Wow, I devoured this book in one day! Absolutely brilliant writing. I love historical books about witches and wise women. This is one of the best I’ve read on this subject. An very exciting finish, I couldn’t read quick enough.
Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book starts with some beautiful writing and has a great sense of place and time. We are at the end of 1643 and Thomas Treadwater is back home in Norfolk, on leave from his Roundhead regiment, his leg wounded at the Battle of Newbury. This was a moment when the war looked at its least promising for the Parliamentarians, and to make matters worse for Thomas he has been summoned by his sister's worrying account of witchcraft in the family home. His father is already dangerously ill.. This author is concerned, like Thomas Hobbes who wrote his treatise Leviathan during the Civil War, with exploring how much chaos people can take before society totally breaks down and an absolutist government must take over. But this theme is tackled here not through dry philosophy but via a gripping and clever plot with unexpected twists. And the Leviathan of her title is not so metaphorical. The book grabs the attention very early. I was very impressed with the male first person voice - the best I have found recently from a female writer.
However despite the generally sure tone in terms of the historical accuracy, there were some irritations. Thomas refers to an evening supper with a wealthy family as 'a meal' , a word which at this period of been used only to mean a very simple plate of porridge or similar. There is mention of the Long Parliament, but at this point it had not been sitting only for 3 years.. The author chooses to make John Milton the poet one of her major characters, but strangely portrays him as living in Chalfont St Giles some 23 years before his brief period in the village as a refugee from plague-ridden London. There is an early mention of 'The Army under Cromwell' but at this point he was merely a colonel with command of a regiment. The state of the war doesn't really justify some of Thomas's views, which (while beautifully expressed) would be more likely to have been held later than in 1643: 'I thought of King Charles, sequestered in reduced splendour behind the thick walls of that other Christ's, in Oxford, like some latter-day Avignon pope. He held his royal blood to be sacred, but how long would that belief hold, if his faltering armies didn't?' The Royalists weren't faltering in 1643.
As the book progresses I found that the pace slowed, and some of the more interesting characters are killed off or otherwise disappear. The latter half is written with a small cast and is quite intense, though I did feel that in terms of sheer plot, the suspense would have benefitted without the 'framing structure' scenes where Thomas looks back from the standpoint of 60 years on.
Still, this is quite a spellbinding tale, with some very memorable images and much to enjoy. Warmly recommended.

Initially I expected The Leviathan to be about 17th century witch trials. Which it was. But there was a whole supernatural, mythological twist thrown in there too. The book draws on the religious, superstitious beliefs of the day, as well as the chaos wrought by the political unrest. Swinging between 1643 and 1703, we see Thomas as a young soldier and an old man. Returning home from war, he finds that life on the family farm has been turned upside down. They say that the new servant girl is a witch! She's been imprisoned. She's also seduced Thomas' father - the scandal! But that's not all... There's something else going on. Something much bigger. We can see that by 1703, the story is ongoing. Thomas' life hasn't been as he expected. It's been a life of containment. Disappointment.

I think I took a bit of a risk requesting to review this novel. It's a debut, and I wasn't sure that the serpent title would be one that I would enjoy the story of, but I so did. It's mysterious, chilling, haunting, gothic, atmospheric, and authentic. I would definitely recommend and can't wait to read more by Rosie Andrews.

The debut novel by Rosie Andrews certainly impressed me and I would have read it in one sitting if my family had of played ball and left me alone for 24 hours! There was something for everyone there, plenty of references for the historical fiction fan, magical realism and I would say elements of horror too. Although the title suggests snakes and serpents there are components of myth, religion and witchcraft.

I really liked Thomas the main protagonist, he was a reliable narrator and I loved that he was written by a woman. He was practical, reasonable and full of common sense, it was easy to become invested in his well being.

I enjoyed the writing style, it was mature and atmospheric, but never over reaching and felt authentic to the time (full disclaimer I am no historian so it might not be authentic at all 😃)

Things I really enjoyed
🔱 The fractured timeline - In general I’m a fan of a fractured timeline and in this case it worked perfectly as a means to drip feed information relating to the plot

🔱Character developement - Each character was perfectly pitched for the amount they contributed to the story.

🔱The scare factor - I was not expecting this, but I was genuinely uncomfortable reading parts. Let’s just say, I would not have slept in that house!

