Myth, magic, mystery, menace, momentum – a gallop of an adventure blending folklore, faith, fantasy and fascinating characters. The clash between The Keeper and the Underworld is splendidly drawn with the potential horror should the new Keeper fail to keep the worlds apart. I look forward to the sequels.

I'm just going to dive right in and tell you this is a 5 star read. If that's all you need to know, go forth, buy the book, read it, love it!

For those of you that need a little more I am going to keep this spoiler free and somewhat brief because honestly, Gorse is a tale that you should just allow yourself to feel. Let it draw you in like the mire and the mud, let it soak through to your bones like the rain, envelope you like the mist, and let it remind you of what came before, of the knowledge that most have lost along the way.

Pitched as Poldark meets The Bear and The Nightingale (a series I have watched more than once or twice and one of my all time favourite trilogies) I was immediately drawn in. That being said, I was not prepared for the attachments I would form to the characters of Nancy and Pel, to Pat (the best boy), to Madge, and to Selkie, and I was wholly unprepared for the moors to become a part of me as I read.
The folklore and the historical research that has gone into making this story so very vivid is truly a marvel, and its so, so, beautifully written. It has wonderful pace, bursts of action and movement, revelations and confrontation, balanced with periods of stillness, of human-ness.
I loved the journeys, the character arcs were subtle, and I adored all the little folk. Based on the ending there could absolutely be more to come and I hope to see more of Knot.
Gorse is atmospheric, full of fear and love, of magic and faith. It is a book that makes you feel, and that for me, as a reader, is more important than anything else, it's what I'll remember long after the details fade.

With thanks to the author, publisher, and netgalley for the ARC

Gorse begins with a quote from my favourite Thomas Hardy novel, The Return of the Native, similar to which, an opening chapter is spent describing the wild landscape of the Cornish moors.
Fae folk are a big trend in fantasy writing at present and there are a variety of approaches. Horton takes it dark, with some grotesque creatures, body horror, grave robbing and murders. The narrative gallops along at pace as Pel, the Keeper who maintains the peace between the fairy folk and the human population, and his apprentice Nancy, attempt to discover the killer. At the same time, they have to manage growing tension and acts of revenge on both sides. The conflict between the church and older pagan rituals was well developed.
There are surprise arcs that are set up and some that are left for a sequel. I will certainly be looking out for the next in the series and look forward to a bit more character development.
Like the plant, Gorse has dark thorns of supernatural horror, but maybe needs a few more flashes of the bright yellow of light and humour.

This was full of elements that I love in a story: lyrical writing, a richly described historical setting, a plot rich in folklore and the clash of cultures... but somehow I just didn't connect to it. Maybe that is because the writing style was too distant from the characters, in the sort of 'omniscient narrator' style popular in pre-twentieth-century writing - which suits the novel's setting but isn't something I personally engage with.

What a fantastically dark and moody book. It instantly transports you to the mire and fog of the Welsh high moor, and the magic folks that dwell there. Horton does a wonderful job of telling this tale of adventure, coming-of-age, belief and magic in a hauntingly beautiful way. His descriptions do sometimes read close to poetry, but when the plot picks up, boy does it pick up. Intriguing, mysterious and captivating until the end.

I have read other reviews which say that the beginning of this book is slow. Personally, I loved the world building and the hints at spells and the properties of flowers. The beautiful prose was invocative, with the nature metaphors helping to create atmosphere and a sense of place.
If anything, I felt that the action went on too long. There seemed to be a few endings before we reached the inevitable conclusion - one where we knew where it was going and felt that it took a while to get there.
However, I loved this book and hope to purchase it for myself on release.

One of my absolute favorite genres is historical fiction combined with dark fantasy. This feels like a very hard genre to get right. But Gorse pulls it off beautifully. The pros of this book was magnificent and the themes of belief within a small community were fascinating. I found it very hard to put down this book and can’t wait for the sequel.

