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Barrowbeck
For centuries, the inhabitants of Barrowbeck, a remote valley on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border, have lived uneasily with forces beyond their reckoning. They raise their families, work the land, and do their best to welcome those who come seeking respite. But there is a darkness that runs through the village as persistently as the river.
A father fears that his daughter has become possessed by something unholy.
A childless couple must make an agonising decision.
A widower awaits the return of his wife.
A troubled man is haunted by visions of end times.
As one generation gives way to the next and ancient land is carved up in the name of progress, darkness gathers. The people of Barrowbeck have forgotten that they are but guests in the valley.
Now there is a price to pay. Two thousand years of history is coming to an end.
A father fears that his daughter has become possessed by something unholy.
A childless couple must make an agonising decision.
A widower awaits the return of his wife.
A troubled man is haunted by visions of end times.
As one generation gives way to the next and ancient land is carved up in the name of progress, darkness gathers. The people of Barrowbeck have forgotten that they are but guests in the valley.
Now there is a price to pay. Two thousand years of history is coming to an end.
235 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 24, 2024
158 people are currently reading
3487 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Michael Hurley
23 books828 followersAndrew Michael Hurley (born 1975) is a British writer whose debut novel, The Loney, was published in a limited edition of 278 copies on 1 October 2014 by Tartarus Press[ and was published under Hodder and Stoughton's John Murray imprint in 2015.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 224 reviews
July 24, 2024
*3.5 stars*
A collection of tales from the fictional hamlet of Barrowbeck, a remote valley encircled by fells on the Yorkshire/ Lancashire border.
The inhabitants are used to hardships given the geographical location, where at certain times of the year the sun would be completely blocked out. However, they farmed the land and got on with life as best they could. But there’s something about Barrowbeck that has a claustrophobic feel to it, and an eerie darkness about it.
The lives of Barrowbeck’s inhabitants down through the ages, are told by various characters right from the founding of this settlement up until 2049. Each short story is quite strange or odd in some way, and reserved for a particular period in time.
As with any collection of short stories, some stood out more than others, and it was definitely a bit hit and miss for me. Loved some of them, others not so much.
*Thank you to Netgalley and John Murray Press for my ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review *
A collection of tales from the fictional hamlet of Barrowbeck, a remote valley encircled by fells on the Yorkshire/ Lancashire border.
The inhabitants are used to hardships given the geographical location, where at certain times of the year the sun would be completely blocked out. However, they farmed the land and got on with life as best they could. But there’s something about Barrowbeck that has a claustrophobic feel to it, and an eerie darkness about it.
The lives of Barrowbeck’s inhabitants down through the ages, are told by various characters right from the founding of this settlement up until 2049. Each short story is quite strange or odd in some way, and reserved for a particular period in time.
As with any collection of short stories, some stood out more than others, and it was definitely a bit hit and miss for me. Loved some of them, others not so much.
*Thank you to Netgalley and John Murray Press for my ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review *
July 1, 2024
First of all, what a great cover!
Fans of the author have been waiting a while now for a new novel to enjoy since the brilliant Starve Acre.
In this latest work, he has created a series of 14 short stories set in Barrowbeck, located somewhere on the North Yorkshire/Lancashire border. It opens with the first settlers in ‘ First Footing’, when a group are driven from their lands by vicious incomers, think Viking though they predate their arrival on our shores.
It ends with a glimpse into the near future in ‘A Validation’ set in 2041.
The first people in Barrowbeck are encouraged to live in this valley, this place of sanctuary surrounded by hills, known as fells, and beside the river Arfon by a shaman like figure. The mystical tone so typical of the authors work is immediately apparent and the solitary, bewitching, otherworldly atmosphere of the place is palpable through the descriptive writing. Barrowbeck is a character all by itself and the inhabitants through two millennia must do what they can to cope with its vagaries. Is the devil in the soil? Does a darkness run in the river? Is there magic in the air or is it folklore, hallucinations or just a difficult place to live? Maybe it’s a combination of all of them.
Some of these stories are first produced for BBC Sounds and I can imagine just how well they would work in that format. The stories are a real mixture and though I don’t find horror as apparent as in some of the authors other books but you do certainly get a strange, mysterious, eerie, off kilter sensation, with some creepiness in some of the stories which I really like. I love seeing how the place changes (or not) as it takes us to the prophetic warning of the last story with the valley having its final say. In some of them you get some fantastic creative imagery especially in ‘ Natural Remedies’ (I love that one). The other standout stories are ‘ An Afternoon of Cake and Lemonade’ set in 1970, ‘Sisters’ set in 2022, ‘A Covenant’ set in 2029 which links well to ‘ A Valediction’ set in 2041.
Overall, I love the concept of the short stories, seeing how things change or don’t through time. Some are a bit sinister in tone and atmosphere whereas others make you feel uneasy with the final story being all too easy to believe. Another very good read from a terrific author.
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to John Murray Press for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.
Fans of the author have been waiting a while now for a new novel to enjoy since the brilliant Starve Acre.
In this latest work, he has created a series of 14 short stories set in Barrowbeck, located somewhere on the North Yorkshire/Lancashire border. It opens with the first settlers in ‘ First Footing’, when a group are driven from their lands by vicious incomers, think Viking though they predate their arrival on our shores.
It ends with a glimpse into the near future in ‘A Validation’ set in 2041.
The first people in Barrowbeck are encouraged to live in this valley, this place of sanctuary surrounded by hills, known as fells, and beside the river Arfon by a shaman like figure. The mystical tone so typical of the authors work is immediately apparent and the solitary, bewitching, otherworldly atmosphere of the place is palpable through the descriptive writing. Barrowbeck is a character all by itself and the inhabitants through two millennia must do what they can to cope with its vagaries. Is the devil in the soil? Does a darkness run in the river? Is there magic in the air or is it folklore, hallucinations or just a difficult place to live? Maybe it’s a combination of all of them.
