This is a strange little story about a milkman and a witch. Really different and perhaps a little more 'literary' than a lot of horror writing. Great atmosphere and characters and a very worthwhile, dark and creepy read.

My thanks to Quercus Books/Jo Fletcher Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Witch Bottle’ by Tom Fletcher in exchange for an honest review.

Daniel has left his old life behind and aspires to be a fantasy writer while undertaking the easy monotony of working as a milkman in a remote area in the northwest of England. It demands little of him though some customers can be unreasonable.

Then Daniel starts having nightmares and visions of a naked giant with a black bag over its head. Deeply shaken he opens up to a local witch. She is unable to discern the origins of his haunting, but provides him with a witch-bottle, a protective ward. In exchange he is to deliver her products during his milkman rounds. However, the idea of meddling with witch-bottles seem to upset some of the locals, leading to unpleasant consequences.

This premise sounded ideal for me, especially as ‘Witch Bottle’ is described as a literary horror in the tradition of ‘The Loney’. Still despite this, it was quickly apparent that I just wasn’t engaging with Daniel or his situation. I set it aside for a bit and then tried two more times from the beginning with no improvement. I resisted DNFing and did finish.

Fletcher uses stream-of-consciousness for Daniel and the occasional chapter for local witch, Kathryn. It’s a narrative form often utilised in literary fiction but I struggle with it.

Daniel flips between his daily life, reminisces about the past, especially the traumatic breakdown of his marriage, and of course the nightmare visions of the present.

When Kathryn came into his life I was intrigued but towards the end his increasingly grotesque visions just left me feeling confused. There was also a lot of detail about his daily routine as a milkman that disrupted the building of the overall atmosphere for me.

As a result, I found its pacing uneven; as if two narratives were striving for dominance: the extremely weird visions and the mundane life of a rural milkman.

I am aware that literary novels can be challenging and this novel proved a struggle, though clearly it has appealed to other readers yet ultimately it just wasn’t one for me.

This was very gripping, very gritty and superbly unsettling at times. Much of the unease doesn’t emanate from the supernatural, either. The hard graft in an unforgiving landscape is set against a creeping evil something that is turning the farmers, householders and businesses to secrecy and insomnia.

Witch Bottle sounded like a fantastic book. I really liked the description and so I was excited to read it.

Sadly it was awful and I eventually gave up after struggling though until I got to a part I decided I could no longer put myself though any more. (Having been a Midwife the part where his wife has her baby was wrong, No human would be able to turn a baby the way he writes it happens. Now I know this is a work of fiction but its not humanly possible to do a cephalic version that way!!!) A little research on the subject would have made him aware of this and it would have seemed more plausible if that had been the case.

I felt the whole story was very disjointed and all over the place. I feel it would have made a for a great short story without all the added bits. There was a lot of filler with huge detail about delivering milk.

Sadly not for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Quercus Books for the ARC. (My Review is my own option)

I found this book very slow and just couldn't get into it. Nothing seemed to be happening apart from making witch bottles & delivering milk. It just didn't grab me so I am afraid that I didn't finish the book.

Wannabe writer Daniel has had it tough. He has split with his wife and been forced to leave his little girl behind.

He is a milkman, it's not the best job in the world but he likes it, likes his customers - sometimes and keeps himself to himself, out of the way of his cranky boss and colleagues.

On his rounds he meets Kathryn and he starts having feelings for her only to find that she is a witch.

Daniel has been having nightmares and Kathryn makes him a potion to protect him. Only it doesn't work. He is forced into the gates of hell.

I enjoyed the Fallen Stock delivery men who were believably scary. This book is dark, gory and unlike anything else i have ever read before. Its brilliantly descriptive and really well written.
⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for the opportunity to read the e-ARC of Witch Bottle, in exchange for an honest review.

The story follows Daniel, a man who is living a fairly solitary life as a milkman when strange occurrences and appearances begin in the town he works in.

