Wakenhyrst is a stunning achievement, a story of religious fervour and the power and oppression of women. Like the characters, I too was enraptured by the brooding Fen, a character in its own right that possesses all it encounters. Maud is a brilliant, feisty character, whose heartbreaking story will stay with me for a long time. A story that draws on the great gothic tradition but feels inherently modern. Could not be more wonderful. My book of the year already.

A fan of Michelle Paver since I first read her ghost story “Dark Matter”, I was so excited to see she has a new book coming out and even more excited to receive an ARC to review via NetGalley. Dark Matter was a book I found uniquely terrifying, a perfectly compacted haunting and I was curious to see what else Paver could do.

Like Dark Matter, Wakenhyrst has a cunning approach of interlocking narratives, a story within a story as the opening. It works extremely well because it gives the reader time to acclimate to a strange and somewhat sinister landscape in which the tale is set and also provides some of the backstory without the need for a big info dump. We’re introduced to solitary Maud, living in the house and grounds where unexpectedly her father committed an awful murder some years ago. Once the main tale begins, from Maud’s point of view, it unfolds with a cracking pace and I simply could not put it down. I regret I read it almost too quickly because there’s a lot of layered goodness there as well as multiple hints and red herrings. But the suspense was so masterfully ratcheted up, it was impossible to slow down. There is a medieval painting called “the Doom”, secret diaries, surly servants, pet birds, eels and mysterious fens. Indeed I would go so far to say the fens act as a character in their own right, the perfect backdrop for the slow build of the creepy Gothic atmosphere.

One of the things I particularly liked is I felt there was a huge question mark throughout the book as to whether Maud is a reliable narrator or not. She comes across as an intelligent, complicated person right from the start but also as a person with an agenda of her own. That simply added to the growing unease and suspense. The supporting characters are also interesting and well drawn albeit we only get to see them from Maud's point of view. I also felt the resolution was really very good, which is a major strength for stories like this where it so often falls apart right at the conclusion/reveal.

A 5 star gothic horror set on the. claustrophic fens of Suffolk . This was a book I. could not put down., as the story developed there was a real sense of suspense and impeding horror. Obviously well researched , the author really does develop a true sense of the remoteness of the fens , the increasing madness of Maud’s father and Mauds increasing frustration as the adults around her and particularly the men do not take her concerns seriously.. Some great characters, the plot is straightforward, but that adds to the developing suspense..

I've been a fan of Michelle Paver since I read the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness to my oldest son. In fact, if he read ahead during the day (as often happened), I would wait until he was asleep then 'borrow' the book to read it for myself! In light of this, receiving an ARC of Wakenhyrst, was one of my Net Galley highlights of last year. I have to say that it didn't disappoint!
The reader finds them self being drawn into Edwardian rural Suffolk and the peculiar ways of the Fens. This is both a curse and a blessing as it's not always a comfortable place to reside, especially for a woman. I couldn't help but think of J. L. Carr's 'A Month in the Country', which also deals with the uncovering of a Medieval church painting in (post war) rural Suffolk. However, whereas in that book we meet a damaged narrator in a bucolic idyll, Wakenhyrst presents us with the naive, but calm and enquiring mind of Maud who lives in what seems to be a harsh and brutal environment.
The further I read in this book, the more I became immersed in the raw unforgiving nature of the Fens and the sense of impotency and futility that women must have felt then. I would wholeheartedly recommend this for anyone wanting an intriguing, immersive but slightly challenging read. It's not a particularly scary ghost story. I read late into the night on my own to finish this book and didn't feel uncomfortable, despite being a wimp in these matters! What it is, is an excellent gothic read that I'm sure will become a favourite of many.

Gosh I've loved Paver's writing even since discovering 'The Wolf Brother' books for my students. Such fabulous lessons and readings we had with Torak and Wolf!
Anyway, this is just my sort of book - Gothic writing, superb narrative plotting with a slam dunk ending! The descriptions of the landscape are evocative and beautiful even in their bleakness, such a great read for winter's day.
Set at Wake's End in 1906, a large house on the edge of the Fen, I couldn't help but think of Haworth and the Bronte's home on the edge of the moors and their Gothic writing. At the heart of the story is the home's owner Edmund Stearne and it's his psychology that is the most central and fascinating core to the story. Themes of the female at the time. family relationships, religion, psychology, oppression, supernatural, witchcraft, patriarchy and myths.
Gripping! Loved it! A must read!

Here's a lovely gothic style historical novel to tempt you to stay up late reading under the covers. It's not a horror story as such but a creepy tale of madness and loneliness.

I find the cover quite enticing with the silhouette of a Magpie (Oh, Chatterpie!!) and are those drops of blood?

Wakenhysrt is the story of a young woman Maud, brought up by her bullying father in a large old house around the turn of the 20th century, after the death of her mother in bloody childbirth. Maud is a very lonely young woman, forced to grow up quickly, she has few real friends. An intelligent young woman, when intelligence is the province of the male members of a family line, this does her few favours, apart from earning her a little grudging respect from the unpleasant and unpredictable father she nevertheless longs to impress.

