Michelle Paver appends an extensive Author's Note to her excellent new novel Wakenhyrst; in it she describes the book's genesis - the chance finds and happenings which sparked ideas which in turn formed the basis of her tale. A novel is more than just a clever assemblage of components, of course, and it's in the way she has used her raw material that Michelle Paver's skill is evident, for while her research has been extensive and comprehensive, she has made her facts work, both efficiently and elegantly, for their place in her intricate story.

From disparate sources come an inspired conjunction: a lonely house in the eerie and forbidding Suffolk fens, a medieval 'Doom' discovered by chance, a historian writing a monograph on a fourteenth century mystic, his bright young daughter, overlooked because of her sex. Add to that a dreadful act never admitted or atoned for, a liberal dash of local folklore and a touch of the supernatural, and you have a gothic thriller about obsession, set in the Edwardian era and the 1960s, which should grip you until the final page.

If you've read Dark Matter or Thin Air you'll know how good a Michelle Paver book is; her latest doesn't disappoint.

Set in Edwardian Suffolk is when it all begins. A painted medieval doll is found in a graveyard and something has been awakened. Well what can I say I was hooked from the fist page. Spent most of the time sat on the edge of my seat and in places holding my breath. A very dark gothic thriller par excellence. It had me reading late into the night, with all the lights on and listening for strange noises. This book gave me goosebumps on my goosebumps. An easy five stars and so Highly Recommended.
I would like to thank the author, Head of Zeus and Netgalley for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

I'm grateful to the publisher for inviting me to take part in the Wakenhyrst blogtour and for providing a free advance e-copy of the book via NetGalley.

Having loved Paver's previous two supernatural-tinged novels, Dark Matter and Thin Air, I was delighted to see Wakenhyrst coming - and then to be able to take part in the tour.

Like Dark Matter and Thin Air, at the heart of Wakenhyrst is the social structure of early 20th century England (England not Britain). I say that despite the fact that the previous books were not set in England: they still explored English notions of class and the way that English arrogance impinged on, and fell foul of, other cultures and places.

Wakenhyrst is, very much, set in England (with one short diversion to Brussels) and the English upper class scorn for the beliefs of the 'natives' that featured in Thin Air is here turned back on itself as a dilettante Edwardian gentleman, researching the obscure fifteenth century mystical biography of one Alice Pyett, goes to dark places despite (or because of?) his rejecting the beliefs of the 'lower orders'.

Edmund Stearne is a man 'of spotless reputation' but, to his daughter Maud, a forbidding and pernickety father ("You know my dislike of manhandled newsprint") who enthusiastically administers physical punishment. To his Belgian wife he is a tyrant ('It was Father who had decreed what Mama ate, read, did and thought...') As a girl, indeed as a woman, Maud is slighted, discounted, disregarded. Edmund knows what he wants - his wife pregnant (she suffers an endless series of miscarriages - Maud comes to dread 'the moaning'), his daughter silent in the nursery, and servant girl Ivy at his disposal ('Nor did he regard what he regularly did with Ivy as anything but the satisfaction of a lawful appetite'). Allegedly a religious man, it would be overgenerous even to label the contents of the diary we're allowed to read here as hypocritical. Indeed there's a vein of outright misogyny in Edward ('Women are all the same. Devious, hypocritical, corrupt') and also in his pals the local doctor and the Vicar. The subordinate role of a young woman in that time and place is made very plain: when she seeks their help in a crisis, Maud is threatened, told to stop being hysterical sent on her way. Throughout the book, Ivy and Maud are at odds, seeking to undermine one another, even though the cause of their problems is not their own relationship but the stultifying, patriarchal, power of Maud's father.

