Ideal for: Historical Fiction and Gothic Horror lovers, Modern Witchcraft enthusiasts.
Horror score: Spooky enough to not be a night reading of choice.
Warning: Extremely misogynistic men. Steel yourself from the start.

This is not a book that changes you. But in no way am I not recommending it- merely keeping it from the highest praise. I started this book as I was delving into Modern Witchcraft. While in the throes of depression and being cooped up inside during quarantine 2020, this book was dangerous read in one go- the omnipresent veil of impending doom, the gloom and isolation made it so. But boy, was difficult to stop reading! The imagery, tone and theme will appeal to the readers of Diane Setterfield and viewers of shows like Broadchurch and Shetland. For people who care about the environment, this book will provide the ultimate triumph and for people who want a sneaky dose of masterful horror build-up, this book will provide too.
The plot narrated in conversations and dairy entries, makes for an engaging read. The protagonists of the book- Maud and her father, are polar opposites; one is intensely feeling and the other a psychopath. But both are vividly imaginative and intelligent.
This story unsettles your mind more than a little bit. It's not a hit and miss horror; it scores with the reader.

There’s a Gothic flavor to this story of a mentally unstable artist and his teenage daughter. Edmund Stearne is obsessed with the writings of Medieval mystic Alice Pyett (based on Margery Kempe) and with a Bosch-like Doom painting recently uncovered at the local church. Serving as his secretary after her mother’s death, Maud reads his journals to follow his thinking – but also uncovers unpleasant truths about his sister’s death and his relationship with the servant girl. As Maud tries to prevent her father from acting on his hallucinations of demons and witches rising from the Suffolk Fens, she falls in love with someone beneath her class. Only in the 1960s framing story, which has a journalist and scholar digging into what really happened at Wake’s End in 1913, does it become clear how much Maud gave up.

There are a lot of appealing elements in this novel, including Maud’s pet magpie, the travails of her constantly pregnant mother (based on the author’s Belgian great-grandmother), the information on early lobotomies, and the mixture of real (eels!) and imagined threats encountered at the fen. The focus on a female character is refreshing after her two male-dominated ghost stories. But as atmospheric and readable as Paver’s writing always is, here the plot sags, taking too much time over each section and filtering too much through Stearne’s journal. After three average ratings in a row, I doubt I’ll pick up another of her books in the future.

Wake’s End is a rambling manor house located in the depths of the Suffolk Fens. The year is 1906, and young Maud Stearn is trying to find her way in a household ruled by her puritanical and disciplinarian father, Edmund, following the sudden death of her mother during childbirth. The countryside surrounding the house is her refuge, that and her love of reading, and Maud becomes concerned by the increasingly bizarre behaviour of her father. It appears he is being haunted by weird apparitions at night, and claims to have seen fleeting glimpses of things around the lake. The house is infused with a stench of rotting marsh weed, which permeates the very fabric of the building, and at night the sound of scratching – like claws on the wooden floor – can be heard…

I’d read two of Paver’s previous novels, Dark Matter and Thin Air, and thought them wonderful examples of genuinely creepy historical fiction. When I heard about her latest novel, Wakenhyrst, being published, the synopsis was enough to whet the appetite, especially given the bleak Suffolk location and the hints of murder and madness.

Firstly, the prose is absolutely beautiful, evoking a rich atmospheric sense of time and place. We know from the start that something horribly tragic has occurred at Wake’s End, and the opening section (set in the 1960s) propels the rest of the narrative with a real sense of mystery. The timeline then jumps backwards to the start of the 20th century to begin to show us the events leading up to the catastrophic moment. Maud herself is a superb character, headstrong and independent, yet fearful of her tyrannical father, Edmund. Following his wife’s death (to which he shows little sorrow) he begins a steady descent into madness, following his uncovering of a religious painting at the local church.