My only issue with the book is the addition of John Milton (starring as himself!). Now, granted I haven’t read Paradise Lost or anything in fact by John Milton so maybe there’s a reference here that’s gone over my head??

That said, this was a healthy 🌟🌟🌟🌟 for me.

Thank you

In 1703, late in life, Thomas Treadwater and his wife are aware that something is waking: something that he has spent most of his life trying to mitigate against.
Wounded and on leave from fighting in the English Civil War, Thomas returns to the family farm in Norfolk worried by a letter from his sister, to find dead sheep and his strong god-fearing father incapacitated by a mystery illness. Esther has made accusations of witchcraft against her father’s new servant, Chrissa Moore, and the family of their maid Joan, who has been with them since childhood. When Thomas meets the mysterious and secretive Chrissa in jail, he, like the local magistrate, is sceptical about the accusations. What has caused the change in behaviour of the formerly mild and gentle Esther and caused death and destruction to so many?
The story unfolds mostly in flashback to the aftermath of the war, leaping forward at times to the “present” of 1703, where Thomas and Mary face a stark choice. Rich in historical detail that envelops the reader in the atmosphere of religious fervour, superstition and belief in the supernatural that prevailed in the 17th Century, this is an absorbing and gripping mystery that does not release you easily on completion of the book. A great read.

This debut has everything you could ask for: Bible and witches, sea monsters and family duties… It is a tale of superstition and dark ages – and of the fight of humankind to get free of them.

We are in the middle of the 17th century, ravaged by plague and war. The narrator Thomas is coming home at his sister’s request, after she reported her servant for witchcraft. Soon, people are dying and authorities are involved. And nobody can go through that untarnished.

The main plot twist is not as surprising as it should be, but it is still a clever take on history and religion – under the shadow of John Milton and Thomas Hobbes.

A book of two halves. The first felt like a modern-day Dracula - dripping with an eerie, gothic dread. As the sinister unseen reared its head, the second half swung into a tense, action-packed thrill. I was left with a feeling of heavy disillusionment for a good few days, so although the atmosphere was well-constructed, I didn't enjoy how it wrapped itself around my mood and squeezed.

What an amazing debut book! I love character driven books and this one gave me everything I wanted and kept me hooked! The book was gothic and at times very creepy! But the mystery kept me going and I devoured this book in two days! Can’t wait to see what the author does next!

It’s 1643, and England is in the midst of Civil War. Thomas Treadwater has been injured and is temporarily unfit for fighting, so when he receives a worrying letter from his sister he makes for home. Esther has written that their father has fallen under the influence of a girl he had taken in as a maid – Chrissa Moore. Hard for Thomas to believe since his father is a staunch Puritan with impeccable morals – not at all the type to fall into the clutches of a seductress. But Esther hints that Chrissa may have bewitched him. On arriving home, Thomas finds all the sheep on the farm dead or dying, his father struck down by apoplexy, and Chrissa in jail on the basis of Esther’s accusation of witchcraft. But is Esther telling the truth? As Thomas learns more he begins to suspect that evil has come to his father’s house… something more evil even than witchcraft…

The first half of this novel makes it seem as if it’s going to be a fairly standard story about a woman accused of witchcraft at a time of religious and social turmoil. Very well written and clearly excellently researched, there is enough mystery around Esther’s motivations for her accusations to make it interesting and compelling even in this crowded field.

But then, wow! Suddenly, about halfway through, Andrews takes it into a whole different direction – full-on supernatural horror, but soundly based on the superstitions, religious beliefs and mythology of the time. The suddenness with which this happens is jarring, or perhaps shocking would be a better word, although we have known from occasional chapters set sixty years in the future, 1703, that the events of 1643 have cast long, dark shadows, and that the story may not be over even yet. The change takes the book to an entirely different level, one where Andrews touches on some of the deep religious questions torturing England as the Reformation continues to rive the country – questions such as free will, faith, God’s plan and man’s submission to it, predestination, and the end times as foretold in the Book of Revelation. (Note to self: MUST read the Book of Revelation – it has inspired so much great literary and horror writing!)

