Ooh. A small village and disappearing people? Sounded right up my street. Enjoyed the take on slenderman and the spooky vibes. It’s definitely one for horror lovers!

This was a peculiar one for me. Peculiar in the fact that it had such an intriguing concept, a great start and a bit of a lacklustre fizzle out kind of feel from the midway point to the end.

I love the idea of a Victorian Slenderman of sorts, but felt that he was more effective as a bogeyman when he was an unknown entity to the reader. When he became an actual character that had speech etc … it really lessened the spooky vibes for me. Lessened it to the point where I’d say it didn’t feel like a horror in the slightest.

I also struggled with the time jumps. There wasn’t any real obvious point to when present day ended and a part in the past would begin other than the author hitting the enter key twice. Some form of ‘present day’ mark, or a date sub-heading might have made things easier. This sounds like an overreaction, but neither the writing style nor the character groups changed much/if at all during these switches. So it sometimes took tired eyes longer than needed to realise James was a child during certain parts rather than a grown man. I feel the over-abundance of time jumps really hit the pacing of the novel and made things even less spookier. I did get this via Netgalley, so in the actual hard copy this clear/defined moment of a time jump might have been addressed.

One aspect I did like was the atmospheric writing style. It served to raise the bar that had been somewhat lowered by the above gripes. I can’t say I’ve seen the time jump thing moaned about in other reviews, so it could just have been a personal thing on my part. But, with that in mind, reading is an incredibly personal and subjective past-time.

Overall, I feel I’d have enjoyed it more if the Tall Man was probably more a glimpsed figure than a fully-fledged one. I feel that, and that alone, would have made this way more of an exciting page-turner for me.

A great horror story that I had a lot of fun with! It's an interesting combination of a historical Gothic and an almost Slenderman -type figure in the "Tall Man." At times it's a little convoluted and maybe needed slightly tighter editing but as this is a debut I find that forgiveable and will look forward to seeing what Tom Carlisle writes next.

James left his family home a long time ago, and never planned to return, until he gets a letter about his ailing father and feels an obligation to return home.

He is met by his brother, and new wife and baby... and also stories of recent disappearance that may be linked to the tale of The Tall Man

The Tall Man is a horror from James' childhood and is all tied up with his family history. What exactly has James' father promised to the Tall Man and can his sons, and grandson, survive what is to come.

Or is the Tall Man just a fabrication to cover up other horrors in the Village

We join James and his family as they uncover the truth, and just how far people will go for family ties

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for the chance to read and review this book. Definitely a good choice for this time of year!

A void below ★★★☆☆

Compelled to return to his family’s manor after his escape as a child, James Harringley finds his father greatly diminished, the servant girl’s baby missing, and his own nephew in great danger.

The Harringley family have a great duty to the village: to show them that they must resist the Tall Man. However, the Tall Man has always taken the first born children and in return the dark void is contained…

A creepy tale of folklore and dark legends where the boogeyman is very real and the choices the Harringley and the villagers make will decide whether evil can really be held at bay.

Tom Carlisle steps into the darkness where other writers fear to tread. Armed with many of the tropes of grand and grotesque horror he has etched a chilling debut novel. He has also mastered the difficult art of sustaining a sense of unease from beginning to end.
Anyone who has read the classic stories of Arthur Machen and M.R. James will understand the importance of keeping this genre alive for future generations. Today, there is no-one to match the Master of Horror, Ramsey Campbell, but at last there is a contender with the potential for greatness.
This is a disturbing and disquieting story. It's a literary feast of unnerving images and psychologically frail or damaged characters. A masterpiece of horror.

I enjoyed this one.
The big house, the village, all the villagers, and the story of the tall man.
The family dynamics between the father and two sons was good too.
There were a few nice turns in the plot, and the whole thing builds well to the end.
I'm not sure I personally would class it as a horror.