I really enjoyed this novel. It works on several different levels, both as a historical depiction of life in rural Suffolk – complete with a pervading aura of myths and legends of the area, including water spirits, spectral hounds and tales of witchcraft – and also as an unsettling ghost story, replete with a long-hidden family secret and echoes from past misdemeanours. The book pulls no punches in its plot – for a writer who also publishes YA fiction, this one features suggestions of sexual impropriety, murder, madness and possible retribution from beyond the grave. The final section takes us back up to the 1960s and adds a nice counterbalance to the opening section.

If you enjoy a historical tale or just a ghost story I think you’d enjoy this novel. Paver’s writing is lyrical and yet fluid; it’s not bogged down by being written in a particular style to evoke the early 20th century timeframe. It’s genuinely creepy at times – albeit not as unnerving as either Dark Matter or Thin Air – but for the most part it makes for a very interesting read. I have no hesitation in recommending this.

i love a good witchy tale and i thought thats what i was getting with this but that wasnt the case. However i still enjoyed it but not as scary as i was led to believe and lacked in the witchcraft i was expecting but over all still a canny read.but not one i would get excited about.

An enchanting tale full of mystery and madness. The atmosphere of the fen with its wild and untameable nature perfectly mirrored Maud's struggle to be free from the constraints of being a woman and the rulings of her father. If you want to embark on a journey into madness then look no further. Paver's writing is entrancing, perfect for an escape

In 1906 Maud Stearne lives in a large manor house named Wake’s End, just outside the village of Wakenhyrst with her father, mother and brother. Her father, Edmund, is a respected historian but a strict disciplinarian and though she is always careful not to invoke his displeasure, Maud cannot help but be entranced by the fens that lie beyond her garden. Edmund has deemed the fens to be out of bounds, reasoning that they are dangerous and not for children to be wandering through. Despite this, Maud not only wanders the fens but meets a stranger who tells her the real reason that her father forbids her from going there and this in turn encourages her to find out more. Whilst this unfolds her mother dies in childbirth and her father appears to become mentally unhinged. By secretly reading his notebooks Maud discovers why he is behaving like he is and decides that he is, without a doubt, mad. But is he? 

It’s a while since I’ve read a gothic suspense novel as good as this. I was riveted by the storyline, it had me hooked immediately and I knew straight away that this book was going to be a cracking read. It is the first Michelle Paver book I’ve read and I guarantee, it won’t be the last. 

Huge thanks to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for allowing me to read this very excellent book. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

Set in the Edwardian Fens this wonderfully Gothic tale of a lonely child and her repressive father weaves together local legends and superstitions into a was a well written, absorbing story full of atmosphere and great characters. Paver builds her tension well with a clever plot that moves to a satisfying conclusion. As well as being a good read to promote within libraries there's a lot here for readers groups as well.

Historical, gothic novels are perfect for chilly nights. Wakenhyrst is a brilliant novel that encapsulates the reader with the beautiful sky created setting and eerie plot. I definitely recommend to those who enjoy scenic, historical fiction

In Edwardian Suffolk, Wakenhyrst manor stands in an isolated corner of The Fens - a magical wilderness that hides dark secrets in its murky depths.

Maud, the eldest of the children in the house, is lonely since she lost her mother at a young age, a woman worn out by the constant demands of childbearing on her frail frame. Although she has had to take on the responsibilities of running the house so young, she is a very capable and intelligent girl, in fact, by far the most clever out of her and her brothers - but her strict and domineering father has little time for her, as a female - especially since she is plain - although he does find a use for her as a secretary, helping him to record his research findings into the mystical religious tract The Book of Alice Pyett.

When Maud's father arranges for some restoration work to begin at the local church, St. Guthlaf's, he comes across the face of a demon hidden in the overgrown churchyard, which is part of a much larger painting named The Doom, and he becomes obsessed with the thought that dark forces are hidden in The Fen. These thoughts grow, as strange things begin to happen at Wakenhyrst, which he is positive are tied to both The Book of Alice Pyett and his past sins, and he is convinced that he has been chosen to capture a demon by God.

