This is a slow burner of a read that gradually builds up the suspense and tension around the folklore of this small community. The story twists and turns as you see all sides of the characters and are not sure who to believe other than that there is definitely something not right about the comings and goings of some of the villagers. The suspense and uncertainty Kees going right until the end, Definitely a creepy autumn read.

Sorrow Spring by Olivia Isaac-Henry is a tense slow burning tale with strong folk horror vibes that make it perfect reading as we head towards the darker evenings of Winter. With clever use of dual timelines the author creates a wonderfully atmospheric story designed to keep the reader on the edge of their seat as the truth about what happened in the small village of Sorrow Spring in 1978 is finally revealed.
In 1978 teenage Rina is abandoned by her mother in the remote village of Sorrow Spring , left to live with her elderly and rather peculiar aunt. From the beginning something seems off, and as she learns more about the mysterious sisterhood of village women and their strange rituals she becomes more and more concerned. When a local boy she has befriended goes missing and she witnesses another ritual that truly horrifies her she desperately tries to escape.
In 2019 Cate has been asked by her father to try to find out what happened to his sister Rina who disappeared thirty years before. As she tries to unravel the secrets and mysteries of the past she may learn more than she ever bargained for, and could bring terrible danger to her doorstep.
While much of the book is focussed on Rina's timeline, I was intrigued to see how the author would bring both timelines together, and I think it was largely successful, even if it felt a little rushed, especially in comparison to the much slower pace of the rest of the book. I liked how the author wove elements of medical technology that were in the news in the time period she was describing into the story, and thought it worked well as a contrast to the religion and folklore based mythology.
This is a book for folk horror fans who like a slower paced story and are willing to let it unfold and take them in unexpected directions.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Many thanks to netgalley, the author and Harper Collins for approving my request to read this book.

I've not heard of this particular author before but the books title and cover really caught my eye and the synopsis really grabbed my attention.

Sorrow Spring centres around a young girl called Rina who is left by her mother to live with her aunt in an eerie village which is shrouded in mystery and intrigue and a very strange, close knit community.

Dark, brooding, atmospheric and deliciously creepy this book was right up my street and I thoroughly enjoyed how it all unravelled. I also thought it was well written and I loved the character development throughout.

I will definitely be recommending this book and look forward to reading more by this author.

A dual timeline story that tells a very sad tale of a missing sibling, that stretches across both times, so we get the actual event and the mystery to be solved by her niece.
Rina’s mother Lullaby lives on a commune with her and her brother Emesh. They have a carefree life. Their mother doesn’t do much to help anyone, she is allowed to just wander around and do her own thing.
Then Lullaby tells Rina that she will be going to live with an aunt she’s never heard of before for a few weeks. All her friends are really upset she’s going, which makes her a little confused and a bit wary. She meets her aunt when they arrive at the house. She seems to dislike her own sister and is not exactly warm to Rina.
There are lots of creepy things going on in Sorrow Spring. Things that are hard to comprehend, but Rina knows she’s trapped and has to escape…..
Her niece looking for her years later for her dying father, brings some answers to the reader but this whole story is creepy and a little scary at times.
Many thanks to Harper Collins for the opportunity to read this arc copy via Netgalley. My opinion is my own.
#Netgalley, #HarperCollinsUk, #OliviaIsaacHenryAuthor.

Unfortunately I could not get into this one.
I found it slow going in places and struggled with the constant words running into one another.
Sometimes 5 or 6 words rolled into one without spaces in between. I know this is before the final edit but it made it difficult to get immersed in the story.

Creepy in abundance, I don't do horror or that genre so the opening chapter had me questioning why I had chosen it. Within a couple more chapters I was hooked. The characters were so well written with Prosperina Fuschia Pine, a tenacious young child, abandoned to her Aunt's care in an old house in a creepy village.
I won't spoil the story but safe to say I had to get to the end......

The blurb got me with this one. Mystery, folk tales and a touch of horror all promised to be a great tale. It delivered, but it was more of a winding tale than a bedtime story.
Rina, Prosperina Fushia Pine, was fantastic! Her strength and ingenuity were amazing for her age. The author pulls no punches with what she puts little Rina through. Aunt Agatha was perfectly written as the creepy old aunt with her secrets, quirks and issues. The rest of the Sistren were well written background characters.
The story was slow and dragged in parts, but it was a story that I needed to know how it played out. Having the duel time frames pushed the story forward as I wanted to know how the two time frames were going to meet up. The ending of the story was well woven, but of filler bits that didn't add to the story.
The story and characters were strong, but the pacing was the issue for me. Days that dragged and events that rushed meant I wanted more of some bits and less of others.

Grab this book for a bedside table read. Just be careful where your water came from.

Unfortunately far too slow and repetitive for me just made we want to skip through just to get to the end. Thank you netgalley for the advance copy

The cover of this book and description caught my attention immediately.

This is eerie, based on folklore legends and creepy little villages. I really liked the fact that I had no clue what the hell was going on in Sorrow Spring for the first half. It kept me guessing and evoked the feeling of not knowing whom to trust and the panic and confusion of the main character.

I removed a star because I was expecting the end to be more impactful. There is a great build-up! So I just wanted a little more, especially from Rina. She felt like half in half out all the way through.

A very good read, especially for Halloween vibes. Recommended if you like folklore, old legends, and creepy stories.

Unfortunately this is going to be a DNF for me. Way too slow and not what I expected it to be. Written well though but not for me.

