he regularly did with Ivy as anything but the satisfaction of a lawful appetite'). Allegedly a religious man, it would be overgenerous even to label the contents of the diary we're allowed to read here as hypocritical. Indeed there's a vein of outright misogyny in Edward ('Women are all the same. Devious, hypocritical, corrupt') and also in his pals the local doctor and the Vicar. The subordinate role of a young woman in that time and place is made very plain: when she seeks their help in a crisis, Maud is threatened, told to stop being hysterical sent on her way. Throughout the book, Ivy and Maud are at odds, seeking to undermine one another, even though the cause of their problems is not their own relationship but the stultifying, patriarchal, power of Maud's father.

But this isn't just a story of how bad things were in the past and how much better they have become. Paver is shrewder than that. The book opens in 1966 with a quoted newspaper article which is, in its own way, just as patronising, just as set on keeping women in their place, as Doctor, Parson and Squire at their worst. Describing the discovery of some sublime artworks created by Edmund in his later life, it introduces the academic who first recognised them thus:

' "My hair stood on end," shrills Dr Robin Hunter, 36, a mini-skirted redhead in white vinyl boots...'

That article portrays the elderly, reclusive Maud, still living in her decayed childhood home out in the Fens, as at best, a bitter old maid, at worst, a murderer and witch - and naturally, as in conflict with another woman, her cook. Plus ca change... Initially unwilling to share the real story, despite the calumny directed at her, Maud eventually relents  (a storm has damaged the roof, she needs money) and admits to her confidence that same Dr Hunter.

We then hear Maud's account, interspersed with entries from her father's diaries. This is where the real story begins - of a lonely girl with a strict father, growing up amidst the wildness of the Fens. Young Maud's life is marked by contrasts, for example between the different customs, of her father and of the villagers, which she must or mustn't follow (sometimes she can't remember which is which). There's the language itself - while the elderly Maud speaks with a 'cut glass accent' it's clear that she is or was perfectly fluent in the local dialect:

' "D-don't fret thysen,' she stammered, unthinkingly lapsing into village talk. "I told thee I wanted to go babbing..." '
In keeping with that, it's clear that everyone - not just the working people but Maud, her mother, Edmund himself - has recourse at one time or another to the potions and remedies of the village wisewoman.

There is the contrast between the entitled, complacent world of men (principally her father) and the second class existence of women.

And between the buttoned-up public attitudes of the trinity who preside over this world and their secret behaviour.

Above all, the story contrasts Edmund Stearne's public reputation as 'a rich landowner and respected historian' with a private dread that he has committed a terrible sin (even if he protests to his diary that he can't remember what it was, and that anyway it wasn't his fault). His fear drives an obsession with Pyett's text, which seems to him to parallel his own case. This is an aspect of the story that only surfaces gradually (there is a lot submerged in the Fen) and indirectly, and saying too much would spoil the effect. The slowly emerging picture does, though, underly a growing atmosphere of menace which makes this book truly Gothic. Paver signals what may be going on with language that alludes to the master of this genre, MR James, from details (toad-like carvings on a pew, Stearne's almost tripping as he comes downstairs, his feeling as if he had been bitten) to turns of phrase ( '...whoever painted that picture painted the demon from life') and overall themes (the fear of a hairy thing that has been let loose, the story's focus on a lone scholar and its being told, in part, looking back some fifty years through a manuscript account). We could be reading one of those stories where an accusing spectre haunts the guilty, slowly driving them over the edge of sanity.

Whether that is, in the end, the case - well, I won't say any more about that. You should read the book and make up your own mind. But it is clear that there is much more going on than in a classic ghost story, even though Paver uses that form expertly. Apart from the theme of patriarchy, I think there's also an exploration here of the creation of memory, of the importance of story - most obviously of course in older Maud's desire to control the narrative, as one might put it now, but also for example in the way that Stearne says in his diary that he remembers something 'though I didn't before' - he is a most unreliable narrator indeed and seems to me to be reinventing his life and outlook under pressure of - well, of whatever it is.  Maud sees Edmund's story take shape and come to life - and eventually realises how it threatens her and those she loves. And in the end she has to take control and make her own truth.

