Having read, and totally adored The Loney, I was excited to see Hurley has written Starve Acre. The silence and the things not said from this previous novel seem to appear here too, but I was also interested to see scenes from the pastoral, the gothic and even Norse mythology in this new work. This is definitely enough to get me reading Starve Acre, the noose on the front cover perhaps pointing at a magical or mythical association with the Norse tree Yggdrasil. However, I doubt this will be a major theme, more likely the loss of the Willougby's son and a haunting tale will be at the heart of the story.