But this isn't just a story of how bad things were in the past and how much better they have become. Paver is shrewder than that. The book opens in 1966 with a quoted newspaper article which is, in its own way, just as patronising, just as set on keeping women in their place, as Doctor, Parson and Squire at their worst. Describing the discovery of some sublime artworks created by Edmund in his later life, it introduces the academic who first recognised them thus:

' "My hair stood on end," shrills Dr Robin Hunter, 36, a mini-skirted redhead in white vinyl boots...'

That article portrays the elderly, reclusive Maud, still living in her decayed childhood home out in the Fens, as at best, a bitter old maid, at worst, a murderer and witch - and naturally, as in conflict with another woman, her cook. Plus ca change... Initially unwilling to share the real story, despite the calumny directed at her, Maud eventually relents (a storm has damaged the roof, she needs money) and admits to her confidence that same Dr Hunter.

We then hear Maud's account, interspersed with entries from her father's diaries. This is where the real story begins - of a lonely girl with a strict father, growing up amidst the wildness of the Fens. Young Maud's life is marked by contrasts, for example between the different customs, of her father and of the villagers, which she must or mustn't follow (sometimes she can't remember which is which). There's the language itself - while the elderly Maud speaks with a 'cut glass accent' it's clear that she is or was perfectly fluent in the local dialect:

' "D-don't fret thysen,' she stammered, unthinkingly lapsing into village talk. "I told thee I wanted to go babbing..." '
In keeping with that, it's clear that everyone - not just the working people but Maud, her mother, Edmund himself - has recourse at one time or another to the potions and remedies of the village wisewoman.

There is the contrast between the entitled, complacent world of men (principally her father) and the second class existence of women.

And between the buttoned-up public attitudes of the trinity who preside over this world and their secret behaviour.

Above all, the story contrasts Edmund Stearne's public reputation as 'a rich landowner and respected historian' with a private dread that he has committed a terrible sin (even if he protests to his diary that he can't remember what it was, and that anyway it wasn't his fault). His fear drives an obsession with Pyett's text, which seems to him to parallel his own case. This is an aspect of the story that only surfaces gradually (there is a lot submerged in the Fen) and indirectly, and saying too much would spoil the effect. The slowly emerging picture does, though, underly a growing atmosphere of menace which makes this book truly Gothic. Paver signals what may be going on with language that alludes to the master of this genre, MR James, from details (toad-like carvings on a pew, Stearne's almost tripping as he comes downstairs, his feeling as if he had been bitten) to turns of phrase ( '...whoever painted that picture painted the demon from life') and overall themes (the fear of a hairy thing that has been let loose, the story's focus on a lone scholar and its being told, in part, looking back some fifty years through a manuscript account). We could be reading one of those stories where an accusing spectre haunts the guilty, slowly driving them over the edge of sanity.

Whether that is, in the end, the case - well, I won't say any more about that. You should read the book and make up your own mind. But it is clear that there is much more going on than in a classic ghost story, even though Paver uses that form expertly. Apart from the theme of patriarchy, I think there's also an exploration here of the creation of memory, of the importance of story - most obviously of course in older Maud's desire to control the narrative, as one might put it now, but also for example in the way that Stearne says in his diary that he remembers something 'though I didn't before' - he is a most unreliable narrator indeed and seems to me to be reinventing his life and outlook under pressure of - well, of whatever it is. Maud sees Edmund's story take shape and come to life - and eventually realises how it threatens her and those she loves. And in the end she has to take control and make her own truth.

In describing how Maud does that, Paver has, in a sense, to go beyond the supernatural and show how some horrors are actually worse - because more universal - than the shades haunting remote mountain peaks or isolated Arctic bases and which her previous books turned on. Wakenhyrst depicts a sense of unearned entitlement, the systematic application of privilege and the embrace of hypocrisy, both in the Edwardian summer and the topsy turvy '60s, which to me is actually much more chilling than a vengeful ghost keening in the Fen.

