I received a copy from Netgalley.

I love gothic horror mysteries and that premise was what attracted me to this book immediately. However, this book didn’t really fulfil my personal idea of a gothic horror mystery. That being said, the mystery aspect was really good and I really enjoyed the story.

It starts in 1966 and tells through news articles of a report granted a visit to a once grand house and the lady, Maud, who owns the property. The lady is a recluse and as a child witnessed the descent into madness of her father. No one really knew what happened (this was back in 1913) and the house seems to have remained in a similar state since. The reporter has been digging into the history of the father and the mystery surrounding the demise of a once prominent and respected man from a highly well to do family. There’s rumours of witchcraft and devil worship and all sorts of superstitious things.

The lady retells the story as she remembers it and her father growing up from when she was a small child to when she was a teenager and when the incident happens. The story tells of Maud’s troubled adolescence - she’s an intelligent child who wants more out of life than what her station will allow. Her father is a tough man to please – a historian. As she grows up Maud eventually manages to convince her father to allow her to use his library also helping with his translation of an old text with a religious theme.

We see passages as well from the father’s notebook, detailing his inner thoughts as the situations occur, with Maud, with his research and a secret from his childhood which haunts him and is driving him to the brink of madness. There’s a definite religious overtone to the father’s inner journals, demons and sins and secrets and penance and so forth. Though it’s well handled without being overly dramatic and overly preachy.

Maud discovers her father’s journals and begins her own investigations. It’s really quite fascinating and once you get used to the style of writing hard to put down. I’m not recapping a lot of the plot as it would be very spoilery. Maud was a really likeable heroine, strong willed and sensible, her voice was very easy to follow and as the novel evolves as a reader you really want her to succeed in her tasks.

There was nothing remotely scary or chilling about it so it didn’t hit the horror mark for me, but it was quite atmospheric. The mystery was really good and it had a satisfying ending. I really enjoyed the book and would definitely read something by this author again.


Thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for approving my request to view the title.

‘Wakenhyrst’ by Michelle Paver is a creepy atmospheric novel that has been described as a ghost story, but the only ghosts in it are in the minds of the people. Which of course makes them enormously powerful and frightening. I found myself eager to return to this book, resenting time away from it. Paver is a skilled storyteller and I am coming to anticipate her new books with relish. If you haven’t read her adult novels, you are in for a treat.
The story starts with a newspaper article written in 1966 entitled ’The Mystery of Edmund Stearne’. The journalist, who has spoken to Stearne’s daughter Maud about the conviction of her father for murder in 1913, casts doubt on Maud’s version of events. Could Maud be the guilty one? The story is set at Wake’s End, a country house at Wakenhyrst, a village beside the Guthlaf’s Fen in Suffolk. Paver creates this setting with all the intensity and atmosphere with which she created the Arctic in ‘Dark Matter’ and the Himalayas in ‘Thin Air’. The fens haunt every aspect of life at the house and on bad days, when the weather closes in and the mind is in turmoil, the fens invade the rooms too. The rotting stench. A scratching at the windows. Damp and infection. Edmund hates the fens and forbids Maud and her older brother Richard from crossing the bridge; Nurse too is full of scary stories of ferishes and hobby-lanterns that entice people to their death. Others are more pragmatic, depending on the fens for their living and for food.
When Maud’s mother dies in childbirth everything changes at Wake’s End. Richard is sent away to school and thirteen-year old Maud becomes housekeeper and then secretary for her father who is a medieval historian. Edmund’s odd behavior begins when he uncovers an ancient painting in the graveyard of local church St Guthlaf’s. He imagines that the eyes of the Doom, the painted devil, are staring at him with purpose, that the devil knows his secret. The Doom is restored and hung again in the church, but in a locked room. When Edmund kills Maud’s favourite magpie, Chatterpie, her dislike of her father becomes a mission to fathom the truth of his odd behavior.
This is a thoughtful mystery rather than a thriller, the danger and threats unfold at a steady pace and the questions continue until the end. What was Edmund’s crime and how far will he go to hide the truth? Why does he hate the fens so much? How exactly do the strands of waterweed appear on his pillow? Not so much a ghost story as a mystery of rational understanding clouded by folktale, medieval legend and tales of ancient witchcraft and superstition.
The story unfolds through Maud’s eyes and the excerpts she reads of her father’s diaries, plus Edmund’s translations of a medieval mystic Alice Pyett and ‘The Life of St Guthlaf’. Although Edmund is an unsympathetic character, I did pause at one point to wonder the reliability of Maud’s account. Maud is an impressive character; denied education because she is a girl she reads secretly and resents her father’s nightly use of her mother, multiple pregnancies which eventually lead to Maman’s death. Paver is good at drawing a picture of the community; fen-dweller Jubal Rede, assistant gardener Clem Walker, servant Ivy, rector Mr Broadstairs, Dr Grayson and village wisewoman Boddy Thrussel. Modern medicine beside folk remedies. Church of England beside centuries-old folklore.
So creepy is the story, so isolated is this house beside the fen, that the setting feels older than Edwardian England. It could easily be set in the 19th century, excepting the references to trains and telegraphs. The isolation of the community is key to the crimes committed; truth may disappear, be disguised and denied, but someone always sees, someone always knows. The fen holds the answers.
Excellent.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

