Wakenhyrst

Product Information

The journals of painter and historian Edmund Stearne have been kept safely in Wake’s End since his admittance to an asylum for the criminally insane. He admitted he did it but that he never did anything wrong. 60 years later, his daughter releases his, and her, story to the world.

Dark Matter: the gripping ghost story from the author of Dark Matter: the gripping ghost story from the author of

Put not your faith in men, she thought. That out there is all you can trust: that hedge and that wet grass. Those dripping trees.” Helped by sneaking in to her father’s study and reading his personal notebook (diary) - she learns many things, some that she struggles to understand! After loving Paver's Dark Matter and Thin Air, this book didn't work so well for me. The two earlier books were tight and ambiguous, and because we only saw the story through one set of eyes we were left hovering deliciously on that edge between haunting or a form of madness. Plus they were shivering-scary. Maud is a young girl, living with her repressive father (after her mother dies) in a house on the Suffolk Fens. She is a beautifully drawn character, as are her father & the servants occupying their house. Paver creates what feels like an incredibly authentic place & time & the story is very absorbing. I admire this wonderful writer, as she enabled me to understand the characters religious & superstitious beliefs, even though I have absolutely none of these beliefs myself. Wakenhyrst is a gothic style horror set in the fens of East Anglia. While the characters are fictional, much of the story is based on real historical accounts; the delirious writings of a spiritualist, the disturbing paintings of asylum inmates, and the doom, a religious mural depicting the Day of Judgement.Having enjoyed, “Dark Matter,” and “Thin Air,” I was delighted to receive Michelle Paver’s new novel, to review. Although none of the characters are particularly likeable, but the portrait of Edmund Stearne is a powerful study of self-obsessed tyranny. People are more frightening than the supernatural here. There is a terrific sense of place and the fen is a character in its own right. Paver draws on folklore and tradition and there is an interesting description of eel-glaving. Some of these traditions continue and you can buy eels at my local farmers market. The combination of Edmund’s patriarchal tyranny with his puritanical protestant classicalism makes it chilling to watch his road to committing murder. The struggles of the imaginary Alice Pyett make for interesting reading as well. My only qualm with Maud was her rivalry with Ivy, a young and pretty maid in her household. However, this is rectified in Maud’s epilogue when she declares that the friction between them was pointless; Ivy simply tried to change her lot with what she could, as a working-class woman. Maud’s wealth afforded her some amount of foundational respect, yet she used her intelligence to achieve her goals. Ivy was not afforded that same respect as a maid, so had to use her looks and sexuality to get what she wanted. Maud doesn’t blame Ivy for resenting her, she was born into wealth – and as much as she had to fight because she is a woman, she realises that Ivy has had to fight not only because she is a woman, but also because she is poor. Maud understands her privilege, making the decision to financially support Ivy long after the main events in the story take place, and despite her contempt for the girl. I did like the writing style and I will defiantly read something else by this author but hold out for a hard copy next time.

Wakenhyrst | A Review - House of Cadmus Wakenhyrst | A Review - House of Cadmus

Wakenhyrst mostly takes place in the early 20th century, just prior to the first World War, and combines creepy medieval church art; old religious notions of witchcraft, demonic possession, and saintly miracles; lingering pagan superstitions (leaving a bowl of bread and milk at the door, for witches); a creaky old manor house; the eerie natural beauty of the watery fens. The details of a murder are provided upfront, the rest of the book covers the events leading up to it. So you get a great early hook, but it also means the book drags a little towards the end - knowing what’s coming, I grew impatient to finally get there, and it’s a real slow burn. Wakenhyrst has been a long time in the making, so I was hoping it would live up to my expectations, but it absolutely blew me away and exceeded them beyond what I could ever have realistically imagined. It's a darkly gothic historical tale rich in its imagery and the creepy atmosphere Paver creates in the setting of a haunted manor house is deliciously oppressive. This is essentially a gothic mystery with a dual timeline set in 1913 and 1966 and explores the themes of witchcraft and the dangerous nature of spreading or relying on gossip and rumour. The feeling of profound menace runs throughout and was responsible for creating a tense and unforgettable tale. The opening chapter of this novel really does draw the reader in, I enjoyed the atmosphere and descriptions of the the Manor House and fens. But unfortunately the Plot was slow and uneventful. I felt the story dragged and the mystery and suspense created at the beginning, seemed to wane the further along the book I read. I wasn’t a fan of the constant switching between narratives as a lot of the story became repetitive and quite confusing. Maud’s a fantastic character. As she reads her father’s journal, her opinion of him changes rapidly and she starts to subtly annoy him on purpose. She saves and befriends a magpie, hence the cover, and she strikes up a friendship with the handsome gardener, someone below her station as far as her father is concerned. Through this it highlights the power imbalance caused by poverty.It was not me who discovered Michelle Paver about five years ago, but my daughter when she pulled “The Wolf Brothers” off the shelf at our local library and then read all six books of the “Chronicles of Ancient Darkness” in short succession. So you may forgive me, that I had Michelle Paver down as a middle grade author until I saw Wakenhyrst on the shelf at the same library but this time in the adult section of “new and notable releases”. The magpie on the cover sealed the deal, because I adore the birds for their chatter and cheekiness. The plot was moving along rather slowly to show all the incidents throughout Maude's childhood that ultimately led to the end we already know about from the beginning of the book. Finding out the true horror was great, however. This dark, gothic tale with hook you in with its atmospheric setting of a house on the edge of the Suffolk fens, and its themes of superstition, witchcraft and religion” Maud is caught up in the rules of the society of her time. Her father knows that she is intelligent, at the same time dismisses her as a stupid girl. She is self-educated because nobody cares to educate her, so she often comes to wrong conclusions. Utterly alone, she has no confidante, no support and when she turns to the stalwarts in her society for help, she is dismissed and threatened. It makes for a claustrophobic, dark experience, when you put yourself in Maud’s shoes. I adored how Paver made the natural surroundings in the book of central importance to the characters: Stearne who fears the marsh and the fenland and Maud who feels truly herself when she is in the wildnerness of the fens, a forbidding place, but the only place she can truly be herself. Religion is an important aspect of the book, but nature is the true spirit in this book, where absolution and judgement takes place. Nature wins.

Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver - review: some sinister

I loved Maud, the manor, the Fen. I loved the darkness, the obsessiveness, the building sense of dread. I loved Chatterpie. I hated Maud's father, but found his journals made for excellent reading.

Reviews

Maud’s battle has begun. She must survive a world haunted by witchcraft, the age-old legends of her beloved fen – and the even more nightmarish demons of her father’s past. This feels more laboured, with a constant switching between narratives: Paver's strengths show in Edmund Stearne's diary - the gradual revelations, the disintegrating mind. But alternating this with a 3rd person narrative through the PoV of his eminently sane, though enraged, daughter Maud removes any sense of ambiguity. The windswept wilderness, the old creaking house, the old man Jubel who lives rough in the fen and the eerie going’s on, all equate to a fabulously atmospheric read. Paver definitely seems to be the go to author during the spooky season as this gothic Edwardian mystery is just as compelling as her ghost stories. Es gibt Tagebücher des Vaters, die heimlich von der Tochter gelesen werden und so immer mehr offenbaren. Gerade zu Beginn hat mich das sehr gefesselt.