It is a powerful, enthralling book which I'd encourage you to read. If you need any more urging, it's also a beautifully designed thing, the cover tactile and brooding, the endpapers leafy and glorious, the pages crawling with the life of the Fens - the design by Stephen McNally really enhancing the experience of reading this book (yes, I was sent an e-copy, yes I have bought the hardback - there was no way wasn't going to have this on my shelves). And there's much, much more than ice been able to cram into this review: the teeming wildlife of the Fens, Maud's later life - only sketched but Paver does it so well that we can join the dots - and even some romance.

This will definitely going to be one of my standout books of the year.

The blogtour continues - see the poster below for other excellent reviews - and you can buy Wakenhyrst from your local bookshop, including via Hive, from Blackwell's, Waterstones or Amazon (and doubtless other places besides).

I was extremely excited to read Wakenhyrst, I'm a huge fan of Michelle Paver's writing style. I absolutely tore through Dark Matter and I couldn't get enough of the creeping dread and icy cold fear that it invoked. When I heard Paver had written a historical, Gothic fiction I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.

Wakenhyrst started out strong, it was beautifully atmospheric with the eerie fen such a constant presence that it almost developed as much as the characters.

The central figure of the book, Maud Stearne is an intelligent and scholarly girl who is dominated by an overbearing father who holds strong views about the roles of women and men. Maud is an intriguing and unsual main character, in turns she's insular and proper and in other she's as wild as the fens. It would be easy to dislike Maud because of her changing nature, and often selfish pursuits. However, her love and compassion for other characters grows throughout the book and she becomes a much more sympathetic character. Her development is so strong it often overrode the suspense and chill factor for me.

I was far more invested in Maud than I was the eerie ghost story that I feel like Wakenhyrst was trying to spin. It's by no means a criticism. Maud is potentially Paver's strongest character yet, and certainly the most multi-faceted. However I did miss the oozing and seeping feelings of dread I had built up in her previous books.

I hope that the next book manages a more even balance - because the bottom line is Michelle Paver is an artist at weaving words and I can't wait to see what she does next.

Since hearing about Wakenhyrst I have been very excited at getting the chance to read it, and it didn't disappoint.  The book starts in 1966, Maud is living at Wakes End alone and reeling after an article in the paper that takes her back to 1913 and a murder committed by her father.  The main body of the book is narrated from Maud's point of view, from ten years old to the events of 1913 when she was sixteen. This gothic thriller has a touch of the supernatural and mysticism to enchant the reader, and a plot that builds in suspense and atmosphere to draw you in.

Michelle Paver draws on different literary devices through the book which adds variety, different perspectives and some clarity to the thoughts and beliefs of the characters.  As well as Maud's narrative there are chapters from her father's, Edmund Stearne, private notebook which gives an insight into his thoughts and feelings as we see him spiral into a kind of paranoia.  There are also the translations of Edmund's work on a book that recounts the life of mystic Alice Pyett from the fifteenth century and links to the painting The Last Judgement found in the church. These different narrative devices combine to make this such a fascinating and interesting reading experience.

As a lead character, Maud is captivating to read about and curious in personality.  She isn't one for obeying rules and has a keen intelligence and thirst for knowledge.  The problem with being a girl was that she had to stay at home and learn how to run a house whilst her brothers were sent to school.  As her father's assistant and types up his translations, but he doesn't expect her to understand what she is typing as she is female; how wrong he is.  Edmund is a man of his time and what we would call chauvinistic in his attitude.  Through Maud and his writings we are voyeurs to his descent into paranoia which also opens up a horrific secret from his past.  Edmund's character and morality is called into question, as we learn there is another side to him. The Fens play an important part in this novel, the smells, dampness, creatures that live there are like another character.  They encroach on the house and those who live there; for Maud they are a place she can be free of rules, for her father they are to be shut out, they bring back bad memories and invade his home and mind like an intruder.

