Mere by Danielle Giles is the kind of novel that wraps itself around you like the creeping fog of the Fens—at once beautiful, chilling, and impossible to ignore. Set in 990 AD in an isolated Norfolk monastery, Giles weaves a tale steeped in atmosphere, where pagan superstition clashes with the early roots of Christianity, and where faith is as much a weapon as a comfort.

The story unfolds in a place of eerie quiet and ancient secrets, where every shadow whispers of something older and darker than the cloistered walls can contain. Hilda, the monastery’s infirmarian, is a quietly powerful presence, grounded in knowledge and intuition. As the layers peel back—after the mere claims a young boy—what’s revealed is a tangled web of power, fear, and buried desire.

Sister Wulfrun’s arrival turns the already fragile order on its head. Her presence is electric, and the chemistry between her and Hilda is undeniable, complex, and beautifully drawn. Is Wulfrun divinely touched or dangerously deluded? Giles keeps that tension tight, blurring the lines between holiness and heresy, between devotion and defiance.

I genuinely loved this book. It’s dark and mysterious in all the right ways, with prose that reads like incantation and imagery that lingers long after the final page. I thought the ending might turn one way—it didn’t—and yet, in retrospect, it couldn’t have ended any other. The resolution is quiet, but devastating.

If you enjoy historical fiction that is full of atmosphere, explores faith and power with a deft hand, and doesn’t shy away from the unsettling, Mere is a must-read.

A mesmerising tale rich with mystery and an unsettling atmosphere that seeps beneath your skin.

"Mere" unfolds in a time when ancient rites intertwine with Christianity, revealing a world of survival, power struggles, love, and faith. The author skillfully navigates this cultural tapestry, creating a story that grips you from the very first page. With a deliberate and measured pace, the narrative allows for deep character development and mounting tension, immersing you in the raw isolation of the fens of East Anglia in 990 AD. The sinister allure of the mere enhances this darkly captivating read.

Intense and entrancing, adorned with lyrical prose, the author conjures a fever dream of a tale infused with lingering malice. "Mere" is not just a story; it’s an unforgettable journey that will haunt your thoughts long after you close the book.

A real treat of a book. Set within the walls of a convent, some time around 950 we were given an insight into how the sisters within the convent, led their lives.
The story puts across, very well, how hard life was for them and how they relied on potions and mixtures from wild fruits and flowers as remedies for their times of sickness.
The story really gets across how hard life was for them, especially after the fire they experience. It’s a really atmospheric book and I found myself unable to put it down, wanting to know the outcome for our two main characters particularly. I also learned something from the story! I had no idea that Gippeswyk was a real place but kept thinking it almost had a ring of Ipswich to it.
This is definitely one to read; totally enjoyable.

Set in Norfolk in 990, Mere follows Hilda, an infirmarian (healer) in an isolated convent that’s surrounded by almost impassable marshland.

There’s a darkness to the marshland that results in a fear that permeates the declining convent. When a young boy goes missing on his way to the convent, it seems to set off a curse that has devastating effects. More and more people are lost in the marshland and either dying or coming back with a sickness in their mind that could be possession by the devil or a monster from the old ways under the mere.

On top of this, a series of disasters befall the convent and their futures start to look incredibly bleak. The resulting struggle for power is also a struggle to survive.

Will the most pious leaders of the convent acknowledge the old darkness and the rituals that used to keep it at bay?

I was reminded of several other stories in reading Giles’ immersive debut. The tussle for leadership of the convent and the complicated interpersonal relationships was reminiscent of Matrix by Lauren Groff, and the descriptions of the dangerous marshland and the tension between the old folk beliefs and Christianity made me think of Gorse by Sam K Horton.

This character-led novel was packed full of emotion. I really felt for Hilda through the pain she had to endure and felt several of the characters were nuanced and had complicated enough pasts and motives to bring an understanding to their actions under such intense pressure that their conflicting ideologies seemed to bring them.