While the novel is a slow starter, this adds to the atmosphere which Fletcher builds throughout the novel, one of distrust and uncertainty, both of the ghostly goings on and of Daniel. Daniel, as a main character, is far from perfect and we are instantly led to believe there is a dark past which we do not know the details of, yet there is something endearing about his simplicity, his routine and his enjoyment of solitude.

The imagery is somewhat haunting - from that first encounter with the Fallen Stock man to the image on the television in Daniel's childhood flashback - and we are regularly left with a feeling of unease throughout the novel. Kathryn's addition, while integral to the plot, feels two-dimensional, even once we've heard her own story. However, she is in the minority as The Bean and Ryan - two other minor characters - certainly make up for it. While neither are particularly likeable, both are incredibly realistic.

This is not a ghost story of horrible occurrences to good people, this is the haunting of normal people and, frankly, this is how it reads.

This is an enjoyable read, with just the right amount of the supernatural and, while the true villain may seem laughable, there is something horribly poignant about a villain that no one can see, but they certainly can feel.

Witch Bottle by Tom Fletcher is a dark, nightmarish novel of a milk delivery man named Daniel coping with his demons and being haunted by his past, against a backdrop of rural Cumbria.

The creepy atmosphere was well captured and I think it would appeal to many horror fans, especially the sections with the chilling Fallen Stock men. I think partly because the book was so well written I was pleased to reach the end. I don't want to go back to Daniel's world ever again!

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

What a weird read. The main character is a milkman, yes you heard right. He is having nightmares and seeks out the help of a local witch, like you would. The witch gives him a witch bottle to protect himself. Obviously it doesn't work as the gate way to hell is now open. I had such high hopes for this book. Why has the author spent so much time e describing his milk round. I did finish this book but it was a struggle. I really hope other readers will enjoy it more just not for me.
Thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

Daniel has left his wife and baby daughter and has become a milkman in Cumbria. He is living in a cottage that belongs to his uncle and working in a dead end job, but one that he enjoys. He likes the driving, the interaction with customers, and the fact that he spends much of the time on his own. In flashbacks, we learn about Daniel’s past, the reasons why he made the decision to leave his family and his childhood.

During his day, Daniel often visits the La’al Tattie Shop, where he becomes friend with Kathryn. Although he has made the decision to live alone, he finds himself attracted to Kathryn and that will be useful for him, because Daniel has an unwanted visitor and it turns out that Kathryn is a witch. On his rounds, Daniel realises that other people are struggling with the same problem he is and, when Kathryn begins to create ‘witch bottles,’ for his customers, he agrees to deliver them.

There is much about this novel that I really liked. I thought it was wonderfully written and I enjoyed Daniel’s company (although I could have done without the author using him as a mouthpiece for his political views) as we met the other characters in the novel. I especially enjoyed the creepy Fallen Stock men, who drive around and dispose of dead farm animals. They were believably unnerving, as was the mix of spooky and psychological.

This is an interesting literary read, which has a good sense of place and has characters you come to care about. I received a copy of this novel from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

Estranged from his wife and daughter, Daniel has let himself go. Working as a milkman he has let himself go. His hair is long and has grown an unkempt beard. And then the nightmares start.

During his milk rounds, he meets Kathryn, an amateur witch who sells her potion incognito via Facebook who asks Daniel to start delivering her witch bottles during his daily job.

Tom Fletcher has done a great job of inserting the fantastical amongst the mundane. His characters are fully rounded, each bringing something to the story and not just their for filler.

The issue I had with the book was that it started brilliantly with Daniel's dream of a giant, however, from that point, it just did not live up to the beginning. There were times when opportunities felt missed to make it more suspenseful, such as when Daniel sees his ghost for the first time standing in the garden. The whole scene was over in a few sentences and what should have been a jarring moment for the character felt brushed aside and rushed.