A creepy mystery that's perfect for autumn! The truth behind Sorrow Spring is slowly revealed, through both Rina's and Cate's stories, past and present, and the story keeps you guessing until the end. Full of occult happenings and a legend that should have remained in the past, it's a great read for long, rainy days. Recommended.

For me this was an easy 5 star. This was just the right amount of creepiness that I was after. It didn’t feel too creepy at first, but it just builds and builds until pheeewwww…

If you like folklore, village creepiness then this is perfect. I was constantly guessing myself over certain characters and who could be trusted?

This had me gripped and then in a chokehold by the end.

Absolutely fantastic.

My thanks to Netgalley and Team HarperFiction for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

There is a lot to like about this book but I am sorry to say that I struggled to finish it as I found it to be very slow. It does have its good points though and this is mainly in the excellent writing and characters it was just that the story fell quite flat for me. I liked the folklore side of the story and the duel timelines and I liked the setting but I think the book was perhaps a little too long but I’m sure that others will enjoy it more than I did.
My thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Although a bit bit of slow burner, it is well worth sticking with this book. Beautifully written and truly a masterpiece.

It’s the late 1970s and 12-year-old Rina Pine is suddenly taken from the commune where she grew up to live with her strange Aunt Agatha in the creepy village of Sorrow Spring. Rina has no idea why her mother, Lullaby, has dragged her away from her brother and her friends to live with Agatha – nor does she know if she will ever see her mother again. All she does know is that she dislikes Agatha’s strict rules about how women and girls should behave, and that she needs to try and get back to the commune – but first, she has to find out exactly what is going on in Sorrow Spring…
This book follows Rina’s quest for answers in Sorrow Spring – who are the Sistren that her aunt keeps talking about? Why is she disliked by the pompous Vane family before they have even met her? Why are so many women and boys going “missing” from the village? What is the mystery of St Faran?
Simultaneously, we follow Rina’s niece Cate in the modern day, trying to track down Rina at the request of her dying father – Rina’s brother, Emesh. But why has he never mentioned his sister until now?
I devoured this novel as hungrily as one of the Sistren eating a slice of their special “pie”. This creepy, suspense-filled historical thriller gave strong Wicker Man vibes and I loved how the writer built up our faith in so many characters before then breaking it down through their unexpected and unusual actions.
There were some occasional changes to second-person narrative which I found jarring – I’m not a fan of this perspective at all – but the device was useful in clarifying the change in point of view to an unknown character.
This was a five-star read for me and I cannot wait for the writer’s next novel.

This book initially appealed because of the folk horror angle, and its description as an atmospheric creepy tale set in a sleepy English village. I did enjoy these aspects of the story, but unfortunately it lost some of its appeal for me because of the overly long, very slow and sometimes repetitive narrative and the simplistic (possibly intentionally naive) writing style. I wanted to like it, but my attention drifted too many times and I found it something of a slog to finish.
I did like the dual timeline aspect, the premise of the story is interesting and there was certainly a claustrophobic and sinister feel to a lot of it, but ultimately I felt the book would have benefited from editorial work to produce a tighter, shorter narrative, which would probably have held my attention better.

I loved the premise of this book and was pleased to receive an ARC in exchange for an honest review. It started out slow and I really struggled to get into it. I persevered with it but i just didn't connect with it.

Rina has grown up in a commune with her mum and brother, but when she comes of age her mother sends her to live with Aunt Agatha in Sorrow Springs. It's 1978 but Sorrow Springs female residents are still following paganistic rituals and the legend of St Faran. It's soon made clear to Rina that she's the next leader of the Sistren. But their believes are abhorrent to Rina and she vows to make her escape. But once you're in Sorrow Spring its impossible to leave.
On the whole I enjoyed this novel, its certainly atmospheric with a strong leaning to paganism and sacrificial offerings. I can't help feeling it was a little to long though and I found it slow and slight repetitive in places. However it was a solid read with strong if not dubious characters
I will leave this review on Goodreads, Bookmory and Storygraph now and post to Anazon on publication day

Sorrow spring centres around Rina, a 12 year old girl. Her mum brings her to live with her aunt in Sorrow Spring and doesn't come back for her. Felling abandoned and alone, she quickly notices all is not what it seems. With whispered conversations, locked doors, and strange disappearances, Rina is determined to find out what is going on and why she has been brought here.

A slow-burn, dual timeline that switches from 1978 and 2019. I struggled to get into this story. i found the pacing way too slow for me. For that reason, my attention to it wavered in the middle part. Nothing really comes together until the last third. Maybe if it was shorter, it may have compelled me to want to keep reading more, I don't know. From the beginning, you do get the sense of something sinister looming in the distance. I just wanted it to be darker, more creepy, with more suspense, to grip and draw me into it.

I did like the story in general. It's cloaked in mystery, folklore, and rituals. A creepy, close-knit village, where outsiders are not welcome. A group of women known as the Sistren keep the community safe from harm. Shrouded in secrecy that goes back years and years.

It's worth reading for the folklore and seeing what years of traditions can do to people and the lengths they will go to. I just wanted more.

Thank you, Netgalley and Harper Collins UK, for my ARC.
My opinions are my own.

This kept me utterly enchanted! It’s eerie, it’s atmospheric, it’s dark and twisty and I loved every minute of it! The perfect autumn read!
I will be recommending this to my book club for our halloween reads! Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC