The Hungry Moon

by Ramsey Campbell

A town trapped in the grip of spreading evil.

Isolated on the moors of northern England, the town of Moonwell has remained faithful to their Druid traditions and kept their old rituals alive. Right-wing evangelist Godwin Mann isn’t about to let that continue, and his intolerant brand of fundamentalism has struck a chord with the residents. But Mann goes too far when he descends into the pit where the ancient being who’s been worshipped by the Druids for centuries is said to dwell.

What emerges is no longer Mann, but a demon in Mann’s shape, and only the town’s outcasts can see that something is horribly wrong. Slowly, as the evil spreads, Moonwell becomes cut off from the rest of the world. Telephone lines become disconnected. Roads no longer lead out of town. And the monster’s power only grows... and grows.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Weird Fiction, Lovecraftian, Werewolves, Halloween

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 16, 1986

About the author

Ramsey Campbell is a British writer considered by a number of critics to be one of the great masters of horror fiction. T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today," while S. T. Joshi has said that "future generations will regard him as the leading horror writer of our generation, every bit the equal of Lovecraft or Blackwood."

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the scariest books I ever came across. A small English town named Moonwell is falling under a mysterious darkness caused by an evangelist who tries to christianise an ancient druid cave. Campbell really rises tension to the utmost level with his long winded style, his slow start and his shift of scenes and his shift of characters. It's no superficial reading. When you get involved with his writing and progress through the book you are highly rewarded. In Hungry Moon book you get some of the most terrible monsters and feeling of uneasiness you've ever come across. It's absolutely worth it. This monster here was more terrifying than IT. I really had the impression the demon from the cave was after me and it was hungry for more than food. Great classic. It caused goosebumps!

[Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one started off really good, halfway through I thought I was going to DNF it because it's a rather bloated novel, it could have done with better editing.

I'm glad I stuck with it though because after the halfway mark, it got pretty good and I liked the ending and the overall Lovecraftian writing style Campbell uses here.

It would have made a five star short story, but because it's a novel which should have been cut down from 428 pages to 328 pages - I've given it three stars.

Fans of eerie, occult horror stories should give this a go.

This was also my first Campbell read and I'm definitely looking forward to reading something else by him.

[Chris Berko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Religious zealotry scares the crap out of me. Whenever I hear or read about some group of religious nuts that believe this or are doing that and I tell myself that people can't really believe in shit like that I have to remind myself that Jim Jones got people to willingly drink cyanide and even give it to their children and of people like David Koresh who get other people to do the craziest shit in the name of some religion or another. I have also studied a little about mob mentality and how logic and reasoning go out the window when that takes over. This book hit that spot for me and while there was a monster from beyond the stars directing things sort of behind the scenes, the scariest monsters in the book were the ones that the protagonists knew and had lived next door to, even shared meals with. This was a slow burner for me but had a steadily increasing sense of dread that picked up a lot of steam at around the 70% mark. It also had a totally 80's vibe to it that helped me stay in the story because there weren't any cell phones, computers, or other ways to communicate other than some land lines when the town was all but cut off from the rest of the world. My rating is probably around a 3.8 or so and might have been a little higher but the ending was a little bit rushed and means with which the lead character vanquished the demon left me saying, "Really. That's it?" Overall a fun read and my first Ramsey Campbell book to boot.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a buddy read with my GR friend Ethan. It's my first buddy read and second and final attempt. Ethan's been a joy to do it with but it's better to just read what I read and not have to worry about pacing, which was an issue both times, the first time me being way ahead and this time way behind. But Ethan made it fun and he's given me permission to use two quotes I enjoyed from his status updates so thanks, Ethan, well said and I'm sure your review is better than mine :)

I wanted to love this so much. I bought it after reading a review from GR's Master of Horror so my expectations were high but they dropped quickly like a stone down a cave and kept dropping the more I read. It has some great horror in it. There's a very scary Thing in a cave and other scary Things come out of it and run around the scary moors. But it's got too many characters, elements, and repetition and so collapses under its own dead weight. It could have made a fine novella or long short story.

"The Hungry Moon" is about a very isolated town in the English countryside with a cave on the moors that has Something in it that ties into old Druid customs. The Druid stuff is inherently scary to me; every time I encounter them it's in horror. So the Druid stuff, the townspeople and their creepy cave would have been enough for me.