In describing how Maud does that, Paver has, in a sense, to go beyond the supernatural and show how some horrors are actually worse - because more universal - than the shades haunting remote mountain peaks or isolated Arctic bases and which her previous books turned on. Wakenhyrst depicts a sense of unearned entitlement, the systematic application of privilege and the embrace of hypocrisy, both in the Edwardian summer and the topsy turvy '60s, which to me is actually much more chilling than a vengeful ghost keening in the Fen.

It is a powerful, enthralling book which I'd encourage you to read. If you need any more urging, it's also a beautifully designed thing, the cover tactile and brooding, the endpapers leafy and glorious, the pages crawling with the life of the Fens - the design by Stephen McNally really enhancing the experience of reading this book (yes, I was sent an e-copy, yes I have bought the hardback - there was no way wasn't going to have this on my shelves). And there's much, much more than ice been able to cram into this review: the teeming wildlife of the Fens, Maud's later life - only sketched but Paver does it so well that we can join the dots - and even some romance.

This will definitely going to be one of my standout books of the year.

The blogtour continues - see the poster below for other excellent reviews - and you can buy Wakenhyrst from your local bookshop, including via Hive, from Blackwell's, Waterstones or Amazon (and doubtless other places besides).

I was extremely excited to read Wakenhyrst, I'm a huge fan of Michelle Paver's writing style. I absolutely tore through Dark Matter and I couldn't get enough of the creeping dread and icy cold fear that it invoked. When I heard Paver had written a historical, Gothic fiction I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. 

Wakenhyrst started out strong, it was beautifully atmospheric with the eerie fen such a constant presence that it almost developed as much as the characters. 

The central figure of the book, Maud Stearne is an intelligent and scholarly girl who is dominated by an overbearing father who holds strong views about the roles of women and men. Maud is an intriguing and unsual main character, in turns she's insular and proper and in other she's as wild as the fens. It would be easy to dislike Maud because of her changing nature, and often selfish pursuits. However, her love and compassion for other characters grows throughout the book and she becomes a much more sympathetic character. Her development is so strong it often overrode the suspense and chill factor for me. 

I was far more invested in Maud than I was the eerie ghost story that I feel like Wakenhyrst was trying to spin. It's by no means a criticism. Maud is potentially Paver's strongest character yet, and certainly the most multi-faceted. However I did miss the oozing and seeping feelings of dread I had built up in her previous books.

I hope that the next book manages a more even balance - because the bottom line is Michelle Paver is an artist at weaving words and I can't wait to see what she does next.

Since hearing about Wakenhyrst I have been very excited at getting the chance to read it, and it didn't disappoint.  The book starts in 1966, Maud is living at Wakes End alone and reeling after an article in the paper that takes her back to 1913 and a murder committed by her father.  The main body of the book is narrated from Maud's point of view, from ten years old to the events of 1913 when she was sixteen. This gothic thriller has a touch of the supernatural and mysticism to enchant the reader, and a plot that builds in suspense and atmosphere to draw you in.

Michelle Paver draws on different literary devices through the book which adds variety, different perspectives and some clarity to the thoughts and beliefs of the characters.  As well as Maud's narrative there are chapters from her father's, Edmund Stearne, private notebook which gives an insight into his thoughts and feelings as we see him spiral into a kind of paranoia.  There are also the translations of Edmund's work on a book that recounts the life of mystic Alice Pyett from the fifteenth century and links to the painting The Last Judgement found in the church. These different narrative devices combine to make this such a fascinating and interesting reading experience.

As a lead character, Maud is captivating to read about and curious in personality.  She isn't one for obeying rules and has a keen intelligence and thirst for knowledge.  The problem with being a girl was that she had to stay at home and learn how to run a house whilst her brothers were sent to school.  As her father's assistant and types up his translations, but he doesn't expect her to understand what she is typing as she is female; how wrong he is.  Edmund is a man of his time and what we would call chauvinistic in his attitude.  Through Maud and his writings we are voyeurs to his descent into paranoia which also opens up a horrific secret from his past.  Edmund's character and morality is called into question, as we learn there is another side to him. The Fens play an important part in this novel, the smells, dampness, creatures that live there are like another character.  They encroach on the house and those who live there; for Maud they are a place she can be free of rules, for her father they are to be shut out, they bring back bad memories and invade his home and mind like an intruder.

