"FOLLOW ME TO GROUND" by an astoundingly original new writer is a captivating and unique literary work that masterfully blends elements of magical realism, critical and feminist theory. The story revolves around Ada and her father, who are not human but beings created from a special patch of earth known as the Ground, possessing healing properties. Their tranquil existence, tending to their garden and healing the local humans, named Cures, is intricately portrayed, immersing the reader in a world that is both familiar and eerily otherworldly.

My thanks to Random House U.K. Transworld Publishers/Black Swan for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Follow Me To Ground’ by Sue Rainsford in exchange for an honest review. Its paperback edition was published in March 2020. My apologies for the late feedback.

As a long time lover of the horror genre I have welcomed the recent upsurge in literary horror. This debut novel, which combines horror with magical realism, from Irish author Sue Rainsford proved a treat.

It celebrates its weirdness with the story of Ada and her father, who live peacefully in the woods tending to their garden and local wildlife. Yet they are not human. Exactly what they are remains unspecified, though knowing Irish folklore, I would imagine some type of Fae.

While the local human folk – described as Cures - are happy to visit them to seek healing, they still treat Ada and her father with suspicion. Then Ada begins a relationship with a local Cure named Samson. Her father forbids the match, forcing her to choose between her old life and the promise of a new one.

Rainsford doesn’t specify a specific time and place for her story, though people do drive cars and I felt it likely that she was portraying rural Ireland where belief in and cautious respect for the Good Folk continues to lie close to the surface.

The narrative embraces the surrealism of magical realism though it also contains scenes of visceral horror, mainly associated with the healing sessions.

Rainsford writing is lyrical yet remains economical. I found it a quick, accessible read. I borrowed its unabridged audiobook, narrated by a full cast, to accompany the text and finished it in a single sitting.

Her second novel is being published this March and I am very much looking forward to reading it.

I spent the day devouring this bizarre, lyrical dark fairytale. I'm not sure that's quite what it is...but I can't think of a better way to describe it. With many scenes right on the border of surreal, magical realist mindf*ck and touching but disturbing tenderness I just went with it without trying too hard to make the story's reality fit into my own. I just accepted the strange prose as a snapshot into a world not quite our own, but not so many miles away as to be unrecognisable.

It's definitely weird and not for most people I'd guess but I just found it compelling and twisted in a satisfying way.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Follow Me To Ground tells the story of Ada and her father, who cure the humans in their village using the mysterious soil in their garden, and/or putting them to sleep, singing to them and opening up their bodies.

I won’t give any more of the story away so I’ll just focus on the elements of the book. This definitely reads like a fairytale. Ada and her father use song to drive away sickness, they age incredibly slow and we find out that Ada’s father turns into a wolf and goes hunting in the woods occasionally.

Ada is the strangest of creatures and we discover that she was in fact made from this strange soil in their garden. She often has weird thoughts of bodies, and what is contained within them. She hears blood, smells substances and she tells them to us which was definitely disturbing and creepy! She also seems to have no love for the humans, which her and her father call “cures”. She merely sees them as a pastime, something she can do without much concentration at all. Ada does develop feelings for one of her cures, Samson, and we get to see exactly how she feels and thinks about him as their relationship escalates.

I do think that the book needs more detail, or even a sequel. I would love to know why Ada and her father even bother curing humans, and if there is anything in it for them? Does the Ground hold a sort of power in this sense?

I was also very confused with the chapter beginnings. Each chapter is the name of a cure who gives us a few sentences about Ada and her father, before we return to Ada’s perspective. There was no clear shift when this occurred and took me half the book to realise that this was going on. However, this could just be the Kindle formatting.

Overall, this is one of the strangest books I have ever read. If you enjoy creepy fairy-tale vibes and magical realism, I recommend this book! However, it does lack any rules or explanations for why Ada and her father have the ability to cure people, which isn’t something I enjoy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Follow Me To Ground was a strange twisted fairytale kind of book. Rainsford's writing is beautiful and draws you into the story in the strangest way. I liked the glimpses of the townspeople and their opinions on Ada and her father. I have so many questions about what in all heck that Ada is????