Some of these stories are first produced for BBC Sounds and I can imagine just how well they would work in that format. The stories are a real mixture and though I don’t find horror as apparent as in some of the authors other books but you do certainly get a strange, mysterious, eerie, off kilter sensation, with some creepiness in some of the stories which I really like. I love seeing how the place changes (or not) as it takes us to the prophetic warning of the last story with the valley having its final say. In some of them you get some fantastic creative imagery especially in ‘ Natural Remedies’ (I love that one). The other standout stories are ‘ An Afternoon of Cake and Lemonade’ set in 1970, ‘Sisters’ set in 2022, ‘A Covenant’ set in 2029 which links well to ‘ A Valediction’ set in 2041.
Overall, I love the concept of the short stories, seeing how things change or don’t through time. Some are a bit sinister in tone and atmosphere whereas others make you feel uneasy with the final story being all too easy to believe. Another very good read from a terrific author.
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to John Murray Press for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.
October 24, 2024
This might be Hurley’s most accessible book yet, while at the same time also being perhaps his most ambitious. It’s a set of linked stories all set in Barrowbeck, a valley on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border, progressing through time from the founding of its first settlement to its fate in the near future. As we learn more about Barrowbeck, the mood shifts from contemplative to ominous and back again. Barrowbeck contains some of the folk horror that’s become synonymous with the author’s name – but there’s also reflective historical fiction, hints of magic, a couple of excellent character studies, even a bit of sci-fi (the final story takes place in 2041).
The first five stories all have elements of scene-setting, though this doesn’t mean they’re uninteresting. ‘After the Fair’, which sees a girl attending a magical travelling fair where children can win tiny circus animals, has one of the most memorable premises in the book. ‘The Strangest Case’ is haunting; by contrast, ‘Hymns for Easter’ is one of the least chilling and most thoughtful, a story that effectively captures the shifting sands of history. It’s a theme that runs through the book: one version of the world is lost; all moves on.
‘Autumn Pastoral’ (my favourite) is such a wonderful story that it feels like a novel in itself. An art valuer visits a house in Barrowbeck that’s filled with paintings of the valley – part of a strange inheritance the house’s occupant left to an ex-lover as an act of spite. This is easily the creepiest and most atmospheric of the stories; I also felt it gave me a much stronger mental image of the valley than any of the others. In ‘Sisters’, it’s the rich character development that stands out. Its obsessive protagonist is captured so well, it hardly needs a macabre twist. ‘Covenant’ is vaguely Aickmanesque, loaded with portent: a house of mismatched believers, a curious New Year’s Eve tradition.
The strength of ‘An Afternoon of Cake and Lemonade’ lies in how it leaves the reader wondering. What exactly is the nature of Jason’s sinister ‘calling’? Where does it take him, after 1970? I liked many of the details in ‘A Celestial Event’, though the ending let it down; it needed to go a bit further, I think. ‘The Haven’ is good but maybe a bit too obviously aiming to tick all the boxes on a folk horror checklist.
Then there’s ‘A Valediction’, which is most effective as a way of tying everything together. As two environmental inspectors traverse the now-flooded valley by boat, they see remnants of its history, places and names the reader will recognise from the earlier stories. It’s an elegy for both Barrowbeck and the world in which it – in which we – existed. It’s common for folk horror stories to emphasise that ‘the land remembers’; in Barrowbeck, the river keeps flowing.
(PS: If, like me, you’ve listened to Hurley’s BBC audio series Voices in the Valley and have been wondering whether the stories in this book are the same – not exactly. Some have the same outline, but almost all have been rewritten or expanded for this book, in many cases significantly so. The book also has more stories (13) than the series has episodes (10). Most of the stories are much better for being fleshed out.)
I received an advance review copy of Barrowbeck from the publisher through NetGalley.
The first five stories all have elements of scene-setting, though this doesn’t mean they’re uninteresting. ‘After the Fair’, which sees a girl attending a magical travelling fair where children can win tiny circus animals, has one of the most memorable premises in the book. ‘The Strangest Case’ is haunting; by contrast, ‘Hymns for Easter’ is one of the least chilling and most thoughtful, a story that effectively captures the shifting sands of history. It’s a theme that runs through the book: one version of the world is lost; all moves on.
‘Autumn Pastoral’ (my favourite) is such a wonderful story that it feels like a novel in itself. An art valuer visits a house in Barrowbeck that’s filled with paintings of the valley – part of a strange inheritance the house’s occupant left to an ex-lover as an act of spite. This is easily the creepiest and most atmospheric of the stories; I also felt it gave me a much stronger mental image of the valley than any of the others. In ‘Sisters’, it’s the rich character development that stands out. Its obsessive protagonist is captured so well, it hardly needs a macabre twist. ‘Covenant’ is vaguely Aickmanesque, loaded with portent: a house of mismatched believers, a curious New Year’s Eve tradition.
The strength of ‘An Afternoon of Cake and Lemonade’ lies in how it leaves the reader wondering. What exactly is the nature of Jason’s sinister ‘calling’? Where does it take him, after 1970? I liked many of the details in ‘A Celestial Event’, though the ending let it down; it needed to go a bit further, I think. ‘The Haven’ is good but maybe a bit too obviously aiming to tick all the boxes on a folk horror checklist.
Then there’s ‘A Valediction’, which is most effective as a way of tying everything together. As two environmental inspectors traverse the now-flooded valley by boat, they see remnants of its history, places and names the reader will recognise from the earlier stories. It’s an elegy for both Barrowbeck and the world in which it – in which we – existed. It’s common for folk horror stories to emphasise that ‘the land remembers’; in Barrowbeck, the river keeps flowing.