Wakenhyrst is a beautiful, chilling and evocative read. The attention to detail brings the Fens and Wakes End and their sights and smells to life, so that as you are reading you can almost feel and smell the dampness encroaching. Edmund's descent into paranoia is in contrast to Maud's growth into a more confident young woman, who comes to know her own mind as the plot progresses. Historical detail, the atmospheric Fens, wonderful characters all combine to make this dark and gothic tale such a deliciously divine read and cement Michelle Paver as a masterful story teller.

If you are looking for a darkly atmospheric gothic yarn, you have found it in Wakenhyrst. I was thoroughly gripped from the first. Maud's childhood, growing up around the fens, was so vividly illustrated I felt I was there with her. Her life was not an easy one but she learned to adjust to her tedious existence and even found ways to take control. Living with a heavily domineering father was most troublesome to her, especially being treated as a second rate person, but soon the tables turned for our girl Maud. The dark, creepy elements in this novel were a delight to behold and most enjoyed on a cold rainy night.

Michelle Paver writes excellent atmospheric stories and this book is no exception. Starting off in the early 1900s, Maud Stearne is a young girl living in the oppressive atmosphere of the Wake’s End Manor House. Her mother is trapped in a cycle of pregnancies and miscarriages while Maid feels trapped by an inability to pursue her passion of reading and academics due to her gender. Her Father is strict and overbearing and Maud sees little opportunity for a life outside the village they live in. When Maud’s mother dies, Maud becomes responsible for running the household and when she finds her Father’s diaries she gains an insight into an increasingly troubled mind. Maud tries to take back control but ultimately events end tragically. 

This is a beautifully descriptive book. Maud’s house is close to the Suffolk fens and the claustrophobic feeling of being enclosed seeps into the everyday life of the house. Maud’s father, Edmund, is an imposing figure and there’s a noticeable change in the atmosphere when he goes away for a few days. Maud’s rare moments of relief come in trips to the local bookshop and a fledgling but ultimately doomed relationship with hired hand, Clem. There’s rarely a happy moment for Maud, her gender counts against her at every turn and when she tries to alert the local doctor to her father’s increasingly volatile mental state, she is threatened with incarceration herself. There’s a lot going on in this book and I’ve no doubt that it’s historically accurate. Tension bubbles throughout the story and I found it to be a engrossing read. Slightly less supernatural than Michelle Paver’s last two books but compelling none the less. 

I received a ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair review.

This book is beautifully written, I found it difficult to put it down. Gothic and engaging - I loved every bit of this tale. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC. And thanks to the author for writing such an engaging story.

In the shadow of the ancient land, Maud Stearne lives with her family at Wake’s End the house which nudges the nearby water of the Suffolk fen, but which for many reasons stands apart from the landscape, for the house has too many secrets and many dark corners, where glimpses of an evil past sometimes surface. 

In 1966, when the story opens, three unusual paintings have been discovered which direct public interest back to Edward Stearne, Mauds’s father, who was incarcerated in a mental asylum for many years. The reason for this curiosity in Stearne’s work becomes apparent as we move back in time to the early part of the twentieth century when Maud was growing up in the shadow of her dictatorial father and beautiful, but totally compliant, mother.

Filled with a wealth of supernatural imaginings and with more than a hint towards the gothic gloom of the Edwardian era, Wakenhyrst is an incredibly detailed story with a wonderful dark imagery which immediately places the reader right in the centre of the action. To say I devoured this story is absolutely correct, the place, the people, the inherent danger, all drew me in from the very beginning, and I couldn’t wait to see how the story played out.

There is an undeniable darkness to the story for all is not quiet at Wake’s End and Maud’s childhood is a deeply lonely affair, and whilst she is brutally aware of the undercurrents of the dark and dangerous emotion which plague her parents’ marriage, she finds what comfort she can in the myths and legends of the place she calls home. The stark beauty of the Suffolk fens, and the ancient superstitions which are at the very heart of local folklore are described in such beautiful detail that I could picture myself with Maud in the damp and cold, watching the creeping shadows of the fen come to life as a murmuration of starlings glide and dance in the early evening twilight.

To say much of what happens in the three hundred or so pages of Wakenhyrst would do both the author and the story a complete disservice as this is one of those beautifully plotted stories which takes time to emerge and is all the stronger for taking things slowly.