Wakenhyrst is a beautiful, chilling and evocative read. The attention to detail brings the Fens and Wakes End and their sights and smells to life, so that as you are reading you can almost feel and smell the dampness encroaching. Edmund's descent into paranoia is in contrast to Maud's growth into a more confident young woman, who comes to know her own mind as the plot progresses. Historical detail, the atmospheric Fens, wonderful characters all combine to make this dark and gothic tale such a deliciously divine read and cement Michelle Paver as a masterful story teller.

If you are looking for a darkly atmospheric gothic yarn, you have found it in Wakenhyrst. I was thoroughly gripped from the first. Maud's childhood, growing up around the fens, was so vividly illustrated I felt I was there with her. Her life was not an easy one but she learned to adjust to her tedious existence and even found ways to take control. Living with a heavily domineering father was most troublesome to her, especially being treated as a second rate person, but soon the tables turned for our girl Maud. The dark, creepy elements in this novel were a delight to behold and most enjoyed on a cold rainy night.

Michelle Paver writes excellent atmospheric stories and this book is no exception. Starting off in the early 1900s, Maud Stearne is a young girl living in the oppressive atmosphere of the Wake’s End Manor House. Her mother is trapped in a cycle of pregnancies and miscarriages while Maid feels trapped by an inability to pursue her passion of reading and academics due to her gender. Her Father is strict and overbearing and Maud sees little opportunity for a life outside the village they live in. When Maud’s mother dies, Maud becomes responsible for running the household and when she finds her Father’s diaries she gains an insight into an increasingly troubled mind. Maud tries to take back control but ultimately events end tragically.

This is a beautifully descriptive book. Maud’s house is close to the Suffolk fens and the claustrophobic feeling of being enclosed seeps into the everyday life of the house. Maud’s father, Edmund, is an imposing figure and there’s a noticeable change in the atmosphere when he goes away for a few days. Maud’s rare moments of relief come in trips to the local bookshop and a fledgling but ultimately doomed relationship with hired hand, Clem. There’s rarely a happy moment for Maud, her gender counts against her at every turn and when she tries to alert the local doctor to her father’s increasingly volatile mental state, she is threatened with incarceration herself. There’s a lot going on in this book and I’ve no doubt that it’s historically accurate. Tension bubbles throughout the story and I found it to be a engrossing read. Slightly less supernatural than Michelle Paver’s last two books but compelling none the less.

I received a ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair review.

This book is beautifully written, I found it difficult to put it down. Gothic and engaging - I loved every bit of this tale. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC. And thanks to the author for writing such an engaging story.

In the shadow of the ancient land, Maud Stearne lives with her family at Wake’s End the house which nudges the nearby water of the Suffolk fen, but which for many reasons stands apart from the landscape, for the house has too many secrets and many dark corners, where glimpses of an evil past sometimes surface.

In 1966, when the story opens, three unusual paintings have been discovered which direct public interest back to Edward Stearne, Mauds’s father, who was incarcerated in a mental asylum for many years. The reason for this curiosity in Stearne’s work becomes apparent as we move back in time to the early part of the twentieth century when Maud was growing up in the shadow of her dictatorial father and beautiful, but totally compliant, mother.

Filled with a wealth of supernatural imaginings and with more than a hint towards the gothic gloom of the Edwardian era, Wakenhyrst is an incredibly detailed story with a wonderful dark imagery which immediately places the reader right in the centre of the action. To say I devoured this story is absolutely correct, the place, the people, the inherent danger, all drew me in from the very beginning, and I couldn’t wait to see how the story played out.

There is an undeniable darkness to the story for all is not quiet at Wake’s End and Maud’s childhood is a deeply lonely affair, and whilst she is brutally aware of the undercurrents of the dark and dangerous emotion which plague her parents’ marriage, she finds what comfort she can in the myths and legends of the place she calls home. The stark beauty of the Suffolk fens, and the ancient superstitions which are at the very heart of local folklore are described in such beautiful detail that I could picture myself with Maud in the damp and cold, watching the creeping shadows of the fen come to life as a murmuration of starlings glide and dance in the early evening twilight.