(PS: If, like me, you’ve listened to Hurley’s BBC audio series Voices in the Valley and have been wondering whether the stories in this book are the same – not exactly. Some have the same outline, but almost all have been rewritten or expanded for this book, in many cases significantly so. The book also has more stories (13) than the series has episodes (10). Most of the stories are much better for being fleshed out.)
I received an advance review copy of Barrowbeck from the publisher through NetGalley.
August 4, 2025
4.0/5
“I was being inundated from the outside by waves of accumulated suffering, old suffering. I could feel it emanating from the woods and the fields, flowing down the cloughs and along the river, swilling around the streets of the village.”
“History was a joke. A time of tyrants and idiots. History was when people behaved like children, demanding what they knew they shouldn’t have — two cars and new roads and flights to the sun — and now they sobbed over what they’d ruined because of it.”
“Her grief was too private to share, perhaps even unpronounceable. It could only produce a numbness in her. She had the vacuity of someone dazed.”
“Her stoicism and graciousness were fragile, a self-administered palliative and not a cure.”
“I was being inundated from the outside by waves of accumulated suffering, old suffering. I could feel it emanating from the woods and the fields, flowing down the cloughs and along the river, swilling around the streets of the village.”
“History was a joke. A time of tyrants and idiots. History was when people behaved like children, demanding what they knew they shouldn’t have — two cars and new roads and flights to the sun — and now they sobbed over what they’d ruined because of it.”
“Her grief was too private to share, perhaps even unpronounceable. It could only produce a numbness in her. She had the vacuity of someone dazed.”
“Her stoicism and graciousness were fragile, a self-administered palliative and not a cure.”
December 8, 2024
A book of 14 short stories that span centuries, all set in the disquieting hamlet of Barrowbeck.
I enjoyed these strange tales of folk horror, atmospheric and quite disturbing, just as I would expect from Andrew Michael Hurley.
Standouts for me were An Afternoon of Cakes and Lemonade, Natural Remedies, and Sisters. 4 stars.
I enjoyed these strange tales of folk horror, atmospheric and quite disturbing, just as I would expect from Andrew Michael Hurley.
Standouts for me were An Afternoon of Cakes and Lemonade, Natural Remedies, and Sisters. 4 stars.
October 24, 2024
“Wean them off this drivel about sorcery. Such things belong to the centuries of the past, not ours. They work among the marvels of science every day at the will, and yet they talk of goblins.”
I have enjoyed Andrew Michael Murray’s “Starve Acre” and I was very excited to read this one. When I started reading Barrowbeck, I didn’t know it would be an anthology of short stories. Even so, I enjoyed the eerieness.
The stories come in chronological order, and the first story is about how it all started. When the marsh-folk escaped and found a new home by the river in Barrowbeck. From marsh-folk they became valley-folk and settled. But as their old shaman warned them – they owed this new start to the gods and would be forever their servants.
As the years go on, we follow different characters and different stories.
Each of them have one thing in common – the unsettling vibe and the price that comes with living in Barrowbeck. A daughter and a mother are sharing the same vivid dreams. The Sicilian man that visited and brought bad luck. Fear of witchcraft. One girl was murdered in the woods in a very peculiar way. A choir where the fallen soldiers decided to join in the singing. A travelling fair with animals so small, you can keep them in the palm of your hands. One child being born by spawning from a flower.
All the stories have something unique in them, and although the stories themselves are very different to one another, the same theme continues throughout the book. The stories move on with the times. We go from shamans and witchcraft, to trials for murders, to doctors and mental health institutions. The last story is set in 2041, and features technology and the village flooded. Whilst we think it’s the effects of global warming, it brings the question of whether it could just be the wrath of the gods.
I really enjoyed every single story. It’s true, some stories left a bigger impression than others, and some I will remember more than others. What I found intriguing is that we never get an answer. We don’t really know what is going on. And I think that is the case with everything eerie and all things we cannot explain. There will always be room left for personal interpretation and it’s certainly a great book that can prompt a lot of discussions. It’s certainly worth giving it a go!
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August 30, 2024
The synopsis of this book really took my interest, and I wanted to try a different genre to what I usually read.
I liked that all the short stories were based in Barrowbeck and that they spanned over many years. Whilst I did enjoy some of them, for the most part, I struggled to get into many of the stories. It is very well written, I think that the style of writing just didn't suit me. I'm sure this book will be loved by many, unfortunately it wasn't the right fit for me.
Thank you, John Murray Press, for the opportunity to read this ARC.
My opinions are my own.
I liked that all the short stories were based in Barrowbeck and that they spanned over many years. Whilst I did enjoy some of them, for the most part, I struggled to get into many of the stories. It is very well written, I think that the style of writing just didn't suit me. I'm sure this book will be loved by many, unfortunately it wasn't the right fit for me.
Thank you, John Murray Press, for the opportunity to read this ARC.
My opinions are my own.
December 6, 2025
I really enjoyed Starve Acre, so was excited for a bit more folk horror from this author.
Barrowbeck is a collection of tales ranging from ancient times to the near future of the small fictional remote village on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border.
Like many short story collections, this was a mixed bag.
I did enjoy the way the were presented in chronological date order.
Barrowbeck is a collection of tales ranging from ancient times to the near future of the small fictional remote village on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border.
Like many short story collections, this was a mixed bag.
I did enjoy the way the were presented in chronological date order.
September 28, 2024
A strange and disturbing novel that gives us stories all set in the fictional town of Barrowbeck from around the time of the Vikinhg invasion (860AD) through various incarnations right up to 2041 when global warming has taken its toll.