But in the beginning there's an influx of pestilential American evangelicals led by an unhinged and obnoxious preacher and really what they were doing there I still don't get (beyond a plot device). There's a ton of praying, judging and converting -- and it's very repetitious. Campbell makes it clear they're there to pray, judge and convert so better not to have scene after scene of the same praying, judging and converting because we're smart enough to know they don't intend to stop until they've got everybody in town, even though the more they do it the more it backfires. The book was first published in 1986 and times are very different now so I hesitate to say anything that could be interpreted as a general slam on American evangels -- so I'll just warn you if you are an American evangelical, you do not want to read this book, no no.

There are some creepy creatures including one of the most horrifying ones I've encountered, which I can't get out of my head; the disgusting Thing won't stop running around in it and that pleases me. I want to describe that one but spoilers, so instead I'll pivot to one of Ethan's quotes which is more entertaining than big bites of the book:

"62.5%: There's no way this moon is as hungry as I am right now. Time for lunch... "

And while he was at 62.5% I was probably on page twelve. Trust me, you don't want to do a buddy read with me.

All that praying, judging and converting only makes things get weirder and worse for everyone -- which left me wondering for the first third: why don't you people just leave. Because yes the town had a monster and Druid horror Thing but they had it in hand. And there's the whole moon Thing which is difficult to describe without spoilers and okay, I admit I didn't understand some of it. I only know many scenes seemed like they took as long to get through as it takes for the moon to orbit the earth. If only Ramsey Campbell didn't give us every townsperson and every evangel including the cliche perfect schoolteacher and the hero-complex journalist, the over-the-top converts and the obligatory wise blind man. With the exception of the latter I spent most of the book wanting almost all of the characters to be shoved or fall into the cave already and let Whatever have at them.

There is some wonderful Lovecraftian horror, some stomach-churning gross Things and some super scary happenings. It's a shame the book is not shorter and tighter and, uh, doesn't make more sense. Which brings me to the other update of Ethan's:

"94.29% "Ok the characters in this book are literally fleeing for their lives, why do they keep noticing the speed limit signs? Are they actually going to slow down? 🤣"

So while I enjoyed parts of it, overall I'm disappointed. "The Hungry Moon" has all of the ingredients horror fans hunger for but it's as if they've been put in a blender which then exploded all over the kitchen.

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This was a buddy read with my GR pal Lori, my first ever buddy read! In Ramsay Campbell's The Hungry Moon, the quaint English town of Moonwell is visited by an evengelist preacher named Godwin Mann, who promises to free their town from evil and return it to God. He claims there is an ungodly evil living in the town's infamous cave (which is really a well), and that he can liberate them from it.

Overall I enjoyed this book, but I found it to be long-winded and repetitive, sentiments shared by my reading buddy. It seems Campbell mentions the moors above Moonwell dozens, who knows maybe hundreds of times; people think about them, they walk on them, they dream about them, they have visions about them. It gets to be a bit much after a while. I noticed after reading about a hundred pages that Campbell kept repeating one phrase in particular, that a person's face/head/cheekbones/etc. was "thrust forward" or "reaching forward", so I decided to start recording them, and look at how many times it was said (this is only in the last 250-ish pages of this 358-page novel; this isn't counting the occurrences in the first hundred pages):



His face had the look of thrusting forward into an icy wind...

He saw the face thrust forward almost fleshlessly...

Her voice and the sight of her face thrusting forward...

It was his father's face, even if it seemed to be reaching forward...

The rotten light of its face thrust forward...



Another thing that I didn't like was when Campbell revealed the details and backstory on the book's nebulous monster. These details are revealed in a vision that the character Diana has later in the book, and the details that vision revealed made the plot so convoluted. It also introduced at least one plot hole, in my opinion. I looked online about this and found that Kirkus Reviews, in their review of this book, agreed with me when it comes to Diana's vision, calling it quote "the one weakness in an otherwise steel-lined plot." I couldn't agree more!

I also thought the ending was very weak, something Campbell himself admitted he also thinks in the book's Afterword. I mean c'mon, you can't just build up to a confrontation like that and then just never have it materialize, especially when this book is so long. He could have made it fifteen more pages, had that happen (no matter which way it turned out), and the result would have been a far greater ending and a greater book overall, if you ask me. The religious evangelism was also laid on far too thick, to the point where it became tedious and annoying.