I really wanted to love this book, and although it had an interesting premise, I found it quite slow and boring at times - it had a fantastic vocabulary but it felt inaccessible at times

A clash of old ways and new in an atmospheric folklore tale set on the moors. A really interesting premise that could have been great, but overall badly executed. A shorter read at 290 pages, but the actual plot takes place in half that; a lot of time is spent on world building and description over moving things forward. The writing style is probably meant to be poetic but feels pretentious Not for me.

I throughly enjoyed Sam K Horton’s writing. It was very lyrical in its execution and I really enjoyed reading it. A murder mystery on the backdrop of small towns and the balance of folklore against modern religious practises. I really liked Nancy as a protagonist, so different from the older male POVs of Cleaver and Pel. These two have very specific and quite stubborn views, which makes Nancy as a very different character. I’m excited to read more in this series and see where her character develops.

I did call the villain reveal before it happened so it didn’t take me by surprise, in any means. However I got to the 48% mark and then read the rest of the book in one sitting. Definitely recommended!

A book with a bird on the cover

Gorse – Sam K. Horton

GENRE: Historical Fantasy/Folklore

MY RATING: 3.5/5
Characters: 3.5/5
Storyline: 3/5
Writing style/structure: 3.5/5
Overall enjoyment: 3.5/5

ABOUT THE BOOK
Cornwall, 1786.

For years, the villagers of Mirecoombe have turned to their Keeper, the old and battle-scarred Lord Pelagius Hunt, mediator between the worlds of men and fey, for help. But this is a time of change. Belief in the old ways, in the piskies and spriggans, has dimmed, kindled instead in the Reverend Cleaver's fiery pulpit. His church stands proud above the mire; God's name is whispered, hushed, loved. And now, death stalks Mirecoombe on the moor. There are corpses in the heather. There is blood in the gorse.

Nancy Bligh is determined to do what Pel will not: maintain the balance between the fey and the human world, be the Keeper that he refuses to be. Blessed with natural sight, friend to spriggans, piskies and human locals of Mirecoombe, Nancy has power that Pel never had and never lets her use. But as Mirecoombe falls into darkness, perhaps her time has come.

MY THOUGHTS
This is a dark and atmospheric read. A poignant and lyrical examination of faith, love and grief. The picture on the front cover is actually quite symbolic of the story, morbid and beautifully sad. It would actually be a perfect autumn or winter read, curled up by the fire.

I enjoyed exploring the concept of folklore vs religion. This story proves that when we take away someone’s right to believe in something different to us, or force our beliefs on others, we become narrow-minded, scared of contradiction and basically, we become a cult… and cults are bad…

The story is told in third person, with two main POVs and two lesser POVs. It is a book that demands your focus, as it is full of half told sentences and unspoken truths. There are hidden Easter eggs at the beginning of each chapter too. Each one is allocated a plant and each plant is symbolic for something and has hidden meanings. For example, Sundew's symbolic meaning is 'surprise', because nothing is what it appears and Vervain is symbolic of the power of reconciling enemies. If you know your plant lore, you can anticipate what is to come in each chapter.

Gorse by Sam K. Horton has an almost fantasy Jane Eyre/Wuthering Heights sort of feel with the atmospheric, historical writing and as an avid reader and lover of the classics, I devoured this book. The pace is a little slow to begin with but quickly amps up. This is a wonderful narrative that mixes folklore with history and wraps it up into a brilliant question of what do we believe in and why do we believe it? I would say that this had a darker, more gothic feel than some of the other fae/human stories but it felt right. You feel like you are out there on the moors with the characters and it completely transports you into the pages of the book. I do wish that the ending had been explored a little bit more but the growth of the characters and the intricate detail more than makes up for it. I do wonder whether the ending was rushed a little due to maybe a second book coming (hint, hint, pretty please). One can hope. I saw one review that described this book as the "gothic sister to Emily Wilde" and that phrase suits this book down to the ground on the moors. I am very much looking forward to any more books that Sam K. Horton brings out.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC copy, this was breathtaking!

The first half of this book felt incredibly slow and more world building than any real plot. We see a bit of the dynamic that Pel has with Nancy but it honestly got so repetitive at the beginning that I almost DNF'd the book. BUT the second half really kicked it up a notch and got quote dark and gritty really quickly and I actually ended up really enjoying it. I liked Nancy and Madge and the balancing act between old and new beliefs. I liked the gothic and folk horror esque vibe to this with the wildness of the Moor and the fantasy elements playing a part. This definitely sets itself up for a second book and, if it is anything like the last portion of this book, I look forward to reading it.