Overall, would recommend it.

This is the story of Ada and her father who heal humans by placing their hands inside of their bodies and singing to get rid of the sickness that’s bothering them. They are like characters in a fairy tale - they age very slowly, father becomes a creature at night and roams the woods, Ada was not born but created from a powerful patch of land. She is ambivalent to the humans she heals and at times repulsed by them. We follow her awakening sexual desire for Samson (who has secrets of his own) which changes forever the life she and her father have led for many years.

I’ve never read anything quite like it. It’s one of those rare books where I just sit back and enjoy where it takes me. I found it very difficult to put down. I started it just before bedtime intending to read 20 pages and ended up staying up far too late and got three quarters of the way through!

It’s part folk horror and part magical realism but more than anything it’s unique and not part of a specific genre. It reminded me of Everything Under, Lanny and The Water Cure. The prose is very well written and the writing is spare which is something I really like. I’ll definitely be reading it again and recommending it to fellow readers who I think will enjoy it.

Thanks to #netgalley and Random House UK for a review copy of this book.

**Review**
Follow Me To Ground by Sue Rainsford
Ada was made by her farther from The Ground. They together heal the local human folk using a patch of earth with healing properties. Ada begins a relationship with a local boy named Samson, a relationship of which may uproot the town and The Ground forever.
I finished this, but I remain confused as to what I actually just read! I had high hopes for this, and was so happy to obtain an advanced copy. I started it straight away and did enjoy the first 30%, but then it all got a little strange! I didn’t warm or feel for any of the characters, which I always feel makes it hard to really like a book. I didn’t believe in the relationship between Ada and Samson. Unfortunately I wasn’t a fan of the writing style either.
This story really did begin with some promise but it seemed to loose its way. It certainly lost me! It was a quick read that certainly verged on the bizarrely creepy.
Not one for me, but thank you @netgalley for the opportunity to read this. Publication date: 05/03/2020

This was a beautifully written and interesting novel that I was never able to place to one specific time period or location. I liked the elements and found them to be mildly creepy and not as much of a horror novel as others had said. The story was intrigiuing and this made the book fly by. The writing was stunning and I found it easy to follow for the most part except for a couple of places where the dialogue got confusing and I was not sure who was speaking.

I adored this – the writing, the storyline, the absolute bonkers weirdness, and most of all the wonderful main character. This book is super weird and the prose is flowery enough to sometimes hide what is going on, to really, really work for me. It is also a deeply disturbing book, both in the central imagery of a ground that needs to be fed and of healers opening up their patients and then putting them into the earth to heal and in the casual horror of the main character’s relationship – a horror that Rainsford does not explicate but makes very very obvious nonetheless.

Folllow me to ground was one of the most strange and peculiar book I've ever read. It's captivating and interesting. The writing style is evocative, it's like you're there with Ada and her father and this Adventure and the setting so Amazing. Really brilliant

This was such a unique concept! I really enjoyed the narrative and the writing style. The world created was so interesting and the main character's narrative was compelling.

Folkloric horror.

Non-humans Ada and her father are healers living on the outskirts of a community they call the Cures. They keep themselves apart from the villagers by choice, not wanting to alarm them, nor to inadvertently raise the dead. One sultry summer, Samson awakens Ada’s sexual desire. When Ada’s father and Samson’s sister find out, they are strongly, possessively disapproving.

Ada moves through her world with detachment. As she treats her patients, opening them up with nothing more than a song and her hands, she observes their bodies in all their sizes and shapes, their fluids and viscera, and their sounds and smells. Under such close attention, human bodies are extraordinary, if also quite horrific.

