I was delighted to be given the chance to read Wakenhyrst, as i have enjoyed Michelle Paver's previous novels, and i was gripped by this one.
You can tell by her vivid descriptions that Michelle has a deep knowledge, of the sights and sounds of the Suffolk Fens, where this is set. Her writing is beautifully constructed and her characters are believable.
The story revolves around a wooden painting- a Medieval Doom, that is found, or rather finds, Edwardian historian Edward Stearne, and the effect it has on his mental health and paranoia. His daughter, Maud comes across his secret diaries,and we learn the terrible history of the Doom and sinister effect it is having on the household.
This is a creepy ,Gothic read and those who enjoy Susan Hill and M. R. James will enjoy this one.
I just reviewed Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver. #Wakenhyrst #NetGalley
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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.

I am a big fan of Michelle Paver and her ability to create real suspense in her stories. It wasn't until I read "Dark Matter" that a book had ever frightened me in the same eerie way I remember being frightened many years ago by Jane Eyre. This new novel is once more eerie and frightening but is based on the well held beliefs of folk lore of earlier centuries. As such we are given a tremendous insight into what it must really have felt like to believe in the existence of demons.

The story is eerie and macabre and Ms Paver evokes the mystery of the fens subtley but perfectly. The descent of Maud's father into madness is cleverly told as is the gradual explanation of all that finally led to the horrific murder. It isn't a book to read if you want gentle relaxation or easy escapism but if you are interested in social history told through mystery and suspense ... and indeed if you enjoy a horror/murder story ... you will find this book fascinating. Thank you Netgalley for this free advance copy.

“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.

This was wicked fun. Brilliantly plotted, perfectly eerie, and with a wonderful central character. I raced through it.

This tale of an Edwardian antiqiuarian falling foul of ancient malevolence cannot help but be reminiscent of of MR James, and for the most part it's worthy of a place in that lineage. But one of James' strengths was his economy and his ability to craft a spinetingler in just a few pages, something Paver herself has managed in her previous short ghost novels, but not here. It's just a little bit too long, and feels a tad flabby in parts.

On the plus side, Paver nails the sense of place, both the overgrown lushness of the fen, and the oppressive and claustrophobic family house. She's also very good on the everyday horror of simply being a woman in a repressive and patriarchal environment. There's an atmosphere of creeping unrest thoughout, and an interesting ambiguity - are we witnessing something supernatural, or merely a descent into fatal madness?

This book is a Gothic tale set in fourteenth century, talking about witchcraft and inner demons. I love Paver's writing and I loved this book. It's so rich with atmosphere, historical setting, myth and magic.

It's told from Maud's perspective. She's the daughter of a murderer. We also go to his diaries. It was fantastic, very engrossing and gripping.
I'd read from Paver anytime. Totally recommended.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for this free copy in exchange for an honest review.

A Gothic tale of Suffolk fens, fourteenth century witchcraft and inner demons.

The country seat of Wake's End lies in the fens, surrounded by a miasma of nature and the overpowering strength of the local church. This rural world lies on a knife-edge, finely balanced between the mysticism of the marshes and the overpowering strength of religion. This story is rich in magic, martyrs and myth.

Told by Maud, the daughter of a murderer and artist, alongside her father's private diaries, this is an atmospheric and dark tale of a descent into madness and demons, set against a context of Medieval Doom. I loved it.

Maud is growing up in Edwardian Suffolk, in the small village of Wakenhyrst, next to one of the few remaining patches of fen that survived the drainages of the early modern period (a landscape which is clearly based on Wicken Fen). Maud's mother is downtrodden by her abusive father, Edmund, forced into an endless cycle of pregnancy, child-bearing and miscarriage. Paver's powerful writing uncomfortably conveys how Edmund's patriarchal world-view is enforcing similar norms upon the teenage Maud, but when her father becomes obsessed with a medieval Doom uncovered in the local church, Maud starts to believe she may have found a way to fight back.

