Barrowbeck is an intriguing collection of interconnected short stories that brilliantly explore how time alters both people and places—or, in some cases, how little things change despite the passing years. The premise itself is captivating, as it allows readers to witness the evolving dynamics within Barrowbeck, a seemingly ordinary town with a distinctly eerie atmosphere lurking beneath its surface.

Each story in the collection is a snapshot of life in Barrowbeck at different points in time, offering a unique perspective on the inhabitants and the events that shape their lives. What’s particularly compelling is how the tone shifts across the stories—some are deeply sinister, filled with an unsettling sense of dread that seeps into the narrative, while others have a more subtle, creeping unease that leaves you questioning what’s real and what’s imagined. The author masterfully plays with these tonal shifts, keeping the reader on edge and creating an undercurrent of suspense that runs through the entire collection.

The final story, in particular, stands out for its unsettling realism. It feels all too believable, which makes it hit even harder, leaving you with a lingering sense of discomfort. The unease isn’t from any overt horror, but from how plausible the events feel, making it one of the most thought-provoking and impactful stories in the book.

One of the strengths of Barrowbeck lies in its ability to evoke a range of emotions and responses from the reader. There’s a lot of thematic variety here, from stories that delve into darker psychological territory to those that subtly reflect on human nature and the inevitability of time. This contrast in tone and theme keeps the reader engaged throughout, with each new story offering a fresh take on the familiar setting of Barrowbeck.

The author’s ability to craft such vivid, atmospheric tales within the relatively brief confines of a short story format is impressive. You quickly become invested in the lives of the characters, many of whom feel fully realized despite the limited page count. The town of Barrowbeck itself becomes a character in its own right—a place that is both familiar and strange, with a history that feels rich and layered, even if much of it remains shrouded in mystery.

Barrowbeck is another excellent offering from a talented author who excels at creating stories that are both thought-provoking and deeply unsettling. Whether it’s the subtle shifts in tone or the eerie, timeless quality of the setting, this collection lingers long after you’ve finished reading. If you’re a fan of short stories with a dark edge, filled with atmosphere and tension, this is a book worth picking up. The way it explores time, place, and human nature in such a concise, impactful way makes it a standout read.

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A strange and disturbing novel that gives us stories all set in the fictional town of Barrowbeck from around the time of the Vikinhg invasion (860AD) through various incarnations right up to 2041 when global warming has taken its toll.

All the stories are a little unsettling in some way. You're never quite sure where things are going and that's what makes this book so hypnotic. Barrowbeck almost seems to be lost in time. All the stories feel like they could be set five hundred years ago or five hundred in the future. The inhabitants are all intriguing and a little odd.

I enjoyed almost all the stories but would have liked one or two of them to be slightly less dystopian. I suppose being an optimist isn't always helpful.

Definitely recommended. I'll certainly read more by this author because the writing was so enthralling.

Thankyou to Netgalley and John Murray Press for the advance review copy.

I enjoyed this but felt it would of worked better as an audio, not all felt that they would lie in the horror genre but more eerie and spooky, I think some were made for BBC sounds? Overall a great collection, perfect for Halloween

Barrowbeck is a remote valley on the border of Yorkshire and Lancaster. Over the centuries inhabitants have been affected by a Darkness that lives there. This novel will lead us through time and what the people have lived through.

Well written and well paced novel. Many good characters who have suffered living in Barrowbeck. Quite creepy at times.

Sorry but I just couldn’t get into Barrowbeck at all. I requested it as the synopsis of the story sounded good. However, I got to 12% of the book on my kindle and nothing had happened. I had hoped it was just a slow start but ended up giving up and was not able to finish it. Just not for me.

I’m a fan of the author and have devoured all of his books so Barrowbeck was a must read for me. This is a strange book, even stranger than his other works which are on the odd side (in a good way). The book is formed of a series of stories or vignettes spanning from ancient times to the near future about the residents of the village of Barrowbeck with hints that something strange and eerie is going on which is never clearly stated. I didn’t enjoy this as much as his other works and it came across more as a collection of stories that a cohesive novel. I was disappointed by this given how much I enjoyed The Loney and Starve Acre. It wasn’t a terrible book but not what I was expecting at all.

