Book Review: Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver

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“Narrow is the way, and few there be that find it.”

📚

Moving between 1966 and 1906–1913, Wakenhyrst tells the tragic and brutal story of the Stearne family, residents of Wake’s End, a large manor situated on the edge of desolate Suffolk wetlands known as Guthlaf’s Fen. Patriarch Edmund rules his household with a cruel and unyielding hand, driving his wife into an early grave and rendering his young daughter, Maud, vulnerable and isolated. And when Edmund becomes obsessed with researching a hellish painting called a “doom,” Maud jumps at the chance to assist him, covertly reading his diary along the way and gaining insight into secrets more insidious than she could have ever imagined.

Overshadowing all is the mystery behind Edmund’s gruesome crime and subsequent institutionalization. What did he do, to whom did he do it, and why? Only Maud knows the truth, a reality so appalling and horrific, it rendered her a lifelong recluse.

Eerie and atmospheric, Wakenhyrst is an intense and haunting gothic historical novel surrounding misogyny, religious fervor, ego, violence, cruelty, insanity, gender, class, obsession, and the supernatural. Filled with slow-burning menace, tension, and suspense underpinned by an incredible sense of time and place, it’s an immersive and intoxicating tale rooted in religion and folklore, a dark delight where unreason reigns and savage horrors lurk among the everyday.

❤Amanda

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