.jpg)
Publisher: Burton Mayers Books
Publication Date: 26th April 2024
Genre: Contemporary Horror
Summary:
In 1660, a man is wrongly executed for signing the death warrant of Charles I. While awaiting execution, he asks to speak with a priest, to whom he declares a curse on the village that betrayed him. The priest responds with a counter-curse, leaving just one option to nullify it.
Over four centuries later, Faith and James move to the country to start a new life and a family. They learn that their village lives under the curse uttered by the hanged man. Could their arrival be connected?
Faith and James fear that their choice of a new home is no coincidence. Unexplained events hint at threats or warnings to leave, including the slaughter of their hens, an attic break-in and other menacing incidents. They become convinced the village continues to live under the curse despite denials from their new friends.
Who can they trust, and who are potential enemies?
Review:
Firstly thank you to Love Books Tours, Burton Mayers Books and Owen W. Knight for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
Ok so I really loved the sound of this book, it had the horror mixed with history vibe on the blurb and those are two of my favourite things so I was really excited to get stuck into this and the cover gave just the right amount of spooky vibes so I was looking forward to getting that from the book.
Unfortunately, the promise that the cover and blurb gave me didn't quite translate into the book for me. I found the writing style rather clunky and that combined with it being written as if someone is watching and commenting on the goings-on made it really difficult for me to get drawn into the story so I found myself putting it down with regularity and having to make myself come back to reading it. And I really struggled with our MC's Faith and James, I didn't find them very engaging characters and that combined with the fact that their conversations felt very business-like, they really feel like business partners rather than a couple in love the interactions between them held no affection in my opinion, meant I found them quite boring people to follow.
Most of the conversations throughout the book didnt have much in the way of emotion, it did feel like they were only included a lot of the time to get information to the reader in a very obvious way and that meant they came across as rather stilted and sometimes interview like rather than a realistic conversation between neighbours or new friends. I kept waiting to hear more about the curse after the prologue, I really wish that it had been longer because we then don't get any more about the curse until page 122 and I really wanted more about it then but its sort of half mentioned and then we get the full details very close to the end of the book and it felt a little rushed to me, I wanted more from it.
It's very clear that the author has done a good deal of research before starting this book, and that does come through and I really appreciate that I do enjoy reading a historical-based book that has been researched.
I did finish this book, partly because I was on the tour for it and partly to see if the ending lived up to the promise from the blurb, and I kind of felt it was quite predictable i really had hoped for more from it.
To me, this didn't feel like a horror book but I have seen people saying it's a folk horror so maybe if that is something you enjoy give it a go.
Firstly thank you to Love Books Tours, Burton Mayers Books and Owen W. Knight for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book.
Ok so I really loved the sound of this book, it had the horror mixed with history vibe on the blurb and those are two of my favourite things so I was really excited to get stuck into this and the cover gave just the right amount of spooky vibes so I was looking forward to getting that from the book.
Unfortunately, the promise that the cover and blurb gave me didn't quite translate into the book for me. I found the writing style rather clunky and that combined with it being written as if someone is watching and commenting on the goings-on made it really difficult for me to get drawn into the story so I found myself putting it down with regularity and having to make myself come back to reading it. And I really struggled with our MC's Faith and James, I didn't find them very engaging characters and that combined with the fact that their conversations felt very business-like, they really feel like business partners rather than a couple in love the interactions between them held no affection in my opinion, meant I found them quite boring people to follow.
Most of the conversations throughout the book didnt have much in the way of emotion, it did feel like they were only included a lot of the time to get information to the reader in a very obvious way and that meant they came across as rather stilted and sometimes interview like rather than a realistic conversation between neighbours or new friends. I kept waiting to hear more about the curse after the prologue, I really wish that it had been longer because we then don't get any more about the curse until page 122 and I really wanted more about it then but its sort of half mentioned and then we get the full details very close to the end of the book and it felt a little rushed to me, I wanted more from it.
It's very clear that the author has done a good deal of research before starting this book, and that does come through and I really appreciate that I do enjoy reading a historical-based book that has been researched.
I did finish this book, partly because I was on the tour for it and partly to see if the ending lived up to the promise from the blurb, and I kind of felt it was quite predictable i really had hoped for more from it.
To me, this didn't feel like a horror book but I have seen people saying it's a folk horror so maybe if that is something you enjoy give it a go.
Krystina xx
No comments:
Post a Comment