The Festival by Louise Mumford

This is the first time I’ve listened to the author’s books and the narrator did a great job.

It’s the evening of Libby’s mother’s funeral and Libby has gone to the opening of a new nightclub with her best friend, Dawn. Libby was her mother’s caregiver for the past two years and she is not too sad that her mother has finally passed away. They never had a close relationship and her mother’s parting words were not kind.

At the nightclub Libby wins two tickets to the hottest summer music festival Solstice. Libby is not too keen as festivals are not really her thing but Dawn persuades her to go. Ma Blake and her charismatic son, Abel are the brains behind the festival which is about to celebrate its 20th year.
We also hear about the myths of the standing stones, the five ancient grey sisters, who watch over the valley where the festival takes place.

At the event there is a festival within a festival called Sanctum. You can’t buy tickets to enter this special area, you get chosen by the Blakes. Due to the mysteriousness of Sanctum, Dawn is on a mission to gain entry. One night while busy partying and enjoying themselves Libby loses Dawn in the crowds and can’t find her again. The next morning, she is still missing and no-one in charge is taking Libby’s concerns seriously. It’s just another drunk girl sleeping it off somewhere on the festival grounds.

During the story we get flashbacks to when the festival was being hosted for the first time 20 years previously and another young woman also went missing.

I enjoyed how the legends of the stones and the story was interwoven into this mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley for my audio ARC.

In theory I should have loved this title, a music festival, folklore, witchcraft it had the makings of a perfect read.

However, while it was a good enough start, full of intrigue when Libby who is coming to terms with the death of a mother who has treated her fairly poorly wins tickets to the sought after Solstice festival, reluctant to step outside of her own little bubble her best friend Dawn has to talk her into going, so far so good.

They travel to the festival and we get a little insight into the origins of the festival, the family who run it every year, and the folklore that surrounds the area, then after the first day Dawn goes missing, and to be honest from there the story is pretty much all over the place, there’s a then and now timeline, which I’d usually love, but it was inconsistent and disjointed. The ending felt a little like it had to be wrapped up quickly.
2.5 🌟 rounded up.

The audio narration was nice.

Thank you to Harper Collins U.K. audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this ELC

Little creepy!! I went back and forth between reading and listening. Libby wins tickets to a solstice festival right after her mom dies. Obviously there is an agenda behind her winning these tickets. While at this festival weird and threatening things start happening to Libby and her friend. She finds out her life has basically been one big lie. It spirals out of control toward the end of the book with lies being revealed, people seeking revenge etc. It was ok.