This was a pretty atmospheric read that had an incredibly well defined sense of place. It tells the story of Maud, a young girl living with her widowed father as he becomes increasingly more unhinged in his belief that he is being haunted by a demon possessed individual. While many of the story beats here were quite obvious, what I thought Paver did fantastically was make the Fens a character in their own right. The landscape encroaches on the narrative constantly, sometimes oppressive and sometimes comfortingly, but always present and it was this that impacted upon me the most. In truth, the characters are pretty stereotypical in many respects, but the structure of the narrative, with its reportage and diary entries was interesting, which I appreciated. Overall, this is a well constructed, supernatural tale whose true strength lies in the atmosphere evoked by the landscape.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Michelle Paver is an author I’ve been meaning to try for years, since I noticed all the hype surrounding her 2010 novel Dark Matter. For some reason I never got round to reading that book or any of her others, so Wakenhyrst is my first experience of her work.

Wakenhyrst begins in the 1960s with the elderly Maud Stearne coming under pressure from journalists to tell the story of a murder committed by her father many years earlier. Maud is the only person who knows why Edmund Stearne left the house one day in 1913, armed with an ice-pick and a geological hammer, and killed the first person he came across ‘in the most bizarre and horrible way’. Edmund spent the rest of his life in an asylum and Maud stayed on alone in the family home – the old manor house, Wake’s End, in Suffolk – never speaking about the tragedy to anyone. But now the house needs urgent repairs and Maud can’t afford to pay for them. It seems that she will have to sell her story after all.

Maud then gives her account of the events leading up to the murder, beginning by describing her lonely childhood, growing up at Wake’s End on the edge of Guthlaf’s Fen, ‘the oldest, deepest, rottenest fen ever’, with a father who is cold and domineering and a mother who is constantly pregnant (although most of the pregnancies result in stillbirths or miscarriages). Edmund, her father, is a historian and enlists Maud’s help in transcribing a book believed to be written by Alice Pyett, a medieval mystic. The book that really interests Maud, however, is her father’s secret notebook in which he records his innermost thoughts and fears. Maud already knows that Edmund is not a nice person, but even she is shocked by some of the things she reads in his journal. And when he becomes obsessed with a medieval painting of the Last Judgement, known as ‘the Doom’, she worries about her father’s mental state. Are there really evil forces at work in the fens or are they all a product of Edmund Stearne’s imagination?