He "allows" her the doubtful privilege of transcribing his historical research into local lore and a book about a woman thought to be possessed he becomes fixated on after finding part of an old painting belonging to the local church known as a doom.

Het grows fixated and fearful and Maud in turn begins to fear for his sanity and possibly her own. Her only companions are the household servants, one of whom she longs to be closer to and one who betrays her, and a bird she rescues and grows to love.

Its a creepingly sinister tale, with a real twist in the tail I didn't see coming and a haunting sadness that had a lump in my throat. The story is told retrospectively by a researcher who comes to interview Maud in her old age and in this it reminded me of The Thirteenth Tale somewhat, it also has overtones of The Essex Serpent.

If you liked either of these books you will most probably enjoy Wakenhryst immensely as did I. Its a very credible and atmospheric coming of age story with a very dark core. I was rooting for Maud all the way, loathed her father and loved the water fenland location its set in.

Nearing the closing pages of Wakenhyrst, Michelle Paver writes 'Like the magic thicket in the fairytale, the hedge that protected Wake's End grew even higher and behind it, Maud continued to hide.' It is a sentence that for this reviewer sums up an incredible and beautiful darkly Gothic novel.

The book is set on the atmospheric and ancient Suffolk fens around a mysterious Ivy-clad house known as Wake's End during the first decades of the twentieth century, and which is visited by academic investigator, Dr Robin Hunter, in the mid nineteen sixties. Hunter is curious about a bizarre murder that occurred years earlier, and subsequent incarceration of the murderer, What underpinned this murder. Are there clues in the paintings he completed whilst incarcerated in Broadmoor. She gains access to his diaries. Do these contain clues? What does his daughter, Maud really know? Will she break her long silence about her father and his crime and reveal the truth?

The real protagonist of this story is Maud who like Maisie of the famous Jamesian novel 'What Maisie Knew' is a watcher, the child of a kind mother and harsh academic, religious father who insists on his conjugal rights despite many still births and miscarriages. After her mother's death following a final pregnancy, Maud diligently admires her father, as a fifteen year old becomes his secretary and is determined to unearth his secrets. Secrets pile up on secrets. Bizarre occurrences meander through the novel with increasing pace. This is a fast-paced novel full of quests mostly driven by her father's great work concerning a medieval mystic who is revealed in the author note to be based on Margery Kemp and the discovery of a sinister medieval Doom Painting. Is this Doom painting more than it appears? Why is her father possessed by it? What does 'The Life of Saint Guthlaf ' have to do with these mysteries and quests? Whose lives are endangered?

This intriguing novel is as rich in atmosphere as a medieval painting. Maud's character is brilliantly scribed. She is curious, determined and complex. She falls in love not only with the Fens and its animal life but truly in romantic love and as she grows disillusioned by those she would like to trust she faces a sinister and threatening future. She's a wonderful creation. I would also like to note that the research feeding into the story is fabulous.

This is a brilliant work, utterly beautifully written and completely atmospheric. It is exceptionally haunting, containing fully realised characters who will remain with you long after the final page is turned. It is one of the richest books I have read in many a year and I wish it enduring success.

Michelle Paver never disappoints. A spooky tale of madness, demons and secrets set against a background of bigotry and ignorance. The attitude of men towards women beggars belief and the sad thing is that it is still rife in many societies, including some parts of our own.
I loved Maud, brave, funny bright.
My thanks to Netgalley for this copy.

Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver

I received this book for free for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley.

Firstly, I have to say that I am going to be buying a copy of this book as soon as it hits the stores. I loved it!

I have read other books by Michelle Paver and loved each one, so I was very optimistic, and I was not let down!

The story is set at the start of the 1900’s, I LOVE Historical Fiction anyway and set around a spooky atmosphere it is a winner. Its a slow burner, but one that keeps the readers interest the whole way through. The descriptive writing is so good that you feel you are there with each character.

Maud is a young girl, taking care of the family home for her father and has to deal with so much! The characters are so carefully crafted that I hated and loved them in equal measure!

It is a story that leaves much to the readers imagination and gives you many creepy details to work with. I can honestly say that I flew through this book and cannot recommend it enough.

It leaves you wonderful many things and I love that in a book. Brilliant.

A good read and enjoyable.
Strong plot and well thought out characters
A good read.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Head of Zeus for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

Actual rating 4.5/5 stars.

This is the perfect atmospheric read to accompany these gloomy winter evenings.

The Gothic wildness of the fens is almost untouched by the heft of man that seems to be overtaking the rest of the world. It is a place undisturbed, expect by undefinable shrieks at night, the ghosts of superstition and folklore, and one lone mansion that borders the wilderness. Inside this house, the occupants largely attempt to exist in total disconnection with the fens but something about the strange beauty of it allures its youngest member and Maud will not settle into her relegated sphere of the world before she can explore all of the wild offerings that exist outside of it.