By reading her father's translation of Pyett's book, and scouring his personal journals, Maud comes to believe that her father is gradually losing his mind, but no one will believe her. Maud is the only one who stands between her father and the destruction of her beloved fen....and the life of the young man she loves.

********************************************************


I am a big fan of the dark and twisty writings of Michelle Paver. Having loved her previous two books for adults, Dark Matter (incidentally, one of the scariest books I have ever read!) and Thin Air, I was really looking forward to diving into Wakenhyrst her darkly Gothic thriller about murderous obsession and one girl's longing to fly free. I dipped in and out of the print version for this one, but listened in entirety to the audio book, which is beautifully narrated by Juanita McMahon and is completely captivating.

Wakenhyrst is rather longer than Paver's first two adult books, and there is more to get your teeth into with this one - more characters, more threads to the story, and a much longer timeline. You know from the very beginning that Maud's father has been overcome by madness as a result of the obsession he develops with The Doom, and the book of Alice Pyett, and what follows takes us right back to the beginning and lets the story unfold from Maud's point of view.

I think it is fair to say that is does take a little while to get into the book, as is starts at the end and is told through letters and articles, which make it all a bit fragmented, but once you get into Maud's story then this is a real page-turner.

Maud is a lonely child. She is clever and imaginative, with a rebellious streak, and has a great thirst to learn. But things are not easy in the Wakenhyrst household. Maud's father is old fashioned, arrogant and domineering, and he rules his family with a rod of iron. He has no opinion of women in general, and lives to despise all females, and as the story develops, we learn that he is thoroughly unpleasant, hypocritical and rather unsavoury. Maud works her way into your heart, while at the same time, you develop an intense hatred for her father.

I don't want to go into the story too much, as it would inevitably involve spoilers, but this is a wonderfully Gothic tale, full of happenings that may or may not be caused by dark forces intent on bringing Maud's father to atone for his sins - quite how much of this is of his own imagining, we are never sure, but it all adds a delicious feeling of underlying menace, and the weight of religion, superstition and folklore on the characters is palpable.

However, this is also a coming of age story of a young Edwardian girl. One who is undervalued, and lonely, and who longs for freedom, companionship and kindness. - and I adored how Maud's experience of the wildness of her beloved fen brings nature alive in this book. It is Maud herself that really made the book for me. It is Maud I was desperate to save, and I became completely engrossed in her story.

I highly recommend this one if you are enjoying the current trend for the most wonderful of creepy Gothic tales from the likes of Stacey Halls and Laura Purcell and can't wait to see what Michelle Paver comes up with next for her adult readers - she certainly seems to be getting a real feel for a dark and creepy story now, and I love it!

Having read a ghost story by Paver previously, 'Thin Air', I had a good feeling about this read. I really enjoyed the setting last time, and the tension-filled dread it filled me with, and while this book had less of a supernatural focus, 'Wakenhyrst' focuses on one man's descent into madness and was a really interesting read.

The setting was perfect - a creepy old house backed onto a nearby marsh, during the Edwardian period when science and history were still intertwined deeply with religion and superstition. I enjoyed how Paver chose to chronicle Maud's POV and set it against her father's diary writings. I also really enjoyed the fixation on witches, murder, and hell. It made the whole thing really creepy and began to make it difficult to work out if some of the events of the book were the imaginings of a madman or real.

I have to say, it did originally take me a little while to actually get into the book. I'd have liked to get straight into the main plot, but I had to adjust to the epistolary-style introduction to the plot where we first meet Maud as a bitter, rude, private old woman hounded by invasive journalists. However, this was a fun read that, once it hooked me, I couldn't put down!

Yes enjoyed it .....not always keen on historical novels but this is more intriguing than the usual.

