Wakenhyrst

By Michelle Paver

A Times Best Book of 2019. 'Paver is one of Britain's modern greats. This sinister, gothic chiller shows why' BIG ISSUE, Books of the Year 2019.

"Something has been let loose..."

In Edwardian Suffolk, a manor house stands alone in a lost corner of the Fens: a glinting wilderness of water whose whispering reeds guard ancient secrets. Maud is a lonely child growing up without a mother, ruled by her repressive father.

When he finds a painted medieval devil in a graveyard, unhallowed forces are awakened.

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.

Spanning five centuries, Wakenhyrst is a darkly gothic thriller about murderous obsession and one girl's longing to fly free by the bestselling author of Dark Matter and Thin Air. Wakenhyrst is an outstanding new piece of story-telling, a tale of mystery and imagination laced with terror. It is a masterwork in the modern gothic tradition that ranges from Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker to Neil Gaiman and Sarah Perry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Apr 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781788549554

Michelle Paver

Michelle Paver was born in central Africa, but moved to England as a child. After earning a degree in biochemistry from Oxford University, she became a partner in a London law firm, but eventually gave that up to write full-time. Chronicles of Ancient Darkness arises from her lifelong passions for animals, anthropology, and the distant past. It was also inspired by her travels in Norway, Lapland, Iceland, and the Carpathian Mountains—and particularly by an encounter with a large bear in a remote valley in Southern California.

Reviews for Wakenhyrst

[Jelena Meiklejohn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the best books I’ve read!! Hope you enjoy

[DarwinGirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved it, couldn’t wait to turn the pages. Well-written, creative and haunting. I loved how the author talked about how she had written the book too, in the end notes.

[tina1969_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Edwardian Suffolk, Maud lives with her repressive father Edmund. Edmund uncovers a painted medieval devil in a grave yard and believes unhallowed forces have been awakened.I started off enjoying this book. I love stories of old houses and family secrets. What I did enjoy about the story was all the superstitions about witchcraft and the old legends. That though is about all I liked.The story started off really well and for a time I was really enjoying the book. I then felt that the story began to drag and I was then becoming very bored. The big secret turned out to be nothing spectacular. I did finish the book but was skipping a few pages towards the end. The book started off very promising but I felt it dragged on too much.

[sheiladeeth_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In the early 1900s, a 15-year-old girl lives with her father in an isolated manor, surrounded by marshland and fen. She loves nature, and he loves history. She loves mystery, and he loves order, or so it seems. But then he’s charged with murder, and she lives out her life as a lonely spinster, until her father’s prison paintings draw the unwanted attention of a journalist.Wakenhurst offers an evocative tale of rules and the breaking of rules, from keeping pets to St. Matthew’s “narrow way,” together with the control of a man over his wife’s frail body. Then there are the mysterious rules inherent in the painting of Dooms to keep out devils. And the (threatened) freedom of life on the Fen.Part coming of age, part gothic horror, and part tragic mystery, Wakenhyrst is deeply evocative, hauntingly troubled, and convincingly told. Superstition, suspicion and human need blend with diary, narration and history; together they form a long, absorbing tale, with just a hint of something that still lives and hides and waits…Disclosure: My husband brought this book back from England for me to enjoy.

[bookmarque · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of those books with a man so repulsive and cruel that you can't wait for his downfall. And you also wish that Maud will be the one to cause it. It is too drawn out though and while most of it was interesting it wasn't necessary to tell the tale. It lacked punch in the end when you wanted it most.

[Lola Hallowes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I wasnt sure what I was in for when I started reading, but the book drew me in. The attention to detail, and character development was so good, and the characters came to life on the page. The suspense was built achingly slowly but the climax was so worth it. I could never guess where the story would take us next. The attention to historical detail was also a plus, as someone studying towards a degree in History. So good. Couldn't put it down.

[obi2015 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

1966. The late Edmund Stearne,a gentleman and a murderer,creates a bit of a stir in the modern art world with his triptych that he painted while being a guest at Broadmoor,a high security psychiatric hospital. Because,yes, Edmund was a murderer. Right?1906. Maude lives with her family in Wake's End,a rather grim, isolated manor surrounded by marshes and fens. Her father, Edmund Stearne,a egocentric, inspired historian with a predilection for medieval history has more than a tight grip on his household and after the death of her mother life becomes just a bit more unsettling for 15 year old Maude. She discovers her father's diary and so secretly follows his musings and thoughts. When Edmund discovers the Doom,a painting that represent the Last Day of Judgement,in the churchyard things start to break down for him. Present and past demons haunt Edmund and very slowly he becomes a more than tormented and haunted man. The outcome is both tragic and horrific...This is a gothic story,a crime story and the story of the downfall of a human being. The bleak and haunting fens are a perfect background for this very atmospheric and mesmerizing story.