On the plus side, this book contains some of the scariest scenes I've ever read in a book. I was genuinely afraid a couple different times while reading this book, so in that respect it is successful as a horror novel. I can see why Campbell is considered such a horror master; he can really scare you when he puts his mind to it. I also really liked the way Campbell used the darkness that descends over Moonwell to create a creepy and chilling atmosphere; he employed this darkness to magnificent effect, in my opinion.

I enjoyed The Hungry Moon, but I think it was very long-winded and could have been cut down by at least fifty pages. In the end, I think Campbell himself said it best in the book's Afterword: "It seems to me that The Hungry Moon was trying to be too many books." Is it worth checking out? Absolutely, if you're a horror fan who doesn't mind horror fiction that is a little more drawn-out than may be necessary, or if you're just looking for a good scare or two. Otherwise, I think there are better horror novels out there. I enjoyed reading this with Lori, and discussing her opinions of it! It was a fun ride! :-)

[Thomas Stroemquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

The somewhat secluded town of Moonwell in Derbyshire has some traditions tracing back to the ancient druids, peacefully co-existing with modern day christians and secular inhabitants both, as is just the case for many places and communities. This is the fundamentalist preacher Godwin Mann determined to put and end to and he manages to win over a large portion of the residents to "his side". Rather than "dressing the cave" according to local tradition, Mann undertakes to enter it and confront what dwells therein. He emerges 'changed', but his followers are more determined than ever. It is up to our heroes, whoever they are (more on this particular problem below) to try to understand what's happening and stop it. But with the arrival of a peculiar darkness, hindering people leaving and more, time is running short.

Campbell writes a very nice prose and the ingredients in this work beautifully, from the moon-connection, the cave, the nearby nuclear base and the darkness to the fact that Godwin Mann's father played the devil himself in (a very impressive sounding, fx-wise) b-movie and the scary group-mentality of Mann's followers, this is a very effective, darned creepy story. The repressed sexuality of the citizens, hinted at and stirring the surface without ever exploding to it and the "IT" echoing cave-dwelling being awakening are further means to this end.

So what's with the three stars? Well, the largest problem is that the cast is huge. There are so many characters in here and I can't see even one of them in my head. Never before have I read a book that I felt as good as this one and still gone "Who's this guy again?" at 80 % read. Still, the books good and should the author have opted out of the deus ex machina ending there would have been a forth star there.

I had the privilege to do this as a buddy read with the always gracious Edward Lorn. Check out his review, which is as amusing and insightful as ever!

[Kenneth McKinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhere in the 360 pages of The Hungry Moon is a good story. I just know there is. Actually finding it is the problem. At his best, Campbell is an English version of Charles L. Grant with a smattering of King and Lovecraft thrown in, for good measure. Other times, he feels like a rambling Alzheimer's patient trying to find his way around in the dark. The atmosphere is creepy and captivating. The character development? Yeesh. Not so much. I like to pride myself with being able to keep a firm grasp of the characters I'm reading and visualizing the settings, situations, etc. In The Hungry Moon, you'll swear that the American teacher is also the bookstore owner, the bitchy mom is another bitchy person, etc. All throughout the story, you'll find yourself rereading something and asking "Now, who was that again?" Why Campbell can painstakingly describe the moors to the point where you feel you're walking across it yourself, but vaguely puts each of his characters in a vague shroud of homegenization, I'll never know. It's really too bad. A story about a village overcome by religious hysteria caused by a Celtic monster sounds intriguing. You'll get so frustrated with the religious nuts, that you'll want to be the one to throw the first punch. Unfortunately, you'll have to wade through the endless drivel and blah to get there. And then after all of that, you think that after the steady crescendo towards the end there would be a big payoff. Nada. The ending is so anticlimactic and unsatisfying, it feels like a cop out. The Hungry Moon has just enough to keep you turning the pages, but not so much that you'll be glad that you did.


2 1/2 Roads That Lead to Nowhere out of 5



You can also follow my reviews at the following links:

https://kenmckinley.wordpress.com

http://intothemacabre.booklikes.com

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5...

