What a spooky little story !

Richard and Juliette moved into Starveacre hoping to live an idyllic family life in the countryside-but things don't quite go according to plan. Their only son Ewen dies at the age of 5 and they are left devastated .
Whilst Juliette wallows in her grief -Richard is out at all hours on an archeological dig in the field next door. One day he unearths a strange skeleton of what appears to be a hare ...
The author keeps us on the edge of our seat while we wait for what we KNOW is going to be a shocking ending - and it does not disappoint !
Read if you dare !
Thankyou NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review

A compact book about parents that have lost ther young son and their inability to come to terms with the death. The mother turns to spiritualists whilst the father digs over their folklore-laden field where a hanging tree once stood. Unfortunately, for me, the suspense never built to a desirable level and the “reveal” left me somewhat deflated.

This book is not the sort of thing I usually read but the first few chapters given in the ‘first glance’ were so compelling and well written that I had to read the whole book. I’m struggling to decide exactly what genre this book does fall under as ‘fantasy’ which seems the closest, doesn’t for me take into account what a well drawn domestic drama it is.
I raced through the book for two reasons. One, it was incredibly well written and pacy and two, it was for me, too short. Yes I like that it was a quick and satisfying read but the characters were so good and there were so many connections between each of them that the author didn’t expand on I do feel it could easily have had another hundred pages at least.
I did figure out one of the twists as I got closer to it but that didn’t detract from the story, but I did know what the last page(s) would contain because the cover gave that away for me. Again, being proved right was no hardship!
A word of praise to the publishers as the cover art is stunning and the volume is a lovely compact and comfortable to hold book. It’s definitely not one to shove on a bookshelf and forget about.
I will be reading Mr Hurley’s other books and look forward to his future ones!

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this book, subject to an honest review. Overall, I enjoyed this book. However, it felt very rushed at the end and it didn't sit totally right with me. It could have reached its conclusion slightly differently, I feel.
#StarveAcre #NetGalley

Creepy as anything! With a shocker of an ending.

Richard Willoughby inherited his home and was persuaded to move into it by his wife, Julia. Richard has taken to a hobby of excavating his field, opposite the house, while Julia spends her time in Ewan's room, hoping for a sign of him, Ewan.

The local village population don't figure much in their lives, they haven't since Richard was a boy. Gordon Lambwell does though. He was fond of Ewan and wants to help with Julia's situation. He has introduced her to Mrs Forde who has, apparently, helped many others before.

Gordon doesn't like that Richard is digging his field, believing that Richard should leave things be. But Richard is dismissive of Gordon's concerns.

Harrie comes to visit, more like take over, but Julia doesn't want any family around and resists Harrie's attempts to help.

Following a curious find in the field, developments continue in the house and Mrs Forde has her visit.

This was an edgy read and the ending was just so 'creepy'. Of course, I enjoyed it.

Enjoyed this short story - kept me gripped throughout and the folk horror was evident. The ending left a little to be desired, not sure how I felt about it but it's sticking with me so it's one of those novels that, for me, leaves me engaged. Read if you like English folk horror!

Starve Acre is a deeply unsettling little book. While short, it packs an incredibly strong punch emotionally as Hurley delves into the lives of the two lead characters - Richard and Juliette as they deal with the grief of losing their young son, Ewan.
Instead of this death being the catalyst for the strange events at play in the novel, it becomes increasingly obvious that something was rotten before he died. The situation with Ewan - which I'm trying not to give too much away on - raises some questions tied into the evergreen nature vs nurture debate. The relationship between the boy and his parents is one of the strongest parts of the book both in terms of that emotional punch and when the pace appears to pick up.
The matter of fact tone adopted by Hurley throughout makes the book all the more disturbing. At times it reads almost like a dry textbook relaying of events. It takes a moment for the brain to catch up and be like, "whoa, whoa, whoa, back up here, nope, this is weird." I particularly enjoyed that aspect of it to be honest.
Starve Acre is a deceptively violent book. While there isn't much in the way of blood and gore smeared across the pages, certain events depicted throughout are so horrifying. Even those events which are not specifically spelled out are lent an additional aura of menace - if Hurley is telling us this happened, then <i>that</i> must have been even more horrific. A scene with a snowman was particularly harrowing for me.
If you like your stories strange, or you like quiet, esoteric horror, Starve Acre will be right up your street.