Tom Fletcher had a great premise which has been compared to Andrew Michael Hurley’s The Loney and Starve Acre, however, with no disrespect to Tom Fletcher, I do not think it managed to live up to those two books.

I will keep an eye out for Tom Fletcher's work but as a whole, this didn't work for me.

It's taken me a few days to gather my thoughts on this book because it's one hell of a read. Overall, I think this is one of my favourite books of the year so far as it's given me a lot of thoughts and feelings and, yeah, I guess a lot to try and unpack really.

While it's never explicitly stated as such, I think reading this book was as close to a description of my own experience of living with depression as I've ever encountered before. It's so visceral and close to real life - from the monotony of daily life to how futile everything feels, how difficult it is just to have interactions with other people and maintain relationships. The writing is so strong in this book, often there would be a turn of phrase or description that chimed with me so much. Despite the misery, I really enjoyed it.

What Fletcher has done tremendously well though, is find the horror in the simplest of things. Nothing in this book feels safe. The atmosphere is bang on, the tension is so tightly wound you turn each page expecting and fearful of a snap. While gruesome and graphic at times I think it's in the descriptions and building atmosphere that this book is at its strongest.

So much of this book is going to stay with me for a long time. For a short book with some characters that we only meet for maybe a couple of paragraphs, all of them are memorable in their own way. This is a book filled with stories within stories and tantalising threads that never twist in entirely the way you expect them to.

There are so many themes to explore in this book I'm not sure where to even begin with all of them - folk horror and rural v city life, relationships, depression and mental health, family and community, the gig economy and society. Just...loads and all of it handled deftly.

Brilliant book, really really loved it. Thank you so much to the publisher, Netgalley and Tom Fletcher for the copy in exchange for review.

This novel grips, tugs, claws at you from the very first page - a scene of bleak horror as the giant feasts on flesh - and a jarring plummet back to reality. Fletcher really displays intelligent, fresh writing in the fact that you're sent on a path of the mundane, from the bleak PoV of character 1 yet you're still intrigued, still gripped by the tedium of real life because there's something there under the surface.

Daniel aspires to be a fantasy author (immediately relatable in many ways, for me), and his outlook on the surroundings do give a fantastical edge to the way he describes everything - though it seems tinted grey, moody. Glum. His outlook is as poor as the job he works pays. Yet, it is his voice that pulls you through, ever intrigued by the sightings of the figure, his new 'witch' girlfriend and those on his milkround who seem troubled with their own ghosts - literally. While there's nothing so convincingly supernatural at the start, there's that nagging in the back of your mind that something isn't right.

The character is complex, clearly-multilayered. There's things about his past that add credibility to what's happening now. Not of sound mind, especially after his run in with the Fallen Stock men, and reality begins to warp, true horror is painted over every day life.

A startling vision of death - a mystery that is truly grotesque but the way it is worked into the norm, into reality, is what is truly horrifying. The promise that if you just look under the surface, there's another world there. A truly original world where everyone ends up in the same pit... With the giant. The world-building that went into this 'horror' is fantasy-esque, thorough and highly interesting, but there are no heroes here. No escaping this fate. A remarkable twist that states you in the face at the start and harasses you until you can't deny it.

The prose is grey, glum, clever. The choice of words is perfect - it really speaks to the theme of the book. A true nuanced voice of the character. Daniel's personality comes through in full, depressing force with the choice of words; his world view can be extracted from his very turn of phrase and it is that which carries you through the book at speed, despite the mundanity of it all.

The ending comes on quick. Fight with the rat-men. A hero. Then the witch, a promise of worse to come. An exciting, chest-tightening ride to the end which only stops when you're jerked out at the ebd, reeling from what took place. With more questions than answers.

Overall, if you love your horror with a big more imagination, with some real depth to the reason and world-building behind the story, this is a book I'd recommend. But if you'd like answers, maybe not. It is abrupt, fast-paced and mystifying right up to that last page.