This novel was staged around a series of communications between the fully grown Maud and a journalist attempting to lure her into telling her story. Financial needs meant she finally relented and the reader was flung back to Edwardian England as the true story begins to unfurl in the present tense.

I adored Maud. Her forward thinking and feminist ideologies, her stubborn nature, and her ardent longing for the natural world all spoke to my heart and I was to unable to do anything but align with her cause. Her father, however, far less so, just as the story demanded of its readers.

Along with the strong-willed Maud, my heart also became enamoured with the majestic wilderness that consistently surrounded her. I could not fail but to liken this to my favourite read, [book:Wuthering Heights|6185]. Cathy Earnshaw is as much a product of the moors as she is her upbringing and the same can be said for Maud. Also, in both, the mirroring of tempestuous passions between nature and the characters traversing its plains dominate the texts. Both were about far more than nature's undisturbed beauty, but that is what spoke so clearly to me, through the intricacies of the plot and ensured both as eternally unforgettable reads.

If there was justice in the world, Wakenhyrst would get as much attention as The Essex Serpent. Michelle Paver is brilliant and I'll read anything she writes. This one kept me up for a few nights & gave me some weird dreams. I'd definitely recommend it to patrons and am planning on buying my own copy.

I enjoyed this book. The book starts with a young writer visiting the elderly, cantankerous Maud to try to get permisssion to read Maud's fathers diary where the writer hopes to gain insight into the mind of Edmund Stearne (Maud's father) and how he came to commit murder. The book then continues with a flashback to Maud's childhood at her family home. Wakenhurst and it is through Maud's eyes and experiences that the saga unravels. WE get to read Edmund's diarywhen Maud is able to sneak into his study to read it. We also gain insight into her father's research into a medieval mystic and the origin and effect of a wooden painting called a doom which shows the creatures from hell which was painted for the local ancient church.

The novel, although set in Edwardian times feels quite gothic and Maud and her family seem more early Victorian to me than Edwardian. The writer visiting at the beginning and the end of the book also feels interposed and doesn't quite gel and flow. Maud retelling her tale on her own (which consitutes the main bulk of the narrative) would be sufficient. I forgot (as the book was on Kindle so I didn't see the cover) was by MIchelle Paver, a really seasoned writer, whose Book of the Human Skin I really like and admire. Ths felt like a slighter affair and from a less experienced hand.

That said, I really enjoyed following Maud and her truly appalling childhood and felt the sense of doom as her fathers mind unravels.

Michelle Paver is an underrated master of her genre. In Wakenhyrst, she has created an eerie, tense world of which I very much relished being a part, for the all too short time it took me to read.

A wonderfully atmospheric historical novel with beautiful descriptions of the fens and countryside. It leaves with that strange chill that Paver is such a master of. Not creepy in the same way as ‘Thin Air’ but unsettling, uncomfortable and even a little upsetting in the best way possible.

Wakenhyrst is one of those books that pulls you right into the story, extremely atmospheric, so much so that I found myself getting lost in the story every time I started reading.
Told from the perspective of Maud, who's father is both an artist, and a murderer.. this is the perfect, gothic Edwardian thriller that will take you back in time. Unsettling, creepy and addictive. This book was written for cosy, dark winter nights, and I will be checking out the authors other works.
5 stars and a great start to 2019
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for allowing me to read in return for an honest review.

My thanks to Michelle Paver, Head of Zeus and NetGalley for the opportunity to read WAKENHYRST. I had high hopes for this novel and I wasn't disappointed. A gothic lovers dream it follows the enticing story of Maud and the descent into utter madness of her father.. It's scary, grim and although the ending isn't all bells and whistles, which wouldn't have seemed appropriate anyway, it's about as satisfying as it can be. I wanted so much for Maud, but I think she was only able to settle for what was given to her in the end. The Edwardian backdrop, a favourite era of mine, is the perfect setting for this very unsettling story of male domination, regardless of their mental state. Any sniff of entrapment in a book or drama is a very frightening prospect for me, and sometimes we want to feel a little scared. A really good novel by Michelle Paver, definitely one for the to be read list.

This is a Gothic thriller, distinct from Paver's more supernatural chillers such as 'Dark Matter'. It's a real page turner with a strong female protagonist and a feminist theme.

First read of 2019 is suggesting it's going to be a mighty year - Wakenhyrst has further cemented exactly why Paver is one of my all-time favourite authors. Intoxicating, very frightening and so deftly assured - a great at the absolute peak of her powers.

“Dark Matter” is one of the most genuinely unsettling books I have ever read. It carries such a creeping sense of dread that I had to stop reading and turn all the lights on. I was afraid of that soft, round, wet head and how it came to be there.

This book has the same sense of historical atmosphere and the same glimpses of the uncanny. However much as I enjoyed it I just wasn’t affected in the same way.