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Campbell has always been pretty hit or miss for me, but this was a hit for sure. Campbell mentions in the afterword that this was a riff on Herbert's The Dark and it was to some extent, at least in the sense of ancient/cosmic evil versus humanity, but Campbell goes beyond standard Christian mythos here for sure. In fact, many of the characters here are 're-borns' following their 'prophet' leader Manns.

Set largely in Moonfall, an ancient small town deep in the Derbyshire moors, Hungry Moon, has several levels to it and a wide array of characters. On the one hand, this is a small town horror story trope-- e.g., the town has a 'secret' that goes way back and it is not good. On the other hand, this is a fleshed out critique of biblethumpers writ large, as Mann and his followers basically invade the town one summer to 'cleanse' the place of ancient evil. Going back to the Roman days, when Moonfall was a small lead mining town, the town was something of a strong hold for Druids, and to this day there are many pagan rituals (now cast as tradition) that surround the town, including the 'dressing' of the cave just outside of town.

Mann and his followers want to rid the town of its old pagan traditions, but Mann really does not understand the nature of the 'evil' laying await in the cave. The title is apt, and Campbell gives us in dribs and drabs various lore associated with the moon/moonlight as ascribed in various religions/beliefs. So, we have the town being torn apart (believers in Mann and his version of God) and the 'unbelievers', an ancient evil being aroused, some reflections on humanity, and a fleshed out group of characters. Good stuff! 4 moony stars!

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admire Campbell's retrained, richly nuanced and character-driven style. I find it works best in the short format, while at novel lengths a certain reticence in following through consequences blunts the edge of his horrific conceptions.

The story gets off to a good start as we see a small British town fall under the spell of a charismatic preacher - and then under the more ancient spell of the creature that takes him over. Campbell weaves together cosmic horror, paganism and our fear of deep dark places to create a breathtaking underlying concept. The character sketches of the various small-town people involved in the story are sharp and vivid, and the claustrophobic sense of being trapped in a world where human bloodiness and eldritch evil are aiding and abetting each other is built up skilfully.

However, the resolution seems almost too fortuitous, with a pivotal character *singing* the moon-thing into submission. It seems out of place, even though this character has been built up as the heroine all along, because there's simply no previous allusion to this business of singing. It comes out of nowhere and feels like just any old device to make sure the story ends with the world safe, if not entirely sound. The nuclear paranoia angle also feels tacked-on and doesn't really go anywhere.

Still, a marvellously paced, insidiously creepy novel with a great weird concept at the heart of it.

[Corey Woodcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

My very first Ramsay Campbell.

Admittedly, I don’t know a whole lot about the guy, but he has quite a few novels, and comes from King’s generation of horror writers, with a decidedly British spin, which I quite enjoy. The Hungry Moon is from the 80s, 1986 to be precise making this book as old as I am.

First off, this book has an awesome 80s cover that I love; it seems many of his books have great covers and that alone is almost worth picking these books up. This book is about a small town called Moonwell in the Peak District of England - this is a town that barely any one has heard of and isn’t on the map. We start off with a journalist named Nick, desperately trying to get ahold of a woman in town, but all of a sudden no one can recall Moonwell and it’s residents have seemingly disappeared out of the phone book. We then go to the town and start meeting some of the townsfolk. New in town is a revivalist fundamentalist preacher named Godwin Mann who’s come to rid the town of an ancient evil - something that lurks in a deep dark cave on the moors outside of town (stay off the moors!)…This cave has been virtually mythologized, said to be the home of an ancient Druidic god so foul and terrifying that even the druids themselves could barely keep a lid on it.

Of course, Godwin Mann wants to purge this evil, and he’s got God on his side…or so he thinks. What he does, of course, is get himself possessed and unleashes hell on the sleepy little town. The darkness closes in, and no one can escape…

Killer premise huh? I thought so too. In fact, the first half of the book in particular was fantastic. Campbell did a wonderful job building the story up and setting the mood for what was to come. It was notably light on character development; in fact it took quite awhile for me to be able to get all the characters straight in my head as they tended to be a bit similar, and honestly weren’t too well fleshed out. But that wasn’t a big deal - the story was interesting enough with a well executed build and that kept me plenty interested.

The second half is where some issues started for me. I have to remind myself that I’m reading a 35 year old book; a lot of it felt familiar. It definitely had some creepy moments though and some fun Under the Dome/Stinger/The Stand vibes at times. However, I did enjoy the buildup more than much of the second half. Some cheese? Yeah, for sure, but it was the 80s. It was fun throughout though.