All the stories are a little unsettling in some way. You're never quite sure where things are going and that's what makes this book so hypnotic. Barrowbeck almost seems to be lost in time. All the stories feel like they could be set five hundred years ago or five hundred in the future. The inhabitants are all intriguing and a little odd.
I enjoyed almost all the stories but would have liked one or two of them to be slightly less dystopian. I suppose being an optimist isn't always helpful.
Definitely recommended. I'll certainly read more by this author because the writing was so enthralling.
Thankyou to Netgalley and John Murray Press for the advance review copy.
All the stories are a little unsettling in some way. You're never quite sure where things are going and that's what makes this book so hypnotic. Barrowbeck almost seems to be lost in time. All the stories feel like they could be set five hundred years ago or five hundred in the future. The inhabitants are all intriguing and a little odd.
I enjoyed almost all the stories but would have liked one or two of them to be slightly less dystopian. I suppose being an optimist isn't always helpful.
Definitely recommended. I'll certainly read more by this author because the writing was so enthralling.
Thankyou to Netgalley and John Murray Press for the advance review copy.
August 23, 2024
"And she thought of those Victorian paintings of deathbed scenes: the soul rising vapourously out of a spent and supine body and into a starry beam of light; all tears wiped away, all the frailty and grossness of a human life transfigured and forgiven at last."
This was a gripping read! A series of stories told from within the remote valley of Barrowbeck, starting from the 1400s up until 2041, from the first settlement up until the last.
It had a really strong start and finish! Some of the stories in-between were good, and some I really wanted to be a full-length book! The mystery surrounding the valley and how gradually humanity had permanently changed a landscape was so so interesting to read
But also the last chapter was almost too real with the effects of climate change...oof 😗
This was a gripping read! A series of stories told from within the remote valley of Barrowbeck, starting from the 1400s up until 2041, from the first settlement up until the last.
It had a really strong start and finish! Some of the stories in-between were good, and some I really wanted to be a full-length book! The mystery surrounding the valley and how gradually humanity had permanently changed a landscape was so so interesting to read
But also the last chapter was almost too real with the effects of climate change...oof 😗
October 31, 2024
3.5⭐️
A series of linked short stories set in different timelines, some more effective than others, as is usually the case with short stories, so I settled on 3.5⭐️ as a happy medium. Barrowbeck is situated in a remote valley on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border and although I was expecting some folk horror, (and there is some of that), the stories differ widely from each other but always have an element of the uncanny and a grounding in Barrowbeck. A different kettle of fish from Starve Acre but an interesting read.
A series of linked short stories set in different timelines, some more effective than others, as is usually the case with short stories, so I settled on 3.5⭐️ as a happy medium. Barrowbeck is situated in a remote valley on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border and although I was expecting some folk horror, (and there is some of that), the stories differ widely from each other but always have an element of the uncanny and a grounding in Barrowbeck. A different kettle of fish from Starve Acre but an interesting read.
January 18, 2025
A skilfully constructed and intelligently narrated kaleidoscope of tales spanning more than 2000 years and being as different as the people having lived in the mythic landscape of Barrowbeck – who inescapably spiral towards the final catastrophe that awaits humankind.
It is the menacing undercurrent that gives these stories its particular character of premonition, in the end unveiling the pathetically insignificant trials and tribulations of everyday life as one long, ultimately futile stream of existence.
It is the menacing undercurrent that gives these stories its particular character of premonition, in the end unveiling the pathetically insignificant trials and tribulations of everyday life as one long, ultimately futile stream of existence.
March 23, 2025
I enjoyed that all the stories were based around the same hamlet and that they spanned different periods throughout time, but as with most short stories, some were better than others. Some sucked me in, and we're really atmospheric, but others weren't as good.
December 20, 2024
I can’t really say this is a book to ‘enjoy’. It’s unsettling and creepy, told in chapters across time. There’s no real explanation for the events. Some of the chapters caught the imagination more than others. many thanks to NetGalley for an arc of this book.
December 1, 2024
I am a Hurley fan of the first hour, I loved The Loney and though Devil's Day was clunkier it leaves with me most enduring mental visions of liminal eerieness. Things started to go a bit wrong for me with Starve Acre which though enjoyable felt more like a mass reading audience friendly folk horror story. Yet I was still as excited as ever to hear about a new novel which turned out to be a collection of short stories around one central theme, the village of Barrowbeck through the ages. I will echo many reviewers here in saying that some stories are more memorable than others, some are great like the two sisters and their strange hibernation rites but all in all the stories are piled up and the central theme just an excuse or an afterthought almost. Some brilliant turns of phrase as only Hurley can come up with but too few and far between amidst, again a more reader friendly style.
October 28, 2024
Huxley's fourth work is referred to as a novel in the blurb, but the stories comprising it, though tied around the namesake valley (Barrowbeck), are too independent one from the other, the threads binding them too thin, to call it anything other than a short story collection - which was quite a surprise for me, thinking that Hurley would continue on the novel format.
The book left me lukewarm. Though some of the stories are good and the idea of visiting a place time and again through two thousand years is intriguing, I found the end result too hollow, as far as the genius loci evocation and the author's trademark folk horror atmosphere is concerned. The stories tended to focus too much on the characters (something that had stared in Starve Acre, and was one of my main objections to it) and left the environment/place way too underdeveloped. Also, I don't expect blatant supernatural elements in Hurley's works, but in most of the stories it was too subtle. The same can be said about the plot (another thing that was true for Starve Acre), a few of which were not resolved in any remotely clear way. I do love the vagueness of Aickman, but here it didn't work.
