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taliaa_'s review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
2.0
labajas5280's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
joanarcherknight's review
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
This book was very disappointing. It should have been something I enjoyed. It was horror, it had supernatural themes and touch on Celtic beliefs. But it just fell flat. Not once while reading it did I feel any emotion even close to fear. The vision mentioned in the blurb didn't happen until I was 90% of the way through the story. It just let me down.
monty_reads's review against another edition
3.0
When I first read Ramsey Campbell as a teen, he didn’t stick. I tried a couple books – Obsession is the one I remember most – & there was something about his style that I struggled with.
I felt it again reading The Hungry Moon. But this time I was able to put my finger on it.
It’s quaint.
There’s something a little twee, a little old-timey, about Campbell’s writing that keeps me from becoming fully invested in it. There’s absolutely some creepy sequences in this book, but there’s also a sense of it being fusty & antiquated, like if Lovecraft decided to jettison the racism & write in contemporary vernacular.
It’s too bad I wrestled with Cambell’s style so much, because on a story level The Hungry Moon is pretty impressive. It centers on the residents of Moonwell, a small town in rural England that suddenly gets overrun by a religious cult. Believing a cave on the moors just outside town is a sacred space, cult leader Godwin Mann tasks his followers with converting the town’s residents to their cause.
There’s a small coterie of residents who resist Mann’s influence – a teacher, a journalist, the married owners of a bookshop, a postman – & they’re all that stand between the town & total annihilation when Mann accidentally unleashes a supernatural force on Moonwell. Because – wouldn’t you know it? – the cave isn’t holy at all. Instead, it houses an ancient evil that dates back to the days of the Romans & the druids.
All-encompassing darkness descends on Moonwell. The band of good guys discovers the roads leaving the town are dead ends. And – oh yeah – creepy long-limbed monsters with no faces scour the village for prey.
So it’s got the cult angle (which, as a religious skeptic, I always appreciate), but it also takes a deep dive into cosmic horror in its final third, with some genuinely unsettling imagery accompanying the battle for the town.
But there’s still that style to contend with, like if one of the Bronté sisters decided to write a horror novel.
Please note: this shouldn’t be seen as a negative review. It’s likely my struggle with Cambell’s style is an individual thing; I’ll stick with him for another book or two to see if he grows on me.
I felt it again reading The Hungry Moon. But this time I was able to put my finger on it.
It’s quaint.
There’s something a little twee, a little old-timey, about Campbell’s writing that keeps me from becoming fully invested in it. There’s absolutely some creepy sequences in this book, but there’s also a sense of it being fusty & antiquated, like if Lovecraft decided to jettison the racism & write in contemporary vernacular.
It’s too bad I wrestled with Cambell’s style so much, because on a story level The Hungry Moon is pretty impressive. It centers on the residents of Moonwell, a small town in rural England that suddenly gets overrun by a religious cult. Believing a cave on the moors just outside town is a sacred space, cult leader Godwin Mann tasks his followers with converting the town’s residents to their cause.
There’s a small coterie of residents who resist Mann’s influence – a teacher, a journalist, the married owners of a bookshop, a postman – & they’re all that stand between the town & total annihilation when Mann accidentally unleashes a supernatural force on Moonwell. Because – wouldn’t you know it? – the cave isn’t holy at all. Instead, it houses an ancient evil that dates back to the days of the Romans & the druids.
All-encompassing darkness descends on Moonwell. The band of good guys discovers the roads leaving the town are dead ends. And – oh yeah – creepy long-limbed monsters with no faces scour the village for prey.
So it’s got the cult angle (which, as a religious skeptic, I always appreciate), but it also takes a deep dive into cosmic horror in its final third, with some genuinely unsettling imagery accompanying the battle for the town.
But there’s still that style to contend with, like if one of the Bronté sisters decided to write a horror novel.
Please note: this shouldn’t be seen as a negative review. It’s likely my struggle with Cambell’s style is an individual thing; I’ll stick with him for another book or two to see if he grows on me.
kkehoe's review
3.0
An interestingly eerie concept with some truly unsettling moments and imagery that is sadly bogged down by about one-hundred pages too many. Well worth the read, but you will have to stick with it through some slow bits and characters whom really don't serve the story.
theneverendingtbr's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
"On the black moors of northern England in the shadow of an modern missile base, a band of Druids enact their pagan rites… Rites which unleash a nightmare vision of two unspeakable horrors – ancient supernatural evil and nuclear catastrophe…..."
Moonwell, a town in England's Peak District, gets it's name from a cave that dominates the surrounding moor. Every Midsummer Eve the townspeople, following ancient Druid Customs, decorate the cave with designs.
A Christian evangelist, Godwin Mann, has come to Moonwell to put a stop to the paganism.
When Mann descends into the cave to stamp out the pagan forces that lurk there, he encounters instead an evil being of tremendous power which invades his body and soul, changing him into a humanoid with "long spindly arms and reptilian eyes."
Meanwhile, darkness covers the town, the phones go dead and the town is cut of from the outside world.
Now that he monster is free it intends to wreak revenge by detonating nuclear missiles stationed nearby.......
》
Started off really good, halfway through I thought I was going to DNF it because it's a rather bloated novel, it could have done with better editing.
I'm glad I stuck with it though because after the halfway mark, it got pretty good and I liked the ending and the overall Lovecraftian writing style Campbell uses here.
It would have made a five star short story, but because it's a novel which should have been cut down from 428 pages to 328 pages - I've given it three stars.
Fans of eerie, occult horror stories should give this a go!
Moonwell, a town in England's Peak District, gets it's name from a cave that dominates the surrounding moor. Every Midsummer Eve the townspeople, following ancient Druid Customs, decorate the cave with designs.
A Christian evangelist, Godwin Mann, has come to Moonwell to put a stop to the paganism.
When Mann descends into the cave to stamp out the pagan forces that lurk there, he encounters instead an evil being of tremendous power which invades his body and soul, changing him into a humanoid with "long spindly arms and reptilian eyes."
Meanwhile, darkness covers the town, the phones go dead and the town is cut of from the outside world.
Now that he monster is free it intends to wreak revenge by detonating nuclear missiles stationed nearby.......
》
Started off really good, halfway through I thought I was going to DNF it because it's a rather bloated novel, it could have done with better editing.
I'm glad I stuck with it though because after the halfway mark, it got pretty good and I liked the ending and the overall Lovecraftian writing style Campbell uses here.
It would have made a five star short story, but because it's a novel which should have been cut down from 428 pages to 328 pages - I've given it three stars.
Fans of eerie, occult horror stories should give this a go!
michaelsellars's review against another edition
5.0
A re-read for me. I enjoyed it even more this time around. Campbell's greatest strength is his ability to remind us, insidiously and almost constantly, that not only is something horrible going to happen, it's happening right now in creeping increments, and his stories' protagonists are blind to the fact.
godtooth's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
tykewriter's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0