Wakenhyrst is an excellent gothic novel set mainly in the marshy fenland of eastern England in Edwardian times.  The central character is Maud, a lonely teenage girl whose mother has died and whose father is a tyrant.  She takes refuge in the natural world around her.
Her father is an historian researching the writings of a medieval mystic but he has a dark secret from  his past.  When a medieval painting of Hell is uncovered in the local church, this triggers his descent into madness, with a terrible outcome. 
This novel is so atmospheric and filled with the folklore and legends of the fens.  It is a great read and I highly recommend it.

#WritersReview: Wakenhyrst
Posted on January 3, 2020	

Cover of Wakenhyrst shows a magpie and bloodspots

Wakenhyrst written by Michelle Paver

published by Head of Zeus in April 2019

368 pages in hardback

HB jacket and interior art by Stephen McNally.

 

murder, marshes and malevolence

 

Summary from author’s own website

In Edwardian Suffolk, a manor house stands alone in a lost corner of the Fens: a glinting wilderness of water whose whispering reeds guard ancient secrets. Maud is a lonely child growing up without a mother, ruled by her repressive father.

When he finds a painted medieval devil in a graveyard, unhallowed forces are awakened.

Maud’s battle has begun.

She must survive a world haunted by witchcraft, the age-old legends of her beloved fen – and the even more nightmarish demons of her father’s past.
One reader’s view:

If you have read either Michelle Paver’s Dark Matter or Thin Air – you will know she is a mistress of creeping malevolence.The disturbances and unsettling details build on each other to create dreadful/delicious tension.

In both these earlier works, each place has an active presence: Arctic wastes; snowbound mountains, and this time, mysterious fenland. These are both convincing portrayals of particular locations, and creators of the uneasy atmosphere.

Wakenhyrst is a decidedly Gothic take on the ‘whydunit’: we know from the start what Maud’s father did, but the reasons for such a dreadful crime still lurk in the swampy past. Fragments of this horrifying puzzle emerge like broken glass in an excavation, or a wall-painting from protecting whitewash. Uncertainty and supposition linger to the end.

Some readers will know Michelle Paver for many novels set in prehistory. This work largely inhabits the Victorian & Edwardian era, but includes medieval elements and an early foray into the ’60s. Each is handled with skill, and her love of conveying the past shines through without unnecessary glare.That said, I’d recommend it for experienced readers as the story is not laid out chronologically.

Similarly, there’s violence and a long powerful building-up of threat. Not for the sensitive – as you might expect from something with such a strong folk horror vibe. Indeed, it could well be the basis for a TV miniseries with music by The Unthanks and probably involving Mark Gatiss.

There’s a strong feminist strand to Wakenhyrst and I felt Maud had kinship with Faith in Frances Hardinge’s The Lie Tree. So I was gratified to see Wakenhyrst recommended for YA readers in The Big Issue. They are distinctly different works, but growth from child to young woman is powerfully shown in both.

Highly recommended for those with a taste for the dark.

Paperback cover
Comments from a Writer and Editor (spoiler alert)

Look out for –

    a complex mix of third person, epistolary and other ‘extracts’ which invites the reader to investigate
    shifts in time deftly handled
    convincing tone in the different forms of writing – yet the tension is maintained
    the natural world and folklore used with care and precision
    expectations are set up beautifully – but the end music may not be what you’d expect . . .

This book starts in 1967 when a journalist contacts Maud attempting to lure her into selling her story about her infamous father, who brutally murdered someone in 1906. Following his inprisonment Edmund Stearne became a master painter and his art is highly sought after. As Maud is in a financial bind, she agrees to selling her fathers notebooks and story and we delve into Edwardian Suffolk when Maud was 14 and had just lost her mother to childbirth.

Desperate to please her father she tries to help him in any way she can. Her intellect impresses her father, but he is dismayed at the fact that it was not one of his young sons that inherited the studious genes (and must suffer his daughter even though she is the weaker sex). At first Maud believes her father is disconnected from her as he is grieving the loss of his wife. When she finds one of his notebooks, she secretly reads in hoping to understand his loss. When she finds that not only is he not suffering, he's relieved that her mother has died, Maud's compassion turns to stone. Maud also learns that Edmund has become obsessed with his recent finding in their church. A painting called 'doom' depicting hell in all its horror.