To say much of what happens in the three hundred or so pages of Wakenhyrst would do both the author and the story a complete disservice as this is one of those beautifully plotted stories which takes time to emerge and is all the stronger for taking things slowly.

I’ve now read most of this author’s work, with the exception of her books for children, and I am always aware of how beautifully intuitive her writing is, and how she does her utmost to include the reader every step of the way so that the engagement with the story is utterly consuming from start to finish. There is no doubt that Wakenhyrst is a glorious example of this author writing at her absolute best.

Overall, this book just really wasn't for me. I'm not the biggest fan of historical reads and also I realised more and more that these folklore stories aren't anything I enjoy either. I should have expected this, but I still like to try and branch out sometimes.

Wakenhyrst is an interesting story, that definitely feels carefully researched and is well written. I just couldn't connect to the characters and felt overall mostly bored by the story itself. I still don't think that's an issue with the novel but more with how it doesn't work with my personal taste.

If you enjoy slowly build up historical fiction laced with religious folklore, this book will definitely be for you.

‪ https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2019/4/6/wakenhyrst-by-michelle-paver‬

One of the most truly terrifying parts of growing up is the discovery that our world isn’t what we think it is. Our perception of our parents and our initial beliefs will be challenged and changed as we understand the world better and our place in it. In this excellent gothic thriller Michelle Paver gives us a study of a family at the turn of the 20th century that brings me one of my most haunting and at times terrifying reads to date.

By late the late 1960’s Edmund Stearne has an infamous reputation a rich gentlemen historian who one day went mad; killed a stranger with a hammer and spent the rest of his life in an asylum creating three notoriously eerie but incredibly popular pieces of art. His daughter Maud now elderly sits in the family home alone refusing to give her side of the story. But after a salacious article attempting to blame Maud for the crime (and a need for cash to repair the home) then Maud decides to finally tell a young journalist what happened. Maud recounts her life growing up in a strict religious household; ruled by a man who has no time for women and what becomes a battle for independence; revenge and heartache. All taking place in a mysterious part of the world where the old legends of the fen are still being feared by the locals.

Maud and her father are the absolute lynchpins of the book. We start off very much seeing the world though Maud’s eyes. She is smart, fascinated by nature and reading and keen to understand the world better. At first immensely in need of her father’s approval. The book then at times gives you Edmund’s own thoughts from his diary. One of the first pieces of horror in this tale is that he clearly has little actual love for his daughter or wife they are possessions and his appalling attitude to women is a theme explored throughout the book. Maud is demoted in his eyes by virtue of her sex and he even is repulsed by her looks and eczema. When Maud reads this section of the diary that realisation sets a scene for a wider battle of wills over the next few years.

Maud is clearly embedded in a culture of a time when women are seen and not heard and all the men of power in the novel dismiss her as not worth her time. This underestimation of her capabilities though allows her to further investigate and test her father’s reaction to events after a medieval picture is found and its links to an ancient legend. He appears to be being reminded of his past and leads to both someone lashing out at his family and staff but and the diary entry makes clear he is increasingly fearful of something haunting him out of the corner of his eye. Maud however is growing up and seeing the wilder world of the fen and those who live on it including a young gardener to get out of that stifling society. Maud’s obvious strengths and her containment by this awful society make her a compelling lead character to follow and watching her battle these restrictions is fascinating. In contrast to Maud we also get Ivy a working-class girl where the men seem much happier that she can show sexuality while the middle-class women are to be always silent and demure. I loved how Paver highlights the contradiction in these Edwardian men preaching religious morality while indulging their own desires once doors are closed and feeling no sense of hypocrisy.