Rainsford writes in the style of fairy tales. To borrow Kate Bernheimer’s (2010) terminology, the narrative has an ‘intuitive logic’ in which things happen without explanation or relevance. The reader responds by accepting what is happening, even when much is withheld. Her characters’ lack of psychological depth, their flatness, is haunting.

Gloriously odd.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, for the ARC.

This book is incredibly hard to pin down as being in any one genre and to work out what the heck it's about but it works really well as a text where you can sit back and just let the author, and the story work through you until the end. I like the fact that its not possible to tell anything about where it is actually set, or what timeframe it is etc. It is creepy in parts and probably not one you should read if you can't handle the concept of bodily fluids easily.
As one or 2 other reviewers mention it does sometimes become confusing trying to work out when the pieces related by the Cures themselves actually become Ada's thoughts but this is a small concern and shouldn't stop you from reading this so thanks to Netgalley and Transworld for the opportunity to read it. Its not one I will forget in a hurry.

PS after finishing the book I found the following interview with Sue Rainsford that helps make it clear what she thinks the book is about so hope that helps

https://electricliterature.com/woman-is-not-born-woman-is-made/

Well. I really don't know what I just read?! Sitting here, contemplating life, this book, I think it's the oddest, strangest book I've ever read. And I'm not sure I liked it. But it was beautiful. But strange. And I'm a confused mess who doesn't know what just happened?

Ada and her father are healers - they spent their lives healing Cures (humans). They can stick their hands inside of bodies, and sing to extract sickness. In extra special cases, they bury Cures in the tumultuous Ground outside, to wait healing. One day, Ada cures a man named Samson, who sparks a fire inside her and they begin an affair. But Ada's father disapproves and so begins a downfall of events.

This book is weird. There is no other word for it. Fabulism at it's very strangest, this world doesn't explain its creation or existence. Instead, the beauty and poetry lies in the prose. There is a very lyrical quality to the reading, and an ease which meant I flew through the book. Rainsford's writing plays very much with the female body and form, and at times felt very much like it was mocking the way men so often write women. The body horror aspect is always one I appreciate, and was definitely a strength of this book (I did try read this over lunch one day and managed about two pages before I had to give up due to the strength of the body horror writing).

However, as beautiful as the prose often was, I think the oddness was perhaps too odd for me. I still don't really know what happened, and I prefer my world's with a bit more explanation or comprehension about why and how. I also unfortunately think the ARC eBook had some formatting issues which enhanced my struggle and confusion. I suspect this might make for a more interesting and impactful read in the final print format where the formatting will look as designed.

So ultimately, whilst I appreciate the beautiful writing, this book wasn't for me.

Review will be posted on my blog on publication date.

Follow Me To Ground? At times I found it hard to follow anything at all! In this novel dialogue is written suddenly
-like this
-like what?
-like this!

Making it difficult to immediately discern who is speaking, or in fact that anyone is speaking at all since it also appears to be used for inner monologue.
Several times I found myself rereading chunks of the page to understand the back and forth of a conversation. I'd get halfway through and realise I had assumed the characters the wrong way around.

Because of this format, separating dialogue from description also took more effort than necessary, which distracted me from the story.

Throughout Follow Me To Ground we get snippets of opinions on Ada and her father from the townsfolk. There's no sense of a timeline to these and they blend mid paragraph back into Ada's narration.

Whilst the premise is interesting and unique, the whole book is a confusing jumble of nonsense with a vague story of lust, incest and paedophilia beneath.

As you may be able to tell by now I was not a fan. I did enjoy reading about the healing process but aside from that I was not impressed.
I've seen 5 star reviews calling it scary, a nightmare fairytale, and I wonder whether we've received the same book! I would have DNF but it was a short read and I'd agreed to review.

Ada and her father are not quite human and possess the magical ability to heal the ailing townsfolk who seek them out. We learn that Ada's father grew her - using a powerful patch of Ground that can heal folks buried in it and that together they hide the secrets of their powers and origins from the humans around them.