A dark and atmospheric novel set in 990AD in a convent built on the edge of the fens in Norfolk. A time when although Christianity is well established the old beliefs and gods still hold some sway in the local population. Struggling to survive, events lead the community to believe that they have been cursed and loyalties and beliefs are tested to their limits. I really enjoyed this novel with its rich and evocative language which took you back to a time of hardship and quickly changing fortunes. The descriptions of the mere and nature made you really feel the cold and wet and creeping dread that slowly builds during the novel. A book of love and loyalty, betrayal and lust, friendship and family but also of the wish to belong. I look forward to more from this author. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for a honest review.

It is close to the end of the first millennium and in the wet fens of East Anglia a small convent is struggling to survive. Into their midst comes Wulfrun, the widow of a theign and a woman who has visions. When a boy is lost in the marsh Wulfrun sees it as a curse from the Mere itself and then things become really difficult for the community as their food stores are lost and then there is a huge flood. As a power struggle starts in the convent, appeasing the mere must be the only way to save themselves.
This book is a really intense read which draws together ecclesiastical history, the life in a convent in the 10th century and local folklore in a really engrossing way. There is lots of background around folk healing, the events never veer too far towards horror, merely resting at unsettling and the cold, difficult life of the nuns is imagined well.

Danielle Giles’ debut Mere can possibly best be described as folk horror, although maybe folk creeping dread might be better. Set in a remote abbey in the East Anglian fens in the 900s, Mere is atmospheric, and based around power struggles both human and supernatural. But it is also a story about a relationship and a community, and how that community reacts under pressure.
When Mere opens, a young boy goes missing in the marshland that separates a remote abbey from the local town. The boy was accompanying the Abbess Sigeburg, the priest Botwine and his assistant Alwin but also with them is novitiate Wulfrun, a widow seeking to enter the order. Wulfrun wants to search for the boy but the fog comes in and she is told that the mere is dangerous. And so it seems, as some who go into the mere do not return and as winter sets in a series of setbacks and disasters eats away at the stored food supplies, destroys crops and livestock and challenges the community.
Mere is narrated by the Hilda, the infirmarian (chief healer) at the abbey. Hilda was an illegitimate child of the local nobility and has grown up at the abbey. She has her own way of doing things which puts her at odds with abbess and the abbesses more ardent followers. But it also aligns her with Wulfrun and the heart of the narrative is their growing relationship which becomes the worst kept secret in the community.
There are plenty of books around where the narrative twists and turns become predictable. Mere is not one of those books. Giles keeps readers hooked on this story by slowly turning the screws on her characters but then zigging when they expect a zag. And she builds this from the complex web of relationships within and around the abbey but also the clash of belief systems between the old ways of worship and Christianity. But also from the atmosphere that she creates – the relentless, damp cold and creeping waters of the mere, constantly eking away at the fields and the buildings – and the knowledge that death is a distinct possibility for any of the characters at any time.
Simply put – if you are look to be swept up by a medieval, gothic, sapphic, supernatural, folk horror novel, then Mere is a good place to start.

This one was probably my biggest disappointment of the year thus far, alas. I loved everything about the premise of Danielle Giles's debut novel, Mere. A group of tenth-century nuns living in the Norfolk fens come to believe that they are cursed, and that something in the nearby mere has brought this upon them... the same thing that means they must never go into the mere alone. This ticked all my boxes - sapphic convent, isolated fenland, supernatural horror - and it has a fantastic cover to boot. But I spent half of this book trying to figure out why this wasn't working for me and, when I realised nothing was going to change, gave up. I think the problem might have been Giles's writing. It's serviceable enough, with occasional powerful moments - the prologue is very nicely done - but needed so much more atmosphere. The setting is barely sketched and our characters are placeholders. The narrator and protagonist, Hilda, is, like 99% of fictional nuns, the convent's infirmarian and healer, so naturally a bit at odds with the rest, and that's about it for her. There's also very little engagement with a time that is very far from our own - five hundred years after Mere, Henry VIII would not yet have ascended to the throne. The characters' thinking about sexuality, in particular, feels very modern, and although I can get on board with a playfully modern historical novel - Lauren Groff's Matrix is the obvious counterpart - I didn't think Giles was going for that vibe. Oh, and yes, the inevitable romance comes out of nowhere. I'm sad, because I really wanted to love this.