I don’t want to go into the plot in any more detail since it’s one that works better the less you know going in. I was super-impressed by how well Andrews captured what felt like an authentic 17th century mindset, in all of her characters, but especially in Thomas. As for many others, the horrors unleashed by the Reformation in terms of persecution and war has led Thomas to question his own faith. He is a pre-Enlightenment man though he doesn’t know it, and his scepticism will play a role in how he acts. He turns for help in his troubles to his old mentor, John Milton (yes, that one), and through him we learn a little about the philosophical questions of the day. The whole thing is a fascinating imagining of what might come to pass if those parts of the Bible that sceptics call superstition and even believers think of as allegory turned out to be the literal truth. How would we respond? Is faith strong enough to enable us to submit to God’s will, or would we, with the best of intentions perhaps, try to thwart His plan?

The writing is great, as is the characterisation. Thomas, as our narrator, is the one we get to know best and it’s his confusion and moral dilemma that involves us most. But both Esther and Chrissa are wonderful creations too – Chrissa at first seeming the more complex of the two, but Esther soon revealing herself as something more than the simple innocent worried for her father that she first appears. Milton’s appearance might have seemed a bit too quirky if handled less well, but he’s not in it enough to overwhelm the story, and mostly acts as a vehicle to discuss the theological and philosophical issues of the day.

All of that might make the book sound heavy and ponderous – not at all! Andrews manages to get all this depth into what is fundamentally a thrilling horror story of the old-fashioned kind – free of graphic gore and based on the age-old debate of good versus evil, and man’s moral frailty. I wondered how much classic horror Andrews has read – some of the passages in the latter sections as the book builds to its climax put me in mind very much of the horror greats, especially the writing of William Hope Hodgson. It may be, though, that the similarity comes not from Andrews being influenced directly by these writers but by them all having been influenced by the same mythological and Biblical sources.

I think this is a wonderful book – thrilling, thought-provoking, brilliantly achieved. I loved that Andrews put herself and her readers so firmly in the mind-set of the time and never let 21st century beliefs or attitudes distort the picture. I thought her horror writing was fantastic, creating some truly marvellous imagery. And despite my own strictly rational outlook, she immersed me in the beliefs of the time so well that I found the story credible within the world in which its set, and the ending entirely satisfactory. The thing I found hardest to believe, in fact, is that this is a debut novel, and I can’t wait to see what Andrews gives us in the future. Highly recommended!

A book of two halves! In all honesty, I found the pacing of the first half of the book to be slow, with nothing to grasp me in, I very nearly gave up. But I was so glad I kept with it, the second half is amazing, on the edge of my seat wondering where things are going and how they will play out. I found the style of writing to be great for building imagery in my mind as I read, and the characters were easy to comprehend and align with. Had the first half been a bit pacier and meatier this would have easily been 5 stars.

The English Civil War is an era that I am hazy on, but which I feel I should know more about... and when mixing in the supernatural, this seemed like a fantastic promise for a novel. I did enjoy the novel thoroughly as the tension of the witchcraft within the family was slowly revealed, and then the twist at the midpoint was great. I'm not sure I learned much about the history as Andrews may have slid in a number of historical characters but very little real sense of time or place....

Absolutely amazing, breathtaking and just magical. I had to get the stunning Waterstones edition! I won't go into full detail about my review as I work for bloomsbury.

I had high hopes for this one, and I have to say that the writing is absolutely stunning. Andrews has beautiful prose, and knows how to use it to great effect to create atmosphere and setting, and I will say that I was completely sold on that aspect of the book - and even when I realised I wasn't going to love this one, I kept reading purely for the writing. The plot is well-written, and the tension was carefully twisted throughout, but where the book fell down for me was on emotional impact. I wasn't invested in the family drama and choices being made, and I struggled a bit with the narrator, and it meant that the ending felt flat when I am sure it was supposed to hit home with a lot more force.

I can other people absolutely loving it though, and as I said the writing was spectacular and I will certainly be reading more by Rosie Andrews in the future.

The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews is an interesting debut set in 17th century Norfolk. The story follows Thomas, a soldier returning from war to discover his father suffering from a stroke and his sister adamant that a witchcraft is the cause of his affliction. Thomas is a sensible and rational man and is determined to discover the mystery behind the unsettling occurrences within his family home.
I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book, and raced through the first part, utterly absorbed in the story and its mystery. I enjoyed the perspective of Thomas as a male narrator and his struggle between treading carefully in his enquiries and revealing the truth without arousing suspicion to the increasingly confusing situation he is faced with at home. Unfortunately, during the second part of this book, I felt that the story lost its way somewhat and what had started out on one path became something different and muddled in its direction. As such I lost interest in the story or its characters and although I finished the book, I wasn’t as invested in the plot as I had been initially and felt the second part was lacking the same strength as the first. However, I did enjoy Rosie Andrews writing and will look forward to reading more of her work in the future. Thanks to NetGalley and Raven Books for a digital copy for review.