The book left me lukewarm. Though some of the stories are good and the idea of visiting a place time and again through two thousand years is intriguing, I found the end result too hollow, as far as the genius loci evocation and the author's trademark folk horror atmosphere is concerned. The stories tended to focus too much on the characters (something that had stared in Starve Acre, and was one of my main objections to it) and left the environment/place way too underdeveloped. Also, I don't expect blatant supernatural elements in Hurley's works, but in most of the stories it was too subtle. The same can be said about the plot (another thing that was true for Starve Acre), a few of which were not resolved in any remotely clear way. I do love the vagueness of Aickman, but here it didn't work.
October 4, 2024
This is a book of short stories that are centred around the fictional Barrowbeck. The stories range from whimsical, historical and also from the future.
I enjoyed the range of stories, I did find that with short stories there are some I like more than others, and this collection was no exception. I enjoyed them all on the whole but occasionally felt that just as they were getting into the most interesting part, they ended.
Some are more towards the horror, nothing grotesque or toe-curlingly bad, but as I mentioned earlier, more whimsical. It is an interesting selection of themes and topics.
This is the first time I have read anything by this author and I will look for other books and stories. If you are looking for a story collection then this one may be something you would be interested in. I would recommend it.
I enjoyed the range of stories, I did find that with short stories there are some I like more than others, and this collection was no exception. I enjoyed them all on the whole but occasionally felt that just as they were getting into the most interesting part, they ended.
Some are more towards the horror, nothing grotesque or toe-curlingly bad, but as I mentioned earlier, more whimsical. It is an interesting selection of themes and topics.
This is the first time I have read anything by this author and I will look for other books and stories. If you are looking for a story collection then this one may be something you would be interested in. I would recommend it.
October 24, 2024
I was VERY excited about a new Andrew Michael Hurley book, but found it rather different to his previous works. These are more of interconnected short stories, taking place during different time but at the same place. I really love Hurley's writing, but the stories didn't all work for me; most of the ideas and set-ups were good, there was that folk horror feeling and setting, but there was something missing that would make the book stay with me. The last story/chapter, funny enough set in the future, was one of the better ones and did tie things together nicely, so it's not all doom and gloom.
August 13, 2024
Beautifully creepy, I first came across this perfect set of entwined stories on the BBC Sounds podcast series ‘Voices In The Valley’. The book is just as good, maybe even better. Put simply, it is just really great folk horror! Totally immersive, atmospheric and uncanny. The liminal setting of the Yorkshire/Lancashire borderland really worked, and as a Northerner added an extra layer of intrigue for me.
November 12, 2024
I devoured this dark collection of connected tales, set in the haunting Barrowbeck, a place steeped in ghosts. The stories ranged from hundreds of years ago, up until the near future, and were all standalone, but also interlinked. And all possessed sinister undertones. It almost felt like reading a serious account of The League of Gentlemen, set in the fictional and horror-filled Royston Vasey. Hurley's prose was blade-sharp and his characters deeply unnerving. Brilliant stuff!
January 7, 2025
so impressive how distinct a world he manages to build for each story in such few pages, with an utterly unique context and narrative each time despite the overlap in location. particularly enjoyed the strangest case, sisters and a celestial event, but they were all pretty compelling, a neat eerie thread persisting through each
October 24, 2024
Barrowbeck is a collection of short stories set in the fictional Yorkshire village of Barrowbeck, which serves as the central character of the book. The stories span from ancient times to glimpses of the future, offering snapshots of life in different eras, from whimsical and historical to speculative. As with previous books, Hurley excels at creating an eerie, claustrophobic atmosphere, enhanced by the village’s isolation, and he sustains this mood throughout. However, many of the stories felt more like snapshots rather than fully developed narratives. While stories like The Strangest Case, and Autumn Pastoral, stood out for their intriguing elements, others like To Think of Sicily, After the Fair, and A Celestial Event fell flat for me. While it is categorised as folk horror, not all of the stories fit that genre, which was slightly disappointing. However, I still enjoyed the book overall and would recommend it.
Thank you to NetGalley UK and @johnmurray for sending me an e-arc!
Thank you to NetGalley UK and @johnmurray for sending me an e-arc!
December 31, 2024
3 stars
Definitely a very hit or miss short story collection for me. I wish it had been way more interconnected and I was also expecting much more of a folk horror vibe. So my issues with this at least partially lie in my own wrong expectations based on the cover and blurb but still.
Definitely a very hit or miss short story collection for me. I wish it had been way more interconnected and I was also expecting much more of a folk horror vibe. So my issues with this at least partially lie in my own wrong expectations based on the cover and blurb but still.
November 14, 2025
meh, i wish it built up to something bigger or had some stronger consistent themes between the stories
October 31, 2024
Think a mix of 'Tales of the Unexpected' and Edward Rutherfurd's brilliant sagas of one place through time, such as 'Sarum'. But not half as good.
We get no sense of the place of Barrowbeck, and no continuity of characters - neither names nor characteristics. Instead we have a disjointed collection of rather disappointing stories, for the most, often leaving the reader wondering why it was written or what happened to round it off. The book starts in prehistory, then leaps to Medieval, then leap to the 19th century (really, no tale set in the rich Tudor times?) then plenty of 20th and 21st century stuff. One or two stories are quite clever, but overall it seems the author had an idea for a random collection of stories and saw this as the vehicle to peddle them. I wanted to be able to picture Barrowbeck and see the characters and their descendants develop. They all seemed very two dimensional and forgettable.
Sorry, it didn't work at all for me. A very disappointing read.