An unusual and somewhat strange book. Spanning history from ancient times to the near future separate and distinct tales are told about the residents of Barrowbeck a northern English village.. Each part hints at something eerie and unnatural taking place but without ever defining what it is.
The only continuity throughout is Barrowbeck itself and the sense of unease otherwise each chapter is populated by different characters with no seeming family connections through history. The final chapter is in itself a kind of prophetic warning to us all. I found myself continually wanting something more from this book but never actually getting it although I did need to finish it. More eerie than horror but with enough interest to see me to the end

I failed miserably to get on with this book. Loved the premise but really didn’t like the writing style or any of the stories within. It all just felt bloated and pretty pretentious. Also, minor point I guess, but the epub sent out by the publisher was terribly formatted - no sections and random line breaks throughout…it made for an unpleasant reading experience. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn’t really get into this book at all. Didn’t realise it was a series of short stories and sadly didn’t interest me at all.

I really enjoyed "Starve Acre" by Andrew Michael Hurley but "Barrowbeck", not so much. I hadn't realised it was a collection of short stories, with Barrowbeck (a fictional village) at their centre. Also based on the blurb, I was expecting something more sinister at the end. Still some stories stood out more than the other, like "The Sisters".

Thank you to NetGalley and John Murray Press for this ARC!

This was the first of Hurley’s works I have gotten to read, though he has been on my radar for quite some time already, so I went into this with absolutely no idea what I would find.

Barrowbeck tells the (fictional) story of the village Barrowbeck in the UK, with each of the chapters telling a different tale set at a different time (period), but all of them with Barrowbeck as the setting and most describing a specific event or specific place.

We start off with a story describing the village’s origin, though there isn’t a year given so I can only say it was pre-1445. The stories then continue moving towards the future, though most are set in the 1900s and after.

The writing is quite atmospheric and has a rather threatening aura, but overall I would say this is very tame as far as horror goes. Definitely the kind of book even someone who isn’t a big horror reader could enjoy, but the depressing atmosphere is well done enough to also entice people who primarily read horror, such as myself, as long as you don’t really expect to see gore or be particularly scared. Spooky, not scary, is how I would describe this.

I think my favourite stories in this collection are After the Fair, which describes a travelling fair with a “magician” of sorts handing out miniature live animals to the winner of a game.
Hymns for Easter, probably one of the more haunting stories of the collection (especially if, like me, you are interested in the effects WWI had on the soldiers fighting in it).
The Haven, which was probably my favourite because I loved the storytelling-style chosen here.
A Celestial Event, a wonderful representation of how grief affects people differently.
And Covenant, a grim look at our future.

I think it would certainly be accurate to describe this as a more literary sort of horror collection, so if that’s what you’re looking for, I truly think you could have a great time with this.

I've really enjoyed all of Andrew Michael Hurley's novels, especially his last one, Starve Acre. This was a collection of short stories and I loved the premise of this being centred on a place through time rather than being character driven.

There was a sense of creepiness and strangeness to the stories and I never quite knew how they were going to end. I found the last story very haunting and an all-too-possible glimpse into the future.

Excellent writing, great imaginative stories and a perfectly measured amount of folk horror.

Barrowbeck is a collection of short stories depicting the lives lived in one small, claustrophobic village across different time periods, including the future. As a collection, Andrew Michael Hurley has spun a uniquely rich and creepy history of Barrowbeck to be consumed delectably. Although there is no obvious overarching plot and the pacing is on the slow-burning side, folk horror fans will find each story engrossing and disturbing. It was a moody and atmospheric read, perfect to pick up and put down, but I personally found the structure of the book a little ambitious. Nonetheless, a good read!