I’ll be checking out some more Campbell books without a doubt. He’s got quite a catalog and I’m curious to see what else he’s got for us. He’s an author I had heard of for quite a few years and never gotten to, and I’m glad I finally did. Overall a fun 80s horror with both creep and camp. 3.5/5

[Marie]

Well the new year and unfortunately I have my first dnf. I am just not able to get into this book. Major slow burn that has taken me near 70% and it is still muddling along. Tons of characters too and it is hard to keep track of everyone along with trying to figure out when the folklore creature is suppose to appear. Normally if a book is not doing anything for me by the 50% mark or it is not keeping me some engaged then it will be tossed on the dnf shelf sooner but I kept thinking that "something" was going to happen and so I just kept reading. My first time reading Campbell but not sure if I will go back to him anytime soon. With a dnf book there will be no stars as I usually do not rate books that I don't finish.

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whenever I hear people bemoaning a novel or movie of suspense and/or terror as being "too slow," I usually perk up, because as long as the pace is right, a slow-burn, slow-build effect is generally my favorite way of receiving such a story. I'm happy to say that The Hungry Moon did an exquisite job at this.

There are some truly disturbing images on display in a number of scenes, juxtaposed (and often brilliantly *paired with*) a diabolical sense of humor. I enjoyed a good laugh while in the laundromat with some scenes, and one scene in particular--I'll just say it involves two characters looking into their car's back seat--had me almost in stitches. Throw in a terrifying backstory, and you may not look at the moon in quite the same way again. (I don't!)

There were a few snags here and there. For one thing, there are *three* couples who serve as protagonists, and for a while after beginning the novel, I kept getting them all mixed up; but, that improved as they became more pronounced. For another, the great revelation of the aforementioned backstory was a little shoehorned-in, and didn't necessarily fit in with the rest of the overall framework of the story, but it worked well enough. And finally, the very ending. No spoilers, but I was left scratching my head as to exactly how and why things turned out the way they did (but I'm happy to discuss it with anyone who's read it!).

All in all, my newfound exploration of Ramsey Campbell continues to impress me to no end, and with The Hungry Moon, I'm itching for more. Oh, wait--that's right, as of the time of this review, I'm reading The Parasite. More, more!

[Vickie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with a lot of reviewers on this one. A major slow burn of a read, lots of repetition, and basically no character development. But the creepiness factor and building of dread was very good. There were moments when I was genuinely unsettled, so kudos to Campbell for that. The ending was a bit disappointing for me, so that kept my overall rating at 3☆. This was my first book of his, so I'll give him another go at some point.

[Kevin Lucia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing Samhain Horror's line of reprinted Ramsey Campbell's novels is "The Hungry Moon", an eerie tale about a small England village besieged first by rabid Christian Evangelicals and then the dark, pagan, moon-worshiping force they accidentally awaken.

For the most part a smart story offering acute observations on the dangers of religious fanaticism, Campbell's usually suspenseful "quiet horror" does drag a little towards the end. Taken as a whole, however, Campbell delivers the goods, as always: poignant characterization, sterling craft, creeping dread, and unsettling unease.

Godwin Mann (yes, read that as God - Win - Man) is on a quest to win souls for God. Embarrassed by his father's B-Movie horror past (Dad played the Devil once in a film), Godwin experiences a life-changing "conversion" and becomes a self-styled version of Billy Graham, leading crusades and marches and rallies, all to advance the Good News. And he's come to England's shores to continue God's Good Work. He's come to the small town of Moonwell to rid it of its "pagan past", to "win the town for the Lord."

And initially, he and his troupe of believers find a foothold in Moonwell. A moderately Christian town paradoxically proud of its Druid traditions, Moonwell's Christian residents see Godwinn's arrival almost akin to their own Second Coming, a chance to "purify" Moonwell of its pagan influences, once and for all. Battle lines are drawn, friend turned against friend, families divided. All in the name of Godwinn Man's "holy quest".

