I haven't read a book before by Adam Neville so picked this one as its folk horror and that is something I do enjoy. This story follows a family who move into a house and have neighbours from hell.

I have managed to read about 30% of this book and unfortunately have for the time bring had to DNF. I was just not getting on with it all. There becomes a slight fantasy element to it and that is just not my thing. I like horror and all things supernatural and spooky but just don't do fantasy.

Reading some other reviews I have felt that I am not going to like this book which is a shame as I really wanted to. I would give Adam Neville another go in the future or even may decide to try again with this one. The book deserves more than one star but that is my own rating for a DNF. ( )

Creepy Folklore Vibes!

Backstory:

Tom and his wife, Fiona along with their little girl, Gracey move into a new home that borders the woods. The only sign of life is their next door neighbors - the Moots. When they first move into the home, Tom and Fiona are never approached by the neighbors nor does it seem that the neighbors even want to make friends as they stay to themselves.

As Tom and Fiona get settled into their new home, they tell Gracey not to go into the woods, but kids will be kids and she ends up running through there. Things become heated when the neighbors get onto Gracey for going into the woods and Tom becomes more suspicious of the Moots as things just seem "off" about them, but he cannot put his finger on what it could be.

As time goes on, Tom butts heads with the Moots about different things regarding property boundaries and even tree limbs hanging over into Tom's yard, but things take a 360 degree turn when Tom's anger goes into overdrive and he does something that sends heat waves radiating with the Moots. Once he crosses the neighbor boundary line of "try to be a good neighbor" is when he sees the "true colors" of his neighbors which sends Tom into protective mode of his family.

That is about all I can say about this story without giving away spoilers so I will say no more as you will need to read the book!.

Thoughts:

This was only my second book by this author but it was the first time reading as far as it being a novel. I read a book by him that was a collection of short stories a few years back. This story was suspenseful, intriguing, filled with tension, and lots of horror aspects of living next door to neighbors.

Though as much as I liked the book, I had a hard time with the detailed descriptions of what the author was trying to get across as a lot of the writing style is just minute details but those details are described in such a way that I got lost in what he was trying to say as off and on throughout the book I would find my thoughts wandering. The story and plot itself was great but telling the story of it just felt like I was down the rabbit hole of Alice in Wonderland somewhere.

Speaking of Alice in Wonderland - lol - there are things in this book that reminds me of that story, but the setting is in the horror realm so if you can image the story of Alice in Wonderland then just add some twisted horror to it you would have a very strange story but with moments of creepy horror elements.

The characters were great but I really didn't like the neighbors the Moots and was hoping for something to happen to them as they drove me crazy through this book and I felt for Tom and his family as he had to endure what they were dishing out.

All in all the story kept me interested as I wanted to see what was going to happen to all parties involved in this story and I thought at times that this book kind of went off into the twilight zone as things happened in this book that took this story in that type of direction.

So there is fantasy, sci-fi and horror elements all weaved together in this book which makes this story very twisted. I own some other books by this author, but I think I need to recoup from this strange tale of twists and turns before stepping into anything else by him. Giving this book four Frightening Folklore stars! ( )

Very trippy and very violent. Very Nevill.

Grace. Best kid ever.

I don't think I've ever spent so much time on feeling on the edge of a knife as I did with Archie the puppy's fate. Damn Nevill. We alllll knew it was coming and you just kept twisting the knife a little more. I kept skimming and skimming. Seriously. It took a whole chapter.

Damn that ending was cathartic.

I'm not sure what it meant though. Any ideas? Is Gracie like kind of a one-eyed goddess now? Is she protected by the godess? Is she going to wreak havoc on the countryside in a future book?

I have questions.

I love this guy's books. ( )

A very good take on a new wave of interest in Folk Horror, with a huge Lovecraftian element thrown in. Whilst the first half feels uneven, and one can’t help but feel for the protagonist, one wonders what would have happened if the story had taken a different route. This isn’t a happy ever after ending, and yet, one finds a spark of redemption here. Clever, and truly a modern take on an old theme. Recommended. ( )

So until the last part of the book I was leaning toward a 3.5 rounded up to 4. But the 2nd half of this one was so intense I had to bump it up to a 4.5 rounded to 5. Amazing! The beginning of this book is VERY descriptive, maybe it's purposeful, maybe not but it goes into massive amounts of detail. Especially about flowers, trees, the woods etc. I kept losing focus and having to go back over paragraphs to remember what the hell I had just read. It was creepy enough to keep my attention, however, and thank goodness it did. Because when this book kicked into gear you could not take a breath. The action was so intense, things were happening at a speed my poor eyes could almost not keep up with.

So I would definitely recommend this for horror fans but be warned, you will possibly struggle at the beginning but don't give up! It is 100% worth it in the end. ( )