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A review by adrienne_l
Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver
4.0
For fifty years, Maud Stearne of Wake's End, now an old crumbling manor outside the village of Wakenhyrst, has guarded the mysteries surrounding the day her father Edmund Stearne committed murder with a pickaxe and fell down an eel-filled well. Confined to the Broadmoor Hospital for the criminally insane for his crime, after his death it was revealed that Stearne spent his imprisonment creating a total of three haunting paintings that gripped the public's imagination and reawakened interest in the case. But Maud, the only witness to the crime, has steadfastly refused to divulge her story. Until now.
Wakenhyrst is a rural Gothic novel, primarily set in Edwardian England shortly before World War I. The bulk of the story consists of Maud's account of the events of 1913 and the diary entries of Edmund Stearne. This is my third book by the author after reading [b:Dark Matter: A Ghost Story|8350864|Dark Matter A Ghost Story|Michelle Paver|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1504563569l/8350864._SY75_.jpg|13203928] and [b:Thin Air: A Ghost Story|28335600|Thin Air A Ghost Story|Michelle Paver|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1453812852l/28335600._SY75_.jpg|48382650] earlier this year. Paver set all three books in the same general time period (early 1900s) and she does an excellent job of authentically evoking life a century ago. That could be a good or bad thing for some readers. Wakenhyrst almost feels like it's from an even earlier period than the other two, but that's probably because instead of reading about young men on international adventures, our main character here is an intelligent and capable girl who is confined by the rules and restrictions that society and religion placed on women of her time in rural England.
Paver's writing is excellent as usual and I was easily immersed in the story. While there are hints at supernatural and folkloric elements here, I must admit that I was disappointed these elements weren't stronger. As in her previous novels that I've read, the touches of horror in Wakenhyrst are subtle in the extreme. But since Wakenhyrst is quite a lot longer than Dark Matter and Thin Air, perhaps that's why the absence of the paranormal element was more keenly felt for me this time around.
I would recommend this to fans of slow burn Gothic, historical fiction.
Wakenhyrst is a rural Gothic novel, primarily set in Edwardian England shortly before World War I. The bulk of the story consists of Maud's account of the events of 1913 and the diary entries of Edmund Stearne. This is my third book by the author after reading [b:Dark Matter: A Ghost Story|8350864|Dark Matter A Ghost Story|Michelle Paver|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1504563569l/8350864._SY75_.jpg|13203928] and [b:Thin Air: A Ghost Story|28335600|Thin Air A Ghost Story|Michelle Paver|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1453812852l/28335600._SY75_.jpg|48382650] earlier this year. Paver set all three books in the same general time period (early 1900s) and she does an excellent job of authentically evoking life a century ago. That could be a good or bad thing for some readers. Wakenhyrst almost feels like it's from an even earlier period than the other two, but that's probably because instead of reading about young men on international adventures, our main character here is an intelligent and capable girl who is confined by the rules and restrictions that society and religion placed on women of her time in rural England.
Paver's writing is excellent as usual and I was easily immersed in the story. While there are hints at supernatural and folkloric elements here, I must admit that I was disappointed these elements weren't stronger. As in her previous novels that I've read, the touches of horror in Wakenhyrst are subtle in the extreme. But since Wakenhyrst is quite a lot longer than Dark Matter and Thin Air, perhaps that's why the absence of the paranormal element was more keenly felt for me this time around.
I would recommend this to fans of slow burn Gothic, historical fiction.