gripping, well done
A more extensive review will follow. Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I really liked this book. Very entertaining and interesting ideas. I highly recommend this book to anyone that also enjoyed Wayward Pines.

This folklore horror read make my brain scramble in the best way! I loved the story and the alternating timelines and plots

Sophie wakes up in a wooded area. She is naked and confused. The small village she finds herself in is full of weird individuals. When she tries to leave they will not let her.
This book kept my interest.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC and to the publisher Canelo Horror.

At first this book melted my head… the alternating time lines of before and present counting down to the big reveal of what the heck was actually going on was a little difficult to follow at first. But boy… wasn’t it worth it. Atmospheric, spooky and otherworldly, Withered Hill gave me The Village and Midsommar vibes and had me on the edge of my seat with worry for the protagonist Sophie throughout. Shocking and supernatural… you’ll never see the ending coming!

This was my first folklore horror read, and I enjoyed it. The first introduction for the main character to Withered Hill was unforgettable. I enjoyed trying to figure out what the MC was supposed to do right along with her because I had no idea what to expect!

unfortunately a DNF for me. I was enjoying the mystery of the plot until it began to get increasingly sexual which felt a little bit off-kilter to me... and not in a good way!

Withered Hill is a great read from a new name in folk horror. I'm aware David Barnett has written across a few different genres but for us folk horror geeks, I can only hope he stays in this one!

A young woman stumbles naked from the woods with no memory of who she is or what has happened to her. She wanders into the idyllic-seeming village of Withered Hill, directed by silent strangers in masks, and finds herself drawn into a world of superstition and pagan rituals - a world from which she cannot escape.

So begins David Barnett's Withered Hill, a folk horror which drips with quiet, unrelenting menace from the opening to its shocking ending.

Some months earlier, Sophie Wickham is drifting aimlessly through life, moving from one temp job and forgettable one night stand to the next and self-medicating with alcohol as she watches her friends get married, have babies and follow their dreams. The structure of Withered Hill is tantalisingly mysterious, as the author skips teasingly between timelines and settings, challenging the reader to make the connection and figure out how Sophie found herself in an isolated Derbyshire hamlet and why she is now trapped there.

Part of the magic of Withered Hill is that it is populated at least partly by rational, normal-seeming people rather than a parade of kooks. While I (not to mention Sophie) might have struggled to suspend my disbelief at some of the practices described if they had been perpetuated by exaggerated stock horror characters, the girl-next-door affect of school teacher Catherine, for instance, lends a credence to events. Could there really be pockets of rural Britain where such customs have survived? All the elements you could hope for in a folk horror are present in Withered Hill: the isolated village; the pagan beliefs and unsettling customs, and a general pervasive sense of unease. The dread which builds behind the facade of normalcy is reminiscent of 2019 folk horror film Midsommar, with the warmly welcomed outsider catching glimpses of pure darkness behind the villagers' cheery grins and joyful celebrations.

Barnett has a gift for creating horror through what is implied as much as what is seen. One of the most unsettling moments in the story is when Catherine urges Sophie to stay inside on the night of one of Withered Hill's myriad seasonal festivals, describing the precautions she should take to keep herself safe from unnamed forces who would do her harm.

The book ends with a convoluted twist which may not land for some readers, but I was stunned by how completely the author subverted my expectations, making me tempted to re-read the book immediately to look for clues I'd missed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Canelo for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Withered Hill is a brilliantly woven folk horror story that is satisfying from start to finish.

The reader cannot help but feel like they have stepped into Withered Hill, experiencing all the folkloric traditions of the townspeople, and the pull of the woodlands that surround them.

Withered Hill features dual timelines taking place before and after our main character, Sophie, arrive at the isolated village. I find that sometimes these kinds of timelines can be muddied up, but Barnett has managed to make the story even more intriguing. Everything felt like you had just stepped into dark and twisted fairytale.

I think my favorite aspect of the book was the townspeople themselves. I have seen other reviewers speak to the grey morality they operate around and the story does a great job at portraying it. I love the themes of climate change and modern society.

There was one thing about this book I just found annoying and that was how much the MC mentioned or thought about her underwear. I just found that to be an odd and kinda misogynistic choice in her overall characterization.

This novel is folk horror at its finest.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I LOVE a good folk horror book and this book definitely lived up to the hype. Sometimes dual perspective just doesn’t work well, but that was not the case with Withered Hill, very well done. This book was my first introduction to this author, and I have to say I appreciated the research and detail into the history and story. Will for sure be looking forward to any upcoming books from this author.