Richard and Juliette are struggling after the death of their son, Ewan. Prior to his death Ewan’s behaviour had become strange and unpredictable. But was his fear of the field outside their house due to an overactive imagination or does a sinister presence lurk around Starve Acre.
The book is well written and carries the same eerie sense of menace as The Lonely, leaving the reader unnerved and unsure what to believe. . However, whilst I enjoy an open ending, I felt too many questions were left unanswered - to state which, would be to give away spoilers.
Overall ,however, this is another great book from Andrew Michael Hurley and fans of The Lonely won’t be disappointed.

I love a good ghost story but unfortunately I just could not connect with this book. I thought the plot was very good and dark it was more to do with the connection to the characters or lack of. I just could get on with them.

Thank you to Andrew Michael Hurley, John Murray and NetGalley for the ARC of Starve Acre.
This is not my usual read but I was utterly intrigued. I wasnt sure where the story was leading but I allowed it to take me into a gothicy tale of strangeness. Clearly Ewen evoked very mixed feelings from his parents and although Juliette wasnt particularly likeable she wanted to explore his behaviour whereas Richard seemed to think his behaviour was acceptable in a five year old. He was rather an jneffectual personality. The story is laced with traditional village witchery which I love. About seven eigths through Id worked out what was going to happen. I hoped it wouldnt but there you go. She went right ahead and did it. Of course she did!

Andrew Michael Hurley returns with a hauntingly beautiful written novel of a couple shaken by the sudden death of her five year old son.

Juliette and Richard Willoughby were a happily married couple. They moved to a rural Yorkshire village into a house Richard inherited from his parents. Here, they think, or at least Juliette thinks, that this would be a much better environment for their little boy. But soon Richard gets obsessed by digging for the roots of an old tree on the field which belongs to his house. Their son Ewan, at first a lovely boy, begins to show signs of violence and there are some very upsetting events which he caused. He claims that he hears a voice which tells him to do those cruel things. After Ewan’s sudden deaths Juliette is absolutely devastated and can’t let go. An old friend tells her about a woman who can help people in her own special way. Richard is skeptical but wants to try everything to help Juliette with her grief. And indeed after this kind of séance Juliette begins to feel better. But that does not change things for the better after all.

Hurley has a gift for creating atmospheric books. He has a thing for English folklore and in all of his books he weaves some of it into it. I’ve read his two previous books and I liked especially “The Looney”. “Starve Acre” is a bit shorter than the other ones and that is a good thing. He keeps it nice and short here. He is not a master of suspense and his last book “Devil’s Day” was a bit too long and therefore a bit lengthy. Here the story feels just right. There are strange things going on in this little village and especially with Ewan. There are really some goose bump moments.

I am not so happy with the characters. Richard is a very boring guy and Juliette is horrible. Even before Ewan’s death she is an ignorant and controlling woman and Richard seems to have not much to say in their marriage. There is a scene with a psychiatrist in which she acts extremely weird. The story is also very mystical. Not everything is explained. It’s more left for your imagination. The ending is kind of strange and does not give you all the answers. But this is Andrew Michael Hurley’s style. I like the way he writes and creates a different kind of stories. I enjoyed reading this book although it was very strange. But maybe I just liked it because of that.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this early for a honest review.
This book is a quick read and somewhat dark and I like both these aspects in a book but sadly this book wasn’t really for me, but I think it just wasn’t the right time for me to read it, I didn’t care much for the main characters I felt they were kind of boring and it felt very drawn out at the beginning in the first couple of chapters for me, it definitely did pick up after that and if it was the right time for me I probably would of enjoyed it a lot more because the whole fibe of the book was great and the whole ghost story stuff is my thing so I was a bit sad that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought, but nevertheless I am going to give it another read in the few months and may change my opinion on it then. Regardless of my views right now I would definitely recommend it to people that like the genre. I gave this book for now 3 stars.

I loved this book. It is so well-written, and conveys a sense of unease and creepiness from the first page. I was completely drawn in to the unfolding tragedy, and the ending was completely shocking, but wholly appropriate. I would thoroughly recommend this as a great read on a winter night.

Set in the wilds of remote north Yorkshire Starve Acre revolves around the death of a child, so the story is ultimately even bleaker than the location. The first narrative follows the events leading up to the death and the second a few months afterwards. Both are harrowing reads, especially as the death itself dominates both narratives but is described in only the vaguest of terms. On one level the book is a study of the grief felt by Richard and Juliette Willoughby and how they cope with the death of their five-year-old son Ewan. I know, and with good reason, many readers avoid novels which centre upon the deaths of children, but this gripping tale is a powerful study and equal to Andrew Cull’s masterful Remains which was published recently and deals with a similar subject.