I enjoyed Wakenhyrst, but it wasn’t quite what I’d expected. I think because I’d seen Dark Matter and Paver’s other recent novel, Thin Air, described as creepy ghost stories, I assumed this book would be the same, but I didn’t find it very scary at all – although I’m not necessarily complaining about that! There are plenty of Gothic elements, and the setting – a remote fenland community steeped in folklore and superstition – is certainly atmospheric, but it is not really a horror story in the usual sense. The horror in this book is more of the psychological kind, in the portrayal of a man’s descent into madness and obsession. Edmund’s notebook entries, which are interspersed throughout Maud’s narrative, become more and more disturbing and outlandish as his fears of the Doom and of demons in the fens spiral out of control.

I can’t really say that I liked Maud, but my sympathies were with her, particularly after her mother dies – weakened by too many pregnancies, or ‘groanings’ as the young Maud thinks of them (because that’s how each one ends). Maud’s life from this point becomes very isolated and unhappy, trapped in the oppressive atmosphere of Wake’s End as her father, never the most pleasant of men to begin with, gradually loses his grip on reality. The only bright spots in her life are her love for her tame bird, Chatterpie, and her relationships with Clem, the under-gardener, and Jubal Rede, the ‘wild man’ who lives in the fen.

After a slow start, I found Wakenhyrst quite an entertaining novel and I do still want to try some of Michelle Paver’s other books. I’m sure I will get round to reading Dark Matter eventually and will be interested to see how it compares.

Wakenhyrst is a gothic thriller set on the fens of Suffolk in Edwardian times.

Maud is a young girl who lives with her family in a grand house bordering the fens. Fast forward and Maud is an ageing spinster. She lives in the house alone and isolated; she rarely leaves except to walk in the fens which are precious to her. Everyone knows her father went mad, but nobody knows exactly what happened - nobody but Maud. She has spent years hiding from everyone and protecting her families' secrets, but now she desperately needs money for renovations and decides to finally tell a reporter her story.

It's a good story - one of demons and witchcraft, obsession and religion. It is also the story of a strict and unyielding father and his young daughter who is struggling to grow up in a world she doesn't understand and which does not understand her. It is a story of both myths and relationships, and is equally centred around the individual difficulties of Maud and her father.

The writing is excellent; very gothic and creepy where appropriate. The madness and horror in parts of the book were positively chilling. At other times it is heartfelt. The characters are very engaging and I found I cared very much about Maud's fate by the end. I really did enjoy this book; it drew me in from the beginning and I didn't want to put it down until the very end. I would recommend this book and give it top marks because I can't find any fault with it.

Paver an expert in historical moody fiction. She captures the mood and time with atmosphere and suspense.

I really enjoyed this; I've read Michelle Paver's two previous adult books ('Dark Matter' and 'Thin Air') and 'Wakenhyrst' was my favourite by far. A richly atmospheric gothic story, set in Edwardian times, about Maud who, when her mother dies in childbirth, grows up in an isolated manor house with her authoritarian father. But the behaviour of Maud's father becomes increasingly strange and Maud eventually discovers a dark secret from his past - and also suspects that he has sinister plans for the near future ... Gripping and beautifully written - you really are transported back in time.

This book was everything I wanted it to be. It's a great mystery, full of obsession, madness, demons and all things creepy. Paver is a master at creating an atmosphere that pulls you completely into the scene and keeps you there in suspense, unable to put the book down.

This book really delves into the dark sides of Christianity. It shows the madness and religious fervour that can be brought on by those who would use it as a form of control, but it also explores the nature of questioning the concept of Christianity. Whilst escaping from the control of her father and his version of religion, she also questions the mortality of it all. The idea that everyone is born in sin and have to redeem themselves. I really liked to see all her thoughts and explorations while escaping from the strict rules of her father's household.

It was really interesting to see the study of the medieval fixation on the afterlife, the fixation on the punishment and demons in hell rather than the bright happy reward of heaven. This really is a fantastic look at the history of Christianity both medieval and during Maud's time.