Spooky, unsettling and atmospheric. There is a juxtaposition between realism and the supernatural that creates a real tension throughout, and the writing is effective and strong. The sense of unease builds throughout the book, but it has a slow burn feel despite its relatively low page count - not a bad thing. The characters are really well-imagined, although I found Kathryn fascinating and would have liked to learn a lot more about her.

A proper literary horror.

I really wanted to like this as I really like Tom but I couldn't get on with it. I found it stunted and wasn't able to finish it.

I'm afraid I didn't finish this.
I got to 50% of the way through the book and realised it wasn't working for me.
It was too slow,taking too long to set the scene.
Not creepy enough.


Going by the reviews I read before giving up,I think it was a good decision.

Witch Bottle sits within the Horror genre and follows Daniel, who separated from his wife and moved away from his family home which he shared with his wife and young daughter. Following his separation he moved to the rural countryside in the Northwest of England and took on the job of a Milkman, however he began to experience visions of a Giant and other scary beings. It soon became apparent that he wasn’t the only one to be suffering with these visions and turned to Kathryn, a Witch, for help.

In considering the characters within the book and I found the Protagonist, Daniel, to be very well developed and I enjoyed meeting the people that he would encounter on his milk round.I found that they were very well described within the limited page-space that they occupied. I was especially pleased with the development of Daniel’s colleague, Ryan. I could picture him clearly in my mind as I read about him and I enjoyed the stark contrast in character between him and Daniel. I felt that the author did a great job in conveying the creep factor and really invoked a sense of fear and dread within me as I turned the pages.

The book has 3 time lines narrated from Daniel’s view point: Scenes from Daniel’s childhood; Scenes of his relationship with his wife before, during and after the birth of their daughter; and the present day. There are even some chapters relating to Kathryn’s point of view both in the present day and her history. I feel that the book was focusing on grief and fear and how both can really affect people’s lives, as well as highlighting the presence of anxiety, mental health, domestic violence and war. Perhaps the Giant could be a metaphor for the negativity that is present within the world in general?

I found the book to be well written and it was extremely atmospheric which I loved. I felt that the author did a great job in conveying the creep factor and really invoked a sense of fear and dread within me as I turned the pages. The chapters were short and engaging which helped with the slow pace of the book, a very good read for the autumn/winter months. I would recommend this book to my friends and family, however I have specific tastes when it comes to reading horror especially with how they end so my rating for this book is 4 out of 5 Stars.

This is the first book that I have read from this author so I am unable to offer a comparison of his other works however I do intend to begin the Fell House Series in the near future.

I have to agree with other reviews that the author Tom Fletcher has created a book with a strong sense of place. I did however find some elements overly descriptive such as the milk run which I found distractingly from the story. I also did not care much for the white male protagonist. This is meant to be horror but I feel the narrative would have worked better if it was written as a straight up thriller. The real horror writings shines in the real time episodes such as the criminal activity, the pregnant woman giving birth and the fratricide. Where it falls down is in the attempt at creating suspense by depicting nightmares and delusional fantasies of the characters. I found the writing on this rather weak sadly. If your interested in how the mundane can become weird you will enjoy this.

*eArc provided by the publisher and NetGalley

There are lots to like about this novel: the realism and sense of place, for a start, but what begins as a story about a chap delivering milk morphs into something much, much darker, and much, much grimmer. What worked for me was the realism, the darkness and the backstory. I thought that was well written, as were some of the relationships, between Daniel and the Bean (his manager) and the backstory of Daniel and Ellie. I liked the horror of some of the descriptions, of 'Fallen Stock' collecting bodies from farms. I felt like we were going somewhere with this. Where it felt not so good, to me, was when it began to lean against the fantasy genre: giants, nightmares, holes appearing. I like some of Fletcher's writing, but it did feel like the narrative didn't know where it belonged.

I was allowed a copy to read ahead of publication by NetGalley - many thanks for that.

I simply didn't like the plot, story and writing style so I had to DNF. Not a kind of book I can appreciate