Cunning Folk: A Folk Horror Thriller by Adam Nevill Publisher : Ritual Limited (13 Sept. 2021) Language : English Paperback : 336 pages ISBN-10 : 183837891X ISBN-13 : 978-1838378912 A book review from James Bennett British Horror maven Adam Nevill (The Ritual, No One Gets Out Alive) returns to the fray with Cunning Folk, a novel that quickly shows the author has lost none of his bite. When Tom and his wife Fiona move to a rural location, they’re dreaming of a golden childhood for their small daughter, Gracey. Far from the city, with a fresh start ahead of them, the couple know they have their work cut out for them in the dilapidated house on the edge of the woods. On the one hand, it’s a potential money pit. On the other, it’s a place with a recent grisly past. With the countryside all around them and summer in the air, what could possibly go wrong? Try the neighbours. When Tom encounters the elderly couple living next door, Mr and Mrs Moot, he might be forgiven for believing it a disappointing, yet typical confrontation in a new location. Mean-spirited and unbearably condescending, the Moots’ unwelcoming attitude soon gives way to unwanted hedge cutting, slammed doors in faces and missing pets. Who are the strange visitors who pay homage next door? What lurks in the decrepit caravan parked across Tom’s drive? It’s in this petty dispute that Nevill reveals a keen eye for the small nature of some of the residents of his home country, and the first half of the book reads like a delicious and engrossing episode of Neighbours From Hell. It’s hard not to share a guilty smile at the worsening turn of events. Peppered with enough subtle weirdness to let the reader know that this is far from some mediocre backwater drama, Cunning Folk jolts as much as it sends shivers up the spine, ratcheting up the tension with exquisite aplomb. Soon enough, a vengeful Tom and his family are plunged into a nightmare of horrific proportions, with occult paraphernalia found in the garden, strange transformations seen in the woods and an ancient mound surrounded by stones emanating an ancient and malefic force… When Tom turns to local ‘wizard’ Blackwood for assistance to break the curse settling over his new home, all hell breaks loose. As the pages fly by, Cunning Folk scales to nothing less than a grand slam of modern folk horror. Sharply written, gripping and as black as sin, Adam Nevill delivers another standout novel in a career studded with them. Cunning Folk is a dark feast, serving up a sumptuous appetiser of rural conflict, a main course of escalating dread, and a toothsome dessert of shattering destruction and loss. It’s that loss, and its grim potential, that adds a moving and spine-tingling cherry on the top. Highly recommended. Cunning Folk: A Folk Horror Thriller by Adam Nevill  A compelling folk horror story of deadly rivalry and the oldest magic from the four times winner of The August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel. No home is heaven with hell next door. Money's tight and their new home is a fixer-upper. Deep in rural South West England, with an ancient wood at the foot of the garden, Tom and his family are miles from anywhere and anyone familiar. His wife, Fiona, was never convinced that buying the money-pit at auction was a good idea. Not least because the previous owner committed suicide. Though no one can explain why. Within days of crossing the threshold, when hostilities break out with the elderly couple next door, Tom's dreams of future contentment are threatened by an escalating tit-for-tat campaign of petty damage and disruption. Increasingly isolated and tormented, Tom risks losing his home, everyone dear to him and his mind. Because, surely, only the mad would suspect that the oddballs across the hedgerow command unearthly powers. A malicious magic even older than the eerie wood and the strange barrow therein. A hallowed realm from where, he suspects, his neighbours draw a hideous power. “Nevill has crafted some of the tensest scariest horror this reviewer has read in years” SFX “Adam Nevill excels at making nightmares real” The Guardian Or purchase a copy direct from Adam Nevill by clicking here JAMES BENNETT  James Bennett is a British writer raised in Sussex and South Africa. His travels have furnished him with an abiding love of different cultures, history and mythology. His short fiction has appeared internationally and his debut novel CHASING EMBERS was shortlisted for Best Newcomer at the British Fantasy Awards 2017. TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE HELLRAISER [13 FOR HALLOWEEN] THE HEART AND SOUL OF HORROR FICTION REVIEWSComments are closed.
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