But when Mann confronts the source of Moonwell's Druid traditions (a deep cave in which legends say Old Beings dwell), he returns....changed. No longer human, Godwin Mann uses his influence and newly "won" town to unleash an unspeakable darkness. Night falls...and stays. Daily deliveries - even the newspaper - from the outside world cease. No one can leave. No one can enter from outside Moonwell, as the demon that is now Godwin Mann slowly erases Moonwell, cutting it off from the rest of the world, hiding it in a perpetual night lit only by a strange, bloated moon.

And this moon is hungry. And angry, for being ignored all these years.

As always, you get what you expect in a Ramsey Campbell novel: smooth, flowing prose, deep characters, subtle emotional plays, and a lingering dread that settles right at the base of the neck. In this case, perhaps "The Hungry Moon" runs a little too long. The darkness settles around town very early, and readers can also guess pretty quickly what's happened to Mann.

However, this novel's strength lies not in it's plot, necessarily, but in character development, as religious fanaticism not only tears the town apart, but ultimately leaves Moonwell completely vulnerable to the demon-possessed Godwin Mann. That's where this novel's real power comes from, in Campbell's portrayal of friends and family torn apart by the Lord's "Good News."

[Robert Reiner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first novel by Ramsey Campbell and i must say that I'm very impressed. Awesome story...awesome characters...creepy would be a better word to describe this than scary. My only complaint which prevents me from assigning a five star is that it drags a little in the middle and then ends rather abruptly. I wish the author would have explained the ending a little better and put a little more time into the final climax of the book. All in all though, I cannot wait to read another book by Ramsey Campbell. Any suggestions?

[GD · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really torn about this book; on the one hand, it had a great premise (a gigantic fucking Lovecraftian beast that lived on and took up most of the entire dark side of the moon is summoned by Druids 2000 years ago to kick the snot out of the Romans, it's coming back out of it's cave in the 80s to kill people), and cool details (like the headless priest romaing around blindly in the old church looking for people to kill), but it suffered from the typical Ramsey Campbell dorkiness, cliche depictions of biblie-thumping Christians, TOO many people thinking things like, "It must have been the wind" and "certainly it was the moon making those shadows move... it had to be."

And the ending, Jesus Christ, it fell all to pieces, it was like he was writing 10 pages at a time, then taking a break for 6 weeks, then writing 10 more without first looking back at what he'd written. The heroes are headed out of town, because that's where the moon monster will be headed, to the nuclear power plant, then they get lost and make a circle and come back to the town, i.e., they can't get out. I guess the moon monster forgot about the nuclear plant, or missile base, or whatever it was, because it never came up again. Then some little kid falls off a roof running from the moon monster, and before he dies, this woman swears to the moon monster, "You won't have him," then starts chanting Druidic stuff to make him a sacrifice or something, out of nowhere, to make the monster leave them alone, or maybe the complete opposite of that, then the kid dies, and I can't figure why after that the moon monster starts dying. The sun comes out of nowhere, which before he'd been able to keep from coming out, I guess he just suddenly lost the power. Then he ran away from the sun and ran back into his cave, and everyone in the town forgot everything about the whole situation except for the one chick, for some reason. Just, Jesus dude, pay some fucking attention!

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

(read 8/16/2003)

If you like a good creepy story, then you'll really like this one!

The book begins with a newspaper reporter, trying to get in touch with a woman in the town of Moonwell (in England somewhere), but no one seems to have heard of the town. It is not listed in any atlas, the telephone operator has no clue of what the reporter (Nick) is talking about, and yet, Nick knew he had been there! What is going on?

On the sidelines, an American evangelist has come into Moonwell, ready to "exorcise" the evil there as instructed by God. He whips the town's inhabitants (all but a few sane people) into a religious frenzy and soon the town becomes crazy with religious fervor. But not everyone is sure that the evil should be exorcised -- and that long-standing traditions should be disrupted in favor of the plans that God has for the evangelist.

I won't say more, except that this was a very creepy story and a real page turner. I finished it in about three hours, largely because I didn't want to stop.

I would recommend it to readers who are willing to dwell in the realm of disbelief for a while and who just want to relax and have fun with a good old-fashioned horror story. I liked it.

[Nathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

My first DNF of 2018 at 26%. I read 210-260 books per year with a DNF rate of 1-2%.

I don't mind slow plot. I don't mind no plot, but that only works with great characters. The characters in this story suck.