A DNF for me. I don’t know why this was not a book for me. Other readers have raved about it so please make your own minds up! Perhaps I was not in the right frame of mind for the genre?!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Looking at feedback, this book seems to have people split down the middle. They like it or they don’t.
I fall on the side of liking it, a folk-y horror novel, what’s not to love?
I understand why this may not appeal to others, but I’d tell anyone to pick it up and at least give it a try.
Thank you for the arc.

The setting of this book is rich in folk lore and some superstition! Some timeline jumps that happen can be a little confusing at times but once you get into the book and get settled in, I feel like the jumps turn into a good flow and you're able to relax. I think this book was a really unique and original concept written really well and with passion. I recommend diving right into this one and not reading too many reviews beforehand!

This book will have you thinking about it for MONTHS! It will be on my forever reread books! I absolutely LOVED this book and I would HIGHLY recommend this book for my horror junkies!

Bridget Jones meets Wicker Man, but WAY less fun than it sounds.
This is basically chick lit. Flimsy, uninspired 90's chick lit. Even worse, it's flimsy chick lit written by a guy. Also, I'm willing to go out on a limb here, a guy who doesn't really know or think a lot about women and certainly shows no interest in applying himself to the female perspective, so we're treated to the company of a man-mad, thirty-something airhead girl-woman who is either drinking, thinking about sex, or ordering new panties on the internet, which she'll then wear straight from the box without washing them first. In between she frets about the state of her finances (all those panties! And the booze), but that's about it. To paraphrase Spinal Tap, it's a fine line between stupid and misogynist, and I'm not 100% sure the author knows when he's crossing it.

Also, did I mention the fucking? I don't know what it is with this author, but everyone in this novel is seriously preoccupied with getting it on. There's the local librarian, a fairly nasty old codger we're presumably supposed to find lovable, whose main feature is the perma-bulge in his pants. Fun! Not icky at all. (Apparently it has never crossed Mr Barnett's mind that the idea of being alone in a library with a man sporting an erection might not exactly register as humorous for women; that this is, in fact, a highly transgressive act of aggression does not come into play at all, I'm guessing because the author as usual thinks and writes and tells his story as a man, even though he purports to do so from a woman's POV.) Sophie is basically in a state of constant arousal as well, humping not only her friend Catherine but also the local meadow (don't ask) and other pieces of vegetation. Cute! Catherine herself is a teacher who spends most of her downtime bonking her male students (it's the way of the land, people; also, the boys love it). Erm... not quite as cute.
Still, this doesn't even qualify as erotica, as the writing is just... dumb. I mean if you absolutely have to write about female desire, it might help to try and imagine what that might actually FEEL like; instead, the scenes where things go all hot and steamy read EXACTLY like you would expect them to read if they were written by some dude unclear on the concept of female lust. I mean, take the scene where MC Sophie's sad state of underfuckedness leads to "insistent chattering between her legs" when that hot guy FINALLY looks her way. Vagina dentata? Or just a reminder to see her OB/GYN? When Sophie manages to get the guy in the sack at last, the encounter plays out like this: "Sophie surrendered to him completely, and let him consume her, and she fell asleep when they had finished, sated and satisfied". Welcome to the 1950s, ladies.

Plot-wise, this doesn't feel like a horror novel at all, it's chick lit with a side of teen detective... like Nancy Drew with a libido and a drinking problem, but no working brain cells. There's heavy helpings of idiot plot and plot holes galore, and of course there's a plot twist as well, and if you look at any of it too closely it just collapses.

Seriously, this book is just plain dumb. It's not even entertainingly dumb, or zany, or irreverent, or anything like that. It's stupid, and aggravatingly so. I mean, what else can you say about a so-called horror novel whose main antagonist, some ancient local entity, is described by the characters as, "a horrible rotter ... . He's evil. More evil than Adolf."?
Using the 20th century's most notorious mass murderer, a person responsible for millions of dead and world-wide destruction and suffering, as a fun (and totally, totally ludicrous) descriptor? Thanks, but no thanks.

What a creepy banger of a book. The story wasn't very surprising, but it was a fun ride. One of the reveals I hadn't guessed but the others were how I thought it was gonna go. Definitely want to read more by this author!

While I love folk horror, I couldn't get past the stereotypical female main character. Men should not write women actually

A fantastic, atmospheric folk horror with lots of twists and fantastic characters. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.

Rating: 3 stars!

A twisty, dual-timeline(?) horror novel. The entire premise from this book is unlike anything I have ever read before. I wanted the "horror" side to be a little more dramatic, but the overall book was so interesting!!

Thank you NetGalley and Canelo an ARC in exchange for an honest review.