A damn good mystery focused on how things went down and what actually happened.

Wake's End, home of the Stearne family, sits in a remote part of the fens, cut off from the world by the water and reed beds; even in the '60s 'progress' in the shape of draining the fen has not reached here. The last of the family, Maud, lives there quietly, surrounded by her memories of an horrific crime, for which her father, Edmund, was imprisoned. For fifty years, the events at Wake's End have been forgotten but now some of Edmund Stearne's paintings have come to light - strange disturbing images he worked on while an inmate at Broadmoor - and the press have begun to snoop around, putting their own lurid interpretation on events, and wanting to know more. Maud at last is forced to talk about her long ago childhood, and the discovery of the Wakenhyrst Doom painting which sparked her father's monomania.

This is one of those books which start at the end - so you're always aware that something deeply disturbing happened many years ago - and then travels back to the lead up to that incident. Of course, this leads the reader to try to guess how all the pieces fit together, but there are unexpected twists there to surprise.


Although it has a lot of the trappings of a horror story, it's more the story of one man's descent into madness and obsession, helped on his way by his odd religious beliefs, fixation on the 'devil' painting uncovered at the local church, and guilt over on incident from his childhood.

Maybe it's not as terrifying as the publisher's blurb might lead you to believe but it's still a chills-up-the-spine read, filled with that sense of creeping horror that Paver did so well in Dark Matter - this time with a gothic twist which no doubt helps the ominous atmosphere and build up of tension. Good creepy stuff!

The novel begins with letters and reports alluding to what happened in the past at Wakenhyrst, just enough to whet your appetite and then the main narrative starts and we are taken back in time to find out what happened.

There's mention of old superstitions and the setting helps to build a good dark atmosphere. There's a tension in this book that I can't put my finger on, there is a darkness to begin with and moments of creepy atmosphere. At first I was riveted and enjoyed the style but after a while I started to get bored and couldn't figure out why at first.

I've read books with a similar idea to this and after enjoying Thin Air I was left disapointed with this novel. Thin Air was fast paced, a thriller, very well told. But I didn't enjoy this novel like that one. I got bored with the reading of Maud's father's research: a book about Alice Pycet. And also her father's diary. Both readings seemed neccesary to show her fathers research and his decline into madness, but her father's diary entries were not engrossing and were more like quick reports, of his day and his research. And the story of that Alice woman being possessed, dull!  These parts of the story felt like a lot of information but there was no action.

 I feel like I've already read books like this but better, with similar ideas. Most of the ideas in this were just superstition and you're left wondering if it is madness or something to do with devils, which isn't very original. 

I thought this could've been an interesting read but I only liked the beginning and certain parts of it. I couldn't stand Maud's father and his attitude to women and then I didn't really like the things she did either.

It's neither a quick thriller or  an involving literary fiction. The Synopsis says: "Wakenhyrst is a terrifying ghost story, an atmospheric slice of gothic," I found this sometimes chilling and atmopsheric. "a brilliant exploration of the boundaries between the real and the supernatural, and a descent into the mind of a psychopath. " It  did show the father's descent into madness and the boundaries between the real and the supernatural definitely, but it was the diary entries that ruined this for me.

I disliked the ideas, pacing and was unable to relate or care about the characters, which ended up in me not enjoying this book. I was just glad to finally finish it and it's sad that I have to write a negative review. But I can only be honest. I have a copy of Dark Matter by the same author to read but I'm not going to rush to read it just yet, I'm hoping it's going to be better than this.

Michelle Paver surprises me with every book she writes. I have loved every single book and her horrors are just amazing. Wakenhyrst is so atmospheric and there's really something dark and mysterious about it. I must say I didn't see the twists at the end and some parts of the book had my heartbreaking. It's just wonderful and would be perfect for a rainy day read. Highly recommend.