[deaflower · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A dark, gothic tale of a young girl, left living in an old house, with her disturbed father, after her mother dies.I found the main character Maud, to be quite grownup for her age, and partly responsible for her younger brother Felix. She was strong and courageous, in her determination to find out what her father was up to, and why he was behaving so oddly.She also had a romantic liaison with one of the gardeners, a boy named Clem, which I found to be quite endearing. But otherwise, the story was quite creepy, and very strange occurrences going on all the time. I had never heard of this author before, but found this story, quite different from the usual books that I read.

[triduana-794064 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I chose this book for the setting. I couldn't resist the idea of a paranormal story based in a big house in the middle of a fen. I need to read more spooky stories! Plus the cover is lovely.

However, the book left me disappointed. The description promised me a terrifying ghost story - it was unsettling, yes, but terrifying? No, not once - and a good dose of the paranormal - nothing paranormal ever happens. Just when you think it might, whatever the cause of it was is explained away as something completely normal. The only exception was the waterweed on the pillow - towards the end of the book I was wondering if this had been completely forgotten about, but it came up in conversation right at the end, and was dismissed simply as 'I have no explanation for it'. This just read to me like the author had forgotten all about this point, and realised it was a loose end that needed tidying up in a hurry.

I didn't connect with any of the characters. Maud was interesting to begin with but I didn't feel like she really developed. Edmund's story was much better but I just didn't like him enough to care about his story.

Overall it was a quick read, although it read like a YA book - not a problem in itself although the content of the book was definitely not YA. I really enjoyed the description of the fens, there was a really good sense of atmosphere here. The diary entries were a good way of revealing the backstory to some of the characters. I didn't think the excerpts from Pyett's book gave anything to the story though, and felt they could have been left out, or summarised in the text.

It wasn't a terrible book, I felt it deserved 2 stars for the atmosphere and the suspense (when it came), but it would have been so much better if the book had matched its description.

[vanessacw · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Set in Edwardian Sussex, Maud lives in a manor house in the Fens with her tyrranical father. When he discovers a painting, later named The Doom, in the graveyard of their local church, it seems to unleash all sorts of terrible things. Are they real or just part of a lurid imagination? Can Maud find out the truth?I very much enjoyed this atmospheric story. There is a good sense of time and place and the feeling of pervading menace is very strong. It’s definitely a gothic thriller type of tale rather than a traditional ghost story. It wasn’t what I was expecting when I first picked the book up, but nevertheless it kept me gripped throughout. It’s creepy and sinister as well as being quite sad in parts. It’s beautifully written and I liked the epistolary sections. They made it feel all more real somehow. The characters really came alive for me and the descriptions of the Fens are very vivid. If I didn’t know better, I would think Wake’s End and it’s Fens really existed! An engaging, eerie and engrossing read.

[adrianburke_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Too plodding. I got the point half way.

[Grace Stoddart · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Incredible. The writing style ensures you get completely sucked into the story line.

[john257hopper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the third gothic horror novel I have read by this author. While Dark Matter and Thin Air built up an atmosphere of dread through scene setting in bleak and remote landscapes (Antarctica and the Himalayas respectively), this was set in the (by English but probably not wider standards) bleak landscape of the Suffolk Fens. While this worked to some extent, I just didn't think this had the atmosphere of the other two books. I thought the main narrative set in the early 20th century dragged in places as the unexplained happenings in the life of Edmund Stearne and his relationship with his daughter Maude ambled on, with the occasional dramatic flash, but didn't really gather pace until Edmund's mental deterioration at the start of 1913, with his growing conviction that a demon imprisoned in the local church since the Middle Ages had now been released and was inhabiting the heads of members of his family and household. This results in a grisly murder, but this is a result of one man's monomania, rather than a wider atmosphere of horror; thus this comes across more as an interesting historical murder mystery with a supernatural twist, rather than a gothic horror novel. The author is a good writer, though, so this is still definitely worth a look.

[sturlington_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An old-fashioned gothic tale set in the early 1900s in an ivy-shrouded English manor at the edge of a wild, marshy fen, Wakenhyrst centers on Edmund Stearne and his teenage daughter Maud. The framing device reveals that Stearne was committed to an insane asylum and after his death his grotesque paintings of demons became famous, bringing unwanted media attention to the reclusive, now-elderly Maud; this is how her story comes to light. After her mother dies in childbirth under horrific circumstances, teenage Maud becomes de facto mistress of the house and secretary to her father, a medieval historian. Stearne is obsessed with the story of Alice Pyett, a 16th-century resident of the area who thought she had visions of Jesus and who was believed might be possessed by demons. When Stearne discovers a medieval painting called the Doom in the local churchyard, his obsession grows, and he begins to believe there are demons invading his house from the fen. Maud, who is growing independent and rebellious, discovers through reading her father's journals and her own investigation a secret her father has been hiding since boyhood and gradually unravels her father's madness. Wakenhyrst is a slow-moving but highly atmospheric gothic story that is also a coming-of-age story, an absorbing character study, and a love letter to wild and untouched places that may or may not harbor ghosts. It was a slow read, but I very much enjoyed it.