A well-paced, delicate exploration of a forgotten time and place, as christianity takes over from the old gods and fear is never far from belief. The setting of the book and the characters are well developed and various, and explore a range of experiences of the nuns, priests and other people gathered around a religious house set on the edge of the perilous marshes.

Hilda is the infirmarian, on the edge as well as part of the house, and she sees and observes everything that happens, offering her own explanations for events and developing relationships.

It is a very absorbing read and a great reimagining of life at a distance.

A dark and gloomy novel set in the Norfolk fens of 990 ad. I tried several.times to get into the story but the slow pace failed to hold my attention despite the beautiful writing.

In the beginning it looked like a book written for me personally: weird marshes/swamps/bogs, England in the Middle Ages and monasteries being almost the exact intersection of all things I like to read about. Unfortunately, there was not enough of the 1st two elements, and in the end the majority of the plot (whichever there was) revolved around the monastery politics. In the end there was not enough weirdness in the plot either, so that the resolution of it all happened in the last 20 pages of the book with the explanation, that mostly amounted to 'just 'cause'.

Despite all the above I did like the book. I just didn't love it, in a bit of it's-not-you-it's-me way.

A tale of isolated nuns, their demagogue of a Reverend Mother, their misguided Priest and the Mere that surrounds them.

A hard scrabble life where whispers and secrets thrive. Hilda is the infirmarian who falls in love with the convent's newest arrival. Can they survive the looming winter and the curses that it brings.

Darkly obsessive

This is a twisty, immersive piece of historical fiction, told with a level of detail I haven't encountered before. I love anything set in a remote community, especially with a religious element, and while at times the pace was a little slow, I was completely entranced by the medieval world of this convent. A really lovely little gem.

The harsh landscape of the Norfolk Fens in 990AD is the setting for this atmospheric novel which takes us deep into the heart of the community who call this isolated place home. Sister Hilda is the infirmarian who tends the sick with stoic acceptance, and who, left to her own devices, doesn’t question too much about the running order of the convent. With complex and beautifully drawn characterisation the story comes alive and although deep in gloom there is a poignant simplicity to the relationship between Hilda and Wulfrun, a woman whose very presence at the convent causes a swell of unease.

Beautifully atmospheric, and rich in detail, this lyrical novel combines folklore, fear and superstition in a story which lingers long after the last page is turned.

I enjoy folklore and fantasy and learning about herbal remedies of old as a change from thrillers and more demanding reads but found it hard to involve myself with the characters and tale. I was somewhat irked with words that I had no idea how to pronounce – I'm all for great imagination and pulling up historical names and places, but I needed help! Most of the writing is really good, suitably atmospheric, though slow at times.

In the year 990, Christianity is well established in England but the old rites are buried deep in collective memory. Whatever prayers are sent to God, whatever sacrifices made to the old gods, the nuns and those in the community around the convent are always at the mercy of the mere, the great salt marsh that keeps them and threatens them. All know to keep within the boundary beyond which the marshland rules and danger lurks.
Infirmarian Hilda has only ever lived within the environs of the convent, leaving only to visit Sweet, a woman who lives in a house on stilts in the surrounding marshland, and whom the Abbess Sigeburg has forbidden Hilda from visiting. Hilda’s parentage is known but not spoken of; she is related to the abbess but that brings her no favour. Far from it: Sigeburg is full of bitterness and cruelty, with ‘a piety that creeps around a woman like a vine. She will strangle you with scripture and punishment and insist that you thank her’. New arrival Wulfrun, in contrast, has been married, borne a son, lived in different places, encountered cruelty of a more physical nature.
Mere life is precarious: poor harvests and dwindling supplies mean a hard winter. Tempers fray even among the sisters. As well as food and warmth, pity and mercy are in short supply with Sigeburg in charge. While women are at the centre of the story, it acknowledges the limits of their power. Until they seize it. I recommend Mere if, like me, you love a convent story; Danielle Giles has created an immersive world among the fenland which will suck you in right to the end.