Michelle Paver has crafted a gothic thriller that oozes a dark intensity which lends itself perfectly to the supernatural element ever present in this book.

Our story opens with Maud who is now almost 70 being ‘encouraged’ to tell her story - her father killed one of his workers and spent the rest of his life in Broadmoor. This story has remained untold for over half a century and but for the urgent need of a new roof would remain untold for the rest of her days. But, as they say, needs must, so we are whisked back to Maud’s childhood years in Edwardian England. A time of superstition, belief, fear and hardship. Hardship borne from poverty but also from gender. Through Maud’s eyes and the words of Edmund Stearne’s notebooks we witness the demise of a family, we watch as Maud’s father is undone by his own personal demons and Maud fights to have her voice hear and save those she loves.

Paver’s prose bring to life both the period and the landscape - the novel, even though it feels like a ghost story / supernatural thriller, is steeped in fact (see Authors note) and that makes it even more unnerving.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, Paver has done an amazing job, I have knocked 1 star off because, in my mind it could have done with being shorter - it became unnecessarily repetitive, but that’s a small point, it still a highly recommended read.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a story where the main character was born in the wrong era. She is bright, intelligent and very capable but is living in Edwardian England where a woman is counted as being worth very little compared to men. Unfortunately it is a battle that women very rarely managed to win.

I enjoyed Wakenhyrst so much that I went to see the author at a Blackwell's event and treated myself to the hardback - nothing beats owning a physical book, especially one with ivy covered end papers, a scarlet cover with magpie embellishment, and a striking dust jacket. Gorgeous!

Wakenhyrst is an historic novel firmly rooted in the Gothic tradition. The action takes place in Wake's End, an isolated manor house situated on the edge of the Suffolk Fens, where Maud is growing up under the strict control of her father, Edmund Stearn, who has become unsettled by the discovery of an old Doom painting in the local church of St Gustlaf.

Paver splits the narrative between Maud's inner voice and excerpts from her father's  journal, which Maud secretly reads. This device allows us to witness Maud encountering duplicity and hypocrisy. She learns that the 'truth' espoused by authority figures is a construct, a means of controlling others - the patriarchal view her father imposes and the moral codes advocated in church - while the superstitions the villagers and servants cling to are an attempt to make sense of their world. Maud grows to learn that she has the autonomy to embrace or reject these notions.

These themes of deception and self discovery, and Paver's vivid setting are ripe for exploring contradictions and inducing an atmosphere of unease. Paver is masterful at invoking all of the senses: the rustling reeds and a splash of water, the glimpse of a shadowy shape in the moonlight, the dank smell....you feel you are right there experiencing the doubt, the rising panic, the fear.

The Fens are shown in all their moods from the beauty of starling murmurations and moonlit nights to the menace of creeping mist. Maud embraces The Fens, accepting nature's indifference and finding solace outside. Her father, on the other hand, fears the landscape, associating it with a terrible secret, trying to deny its existence by insisting that windows and doors are shut and drawing up plans to drain the area.

Paver has crafted believably flawed characters, a darkly compelling plot, and a setting which is both beautiful and threatening. I loved it!

I loved this book. Dark, Gothic fiction with heavy religious and mythological overtones are very much in my wheelhouse and this ticked all those boxes. I loved Maud as a character and how much the environment and nature of the area played a part in the story. I would really recommend this title to others who enjoy slow burn page turners.

Medieval demons and Edwardian doom... 4 stars

Young Maud Stearne is a lonely child, growing up in an old house in the midst of the Suffolk fens in the early 20th century. Her strict and domineering father doesn’t have much love or time for any of his children, especially his daughter, and her mother is almost permanently pregnant, though most of those pregnancies don’t come to term. Edmund Stearne, her father, is searching for a book rumoured to have been written by a medieval mystic, the Book of Alice Pyett. But during the renovation of the local church, Edmund finds a medieval painting of the Last Judgement – the Wenhaston Doom – whitewashed over during the Reformation; and he becomes obsessed with the demons portrayed on it.

