Barrowbeck

I loved Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley, it was full of that low-level creepy folk horror that keeps you wondering and Barrowbeck is no different.

Set in a village in the fells on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border,which if you’ve lived near there you will know is creepy enough! Barrowbeck takes us from Celtic times to a near future in a series of short stories featuring various characters though time.

Some of these are creepier than others, some are straight out of Wicker Man, but most have that slow burn folk aesthetic where you never quite know whether or not something supernatural is involved or is it just the nature of humanity that is the scary thing.

One which is one of my favourites has a tinge of cosmic horror about it, especially the slow reveal of the paintings at the end of the tale, another has a feel of aliens about it, but neither of these stand as wrong within the collection.

A brilliant collection of vignettes in the history of a doomed village from the start. Each story seems to build on the previous to come to an end that still leaves you wondering.

Thank you John Murray Press for the review copy.