This exquisite novel has several layers and like everything Andrew Michael Hurley has written the location is absolutely critical. Richard and Juliette inherited Starve Acre from his parents and although he did not particularly wish to return to his childhood home his wife persuades him to do so and not long afterwards the behaviour of their son Ewan becomes unpredictable, with signs of cruelty, and there is a brooding sense that something is not right. What makes this even more powerful is that the reader knows right from the off about the death of the boy and the book is about the journey to this horrific event and the latter disintegration of the family.

The house resides beside a patch of ground which was used for hangings in previous centuries, where a legendary oak tree once stood, Richard develops an unhealthy interest in, whilst his son is afraid of the area. Developing bad dreams and fear of the dark Ewan claims to hear a man called ‘Jack Grey’ who sounds like a bogeyman from folklore, however, I could not find any reference to him except for as a character in other ghost stories. These sequences simply crackled and the fear was palpable, especially as the reader knows what calamity is around the corner.

Throw in an outstanding séance scene, shocking animal cruelty, Richard and Juliette’s inability to help their child despite his cries for help and isolation at the local primary school and you have an outstanding story. Much of the supernatural element is incredibly subtle and kept very low key and just do not get me started on the hare in the pram. Simply outstanding imagery.

A highly recommended read and the sake of picking up something different I would recommend the Eden Book Society Edition so you can marvel at their efforts to recreate 1972 and introduce ‘Jonathan Buckley’ (deceased 1970 after a heart attack) to an unsuspecting world!

This is the second book I have read by this author (the first being The Loney). Hurley is particularly adept at creating a haunting, Gothic atmosphere; one with strange characters, often displaying odd behaviour against protagonists specifically. Starve Acre is written in a similar vein to Hurley’s first novel but is less focused on the supernatural; instead, he concentrates on the trials of a couple living in a remote part of northern England - and how they deal with the unexplained death of Ewan, their young son. Her husband, Richard, is trying to hold their relationship together, as is Harrie, Juliette’s visiting sister from Edinburgh. Juliette won’t let go of Ewan - his bedroom is a shrine; she sleeps in there for hours on end; she claims she can see and hear him. She is clearly distraught given what has happened to her son.

When Mrs Forde and the Beacons visit to try and resolve the situation (not through a seance, as such, but through some other means), it marks a significant change in Juliette’s behaviour - as does Richard’s creation of a hare from a pile of bones, something that becomes more important later on.

At times, Hurley’s novel is creepy and suggests a horrific past - namely through the frequently mentioned character of John Grey and the history of the field opposite Starve Acre. However, at other times, it seems a little forced - particularly concerning Richard’s hare and how it comes to life. I found this a little too fantastical and it detracted from the haunting loss of Ewan and the impact of this on his parents. Hurley does make links here but they don’t always feel as convincing as I’d have liked.

Starve Acre is a good read and I really enjoyed Hurley’s creation of a family in crisis, alongside the setting of a house that Richard never wanted to return to. It tells readers about the damage a small community can do - but also how powerless people can be when other forces are at play.

This story is about Juliette and Richard. Their son Ewan died suddenly age 5 and they are both grieving for him. Juliette gets convinced that a spiritualist will be able to help her.

I really wanted to love this book and was hoping that this was the one that would provide me with a good scare. Although I loved the isolation and atmospheric setting it just didn’t do much for me. The story was quite slow paced. The grief of both parents came across, i didn’t really feel the horror element as strongly.

Captivating gothic tale set on the remote Yorkshire Moors.

Richard and Juliette try in their separate ways to come to terms with the death of five-year-old son, Ewan. Richard fills his time with practical activity, digging for evidence of the Stythwaite Oak, a gallows-tree, in the field known as Starve Acre. Meanwhile, Juliette seeks solace with The Beacons, an esoteric group of preternaturalists led by the very ordinary looking Mrs Forde.

Starve Acre oozes with gothic atmosphere from the first page. Flashbacks intersperse the present to layer on the mounting dread.

Hurley’s masterful writing makes full use of setting to accentuate the sense of foreboding. His landscapes drip with melancholy and mysticism.

Perfect for long, dark nights.

Thanks to Net Galley and publisher John Murray for the ARC.

Starve Acre is a slow-burning horror, a creepy if slightly underwhelming winter read.