The book starts in the ‘60s, when an elderly Maud is being pestered by a journalist to tell the story of the murder her father committed when she was young. One day he ran out of the house carrying a sharpened ice-pick and killed the first person he saw, and then went mad. No-one except Maud has ever known why he did it, and she has never spoken about it. Edmund spent many years in an asylum, painting demons, and has now died. Maud has lived an isolated existence in her childhood home since the tragedy and still doesn’t want to talk about it. But when for financial reasons she finally decides to open up, she chooses another recipient for the story – a young academic called Robin Hunter who has been researching Edmund’s paintings. The story Maud tells is one of Gothic horror, with at its heart the question – was Edmund driven mad by supernatural evil or are the evil things that happened a result of his existing madness?

I didn’t find this book nearly as scary as Paver’s earlier ventures into the supernatural – Dark Matter, the best modern horror story I’ve read, and Thin Air. However, it still has plenty to recommend it. It’s a slow burn in the beginning as we learn about Maud’s restricted life and her vague misunderstandings about what she calls her mother’s “groanings” - the miscarriages and stillbirths that happen all too often. But once Maud becomes a little older – her midteens – her father begins to involve her in his work, not out of affection but to save himself the annoyance of having a secretary in the house. As she types up his research notes, she also begins to understand what kind of man he is – cold, bullying, selfish, misogynistic. And increasingly obsessed by the feeling that he is in danger from the forces of evil.

The story is told as a third person narrative for the most part, but includes many extracts from Edmund’s journal and some from the Book of Alice Pyett. Gradually we learn how his researches are feeding Edmund’s obsession and, along with Maud, we become aware that there is a mystery in Edmund’s past.

The characterisation of both Maud and her father is excellent. Neither is likeable, though one’s sympathies are all for Maud. As she becomes aware that her mother’s frequent pregnancies are a result of her father’s refusal to practice any form of self-restraint, her desire to win his affection changes into a form of hatred. Isolated and unloved, she must work her own way through the difficult years of adolescence, and the position of women is such that she has no hope of escaping her father’s control. She is strong, but is she strong enough to face the atmosphere of dread that is slowly descending over the household?

Strip the horror element out completely, and it’s still a deeply disturbing picture of life under a tyrannical father at a time when children had no independent rights, and even adult women were entirely under the control of their husbands. Alice Pyett’s story is based on the famous medieval Book of Margery Kempe (which I haven’t read) and is of another woman whose life was blighted by excessive childbirth. Whatever demons are after Edmund – supernatural or self-inflicted – I felt he deserved all he got. But like most tyrants, even as he suffered, he made sure those around him suffered too.

After the relatively slow start, I found myself totally absorbed in the second half. It’s very well written and full of interesting stuff about medieval beliefs and superstitions along with lots of Suffolk folklore. I didn’t buy into the supernatural aspect, but it didn’t matter – the ambiguity means that it works just as well, perhaps even better, as a fully human story of madness and cruelty. People can be far more frightening than demons...

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Head of Zeus.

Reading this reminds me why I am a fan of Michelle Pavers writing. It is not immediately clear that you are about to learn of a persons descent into madness fuelled by a denial of any wrong doing on their part. That person being the eminent scholar and historian Edmund Stearn, also Mauds father.
A subtle and excellent gothic horror set in in a creepy house on the fens.Anyone who has visited a medieval church and seen the graphic pictorial depictions of the devil and what awaits sinners could understand how an unbalanced mind could descend into madness. Add into the mix the fens, superstitions, and awful secrets hidden in the past and there you have it.
Where this narrative differs is the writing which is descriptive and realistic. It draws the reader in by allowing glimpses of the past.
The story unfolds as more details are revealed and the line between what really happened and what is possibly supernatural in nature becomes blurred. How much is simply superstition? The period in which it is set is at a time when the freedom of women still largely depended on the whim of male members of the family and thought not to have any need of an education. Maud gradually finds out her beloved fathers true nature on finding her fathers diaries and is horrified by its revelations.
The characters are well defined and believable. Mauds love of the fens and her love of birds, the magpie Chatterpie,Clem and also the shameless Ivy all have a part to play in the downfall of the Edmund Stearn. The fens become a character in itself taking on a life of its own. Excellent writing I am looking forward to more from this author.

