Omg omg omg .......... this book was amazing I could not put it down I read every word on the edge of my seat I loved the story line, i loved the way the story just kept us guessing all the way threw I loved all the twists and turns and would defiantly recommend this book it was so believable and kept the reader engaged I love it

Unfortunately I just could not get into this book. It may be one for other readers, but I was unable to finish it.

Great book, full of menace and atmosphere. Wonderfully described landscape and how communities developed in small rural areas especially when the weather cuts them off.A complex work that is well worth reading

Quite slow at times but still worthy of four stars, enjoyable book, thanks for the chance to review this ARC copy

There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

Enjoyable novel, however, felt similar to The Loney - a little too close in similarity to really stand out for me. I'll check out what this writer brings next, however, I hope it's unique!

I really wanted to love this book but it seemed all the way through I was waiting for something dramatic to happen or a twist or actually something scary but it never happened. This is a very slow read, which I don't usually mind, but to me this read more like folk lore. The story jumps from the past to present all the way through but this was fine and easy to follow. So even though this didn't wow me I do enjoy Andrew Hurley's writing and it wouldn't put me off reading the author's next book.

Every autumn, John Pentecost returns to the Lancashire farm where he grew up to help gather the sheep from the moors. Generally, very little changes in the Briardale Valley, but this year things are different. His grandfather - known to everyone as the Gaffer - has died and John's new wife, Katherine, is accompanying him for the first time.

Every year, the Gaffer would redraw the boundary lines of the village, with pen and paper but also through the remembrance of folk tales, family stories and timeless communal rituals which keep the sheep safe from the Devil. This year, though, the determination of some members of the community to defend those boundary lines has strengthened, and John and Katherine must decide where their loyalties lie, and whether they are prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to join the tribe...

Gripping, unsettling and beautifully written, Andrew Michael Hurley's new novel asks how much we owe to tradition, and how far we will go to belong.

John returns to his father's farm in The Endlands for his grandfather's funeral. He is with his pregnant wife, Kat. A very atmospheric book describing a bleak and gloomy land on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border. Kat is keen to return home, but John finds himself pulled back towards his homeland. Somewhere in the mix is the presence of the Devil - is he affecting John's mind? The writing is really intense and very descriptive, but I did find the plot a bit slow, and the book had the feeling of a writing course experiment. Worth persevering with, but not a book I would wish to return to.

I found this book more accessible than Hurley's debut novel The Loney, though both books share that keen sense of creeping dread familiar to fans of The Wicker Man, Pet Sematary and Hereditary. I recognise the corner of Suffolk where the book is set- the line about an unruly Ipswich high school could have referred to any school in a mile's radius of where I grew up!- but could also relate to the feeling of being an 'outsider' in a tightly knit community. Any book which keeps the reader hanging for as long as Devil's Day risks disappointing readers with the 'big reveal'; I thought Devil's Day did an excellent job of balancing explicit realism and supernatural wonder. I might recommend this book to confident young readers who had already enjoyed claustrophobic and/or rural horror novels.

5 stars but I'm confused as to why. There's just something about this book that sucks you in and won't let you go.

08/02 edit

Devil’s Day by Andrew Michael Hurley is a story that’s not easy to pin down into a specific genre and I think I may have made a mistake in reading this, instead of The Loney first. I’ll let you know when I’ve read both of them.

Hurley has presented here, a slow burn of a novel that sucks you in but also holds you at arm’s length. I imagine this to be how Kat feels for most of the book as she’s married into the valley but kept apart because of being an outsider and pregnant. This is all hidden under the film of protection of her and of the old way of life. It succeeds in making me feel uncomfortable and there were moments I didn’t like Kat. I couldn’t quite understand why she wasn’t making more of an effort to include herself in the life of the valley and why all she wanted to do was go home.

Some of my co-reviewers have raised the criticism that the book isn’t scary. It is. It’s the slow creeping fear that modernisation will slowly destroy a way of life that goes back decades and decades. This is beautifully illustrated by the keeping of the boots of the patriarchal line.

I am currently working on expanding our school library's senior section after years of a dismal and uninspiring selection of books that our older readers never checked out. My job has been to seek out much more diverse, gripping and modern books that will get them into reading by appealing to as broad a range of readers as possible. This really appealed to me because of its fantastic narrative and sense of atmosphere, combined with believable characterisation and its page-turning nature. It's hard to get young people into reading and if the library is not stocking the kind of book that they might grow up to buy as adult readers then we are not really meeting their needs. I can imagine this provoking lots of discussion after finishing it and a long queue of people trying to reserve it as they've heard so much about it. Will definitely be buying a copy and know that it's going to be a very popular choice. An engrossing read that kept me up far too late to finish reading it. It certainly stood out from the other books that I was considering and I look forward to converting more Andrew Michael Hurley fans in future. I adored The Loney and use it in our creative writing tasks too; can't wait for the next one!

I loved the creepy and atmospheric setting of this novel which is steeped in superstition. I did enjoy the story overall although it did feel a bit disjointed at times. But a great setting and lots of atmosphere.

A fluent and unsettling exercise in the "English folk gothic" sub-genre which Hurley is making his own. Some great set-pieces and an extraordinary sense of place and community - reminding me oddly of _Reservoir 13_. Whether it's quite as successful as The .Loney is another question..

Received copy from Netgalley for honest read and review.
This was quite a good story as we follow John Pentecost on his annual visit home to the farm.
It is quite slow to get into but it turns out to be a good read.

I don't read a lot of horror but after liking The Loney I wanted to read more from Hurley. I enjoyed this one too, perhaps even more than The Loney - would highly recommend!

Great setting, great idea and story, beautiful creation of characters and good story. It's just that halfway the book the story is so slooow...

If you have the time to watch your grass grow while reading this book it is certainly worth while to read this book, sounds like a contradiction right? But really it is!

3 Stars because of the middle part, otherwise it would have been easily 4!

I had read one of his previous books and thoroughly enjoyed it, however, this one I could just not get into, I kept stopping and starting it for months but could not click with it

As atmospheric and evocative as The Loney, I nonetheless found myself skipping passages in Devil's Day in order to get to the end. This is a very slow build, with lots of flashbacks to various points of history which I found to be more intrusive than useful in developing the characters and the Endlands.

While I love Andrew Michael Hurley's quiet narrative style and building intensity, for me this book was too slow to keep me going - though I ultimately did. A beautiful book, but an effort to get through.

Although the descriptive writing evoked the surroundings of the story, it seems to be very wordy and makes slow progress which makes it difficult to stay involved. Although supernatural there is so much of the mundane that it takes the edge of the story.. I did enjoy it in parts but leaves no lasting memory.