An atmospheric book set in a backwater Cornish village where there seems to be an over-enthusiastic belief in Paganism. Sounds good doesn't it? Somehow though this never quite took off for me.
As I was reading it I kept thinking of cheesy Hammer horror films from the 1970's (and having read the Author Q & A at the back it's not surprising!). It was all a bit clunky and cliched somehow. The story certainly wasn't bad but it did all feel a bit dated somehow.
The village is in thrall to Morrigan who has brain-washed them into believing the village's future can be guaranteed by the sacrifice of an "outsider".
Cue some inept "traveller/surfer" youths, various farmers, Pirate John etc etc and it had the feel of a quirky sketch in Little Britain. In short, not a bad book by any means but I was probably expecting a more gripping psychological thriller. I got a hybrid between a thriller and a horror novel and whilst it wasn't a hardship to read it until the end it didn't have me frantically turning the pages either.
I probably enjoyed the Q & A section at the back as much as the book itself - the author was definitely speaking my language there!
As I was reading it I kept thinking of cheesy Hammer horror films from the 1970's (and having read the Author Q & A at the back it's not surprising!). It was all a bit clunky and cliched somehow. The story certainly wasn't bad but it did all feel a bit dated somehow.
The village is in thrall to Morrigan who has brain-washed them into believing the village's future can be guaranteed by the sacrifice of an "outsider".
Cue some inept "traveller/surfer" youths, various farmers, Pirate John etc etc and it had the feel of a quirky sketch in Little Britain. In short, not a bad book by any means but I was probably expecting a more gripping psychological thriller. I got a hybrid between a thriller and a horror novel and whilst it wasn't a hardship to read it until the end it didn't have me frantically turning the pages either.
I probably enjoyed the Q & A section at the back as much as the book itself - the author was definitely speaking my language there!