Thank you to NetGalley and John Murray Press for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
We get no sense of the place of Barrowbeck, and no continuity of characters - neither names nor characteristics. Instead we have a disjointed collection of rather disappointing stories, for the most, often leaving the reader wondering why it was written or what happened to round it off. The book starts in prehistory, then leaps to Medieval, then leap to the 19th century (really, no tale set in the rich Tudor times?) then plenty of 20th and 21st century stuff. One or two stories are quite clever, but overall it seems the author had an idea for a random collection of stories and saw this as the vehicle to peddle them. I wanted to be able to picture Barrowbeck and see the characters and their descendants develop. They all seemed very two dimensional and forgettable.
Sorry, it didn't work at all for me. A very disappointing read.
Thank you to NetGalley and John Murray Press for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
January 9, 2025
Read about four of the "vignettes." Because they aren't stories, not really. According the the review in the Guardian, Barrowbeck "began life as a series of 15-minute plays written for Radio 4, 'Voices in the Valley.'" But while the Guardian reviewer felt that the transfer from radio to the page meant Hurley brought "greater complexity to his storylines as well as adding several new tales and strengthening the connections between them," I felt that they remained exactly that -- voices. Intriguing voices, full of atmosphere and local colour, but without the satisfaction of a full-throttle story, with its sense of a satisfying epiphany, either there on the page, or lurking just beyond the final full stop.
And this is a problem I have with Hurley: he's great for atmosphere, and a creepy sense of place, and the unsettling horrors of a family (or community) dynamic that is just a bit ... off. But I have come to feel (having read all his novels, for my sins) that he's doing himself a disservice, shackling his stories to horror.
And this is a problem I have with Hurley: he's great for atmosphere, and a creepy sense of place, and the unsettling horrors of a family (or community) dynamic that is just a bit ... off. But I have come to feel (having read all his novels, for my sins) that he's doing himself a disservice, shackling his stories to horror.
January 2, 2025
The last story was a bit too preachy so I took a star off 🤷🏻♀️
December 12, 2024
(3.5 stars) Spoilers below.
For the most part I really enjoyed Barrowbeck from beginning to end. It really worked as an anthology of fictional short stories chronologically spanning ancient times to the future, all linked tangentially by being set in the same location as a through-line. Sometimes I wanted a story to continue and keep developing rather than moving onto the next premise / set of characters / time period - a double-edged sword of the choice of book structure I guess. I love Andrew Hurley's writing style and am a huge fan of folk horror in general, so Barrowbeck was right up my street.
The very first story was my favourite and I loved being transported to an ancient world. Meeting formed characters from pre-history is a rarity for me in my reading choices to date, so this felt really exciting and to be honest I would have been happy for the whole book to have continued with this time period. Some of the other stories in the book I enjoyed more than others, which is normal and often the case for anthologies, but overall I liked all of them.
The main issue with the book for me was that the key overarching plot point that threaded the stories together was let down at the end. The first story (and book synopsis) established that the residents of Barrowbeck were ultimately only guests in the valley. Barrowbeck's first settlers were (supposedly) saved from a deadly blizzard by the Gods, an act of mercy resulting in human stewardship of the valley rather than unending permanent residency.
However, the reason that Barrowbeck is ultimately made uninhabitable and deserted in the final story was due to a nationwide/worldwide catastrophe, which was not unique to Barrowbeck. This really took away from the established premise that Barrowbeck is an unusual location with hidden secrets, whether supernatural, geographical or metaphysical, and ultimately it would be these hidden secrets rooted in the land which would mean human settlers would have to leave. I still enjoyed the final story and if I hadn't been waiting for a different ending it would have tied up the anthology nicely.
For the most part I really enjoyed Barrowbeck from beginning to end. It really worked as an anthology of fictional short stories chronologically spanning ancient times to the future, all linked tangentially by being set in the same location as a through-line. Sometimes I wanted a story to continue and keep developing rather than moving onto the next premise / set of characters / time period - a double-edged sword of the choice of book structure I guess. I love Andrew Hurley's writing style and am a huge fan of folk horror in general, so Barrowbeck was right up my street.
The very first story was my favourite and I loved being transported to an ancient world. Meeting formed characters from pre-history is a rarity for me in my reading choices to date, so this felt really exciting and to be honest I would have been happy for the whole book to have continued with this time period. Some of the other stories in the book I enjoyed more than others, which is normal and often the case for anthologies, but overall I liked all of them.
The main issue with the book for me was that the key overarching plot point that threaded the stories together was let down at the end. The first story (and book synopsis) established that the residents of Barrowbeck were ultimately only guests in the valley. Barrowbeck's first settlers were (supposedly) saved from a deadly blizzard by the Gods, an act of mercy resulting in human stewardship of the valley rather than unending permanent residency.
However, the reason that Barrowbeck is ultimately made uninhabitable and deserted in the final story was due to a nationwide/worldwide catastrophe, which was not unique to Barrowbeck. This really took away from the established premise that Barrowbeck is an unusual location with hidden secrets, whether supernatural, geographical or metaphysical, and ultimately it would be these hidden secrets rooted in the land which would mean human settlers would have to leave. I still enjoyed the final story and if I hadn't been waiting for a different ending it would have tied up the anthology nicely.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 14, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and John Murray Press for this ARC!
Rating: 3.5 Stars rounded up.
This was the first of Hurley’s works I have gotten to read, though he has been on my radar for quite some time already, so I went into this with absolutely no idea what I would find.
Barrowbeck tells the (fictional) story of the village Barrowbeck in the UK, with each of the chapters telling a different tale set at a different time (period), but all of them with Barrowbeck as the setting and most describing a specific event or specific place.
We start off with a story describing the village’s origin, though there isn’t a year given so I can only say it was pre-1445. The stories then continue moving towards the future, though most are set in the 1900s and after.