Edmund starts to hear things in the house. The smell and dampness of the fens he lives on seems to permeate everthing he owns, even though he imposes strict rules about leaving all the windows closed. Then he starts to hear constant scratching...almost like something with claws is walking the wooden floors...

I really enjoyed this book. I know it has split opinions where folk have either really liked it or really haven't but Paver is a master at the gothic writing. She manages to build up the tension to a crescendo that left me with my shoulders all tense waiting for the end!

This is very much a character piece, which isn't so much as action driven, but if you like delving in to the psyche of your protagonists then you will thoroughly enjoy it. The setting of Wakenhyrst and the fens are almost characters of their own as you become so involved in Maud's world that you can just about feel the dampness of the fens settle in your bones.

Ultimately this is a book about a young girl watching and reading about her father descending into insanity. As Maud is 'only a girl' and therefore holds no power in the Edwardian era she can do absolutley nothing about it. Any attention and help she tries to seek is to her own detriment as she is seen as the hysterical and emotional one. The anger and frustration she feels is palpable and I felt it right along with her.

A 4 star read for me.

I would like to thank Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

I first read one of Michelle Paver’s novels seven years ago. I can’t remember how I came across Dark Matter but I could still describe the plot to you and I still vividly remember how it made me feel. I read it in a single sitting on a gloomy weekend day and it remains one of my absolute favourite ghost stories. Since then, I’ve kept an eye on the release of Paver’s novels and although none have quite lived up to that first experience, I’ve enjoyed every one of her ghostly offerings.

It will come as a surprise to nobody then that I loved Wakenhyrst. The story follows Maud as she grows up in Wake’s End, a crumbling old manor house (obviously) sitting on the edge of the Fens. We start the novel knowing that Maud’s father, Edmund, ends up in an institution painting images of demons, having apparently suffered a mental breakdown and killed a man in a horribly violent attack. Maud has remained resolutely silent on what really happened until, as the novel opens, she finds herself in dire financial straits and decides to sell her story to fund much needed repairs to Wake’s End.

Wakenhyrst alternates between Maud recounting her story in her own words and Edmund’s diary entries, which Maud is reading in an effort to get to know her father (at least initially…). I love a good diary entry in a novel anyway but the way they’re used in Wakenhyrst is just brilliant. We first see Edmund early on through Maud’s eyes as a child, then as she grows up and finds him increasingly difficult to live with, she hunts out his diary to try and learn more about him. Often if authors include diary entries, it’s to give readers an edge over characters; Paver uses them to put us firmly on Maud’s side and to let us share in her frustrations and fears. The characters are all so well drawn and so well balanced but Maud has a special place in my heart. By the end, I was so firmly attached to her that I cried as some of her secrets were revealed.

What I adore most about Paver’s writing is how she balances the hints at supernatural with the personal struggles of her characters. In Wakenhyrst‘s case, the uncertainty sits around Edmund and whether he is losing his mind or whether the phantoms that he sees are something darker and more real wafting in from the Fens. It also plays on the religious ideas of the early 20th century and the demons that so many believed might lurk around every corner, and naturally on the folklore surrounding the Fens. The atmosphere is damp and oppressive and looms over everything. Perfect for getting consumed by during the winter.

“Death freezes everything. Whatever you did or didn’t do, whatever you said or left unsaid: none of that is ever going to change. You have no more chances to say sorry or make things right. No more chances for anything except regret“

All of which isn’t to say that I think Wakenhyrst is perfect. If I’m being picky, it felt a little longer than it needed to be to me, a slight flaw that means I’ve given it 4.5 rather than 5 out of 5 stars. Some of the extracts from Edmund’s diaries run long and can feel repetitive. It works in places, particularly later on in the novel when it really highlights the tangled and dangerous patterns of Edmund’s mind but I was less keen early on when there’s a lot of religious fervour and general academic ramblings. The ending more than makes up for the occasional lull in pace but the lulls are there all the same.

