Starve Acre was everything I hoped it would be and more.
I finished this the other day, after spending many months pining for it from afar. It was just a dream, honestly. Rightly written, you feel the isolation of the moors and the madness pressing against you as you read.
After the death of their young son, Ewan, Richard and Juliette Willoughby are both learning how to grieve in their new home on the moors - Richard’s childhood home, that they moved into in order to start their family.
Juliette is convinced that she can still feel the presence of their son, and Richard is throwing himself into his work - excavating the field outside of their house, in the hope of finding proof of an old hanging tree that once stood there.
What he does find are the bones of a hare, which he takes into the house to place back together. Meanwhile, Juliette’s behaviour becomes more erratic, and she arranges for local paranormal/spiritual group ‘The Beacons’ to come to the house. Throughout, we learn more about Ewan, and how he might not have been the sweet little boy his parents remember him to be. When the leader of The Beacon’s is taken ill on her visit to the house, the haunting nature of the place becomes more apparent.
This is a short (241 pages), chapter-less book which is split into two parts. As a result it flows quickly, and you find yourself easily wrapped up in the fear of Richard and Juliette.
A brilliantly written gothic story I want to read again and again.
I finished this the other day, after spending many months pining for it from afar. It was just a dream, honestly. Rightly written, you feel the isolation of the moors and the madness pressing against you as you read.
After the death of their young son, Ewan, Richard and Juliette Willoughby are both learning how to grieve in their new home on the moors - Richard’s childhood home, that they moved into in order to start their family.
Juliette is convinced that she can still feel the presence of their son, and Richard is throwing himself into his work - excavating the field outside of their house, in the hope of finding proof of an old hanging tree that once stood there.
What he does find are the bones of a hare, which he takes into the house to place back together. Meanwhile, Juliette’s behaviour becomes more erratic, and she arranges for local paranormal/spiritual group ‘The Beacons’ to come to the house. Throughout, we learn more about Ewan, and how he might not have been the sweet little boy his parents remember him to be. When the leader of The Beacon’s is taken ill on her visit to the house, the haunting nature of the place becomes more apparent.
This is a short (241 pages), chapter-less book which is split into two parts. As a result it flows quickly, and you find yourself easily wrapped up in the fear of Richard and Juliette.
A brilliantly written gothic story I want to read again and again.