Michelle Paver's new novel is a cyclical narrative set in the Suffolk Fens. Not only does it capture the Edwardian period beautifully but it is a haunting, evocative tale firmly rooted in the Gothic genre.

Maud lives in a relic of a house with her mysterious father and beloved maman - but the latter tragically dies in Maud's childhood, leaving her under the care of various housekeepers and putting up with the strange relationship her father has with Ivy, an employee who's of a similar age. As time goes on, Maud begins to suspect her father's odd behaviour; she reads his journals and ledgers; she is curious as to what is going on inside his corrupt mind.

The narrative is strongest when it focuses on Maud - but less so from her father, Edward Stearne, whose private diaries, told in the first-person, explore his investigations into the supernatural and the outcomes of research which gets somewhat out of hand.

'Wakenhyrst' covers a number of decades in the characters' lives. Even though it is a convincing and compelling read, showing how much Paver has researched so many elements, parts of it jar - particularly the Edward Stearne sections with seem quite contrived and somewhat implausible. I found myself wanting more of the Maud narrative overall. Having said this, like some of the author's other novels, the time period is portrayed in a very effective, imaginative way and this makes it a really good read.

The journals of painter and historian Edmund Stearne have been kept safely in Wake's End since his admittance to an asylum for the criminally insane. He admitted he did it but that he never did anything wrong. 60 years later, his daughter releases his, and her, story to the world.

Wakenhyrst is a gothic style horror set in the fens of East Anglia. While the characters are fictional, much of the story is based on real historical accounts; the delirious writings of a spiritualist, the disturbing paintings of asylum inmates, and the doom, a religious mural depicting the Day of Judgement.

Through Edmund's journal, his entitlement of his position in the world is clear. He can treat those in his household how he pleases, as long as he keeps up appearances to society. As Maud's account starts, she knows her mother is constantly ill, resulting in "the groaning". Edmund's sexual desires take precedence over his wife's health, who repeatedly suffers miscarriages. Young Maud makes up her own version of events until she starts to read her father's journals.

I loved the decision to switch between the despicable man of the times and the girl's perspective. In Thin Air, the main character was racist and arrogant, and despite it fitting for the time, it was a little off-putting. In Wakenhyrst, Edmund can have horrible attitudes towards women but it's tempered by Maud's perspective. He might think her weak minded but she's quite the opposite. It also means you're looking forward to something bad happening to him!

Maud's a fantastic character. As she reads her father's journal, her opinion of him changes rapidly and she starts to subtly annoy him on purpose. She saves and befriends a magpie, hence the cover, and she strikes up a friendship with the handsome gardener, someone below her station as far as her father is concerned. Through this it highlights the power imbalance caused by poverty.

Maud loves the fen and feels at home wandering its watery wilderness. However her father is scared of it, his guilt manifesting in his paranoia. The pervasive marsh smell starts to haunt him as he becomes more and more obsessed with the rantings of Alice Pyett, ironically a female spiritualist. It's gripping and tense, and my favourite Michelle Paver book by far.

Paver's slice of Gothic horror manages to be both true to and critical of its often anti-female roots, joining the likes of Laura Purcell's The Silent Companions and the work of Sarah Perry as exciting new twists on an already rich and compulsively readable genre. Balancing the psychological with the supernatural is no mean feat, but Wakenhyrst seems to manage it with ease, resulting in a story that will linger (like so many spooky medieval demons) long after the final page.