[I. Mónica del P Pinzon Verano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Con Luna Sangrienta me inauguro con Ramsey Cambpell. Estoy dichosa de haberla terminado y no sé sí deba agradecerle a mi fuerza de voluntad o seguir desmadrandome con mi psicorigidez.

La historia sucede a la luz de la luna en Monwell, un pueblo tranquilo y turistico de Inglaterra donde se celebran algunas tradiciones druidas, aunque ya para estos tiempos modernos se desconozcan sus origenes. Sin embargo, el carácter flematico del pueblo se ve resquebrajado por la aparición del predicador Godwin Man, quien viene desde America acompañado de un séquito de seguidores con la misión de acabar con estas celebraciones de inicios paganos. Pronta y facilmente el predicador gana creyentes, mientras tanto el pueblo va siendo arropado por las tinieblas y dividido entre una mayoría fanática y un puñado que no lo es. Godwin parece que no sabe a lo que en realidad se enfrenta y lo que desata; mientras tanto, los lugareños quedan atrapados entre las promesas de la secta y la malignidad druida. Y así, me parece una idea fabulosa para una historia, que para mí es una alegoría a cómo las religiones están respondiendo a las necesidades del hombre moderno, a sus vacios, sus males, apegos y culpas; y cómo el mismo hombre hace su interpretación de Dios y la vuelve doctrina. Y empieza la novela y no avanza, pero me detengo en los párrafos y me parecen bien construídos, me mantengo sigo leyendo y deja de importarme lo que pasa, porque no pasa nada solo hasta después del 40%, aunque no es que pase gran cosa, identifico algunas acciones, unas escenas escabrosas, nada más. Los personajes están bien construidos y representan los perfiles que nos encontramos en las diferentes comunidades, aunque la resolución de la trama con la protagonista me parece más bien pobre en argumento.

Considero que a Ramsey Campbell hay que leerlo, pero no con este libro. Esta novela está desengranada, tiene un excelente argumento, párrafos bien escritos, personajes bien construido,s pero no hayan sinergia con el ritmo, ¡me agotó!.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was written in the mid 80's, right when horror was at it's highest, and all 'good' books had oh, about 874 characters you were expected to follow and remember. Sadly, like many of those novels, said characters lacked, well, characterization. And Campbell is not exactly well-known for his portrayal of women, though he did seem to be trying a little harder with this one.

That said, I still enjoyed this book. It could have been cut down by a good 100 pages or so, but the ideas and setting kept me going, even if they were antiquated and a little misogynistic.

Recommended for those who want to catch up on their mid-80's folk horror.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

While I was very drawn to some aspects of the story (isolated northern English town, Druids, folklore, moon magic, scary religious nutty people - always sure to give me the heebie jeebies), and there are some particularly vivid horrific images to enjoy, getting through this felt like something of a slog at times. The cast of characters is too wide and I could only really visualise a few, and a great many of them felt a bit pointless and unsympathetic.

I'd only really recommend if you're already a fan of this author and don't mind a meandering, VERY slow-burn writing style.

[SpookyBird · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good scenes but it felt like there was a lot going on this story that never seemed to go anywhere by the end. It was hard really getting attached to any of the characters due to the number, there were a couple of time I had to go back and remind myself who was who. Very nice religious folk horror vibe though.

[Keith Deininger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just re-read this one. Very solid, almost classic, horror. A legendary horror writer's take on the terror of blind and ignorant faith and belief in things humanity can never hope to understand.

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's obvious from the start that something is wrong with the small town of Moonwell, on the edge of the Peak District. Journalist Nick suddenly remembers he has been there and knows an American schoolteacher Diane who teaches there - but he had mysteriously forgotten and no one else he asks, including telephone enquiries, have heard of it. He sets out to see Diane, who had passed on misgivings about things happening in the community, and enroute finds himself driving into - total darkness.

Cut to what led up to this. An American evangelist and his cohorts arrived a few months previously and set about converting the town. All but a few sceptics, including the local vicar and Diane, became avid followers, but it is clear through disquieting incidents that an inimical influence from the deep pothole near the town is probably assisting this process and drawing some sustenance from it. Eventually, Diane hears the truth from an old resident. The inhabitants have carried out a kind of 'well dressing' with a flower figure on every St John the Baptist's day - apart from him, they have forgotten that the custom dates back to druid times and is to safeguard the locals from what lives in the pothole. By the time he tells Diane, it is too late to prevent the evangelist from descending into the hole to confront what he believes is the devil, with devastating consequences.