While there are clear gothic motifs, and I enjoyed the unique twist of the ending, I have to admit I didn't find Starve Acre particularly chilling or atmospheric. The opening was almost painfully slow, and the pace picked up so suddenly towards the denouement that it was jarring.

The depiction of grief was much more effective, as were the unsettling descriptions of Ewan's inexplicable behaviour. However, I struggled to connect fully with any of the characters - Juliette's voice was a noticeable omission. There were a few wonderfully startling visuals, and a couple of beautifully tense scenes, but the tension wasn't sustained, even over the course of such a short novel.

A strange, imperfectly-paced story, Starve Acre only really lives up to its premise as the narrative unravels in the final pages.

I first saw Starve Acre on Readersfirst.com - which by the way is a website all book lovers should check out - where I read the first 40 pages or so and did a 'first look' review.

What drew me to the book in the first place was the cover art. The creepy hangman's noose really peaked my interest, I needed to know what Starve Acre was, what the tree symbolised and why was there a noose in it.

Once I'd read those initial pages I headed straight to NetGalley to see if I could request it, which I could and did.

The email granting me an E-ARC came through fairly quickly which I was really grateful for because after those first few pages had me desperate for more.

Before I give you my, spoiler free thoughts, here is the official blurb:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The worst thing possible has happened. Richard and Juliette Willoughby’s son, Ewan, has died suddenly at the age of five. Starve Acre, their house by the moors, was to be full of life, but is now a haunted place.

Juliette, convinced Ewan still lives there in some form, seeks the help of the Beacons, a seemingly benevolent group of occultists. Richard, to try and keep the boy out of his mind, has turned his attention to the field opposite the house, where he patiently digs the barren dirt in search of a legendary oak tree.

Starve Acre is a devastating new novel by the author of the prize-winning bestseller The Loney. It is a novel about the way in which grief splits the world in two and how, in searching for hope, we can so easily unearth horror.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I started Starve Acre at 9.30am on Saturday and I'd finished it by 11am on Sunday. It is safe to say that I couldn't put it down. It's safe to say it's that good!

First things first Richard, our narrator, is compelling, grounded and believable which makes his story even more interesting once the tone starts to get darker and deeper. You don't question Richard's experiences at Starve Acre or the reality of what unfolds within the field or the walls of the house. If Richard believes it to be true then you do too as the narrator. Likewise, the things he was skeptical about I too found myself questioning.

You quickly learn that Richard and Juliette have lost their only son and we are joining them a short time after his death.

This story is one of grief, pain, resolution and recuperation as well as good, evil, suffering, meanness and madness.

When I closed the final page I was left with a bad taste in my mouth - in that this is a slow building, modern Gothic horror story full of unsettling scenes and upsetting emotional pulls. It was brilliant.

It has been a long time since a book has left with a creepy, itching skin feel after reading and I commend the author for weaving such a vivid tale, a tale that made me feel a huge range of emotions.

You know from the off set that this isn't just going to be a story of grief, there are undertones of the supernatural almost straight away with the mention of the Beacons, but what I thought would be a passing notion turned out to be the main theme of the story and the supernatural gave way to occult and then took a straight dive into horror with those final pages.

I didn't think the story would end where it did. I felt like the ending sprung up on me suddenly and without warning and I'm almost annoyed by this. I wanted a conclusive ending that left no stone unturned and no question unanswered, I wanted a happier ending. On saying that the ending also really appealed to my macabre, disgusting side and I ended up being really creeped out, and also a little delighted, with the way the story finished (that last line!)

The writing, throughout the 241 pages, is fluid and effortlessly segues between present and past, gently drip feeding the reader with relevant information, until the whole picture presents itself.

Starve Acre ticks all my boxes and if you love horror stories, gothic literature and ghost stories then this is for you.

Starve Acre publishes on the 31st October 2019 and can be pre-ordered from all the normal places.

Starve Acre is an unsettling novel, soaked in grief and an overwhelming sense of isolation, both geographical and psychological. There’s a huge folk horror vibe (which i adore) with a real sense of place and the challenges of being an “outsider” in an isolated community, and strange, inexplicable events linked to the barren earth. Starve Acre meshes all this together with a family tearing itself apart - the domestic and the other worldly are intrinsically linked.

Hurley writes so well about the isolated parts of England, the cultures and communities that exist in places that are apart from most of modern life. A perfect read for a bleak day by the Yorkshire moors...