Readers expecting another horror story in the vein of Paver's terrifying Dark Matter and Thin Air will be disappointed by Wakenhyrst, which depicts some potentially supernatural events but reverts to a more familiar formula in which we are not sure whether or not these happenings are the product of Edmund's disturbed mind. While the novel tries to keep this question open, this device ultimately stops Wakenhyrst ever becoming especially frightening, as the reader always feels at some distance from the hauntings. Nevertheless, it is very well-written, and Paver's vivid evocation of the fenland and its ancient myths makes it worth reading.

The book opens in the 1960s, with the investigation of a tabloid journalist into the paintings of Edmund Stearne, an Edwardian gentleman who apparently went mad and murdered a young man, then spent his days in the asylum painting. An art historian persuades Stearne's daughter Maud to tell her story, and it is this which takes up the bulk of the book, using Stearne's notebooks.

Stearne is a respected local historian, fascinated with the story of a local woman which relates to the medieval Doom recently discovered in the nearby church. But he hates the Doom, and loathes the Fens, despite the house being set in the midst of them. His teenage daughter Maud loathes him, holding him responsible for her beloved mother's death, and some of the story relates to Maud's growing up and coming to hate him. He doesn't value her as much as her brothers, even though she is much cleverer, and assumes that she doesn't understand the work he has her type up for him. It is Maud who becomes convinced that her father is going mad and may be dangerous - a fear that is dismissed by the local doctor and clergyman. But tragically, it is Maud who is right. The Doom's paintings relate to the paintings Stearne does later in life, and are part of what haunts him - much of the book is a Gothic thriller, with an added hint of a supernatural mystery which is never resolved.

It's a good read, and deeply frustrating to be reminded of how educated men viewed their daughters in the Edwardian period. The sense of impending disaster is palpable and draws the reader in. The author's note at the end refers to real life parallels with certain aspects of the book, which was interesting - I also had no idea that Fen was a specific term!

I really enjoyed this book part from finding myself slightly stuck in the middle. It seems to move quickly at the beginning and then gets bogged down around halfway before picking up speed and reaching a satisfying conclusion. There is not a real twist at the end but there are a few loose ends which are tied up.
The story examines the role of women as total dependents less than a century ago but the heroine of this story is very young - only 14 - when she is expected to take on the role of running the house and respond to her father's demands.
The spooky promise of the description is fulfilled to some extent but this is not a ghost story. It plays on the character's responses to an old book which is the subject of research and becomes an obsession. This is supported by the nearby ancient church and the rather scary fenland backdrop.
Recommended.

Michelle Paver has written two successful YA fantasy series: Chronicles of Ancient Darkness and Gods and Warriors. She has also published two chilling ghost novels for adults: Thin Air (which I greatly enjoyed reading just over a year ago) and Dark Matter (which I’m yet to read but is, according reviewers I respect, just as brilliant). Both are built on a similar premise – individuals in eerie, extreme landscapes, whether Himalayan peaks or the expanse of the Arctic, start losing their grip on reality and are haunted by ghosts, real or imaginary.

Paver’s latest novel, Wakenhyrst, also features a protagonist in thrall of a supernatural obsession. Yet, there are enough departures from her previous ‘formula’ to make this a refreshing though still uncanny read. It’s also possibly the most ambitious of her adult novels, a tightly-plotted Gothic yarn with strong feminist undertones.

Wakenhyrst’s setting is the (fictional) village of the title, a small settlement in the Suffolk Fens, a few years before the Great War. At first glance, this would appear to be a more prosaic backdrop than the ones the author generally uses – but it’s one which provides ample opportunities for a Gothic tale, thanks to the insidious marshy landscape which surrounds the village, the rich Medieval history of the area and the ancient folklore and folk beliefs of its inhabitants. All these elements are nicely combined by Paver to create an atmosphere of dread which is often tinged with ‘folk horror’. As the author herself explains in her concluding, the inspiration for this novel is a real life event, the discovery of the Wenhaston Doom, a medieval painting of the Last Judgment whitewashed by the Puritans and rediscovered during renovation works in 1892. This is transposed to “Wakenhyrst”, where a similar find triggers a strong emotional reaction from the conservative and misognynistic Edmund Stearne. Stearne is an eminent medieval scholar and owner of Wake’s End, a rambling manor house situated at the outskirts of the village right next to the Fens. He considers himself a rational academic, but feels surprisingly revolted by one of the demons portrayed in the Doom, a malevolent figure which is a cross between traditional iconography and the ‘fen monsters’ which inhabit the area’s legends.

