If I could inject this story into my veins, I would. That, dear reader, is just how much I loved it.

Barrowbeck starts off as a cautionary folk tale (more the “everyone dies horribly” type, granted, but it still has a hint of the myth and legend about it), and then each story brings us closer to the modern day and beyond.

There is something in Barrowbeck that needs payment of some sort - a devil or a demon? We never see it, but we do see what it drives people to.

I don’t know if I could even describe what happens in this. It’s a series of interlinking short stories, and I didn’t know where I was being taken next, but I was happy to go! There were some seriously sinister stories in this gem of a book. The last story, although extreme, really didn’t feel all that far fetched. The extreme ramifications of Climate Change are only around the corner, after all.

This is a firm favourite - wonderful writing, and a really unnerving collection of stories. And if you haven’t read Starve Acre yet, get on it!

Okay I loved Barrowbeck!! I don’t know if it’s officially considered a short story collection, but it is essentially a book made up of tales set in Barrowbeck over a course of different timelines. Barrowbeck is a remote valley surrounded by fells on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border, where the inhabitants work the land. But there is a darkness that runs through this valley…

The stories are all unique but are linked together by Barrowbeck itself and a general unsettling atmosphere. I also loved how the stories reflected the times, we go back to the prehistoric period, and come right up to 2041, where the future is even more bleak for this village.

I read this back in December and still think about it quite regularly. It might have to be one of those e-books where I need a physical copy on my shelves too! One I will definitely revisit.

Recommend if you like folk horror and some historical fiction in your horror too! 4.5 stars.

Thank you Netgalley, John Murray Press | John Murray and Andrew M Hurley for the eArc of Barrowbeck.

After reading Starve Acre by this author and feeling truly unsettled by his writing style, I was excited to receive the arc of Barrowbeck. Have you ever been to some little village and get the feeling that there is some unsettling history there. Something deep within the earth that wants to reclaim the land back? This is what I got from this book, the whole narrative surrounds the history and the people within the village of Barrorbeck. Set along a timeline from back in the 16th century through to the not so far in the future. We see in smaller segments, the unsettling air of the people who lived in this village, the mystery and some of the folklore leaking into the storylines. Each timeline has its individual voices of characters and even though the characters could have been developed more. You still get an overall air of unsettling dread.

Andrew's writing style is quite poetic, building in both atmosphere and plot line and definitely sets the scene. For me, it was something a little bit different and I loved the undercurrent of the village and its history.

I also listened to the audio version which gave even more ominousness to an already atmospheric book. Thank you Gabriella Pond and Matt Jamie for narrating.

4 stars

I fell hard for Mr Hurley's storytelling and novels when I read Starve Acre. There were high expectation and this a good novel, it could a very good one but I liked it a bit less than the previous.
I'm sure it will be one I will read again.
4.5 upped to 5
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This was so suspenseful and creepy. I was crawling in my skin. In a good way. This was a very well done novel.

Another great folk horror from Andrew Michael Hurley. At times this reads more like a collection of short stories than a novel but has AMH's distinct feel to it and is well worth reading for any fans of the genre.

A series of a dozen or so short stories spanning several centuries about a valley town in England Full of superstition and quite unsettling at times. Recommended.

This is a book of short stories that were supposed to be “scary”. I personally did not find any of the short stories scary and felt more like folk law, and witchcraft esk.

The writing is clear and consistent, however I did not find the characters to be engaging enough to make me want to keep reading; and I found myself forcing my way through the pages to finish this book.

Barrowbeck is a collection of thirteen short stories, all linked by their location: the fictional village of Barrowbeck on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border. Ranging in era from early Celtic families working the land to the future where the impact of climate change is visceral, this is an eerie and unsettling collection with tension slowly building as you read on, with quiet foreboding serving both as warning and welcome you. There are moments of folk horror, dreams, nightmares, ghosts, and superstitions, all written by one of our finest folk horror authors. I preferred Starve Acre, but this is a great addition to the collection. Recommended.

I received an e-ARC from the publisher, John Murray Press, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Barrowbeck is an interesting beast - a series of shorts all connected by the setting. Haunted by gods, ghosts and everything in between, Barrowbeck is a settlement beset by difficulties. The collection often seems to focus on the justifications and explanations people give for things outside their control, an attempt to wrest meaning and logic out of an illogical world. At its best it evokes League of Gentlemen and a bit of Roald Dahl, outlandish characters taken very seriously, walking the line between sentimental and sinister.

This collection of thirteen linked short stories is set in the fictional village of Barrowbeck on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border and chronicles the fortunes of the inhabitants over 2,000 years, from the first settlers, Celtic farmers who have been driven from their homes by Anglo-Saxon invaders, to the near future, when climate change has changed the valley for ever. But this is no pastoral idyll. Throughout a sense of menace and foreboding pervades, the atmosphere of disquiet and unease unsettles the reader, and an eerie tension is maintained throughout. Each story, however ordinary it appears at the start, soon descends into the darkness, with some fantastical but strangely convincing twists. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, although horror, in any form, isn’t my usual reading matter, and yet here I fell under the spell. Brilliant writing, expert pacing, and psychological insight make this a book to savour.