Overall: Who doesn’t like a sinister story set in a crumbling old house with supernatural undertones and secrets galore in the winter?! I’m not sure that I’d go so far as to call it a ghost story but if you like ghost stories, I’m sure you’ll love this.  And if you do pick this up and love it, make sure you also keep an eye out for Dark Matter, because it is perfection and it makes me sad that it isn’t more popular. Two recommendations for the price of one!

I love a good historical novel. I also love ghost stories, folklore, and a good dose of the gothic. Michelle Paver's latest novel, Wakenhyrst, ticks all of these boxes and, needless to say, I adored it. 

With a narrative that spans over five centuries, taking in 14th-century superstitions, a chilling Edwardian crime, and a 1960's-set reckoning, it would be easy for Wakenhyrst to become a sprawl of a novel. But the narrative is kept tight by keeping the central character, Maud, at its heart.

Curious and intelligent, Maud is constrained by her life at Wake's End, and by the many rules that her father - and society - place on what a young lady should be and do. When we first meet Maud, she is an anxious child. Growing up without a mother, she is both entranced and repulsed by her cold yet brilliant father, a historian whose obsession with a 14th-century mystic called Alice Pyatt will soon prove dangerous for them all. 

The narrative is alive with folklore and superstition. Salt is sprinkled in doorways, a wise woman sells love potions to young women, the New Year is let in the front door as the old one is whisked out the back. You really get a sense of the community, the time and the place. Wakes End seems to live and breathe on the page, and I could picture the small community of Wakenhyrst in my mind's eye as I read. 

And, at the centre of it all, is the fen. Drawn to the fen, Maud is entranced by its ever-shifting nature. She loves the starlings that circle overhead, the creatures that make it their home, and the sound of the wind through the reeds.

Her father, in contrast, is terrified by it. All windows facing the fen are shuttered, and he forbids the household from entering. But what terrible secret lies at the heart of the fen? And what does it have to do with Edmund Sterne's research into Alice Pyatt? Or the uncovering of a long-lost Doom in the local church? 

To say any more would be to spoil the twists and turns of this gorgeously intricate novel. But, as the various threads weave together, the fen is always at their heart. This is a novel about permanence. About love and lies and loss. About angels and demons and old, old tales. And about the things that we must face in order for us to be free. 

Beautifully told, this is the perfect novel for curling up with by the fireside on a cold winter's night. Maud is an engaging, intelligent narrator and her narrative, contrasted with that of her father's, makes for compelling reading that will have you staying up long into the night. 

Wonderfully atmospheric, Wakenhyrst is modern gothic at its best and deserves a place on the TBR of anyone who already enjoys the tales of Neil Gaiman, Laura Purcell, and Sarah Perry.

I really enjoyed this book - I found the setting interesting and the history interesting. There were a lot of different interesting characters which kept the story flowing. I would definitely recommend this book to others.

After loving Thin Air by Michelle Paver, I was really excited to read this one. However it just didn’t grip me in the same way as Thin Air. I found the language quite hard to read and it was tough to get in to.

Michelle Paver’s ghost stories (Thin Air and Dark Matter) have been on my teetering to-be-read pile for a while. So when I decided to write a Halloween blog post about scary stories, I knew exactly which author I wanted to try. Wakenhyrst isn’t a ghost story but its mix of spooky ingredients makes it perfect for Halloween. Being a Victorian gothic thriller set in a crumbling mansion house amongst the Fens, we encounter demons and witchcraft, madness and grief, ice and darkness, as young Maud feels her way between religion and local superstition to solve a mystery that threatens to destroy the natural world of the Fen, that she holds so dear. It’s a beautifully written, creepy mystery; the perfect companion for darker evenings.

A fabulous book. A gripping gothic tale crammed with mystery and suspense. Jane Austen would have loved it. A must-read, and an up and coming lifetime classic.