I’ve now read most of this author’s work, with the exception of her books for children, and I am always aware of how beautifully intuitive her writing is, and how she does her utmost to include the reader every step of the way so that the engagement with the story is utterly consuming from start to finish. There is no doubt that Wakenhyrst is a glorious example of this author writing at her absolute best.

Overall, this book just really wasn't for me. I'm not the biggest fan of historical reads and also I realised more and more that these folklore stories aren't anything I enjoy either. I should have expected this, but I still like to try and branch out sometimes. 

Wakenhyrst is an interesting story, that definitely feels carefully researched and is well written. I just couldn't connect to the characters and felt overall mostly bored by the story itself. I still don't think that's an issue with the novel but more with how it doesn't work with my personal taste. 

If you enjoy slowly build up historical fiction laced with religious folklore, this book will definitely be for you.

‪ https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2019/4/6/wakenhyrst-by-michelle-paver‬

One of the most truly terrifying parts of growing up is the discovery that our world isn’t what we think it is. Our perception of our parents and our initial beliefs will be challenged and changed as we understand the world better and our place in it. In this excellent gothic thriller Michelle Paver gives us a study of a family at the turn of the 20th century that brings me one of my most haunting and at times terrifying reads to date.

By late the late 1960’s Edmund Stearne has an infamous reputation a rich gentlemen historian who one day went mad; killed a stranger with a hammer and spent the rest of his life in an asylum creating three notoriously eerie but incredibly popular pieces of art. His daughter Maud now elderly sits in the family home alone refusing to give her side of the story. But after a salacious article attempting to blame Maud for the crime (and a need for cash to repair the home) then Maud decides to finally tell a young journalist what happened. Maud recounts her life growing up in a strict religious household; ruled by a man who has no time for women and what becomes a battle for independence; revenge and heartache. All taking place in a mysterious part of the world where the old legends of the fen are still being feared by the locals.

Maud and her father are the absolute lynchpins of the book. We start off very much seeing the world though Maud’s eyes.  She is smart, fascinated by nature and reading and keen to understand the world better. At first immensely in need of her father’s approval. The book then at times gives you Edmund’s own thoughts from his diary. One of the first pieces of horror in this tale is that he clearly has little actual love for his daughter or wife they are possessions and his appalling attitude to women is a theme explored throughout the book. Maud is demoted in his eyes by virtue of her sex and he even is repulsed by her looks and eczema. When Maud reads this section of the diary that realisation sets a scene for a wider battle of wills over the next few years. 

Maud is clearly embedded in a culture of a time when women are seen and not heard and all the men of power in the novel dismiss her as not worth her time.  This underestimation of her capabilities though allows her to further investigate and test her father’s reaction to events after a medieval picture is found and its links to an ancient legend. He appears to be being reminded of his past and leads to both someone lashing out at his family and staff but and the diary entry makes clear he is increasingly fearful of something haunting him out of the corner of his eye. Maud however is growing up and seeing the wilder world of the fen and those who live on it including a young gardener to get out of that stifling society. Maud’s obvious strengths and her containment by this awful society make her a compelling lead character to follow and watching her battle these restrictions is fascinating. In contrast to Maud we also get Ivy a working-class girl where the men seem much happier that she can show sexuality while the middle-class women are to be always silent and demure. I loved how Paver highlights the contradiction in these Edwardian men preaching religious morality while indulging their own desires once doors are closed and feeling no sense of hypocrisy.

This is firmly a gothic thriller and there is a unique atmosphere here as the Fen and the village are set up as this wilder force that appears to be reacting to Maud’s pleas to be rescued from her father’s grip. A medieval painting seems to be triggering something almost supernatural preying at the family.  Nothing in this novel is made explicitly rational it is all down to reader’s interpretation, but it’s all made alive by Paver’s language from magpies flying into the house to a demon on a wall who is staring accusingly at you and seeing all your sins. Making the fen such a character really helps build that escalating tension in this battle between Maud and her father so that in its final few chapters as we reach the event that made Edmund Stearne infamous, I found reading some of these chapters both terrifying and heart-breaking. Evets are set in course and now no one can stop them.

I think this was a hugely successful novel and was thoroughly immersed into this startling family and the world they lived in. If you enjoy historical novels, gothic thrillers and that teasing hint of something lurking behind the veil pulling strings then this novel is one I think you should be rushing to pick up.