I can’t really say this is a book to ‘enjoy’. It’s unsettling and creepy, told in chapters across time. There’s no real explanation for the events. Some of the chapters caught the imagination more than others. many thanks to NetGalley for an arc of this book.

I was completely engrossed by the plot and couldn’t put this book down. The tension built perfectly, leading to a jaw-dropping conclusion.

Andrew Michael Hurley is very good at taking ‘folk horror’ and viewing it through a contemporary lens. He has shown that previously in the novel "Starve Acre", which I thought was fantastic. However, "Barrowbeck" is a very different proposition, not being a novel per se, but being constructed of around a dozen interlinked tales, each progressing through time and building a picture of the land and people of Barrowbeck.
Each of the stories that make up the book are distinctly different in content and style, and demonstrate Hurley’s ability as a writer, but together impart an almost palpable, underlying feeling of unease and disquiet. He does this very well.

The only story that I found didn’t fit was the final chapter. The purpose of this was obviously to draw the strands together and to impart a framework to support the rest of the stories. In this it is successful, and I had no problem with the near-future sci-fi feel of this chapter either. However, the shoehorning of a worldwide environmental story into what had previously been a *very* local story didn’t quite work for me – it is the intense, parochial, claustrophobic nature of the stories that makes this book quite outstanding and this was somewhat lost in the final story. But I can’t let the slight misjudgement of a chapter (even if it is the final one) detract from the wonderful nature of the whole. Possibly the best book I have read this year.

Barrowbeck is an evocative collection of short stories set in the aforementioned remote valley. It shows slices of people’s lives from the beginning of time in the age of gods and goddesses, to the future where the world is seemingly collapsing. Like the author’s previous book, Starve Acre, this collection has a touch of folk horror. But there are also elements of fantasy, historical fiction, family drama, and even science fiction. I would say this is the author’s most ambitious book so far! The stories are more unsettling than scary, hinting at something otherwordly while exploring superstitions, dreams, grief, and hope.

My favourites:

“The Strangest Case (1792)” - A father is accused of killing his daughter who he believes had been possessed
“After The Fair (1899)” - A girl visits a magical traveling fair that faces protests from disbelievers
“Natural Remedies (1938)” - A woman offers a childless couple a gift, but with a cost
“Autumn Pastoral (1995)” - An art appraiser visits a gloomy house filled with peculiar paintings
“A Valediction (2041)” - Two environmental inspectors travel to the flooded valley, now left with remnants of everything that came before

A quietly forbidding collection that offers visions of life and hopes amidst the rubble, Barrowbeck is the perfect addition to your horror reading list.

Although different from his previous work, the short stories are interconnected and fans of previous work will enjoy!

The term 'folk horror' is perfect for the north of England. Perfect too, for this exceptional writer who has mastered the art of folk horror.

Barrowbeck is a fictional village that nestles in a valley around the border between Lancashire and Yorkshire. It is isolated and doesn't have many visitors or tourists. This is partly down to the location as the valley is dull and the location of the fells blocks a lot of the sun. Perhaps there is something else darker and more sinister that keeps people away.

This book is a collection of thirteen stories all set in Barrowbeck. It crosses a broad timeline from the early settlers to the modern day and beyond. Each tale shows chilling and sometimes disturbing events, sometimes ambiguous but always unsettling. Hurley has the ability to make this strange place atmospheric and creepy yet very human, looking at grief, mortality, fear and the desire for children.

Where the author excels is in his description of Barrowbeck. There is a wonderful sense of place, an eerie tone set in the landscape where one can imagine what the rare traveller experiences as they pass through. And describing the colour of an eye as gooseberry green...love it. A very talented and creative author although I have to admit, I do prefer the novels.

Hurley has once again created a fictional environment which creates a world of ominous foreboding juxtaposing the natural and human worlds. Told through the centuries, Barrowbeck explores the toll that the inhabitants have on the land around them, exploring the original synchronicity of land dwelling to the contemporary greed for ownership, and beyond into the future.

The cyclical nature of the book provides a key observational tool and critique of the environmental damage that society is bringing to the natural world. Brimming with folklore and whispers of mythical beliefs, the land of Barrowbeck will reflect that which has been seeded within.

I devoured this dark collection of connected tales, set in the haunting Barrowbeck, a place steeped in ghosts. The stories ranged from hundreds of years ago, up until the near future, and were all standalone, but also interlinked. And all possessed sinister undertones. It almost felt like reading a serious account of The League of Gentlemen, set in the fictional and horror-filled Royston Vasey. Hurley's prose was blade-sharp and his characters deeply unnerving. Brilliant stuff!

These are atmospheric short stories connected by the place they are set. We discover the peculiarities of Barrowbeck, valley, village and town, over the centuries as strange happenings occur to strange people. Some of the stories point to a menacing ending, and some are open-ended and puzzling. I have to say I didn't love this as much as Starveacre but it is still a chilling read and the writing is of course very good. I was reminded of Tales of the Unexpected and Inside No 9.

3.5 stars as it didn't quite grab me as much as I hoped.