This is such an impressive debut. Beautifully written, in a way that just pulls you in, extremely atmospheric and engaging.

A young boy goes missing in the mere which sets off a series of terrible events. Is there a real curse set on the land? Is there something more powerful and dark living within the mere? Or is it just a series of unfortunate events that are being used for multiple power plays within the convent? I loved how the book continuously played with my expectations about where this story would go. I think until the end it never really forced an answer on the reader but rather let the story flow and let me get pulled along into these increasingly unsettling developments.

Our main character is Hilda, an infirmarian who has seemingly equal connection to spells and healing related more to old gods, as well as her Christian faith. I loved how this book showed the mix between the old traditions and how hard it was for people to give them up in favour of Christianity. Aside from Hilda this books is filled with unique characters, all who have their own unique personalities and go through their own journeys. I found it especially impressive since I'm usually bad at remembering a large cast of characters, but this story made everyone feel so distinctive that they were never difficult to follow.

In the end, no matter how cheesy it might sound, it is a story about the power of love. How the shared burden is a burden halved. I'll admit I never expected this story to have a happy ending, not after it made me cry so many times throughout it. But I thought it was a beautiful and a poetic ending. I thought the relationship between Hilda and Wulfrun was magical and sweet and I could have happily spent another 200 pages with them.

I look forward to more books from Danielle Giles.

There aren't too many historical novels set at the end of the first millennium, but this book starts to put that deficit right.

Sister Hilda is the infirmarian in a remote Norfolk convent, the other side of a desolate fen from the nearest town. The locals are halfway between the pagan gods and Christianity, eking out a hard living on liminal land. The abbess Sigeburg returns to the convent with a newly widowed postulant, Wulfrun, and her boy servant Eadwig. When Eadwig gets lost in the mere on the journey, Wulfrun asks Hilda to help her search for him, but as the days go on everyone suspects the worst has happened.

The story conjures up the time and place excellently, playing with religion and superstition, together with the feeling that the sinister landscape could turn on the characters at any minute. A recommended read for lovers of historical fiction.

In her debut novel, Giles’ lyrical prose brings to life a waterlogged and forgotten corner of medieval England where the ever-present mere threatens to claim lives and incite madness, and where the tenderness of love, friendship, and the renewal of life cling on to existence wherever they can.

Centred around a convent and the nuns and lay people living there, Giles weaves a chilling tale in which an unsettling and sinister presence lures the reader in, unable to escape until the truth is revealed. The convent faces a crisis: risk a descent into chaos with the hope that salvation will come after, or preserve the status quo and risk death. Female power and female relationships are explored, often subverting the ideas traditionally held about medieval nuns; the novel examines what happens when women turn on each other versus when they unite in a setting not often utilised for such a theme.

Giles’ crisp details of the natural world and the visceral realities of medieval life evoke the brutal and oppressive setting of the marshes in winter, a reminder that perhaps humans aren’t in control despite a fervent belief in God.

This was so well executed. It really felt like Max Porter's Lanny and Lauren Groff's Matrix came together to create an even eerier and queerer little novel that is so infatuated with the medieval world and the things that the medieval English world was infatuated with - the church, the natural world, and homoerotic tension. It did feel a little bit slow at times despite there being plenty happening and was certainly eventful. It was more that the atmosphere and the attention to detail in the worldbuilding tended to make it feel longer than it absolutely needed to. I don't mean that as a criticism as it added to the medieval atmosphere, with little happening and nothing to dominantly take up our space and time, what else is there to pay attention to but the periphery? I also felt as though the more demonic aspects were really beautifully and delicately handled. I tend to grow irritated at supernatural and demonic stories, but Giles masterfully held the tension between having these serious and frightening threats while maintaining the humanity of the sufferers. Really well done.