The writing is quite atmospheric and has a rather threatening aura, but overall I would say this is very tame as far as horror goes. Definitely the kind of book even someone who isn’t a big horror reader could enjoy, but the depressing atmosphere is well done enough to also entice people who primarily read horror, such as myself, as long as you don’t really expect to see gore or be particularly scared. Spooky, not scary, is how I would describe this.
I think my favourite stories in this collection are After the Fair, which describes a travelling fair with a “magician” of sorts handing out miniature live animals to the winner of a game.
Hymns for Easter, probably one of the more haunting stories of the collection (especially if, like me, you are interested in the effects WWI had on the soldiers fighting in it).
The Haven, which was probably my favourite because I loved the storytelling-style chosen here.
A Celestial Event, a wonderful representation of how grief affects people differently.
And Covenant, a grim look at our future.
I think it would certainly be accurate to describe this as a more literary sort of horror collection, so if that’s what you’re looking for, I truly think you could have a great time with this.
Rating: 3.5 Stars rounded up.
This was the first of Hurley’s works I have gotten to read, though he has been on my radar for quite some time already, so I went into this with absolutely no idea what I would find.
Barrowbeck tells the (fictional) story of the village Barrowbeck in the UK, with each of the chapters telling a different tale set at a different time (period), but all of them with Barrowbeck as the setting and most describing a specific event or specific place.
We start off with a story describing the village’s origin, though there isn’t a year given so I can only say it was pre-1445. The stories then continue moving towards the future, though most are set in the 1900s and after.
The writing is quite atmospheric and has a rather threatening aura, but overall I would say this is very tame as far as horror goes. Definitely the kind of book even someone who isn’t a big horror reader could enjoy, but the depressing atmosphere is well done enough to also entice people who primarily read horror, such as myself, as long as you don’t really expect to see gore or be particularly scared. Spooky, not scary, is how I would describe this.
I think my favourite stories in this collection are After the Fair, which describes a travelling fair with a “magician” of sorts handing out miniature live animals to the winner of a game.
Hymns for Easter, probably one of the more haunting stories of the collection (especially if, like me, you are interested in the effects WWI had on the soldiers fighting in it).
The Haven, which was probably my favourite because I loved the storytelling-style chosen here.
A Celestial Event, a wonderful representation of how grief affects people differently.
And Covenant, a grim look at our future.
I think it would certainly be accurate to describe this as a more literary sort of horror collection, so if that’s what you’re looking for, I truly think you could have a great time with this.
April 5, 2025
Well, that was disappointing. I’m not sure why, but I felt this might have been a slow burning, uneasy horror; whether it was the design of the front cover or hints in the blurb, which drew me in, and made me think this would be a good, unsettling horror. By the end...meh, it wasn't what I expected and not in a good way.
The town of Barrowbeck, is located deep in the Yorkshire countryside, in a small, isolated valley. It's history dates from being founded by an exiled neolithic tribe, with an unusual legacy that seems to haunt the town over the centuries.
I didn't realise that this was a collection of short stories until I opened up and started reading. While not usually a short story reader, if it has a good enough hook, which I thought this did, ill give a go.
The tag line for the book is ‘a hard place to live, a harder place to leave,’ which is a rather good one for a book attempting to be suspenseful horror. The thing is this never is realised. With the way the book describes itself you’d think it's about some kind of a cursed town that has a sinister hold over its population with strange and paranormal occurrences throughout the town’s history. But, from reading you’d be pressed to think anything particularly spooky is going on in the town. And for the most part of this book, out of the thirteen stories there are one maybe two where something actually supernatural happens. The rest of the stories are trying I think to walk that line to keep the mystery, between is something truly paranormal or just a mix of peculiarities and wishful that could be falsely believed as such, trying to balance the Scully/Mulder dynamic maybe; with the reader unsure with what they are reading, whether the town is a beacon for unexplainable mysteries or just lonely, troubled and grief stricken people seeing ghosts in the shadows in the dark. However, I think it didn't work as it was intended to.
The story of an elder woman, who grows children in her greenhouse for childless couples is the one story that can't be given another explained and is truly a supernatural one. But you don't get anything that says this is due to some unknown power of the town or anything. And compared to the other stories like, is so blatantly on the side of spooky rather than is it or isn’t real like the other stories attempt to be; you see a woman take a newborn baby out of a bunch of leaves that’s are growing in her greenhouse and that she’s done this many times before (despite saying the children only live for about 7-8 years before they rapidly decompose, like what parents wouldn’t want child they know is going to die young). It’s what makes this one stick out compared to the others. All the other stories can be explained away with more reasonable answers. The ancient tribe settling in the valley that would become Barrowbeck; their shaman 'might' be communing with some pagan god, or more likely, a mix of superstition and a mushroom induced hallucination. The teacher leading the church choir of traumatised first world war veterans; he may be hearing the ghost of his son and others who died during the war quietly singing in the back of the church. Or it could just be the choir could be riven with grief, PTSD and survivors’ guilt that is making them appear to hear what they wanted. A recently widowed man, with a gathering of his friends to do some astronomy. Is the glittering light he’s going to show them a star? Planet? A satellite? Or an angel? Why are the two women who run a bed and breakfast hibernating over winter? Did the local Barrowbeck doctor really find a man who can foretell a disaster that's going to hit the town? All of these aren't given a definite answer. So, you can't really have the whole question of ‘is what's happening unexplainable or just circumstance.’