This collection of stories centred on the enigmatic place of Barrowbeck is endowed with rich folklore, minor and major haunting attributed to angry gods and land best left alone. Set in a naturally thriving area as the Lake District the themes of life, death, the strange, and unnatural are all explored in this collection in Hurley’s climactic tone. Some of these stories are enough to bring a chill to your bones but not all tales were had the same lustre to them. The chronological timeline of these stories brought together a thread of history and land as a footnote to each other but the varied horror of each tale led to perhaps too varied an approach to the collection whilst the overall aim to displace and haunt the reader throughout the land’s time is still achieved. Overall, a truly fascinating read and most of these stories are wonderful folk horror tales to share (particularly if you’re unfortunate to be located in Barrowbeck overnight).

This book reads as a bunch of short stories but they all have the same connection and that is Barrowbeck, a remote valley on the borders of Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Barrowbeck has a darkness that runs through it and the townsfolk do their best to raise their families, work the land and welcome those who visit. But something is happening, two thousand years of history is about to come to an end.

I was intrigued by the blurb on this one but I was confused initially. However once I realised that it was explaining Barrowbecks inhabitants throughout the years it all started to make sense. Saying that I did prefer certain chapters over others. Overall it was a good book and the last chapter did tie it all neatly together

I am a fan of Andrew Michael Hurleys work, they are delightfully creepy and unsettling. I had heard some of these connected stories on the BBC but there was still plenty for me to get my teeth into. Just loved it.

I have been a huge fan of Andrew Michael Hurley's since I read The Loney back in 2018. He is able to conjure up a fantastic sense of unease and create such unsettling circumstances for the characters he has created, so I was really excited to be able to read this advance copy of his latest literary work.

And I am actually not entirely sure what to make of it.

First: I expected another novel - instead, Barrowbeck is a collection of short stories set in the fictional Yorkshire settlement of Barrowbeck. The stories are arranged chronologically from most ancient to glimpses of a dreary future.

Second: Due to the nature of this book, I am not sure it entirely works in Hurley's favour. He's skilled at creating a mood and maintaining that mood for a prolonged period, such as in The Loney and in Devil's Day, but some of these stories feel more like sketches for potentially bigger, more interesting books.

Quite often the setting even feels circumstantial, and I think even irrelevant. Barrowbeck becomes a sort of bland stand-in for any slightly odd and cut-off Yorkshire village, and some of the stories could well have been set anywhere along the River Ribble or on the Dales.

Some of the stories, such as The Strangest Case, Autumn Pastoral and Covenant, had a more interesting edge to them, whereas some, such as To Think of Sicily, After the Fair and A Celestial Event really failed to grab me at all.

I also found some (such as Natural Remedies, The Haven and The Sisters) leaned a little to much into more clichéd folk horror, straddling the Shirley Jackson/Arthur Machen-esque quite firmly and not that successfully.

A Valediction was interesting and could easily be seen as a companion piece to something like Julia Armfield's Private Rights, with it's grey, wet and dismal vision of the future.

Overall, whilst the writing was always good and Hurley clearly is a skilled writer, I just could not really warm to this book, sadly. I felt like i was a little short changed, and that i wanted more from some of the stories, and less of others. However fans of the genre will find at least one or two of the stories to really enjoy in this collection.

Several short stories, all eerie, strange or curious, connected via Barrowbeck, but set in different year - this is a collection of short stories.
The Sisters stood out, yet this was not my cup of tea. The writing, the concepts/ideas or the atmosphere were good, but except for Sisters, the stories as a standalone but coherent fiction/story in itself fell flat. In other words, the overall execution, plots, and the coherence of the stories were not for me.

I must admit this confused me but i was intrigued so kept reading. There were moments of brillance and drugery im confused at how i feel about this one. Good in one way but indeciperable in another.

The book is, in a word, unsettling. This book gave me the heebies, the geebies and had me completely hooked from the get go.

The premise of this book, is a history of a town - Barrowbeck - this town has a rich and twisted history, we meet characters of every ilk, Hurley creates such a diverse cast within such small limits and constraints of each section. It reads like a collection of shorts and throughout each section is engrossing.

You can't guess what's going to happen, trust me, I tried. Hurley's magic is that he can pluck the most obscure plot twist and weave it perfectly into the narrative, as if it was always meant to be. This is a perfect read as we work towards spooky season, you'll be enticed and appalled in equal measure.