This is firmly a gothic thriller and there is a unique atmosphere here as the Fen and the village are set up as this wilder force that appears to be reacting to Maud’s pleas to be rescued from her father’s grip. A medieval painting seems to be triggering something almost supernatural preying at the family. Nothing in this novel is made explicitly rational it is all down to reader’s interpretation, but it’s all made alive by Paver’s language from magpies flying into the house to a demon on a wall who is staring accusingly at you and seeing all your sins. Making the fen such a character really helps build that escalating tension in this battle between Maud and her father so that in its final few chapters as we reach the event that made Edmund Stearne infamous, I found reading some of these chapters both terrifying and heart-breaking. Evets are set in course and now no one can stop them.

I think this was a hugely successful novel and was thoroughly immersed into this startling family and the world they lived in. If you enjoy historical novels, gothic thrillers and that teasing hint of something lurking behind the veil pulling strings then this novel is one I think you should be rushing to pick up.

I loved this Gothic novel. The scene setting and characters are so well written and Paver sets the scene so well that I became engrossed in the novel. The story begins in 1966, with the discovery of three paintings, by Edmund Stearne, which have taken the art world by storm. It creates interest immediately and from there you just want to know the story behind the paintings. This dark novel is also a coming of age novel, as Maud discovers the reality of her world and why she has had an isolated existence.

Will there ever be a better writer of gothic, historical horror than Michelle Paver? Absolutely not. A gorgeous slice of Edwardian-manor-house spook with intensely rich imagery and razor sharp tension that will have you looking over your shoulder every page. If reading Dark Matter made you feel cold even in the middle of summer, you need to read Wakenhyrst.

With thanks to the publishers for a pre-publication copy received through NetGalley.

After the excellent The Binding, by Bridget Collins, this is another remarkable slice of Edwardian Gothic. The setting is the Suffolk fen village of Wakenhyrst, and the story spans a five-year period just before the start of WW1, though it could have been a hundred years earlier. Wakenhyrst is isolated, insular, rigidly religious and rife with superstition, surrounded by fens. At the start of the novel, in the 1960s, a journalist is attempting to gain access to the reclusive Maud who has lived her life in Wake's End, the big house at the edge of the fens. He wants to resurrect an investigation into a 60-year-old bloodcurdling murder in the grounds of the house for which Maud's father was convicted on the grounds of criminal insanity. The hack's attempt to pin the murder on Maud, and the need for money for repairs to Wake's End, prompts her to reveal the contents of her father's journals which she has kept private till now.

This takes us back to 1906, seeing events through the eyes of the 9-year-old Maud, the eldest child of Edmund Stearne. A scholar and historian as well as having a voracious sexual appetite, Edmund controls his family with a fist of iron. His wife suffers many miscarriages and stillbirths before dying in childbirth, a fact which leaves a lasting impression on Maud as she painstakingly pieces together the facts of life. She overhears him take the decision to sacrifice her mother's life for that of the final child who would otherwise go unbaptised, and she never quite forgives him. While her younger brother goes off to boarding school, as a girl she is deemed not to need much of an education, but she is enlisted by her father to help with the more menial aspects of his research work which consists of a translation and exegesis on the life of the 15th century female mystic Alice Pyett. Maud thus gains access to her father's study, and begins surreptitiously to read his journal. She also begins to wander in the fens and makes the acquaintance of Jubal, a wild man who has lived there for years. Thus she learns of a 'sin' her father seems to have committed in his youth for which his journals reveal a growing guilt, but not what the crime actually was.

The village church is a medieval building dedicated to St Guthlaf, where all the village worships. At Edmund's instigation the plaster above the altar is torn down to be replaced, and while he walks past it as it lies in the churchyard in the rain, he notices an eye looking malevolently at him. Investigations reveal a fine medieval Doom painting depicting the Last Judgement in graphic detail, which is restored and brought back to Wakenhyrst. The Doom has a strange effect on Edmund, who becomes more and more haunted by the sin of his past. He starts to see parallels between his life and that of Alice Pyett, whose travails were sent by God to test her. His outward behaviour preserves a semblance of normality for a fair while, but his journals reveal his increasingly warped and paranoid thoughts. Or is it paranoia? Are the smells of the fen inside the house merely imagined? Do the stuffed bats in a cloche jar really move? Who - or what - opens Edmund's bedroom window at night to let in the fen miasma?