This was a mixed bag. I enjoyed myself, but I also put it down halfway through, forgot it existed, and didn’t pick it up again for two months. The prose broke grammar “rules” in interesting, evocative ways that I got fed up with pretty quickly for the added effort I had to put into reading it. The worldbuilding was cool, a new take on lesser known fairy folktales, and it drew some interesting parallels with the religious divisions arising from the establishment of Methodism during the period. The character work was… fine; I suspect some of the reason I didn’t get really invested in Nancy and Pel was because of the slightly distant voice of the prose. I probably won’t seek out the second book, but I’m not opposed to trying it if mood and opportunity strikes.

Sam K Horton’s epic story started as a bit of a slow burner, but it is definitely worth persevering. By the end I was total immersed in this world and completely invested in solving the mystery of the deaths on the moor. Horton’s world building of both the human and the fairy realms in 18th Century Cornwall is fascinating. By setting it in this period Horton throws the gradual move away from folklore towards scientific understanding into sharp relief. What happens in a community that starts to reject its ancient traditions? Would fairy-folk punish humans for their diminishing faith or would the fairy world itself dwindle and diminish when less people had faith and belief in them and their role in the natural world? Horton explores this dilemma in a creative and intriguing way.

A good fantasy book that had wonderful prose. I loved all the characters especially Nancy. The mystery was fun and I loved the eerie atmosphere. 4 stars.

I enjoyed this story (begin of a series? the cliffhanger was real) a lot. The style of writing is incredible mysterious and perfect for the story; it transports the reader straight into the harsh but magical moors. I love stories in which the magic is not floral, beautiful, and tame but wild, mischievious, and unpredictable. The main characters all had their flaws (Pel, you never learn) but I was rooting for them to solve the mystery in time. Thankfully, we've been set up for a continuation of Nancy and Pel's story, to which I very much look forward to.

A fantastic beautifully written fantasy! I adored this book, Nancy and pat have firmly secured a place in my heart. I loved how dark this fantasy was and it genuinely made me a little scared at points,

I thought the main plot was a little predictiable but it was so gripping and had so many other twists and turns I wasnt bothered at all!

I really hope we get a book 2, I need more Nancy (and Pel, Pat, and Selkie too) in my life

A stunning debut.
Gorse is a dark and rich book about the old and the new. Faith and friends. I loved it.
Nancy was a brilliant protagonist and I cannot wait to read more about her in what I hope will be a sequel which arrives soon. I particularly enjoyed her relationship with Pel and found myself hoping for a return (IYKYK)
The language used to describe the moors was rich and detailed. Not hard to get through in anyway and of a definite style which I liked. Though it was clear who was responsible for the deaths in the village I still really enjoyed seeing the plot lay out and am really intrigued by Nancy’s murmur.
I look forward to reading more by this author. Hard recommend.

Gorse

Pel, the Keeper of the Moor, together with his young apprentice Nancy is charged with acting as a broker between the villagers and the fae folk. But after a serious of unexplained deaths, the villagers are becoming frustrated that he’s no longer fit for the job.
They are turning away from the old ways and looking towards the Church for answers. Rev Cleaver, whose own son has died as a result of bad interaction with the Fae, is a rather formidable fellow. Early on in the book we are shown quite quickly that his refusal to accept any alternative beliefs than his own is going to cause big problems. Especially when he’s able to rile up the villagers in turning against Pel and the old ways.

I’m not sure why but there was something about this book that didn’t land for me. It really dragged which meant I was reluctant and unenthusiastic to pick it up, but without a concentrated reading, I found it hard to remember who the characters were and what they were doing.
It’s possibly a case of over-saturation of this genre. The covers are so beautiful and enticing, but I feel like I’m getting to the point where I’ve read something too similar recently.
So, to be fair on the author, this is probably a case of ‘it’s not you, it’s me’.