Told from Ada's point of view, this intriguing story is a dreamy, adolescent coming of age tale, as she falls in love with one of the "cures" from the nearby town, and everything begins to change.

Sometimes I felt as if I was reading this underwater trying to make sense of the magic and the quirky weirdness of each moment. I was completely immersed. It reminded me in some small ways of Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic and in other ways was like nothing I have ever read before. I have seen some reviews calling it a horror story, but I didn't get that sense. (Perhaps the medical moments where Ada reaches inside a body to cure it give some readers some icky feels...) I'm looking forward to reading the author's next novel.

Hauntingly beautiful story of a girl, Ada, and her father who are from a different world, the Ground. Ada and her father have the ability to heal sick townspeople, aka the "Cures," using the power they draw from the ground. After Ada falls into an affair with a local, Samson, her longing to be with him and her fear of being forever lonely leads her to commit the ultimate betrayal and changes the course of life for everyone involved. Mythology and folklore are not my typical genre, but I just happened to be reading this alongside Circe, and couldn't help but be entranced by the poetic and colorful writing style found in both stories. I could see every word Sue Rainsford wrote so vibrantly in my imagination and finished the book in two sittings in less than a 12 hour time period. Follow Me to Ground is not a cheap thrill but a work of literary art that deserves your attention and appreciation.

This book had me hooked from the first sentence "The summers here are made of long, untended grass and flat, lemon light." The prose was lyrical throughout and the plot itself was such a compulsive read, I finished the entire novel in one sitting. There are so many possible interpretations to the story that I almost wanted to start it again to read it in a different light.

It is made clear from the outset that the main character, Ada, is not human and yet she superbly rendered. The reader is always carried along with her internal logic which never seems inconsistent.

This book is both lyrical and haunting and will probably linger long in my mind. Beautifully written and a novel that you could reread with a different interpretation each time, what more could you want?

Follow Me To Ground, Sue Rainsford

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: General Fiction (Adult) , Sci Fi & Fantasy

I finished this book three days ago and....usually I write my reviews the following day, but I just don't know where to start with this, and keep putting it off.

Its....an odd, weird story, and yet I can see from early reviewers that some folks adore it. I guess its the book equivalent of Marmite, you either love it or hate it! And sadly I just didn't like it, I can't say I hate it as TBH most of it was just so confusing, and at the end I was left thinking “ what have I read?”

Oddly it shares a few similarities with You Let Me In by Camilla Bruce, which I absolutely loved. They both involve people/creatures who are different to the usual supernatural beings in books. I understood You Let Me In though, well, partly, but that confusion was a deliberate facet of the story. However with Follow Me To Ground I just found it totally confusing. One moment it would be one person telling the story, then it would switch, but without any indication, so I'd be thinking “ What? Whats happened that I missed” before realising it was someone else talking. I had to keep going back, rereading, backtracking to try to understand, follow what had been written. Nothing really seemed to add up, make any kind of sense and even in a supernatural read I do need that.
I read to 50% and skim read the rest, as I wanted to see what would happen and yet was so confused by events and characters that I couldn't bring myself to waste time in a thorough read. I knew by then it wasn't going to be a great read for me, but wondered of the second half would be any clearer. Nope, it wasn't.

One big plot in the book oddly was very clear to me, right from early on – weird that the ordinary events were difficult for me to follow, and yet this big major mystery was so obvious to me. Maybe that's the way the author intended – I don't know?

Stars: Two, a weird book, I can't say I hated it, but I didn't understand it, or like the characters. By the end I felt strangely irritated that I still didn't know what it was supposed to be telling me.

Arc via Netgalley and publishers

I was absolutely obsessed with this book from the first page, I couldn't bear to tear my eyes from the page! Rainsford has crafted a sumptuous, dreamlike tale, that gradually twists into a skin crawling nightmare. Just beautiful.