Alongside the tale of Edmund's descent into madness is Maud's story, that of a young girl growing up motherless in isolation, her intelligence and potential unrecognised, her burgeoning sexual awakening undirected. In her own way, her psychological growth is as warped as her father's, thanks to her rudderless upbringing. She loves the fens as much as her father hates them; they represent the only freedom she is likely to get in a time and place where women were inferior chattels, objects of lust and sexual desire, doomed to perpetual pregnancies and childbirth and dismissed by men as irrelevant. When her father has her semi-tame magpie killed and then starts proceedings to have the fens drained, she secretly pits herself against him, alone in recognising his growing madness and the danger he poses to her. I found the strand of Maud's story almost more compelling, but the two are seamlessly blended together in a pitch-perfect tale of psychological mystery and horror. This is top-quality writing and a hugely compelling read.

This is absolutely splendid!

With breathtaking story lines and rich, gothic imagery, Michelle Paver has created a fable that is both modern and timeless at the same time.

It starts in the 1960's, with 3 paintings by historian Edward Stearne, committed to an asylum for an unspeakable crime, and his daughter Maud, relentlessly reclusive, living in the family mansion who finally decides to tell her story.

Going back to the beginning of the 20th century, the novel then paints a picture of the subjugation of women and their expected role in society versus the wilderness of the English fens.

Not outright horrific as with 'Thin Air', this is a creeping, dark and lyrical look at sanity, the role of women and expectations of society versus self determination framed in a narrative which immediately immerses you.

Powerful, deeply creepy and moving, it has echoes of 'Frankenstein' and 'The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase' and was a pure joy to read.

1913. A strange crime is committed in the Wakenhyrst manor. A man, driven insane, commits murder and is committed in an asylum. Nobody knows what has lead to this tragic incident.

Fifty years later, his daughter and only witness to this tragedy, is finally ready to tell her story. And it's a story no one can easily believe.

A master of Gothic horror, Wakenhysrt has been written in a skillful way. With the narration moving between third person, the murderer's diary and a fictional book, the author creates a mysterious, confusing (in the most positive way) state for the reader, who can't be sure what to expect up to the very end of the story.

This is a complex plot, in which Michelle Paver handles many aspects, such as a very strange and authoritative father-daughter relationship, female oppression, and love in the 20th century. And then, of course, there is the aspect of the mystery itself: was it insanity that drove Maud's father to murder? Was it a supernatural force? Or did Maud have anything to do with it?

Wakenhyrst was an absolute delight to read, an utterly enjoyable story that readers are sure to love.

Wakenhyrst has been a long time in the making, so I was hoping it would live up to my expectations, but it absolutely blew me away and exceeded them beyond what I could ever have realistically imagined. It's a darkly gothic historical tale rich in its imagery and the creepy atmosphere Paver creates in the setting of a haunted manor house is deliciously oppressive. This is essentially a gothic mystery with a dual timeline set in 1913 and 1966 and explores the themes of witchcraft and the dangerous nature of spreading or relying on gossip and rumour. The feeling of profound menace runs throughout and was responsible for creating a tense and unforgettable tale.

The pacing of the novel is slow burn which works brilliantly with the scenery and the plot to encompass a simmering suspense that rises as it progresses. There is plenty to keep you interested and engaged throughout, and I found myself deeply admiring main character Maud's resolve. Those interested in folklore, legend and especially witchcraft, as well as those who enjoy subtle, beautifully written and gothic-style novels set in a historical context, will find much to love here. I look forward to Michelle Paver's next offering.

Many thanks to Head of Zeus for an ARC.