In almost every story, not enough is given to suggest an otherworldly option and a more realistic one always seems the most likely. Well except for the plant babies. If the whole intention were to keep the reader guessing, it failed, as it didn't give enough eerie events or things that couldn't be easily explained away. The other problem it had was nothing seemed linked together. If the town was supposed to have some kind of ethereal power behind it, what linked any of it together. All of these ‘occurrences’ all seem to be unconnected to each other, less of a Twin Peaks and more of an Eerie Indiana. With nothing other than the oddness of these events, to link them together it’s hard to say why this town and its history is important for the story. There's no thread or connection between any of the individual stories or anything that seems specific to the town. They could have been based anywhere or nowhere in particular. So, while each story takes place at a different time, it appears to be building up to something. But it isn't. Without something stitching all these together it just seems aimless, and a lot of effort to end up having no point or a joined-up conclusion. If this was a standard short story collection that's fine, but the way this book is set up, it's made to feel a part of one, so when it doesn't it feels like a big chunk missing.
The writing does have an edge to it. It starts out creepy with something always seemingly dwelling on the edge. This is done well, keeping the suspense and whole eeriness at the centre. The problem is nothing ever comes from it; nothing concrete or enough to try and guess either way what happened, paranormal or otherwise and certainly no through line between each story.
Overall, this was a bit of a letdown. Perhaps it was my preconceptions of what I expected, maybe I misread the blurb thinking it was something else. The tone of the stories I’d recommend, each having a suspenseful edge to them. But their failure to really nail down a strong enough mystery and create a unifying narrative connecting all the stories together. Unless there was one that I was too stupid to pick up. A hard one for me to recommend, as I don’t know what I’d be recommending it on. A nice idea, that for me anyway didn’t pay off.
The town of Barrowbeck, is located deep in the Yorkshire countryside, in a small, isolated valley. It's history dates from being founded by an exiled neolithic tribe, with an unusual legacy that seems to haunt the town over the centuries.
I didn't realise that this was a collection of short stories until I opened up and started reading. While not usually a short story reader, if it has a good enough hook, which I thought this did, ill give a go.
The tag line for the book is ‘a hard place to live, a harder place to leave,’ which is a rather good one for a book attempting to be suspenseful horror. The thing is this never is realised. With the way the book describes itself you’d think it's about some kind of a cursed town that has a sinister hold over its population with strange and paranormal occurrences throughout the town’s history. But, from reading you’d be pressed to think anything particularly spooky is going on in the town. And for the most part of this book, out of the thirteen stories there are one maybe two where something actually supernatural happens. The rest of the stories are trying I think to walk that line to keep the mystery, between is something truly paranormal or just a mix of peculiarities and wishful that could be falsely believed as such, trying to balance the Scully/Mulder dynamic maybe; with the reader unsure with what they are reading, whether the town is a beacon for unexplainable mysteries or just lonely, troubled and grief stricken people seeing ghosts in the shadows in the dark. However, I think it didn't work as it was intended to.
The story of an elder woman, who grows children in her greenhouse for childless couples is the one story that can't be given another explained and is truly a supernatural one. But you don't get anything that says this is due to some unknown power of the town or anything. And compared to the other stories like, is so blatantly on the side of spooky rather than is it or isn’t real like the other stories attempt to be; you see a woman take a newborn baby out of a bunch of leaves that’s are growing in her greenhouse and that she’s done this many times before (despite saying the children only live for about 7-8 years before they rapidly decompose, like what parents wouldn’t want child they know is going to die young). It’s what makes this one stick out compared to the others. All the other stories can be explained away with more reasonable answers. The ancient tribe settling in the valley that would become Barrowbeck; their shaman 'might' be communing with some pagan god, or more likely, a mix of superstition and a mushroom induced hallucination. The teacher leading the church choir of traumatised first world war veterans; he may be hearing the ghost of his son and others who died during the war quietly singing in the back of the church. Or it could just be the choir could be riven with grief, PTSD and survivors’ guilt that is making them appear to hear what they wanted. A recently widowed man, with a gathering of his friends to do some astronomy. Is the glittering light he’s going to show them a star? Planet? A satellite? Or an angel? Why are the two women who run a bed and breakfast hibernating over winter? Did the local Barrowbeck doctor really find a man who can foretell a disaster that's going to hit the town? All of these aren't given a definite answer. So, you can't really have the whole question of ‘is what's happening unexplainable or just circumstance.’
In almost every story, not enough is given to suggest an otherworldly option and a more realistic one always seems the most likely. Well except for the plant babies. If the whole intention were to keep the reader guessing, it failed, as it didn't give enough eerie events or things that couldn't be easily explained away. The other problem it had was nothing seemed linked together. If the town was supposed to have some kind of ethereal power behind it, what linked any of it together. All of these ‘occurrences’ all seem to be unconnected to each other, less of a Twin Peaks and more of an Eerie Indiana. With nothing other than the oddness of these events, to link them together it’s hard to say why this town and its history is important for the story. There's no thread or connection between any of the individual stories or anything that seems specific to the town. They could have been based anywhere or nowhere in particular. So, while each story takes place at a different time, it appears to be building up to something. But it isn't. Without something stitching all these together it just seems aimless, and a lot of effort to end up having no point or a joined-up conclusion. If this was a standard short story collection that's fine, but the way this book is set up, it's made to feel a part of one, so when it doesn't it feels like a big chunk missing.
The writing does have an edge to it. It starts out creepy with something always seemingly dwelling on the edge. This is done well, keeping the suspense and whole eeriness at the centre. The problem is nothing ever comes from it; nothing concrete or enough to try and guess either way what happened, paranormal or otherwise and certainly no through line between each story.
Overall, this was a bit of a letdown. Perhaps it was my preconceptions of what I expected, maybe I misread the blurb thinking it was something else. The tone of the stories I’d recommend, each having a suspenseful edge to them. But their failure to really nail down a strong enough mystery and create a unifying narrative connecting all the stories together. Unless there was one that I was too stupid to pick up. A hard one for me to recommend, as I don’t know what I’d be recommending it on. A nice idea, that for me anyway didn’t pay off.
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