Thomas is summoned home by his family, when the bewitching new maid starts to cause problems.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thomas Treadwater is a soldier, on leave from his regiment. He has received letters from his sister, who is increasingly worried about the improper influence their beautiful new maid Chrissa has over their father. He travels home as fast as he can, seeing signs of witchcraft along the way.
When he gets there, Chrissa has been arrested by witch-hunters, and his father is in a coma.

Thomas is wise to how often people are incorrectly accused of witch-craft, and he doesn't want to be quick to judge Chrissa. He wants to discover the truth, although he could never predict where it leads.

I thought that the story was quite slow to start. It's written in a very descriptive, old-fashioned way, which I liked, and I thought it worked well, but it took a while to get used to it.
In the beginning I found Thomas to be quite self-involved. Everything was about his thoughts and feelings, and he doesn't take responsibility for his actions. It was hard to grasp the larger story, as it was so focussed on Thomas.

This improves quickly.
I was soon hooked on finding out the truth behind who was really causing the illnesses in Thomas' father and livestock.
The story feels like a real historical investigation. It feels very of the time, the way that the threat could be human, or just as easily witches and demons, as they were just as real in their eyes.

I really like how it wove together life at the time of the civil war, many of the men of the land have joined the war efforts, disrupting daily lfe, and making things harder all round.
This background is important for the story - Thomas' foe feeds on death and revels in the destruction of man.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this historical mystery, and look forward to reading more of this author's work.

After a disturbing letter from his sister injured Thomas Treadwater heads home from the civil war. He finds sheep mutilated in the fields, his father struck down by illness & his distraught sister Esther. She tells him that a new servant, Chrissa Moore has bewitched & seduced their father, she must be a witch & she is in prison now. Chrissa proclaims she is bearing his father's child. Two other servants have also been charged with witchcraft & are found dead in their cell. As Thomas tries to discover the truth he becomes aware that strange as all these events are there is something even more menacing behind them.

This was a well written book that dragged you into this troubles age. The characters were interesting- I quite fell for poor Thomas! All in all a terrific read. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

A haunting read with graphic descriptions of the time and place. I was disappointed by the ending and found it rather anti-climactic.

The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews is a stunning debut novel set in a deeply gothic Norfolk wracked with the fears of witches and superstitions.

This is primarily a character driven story, with the main character Thomas heading home from the war in 1643 following a strange letter he receives from his younger sister Esther. What Thomas discovers upon his return home will change everything for his family forever.

Being a dual timeline novel set in 1643 and 1703, with Thomas reflecting on what happened 60 years earlier, this sumptuous novel will take the reader on a journey filled with dark atmospheric moments.

I enjoyed the fact that poet John Milton is brought into the story to assist Thomas. In a time where witchcraft was much feared, this story has a supernatural element that maintains the tension of this engaging debut.

The prose has a delicately lyrical quality with the use of words and language that I found fascinating. It does not detract from the story, it actually adds to it, and made this one of my favourite reads so far this year. It was so good that it left me with a book hangover afterwards. This gothic historical fiction is exceptional, and I cannot wait to read what Rosie writes next!

From a strong beginning to a confusing middle and a slow-to-arrive conclusion. Characters I cared little about and a story which was perplexing and beyond my comprehension. Whilst the writing itself was atmospheric and well crafted - I’m sure I will return to this author - the plot, in my opinion, could have done with lots of rewriting to make it more engaging.

I expected to enjoy this novel. In reality, it was a huge disappointment.

This story feels vast, and full of twists and turns, which feels appropriate given the subject matter. Set in the English civil war, the story sees soldier Thomas returning home from battle to find his father incapacitated by a stroke and his sister gripped by the fear of witchcraft. A new servant is in the local jail, accused of bewitching their father, and Thomas, a rational man, is determined to get to the bottom of things. The story is beautifully narrated, switching between this timeline and another some decades in the future, where Thomas is an old man. As he investigates the mysterious new servant and tries to establish what exactly happened to his father and whether supernatural causes could be part of it, Thomas uncovers something ancient, twisted and terrifying that threatens to destroy all he holds dear.