I was attracted to this book because of the cover - I love magpies! I'm also a huge fan of Michelle Paver and her chilling ghost stories (Dark Matter and Thin Air). Wakenhyrst is written in a different genre: a gothic historical mystery set in a spooky old manor house - my favourite kind of book!

Wakenhyrst starts in 1966. A journalist has written about a notorious murder that occurred in 1913, implying that darker forces might have been involved: witchcraft, in other words. The man accused of this murder spent the rest of his life in a lunatic asylum creating sinister paintings, often featuring a woman surrounded by demonic imps. Back in 1913, Maud lives alone with her father at Wake's End. Haunted by a mysterious event in his past, he becomes obsessed with the idea that demons are all around us and records these increasing rambling thoughts in his diary. Maud is equally obsessed - with escaping the claustrophobic confines of the manor house to run wild in her beloved fens.

Wakenhyrst is at heart a gothic mystery. Who was murdered in 1913? Who murdered them - and why? Are the fens really haunted by ghosts and demons, or do they exist only in the mind of Maud's father? And were the rumours true? Was Maud really guilty of witchcraft?

I loved the practical, no-nonsense character of Maud, her instinct for survival, and her sweet romance with Clem. And I adored the tame magpie, Chatterpie! Michelle Paver is a brilliant writer, excelling at creating an atmosphere of subtle menace that builds towards a shocking finale and a supernatural twist. The story is subtle; it's a slow burn of a tale, that won't suit the reader who loves jump-shocks and big dramatic twists, but this was a five-star read for me. So I have no hesitation in recommending it, particularly to anyone loves a spooky, gothic mystery; a kind of Shirley Jackson crossed with Daphne du Maurier.


Thank you to Michelle Paver and Head of Zeus for my copy of this book, which I requested from NetGalley and reviewed voluntarily.

A dark tale visiting the folklore and history of the Suffolk fens. An evocative tale with more than a smattering of medieval gothic charm and murderous intent. It is generously peppered with forbidden love, eels, chatterpies, village superstition, downtrodden females, religious preconceptions, class barriers and class distinctions. A well written and enjoyable book.

In Edwardian Suffolk, near the village of Wakenhyrst, a manor house sits alone surrounded by the wild fens. Maud, a lonely, motherless child must battle the demons of her father’s mind and past.

The story is dark and thrilling, slowly unravelling, with the past coming back to haunt Maud and her father. The narrative switches between third-person focusing on Maud, and her father’s personal notebooks. Maud secretly reads these notebooks, becoming aware of her father’s dark thoughts and hints of a terrible secret. Maud’s innocence and naivety cannot at first make sense of what she is reading. Maud slowly becomes aware that she needs help; that her father could be dangerous, but with only superstitious household staff and a visiting doctor that cannot be trusted, Maud is completely alone.

While there is plenty of building tension and suspense in Wakenhyrst, I felt it wasn’t quite as thrilling as Paver’s previous stories which used first person narration throughout. However, the duel narrative of Wakenhyrst is interesting and effective due to the emotional distance between the third-person narration and Maud; she isn’t self-aware enough to have been an adequate narrator.

The setting is an incredibly important and powerful part of the story. The fens are wild and loved by Maud, but despised by her father. The fens can be enjoyed by those that are careful and learn the paths, but the danger of the fens to those that are ignorant mirrors the danger of dark secrets which are buried and ignored.

I enjoyed the blurring of superstition and sense, demons and religion. I also enjoyed the creeping madness displayed in Maud’s father’s notebooks, and the uncertainty of what was real and what was imagined. Maud isn’t a particularly likeable character, but she is pitiable, trapped as she is in a darkness she must fight alone. In in the absence of likeable characters, we root for Maud, hoping she will survive her ordeal.

Wakenhyrst is a thoroughly enjoyable gothic tale.

Thank you to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for the opportunity to read and review this title.