It is no spoiler to state that it is this demon which will stalk the pages of this novel and haunt the increasingly fevered dreams and imaginings of Stearne. Even in this regard, there is a marked difference from Paver’s previous supernatural tales. The Wakenhyrst demon is not the typically ‘spirit’ of many ghost stories, including Paver’s own, but (assuming it’s real), it’s a particularly ‘physical’ and hideous entity, ugly, fetid and violent. A monster, in other words, which could have come from the pen of M.R. James. Although, one should say, not all monsters are demons, and there are some humans who are worthy of that name...

Indeed, whilst Thin Air and Dark Matter are subtitled “a ghost story”, Wakenhyrst is more of a Gothic tale, with some elements of ‘sensation fiction’ added for good measure. The Gothic element is evident not just in the nature of the plot, but also in the way it is presented, particularly through the use of multiple viewpoints and found manuscripts. The novel is held together by a “frame story” set in the 1960s in which Maude Stearne, Edmund’s daughter, is drawn from a lonely, reclusive life at Wake’s End, and compelled to recount the tragic events which form the core of the novel. These occurences (as we learn very early on), had consigned her father to a mental institution where he spent years painting several canvases featuring demons and devils (this finds a real-life parallel in the curious story and posthumous fame of artist Richard Dadd). The account of Stearne’s descent into madness is told in the third-person but, very clearly, from the perspective of an older Maud. In this respect, Wakenhyrst can also double as a coming-of-age story, and a particularly harrowing one at that. Interspersed throughout the text are pages from the diary of Stearne, extracts from the medieval Book of Alice Pyett (a thinly-veiled reference to the Book of Margery Kempe), on which Stearne was working with Maud’s help at the time of the Doom’s disovery, and The Life of St Guthlaf, a fictional hagiographic account closely based on the life of St Guthlac of Crowland. These disparate threads are deftly woven by Paver into a gripping canvas, whose momentum increases in the final chapters.

For me, Wakenhyrst works best as a “Gothic thriller”, rather than as a supernatural tale. I had found Thin Air chilling and unsettling because it left the reader in doubt as to whether the ghosts haunting its protagonists really existed. In Wakenhyrst, however, I found it difficult to entertain the possibility of the demons ever having been real. It does not make the tale any less exciting – but it does drain it of some of its supernatural aura. This is partly due to the inherent scepticism of the narrator – which possibly reflects the author’s own views. The novel is saturated with the beliefs of the Middle Ages, but in her concluding Author’s Note, Paver comes across as disparaging of the writings, legends and mindsetof the era. Just by way of example, the writings of Margery Kempe are lauded as the very first autobiography in English and often included in feminist and women’s studies – considering the laudable feminist viewpoint of the novel, it is therefore ironic and rather disappointing to find Paver dismissing Kempe as “bizarre, narcissistic and oddly pitiable”. One may well agree with Paver that Guthlac of Crowland was “merely a delusional young man afflicted by malaria, home-made opium and loneliness” – but, even leaving spiritual considerations aside, the fact that his life inspired so many poetic accounts and medieval artistic works, testifies to a fascination with this figure which is not easily brushed aside. We might not share the beliefs of our medieval forefathers, or at least, not all of them, but as a first step to respecting and understanding their mindset, we should be ready to momentarily put our preconceptions aside. Much as we do when we immerse ourselves in a page-turning tale such as Wakenhyrst...