The book features a large cast of characters though for the most part they are kept distinguishable. There are some truly horrible villains, including the husband and wife who run the school and browbeat the older children. Before long, they become sworn enemies of Diane who had been trying to shield the children from them. The evangelist and his converts are the worst kind of religious fanatic and have no genuine Christianity, with their scapegoating of non believers. The creature in the pothole enjoys manipulating the foibles and flaws of human beings with devastating consequences, as when it influences the father of a vulnerable boy, Andrew, who is supposedly backward at school but is probably that way because of his truly dreadful mother and his father's neglect. As with other Ramsey Campbell stories, the innocent suffer and the most helpless and pitiable characters become victims. The evocation of the darkness which descends on the community, literally as well as figuratively, is excellent and very spooky, as are the descriptions of the minions of the evil force. And the characterisation of the moon as a sentient horror is also very effective.

The slight detraction which holds back the book from a 5-star rating is that the end is rather contrived as there is no real build-up to the way Diane is able to pull things out of the bag in the climax. Plus the whole missile base angle, which is worked into the book from early on and which seems to be leading up to possible worldwide apocalypse caused by the creature which feeds on death and souls is rather quickly dropped. He admits in an afterword that this was because he couldn't work out how to get all the characters necessary to the base - probably because he had made it impossible for anyone to leave the town and therefore written himself into a corner. The epilogue is interesting though and gives a bittersweet ending to the survivors' emotional and spiritual journey.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading "The Brothers Karamazov," "War and Peace" and then "Middlemarch" back-to-back this was a welcome lighter read. I've read a good many of Campbell's short stories, but this was my first novel. I enjoyed as modern horror novels go with loads of creepy little touches throughout that build up as it goes along. Much of the first half feels rather padded, but it mostly makes up for that later. I think the atmospherics of the novel are the most memorable part, along with it's "unputdownableness" -- it really is a riveting, fast-paced story. It's got Lovecraftian elements and some subtle nods to M. R. James too, but the cult-like paranoia that pervades the novel is Campbell's own.

It's a simple story -- in a small English village an American evangelical comes, turns everyone into a fanatic, and declares his most important reason for being there is to banish an ancient druid ritual of leaving flowers by a massive pit on the outskirts of the village. Doing that's not enough however, he decides to enter the cave and banish the evil, but he ends up stirring up an ancient evil that's more than he can handle.

Campbell's portrayal of religious intolerance is one of the more fascinating parts of the plot. It's allegorical for how people (of any faith) can be whipped into a frenzy, believe they're supporting one thing when they're being misled into something entirely different. His sympathy is obviously with the skeptics who refuse to be taken in. I'd certainly read more Campbell novels, but primarily as a leisurely break between heavier stuff.

[Jerry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based on this book, I am at a complete loss to understand how the author is regarded as one of the great masters of horror fiction. This story was tedious and meandering with way too many pointless characters and the plot was banal at best, boring and stupid at worst. I only finished it because other reviewers said it finally picked up at the end ---> it doesn't.

[Luke Castleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Combine a tale of religious zealotry taken too far with a member of the Lovecraft pantheon, and set it in rural England, and you will have something very close to The Hungry Moon, and while those two tales may not mesh perfectly, Campbell is skilled enough at his craft to make the journey frightening and enjoyable enough regardless.

[Daniel Salvo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ramsey Campbell es, para mí, un autor difícil. Tanto, que algunas de sus obras más comentadas se me han caído de las manos, dejando algunas de ellas inconclusas. Sin embargo, Luna sangrienta (cuyo título original es The hungry moon, es decir, La luna hambrienta o La hambrienta luna) tenía el señuelo de estar incluida dentro de las 100 mejores novelas de fantasía, consideradas como tales por el crítico británico David Pringle. Así que decidí darle otra oportunidad al señor Campbell.

La trama es magnífica. En Moonwell, un pequeño pueblo inglés de raíces célticas, hay una cueva que tiene una leyenda particular - la mismísima Luna desciende dentro de ella - , y hay que aplacarla cada año mediante un ritual incruento, que consiste en depositar flores a la entrada de la misma. Pero para mala suerte de los lugareños, a Moonwell viene a radicar un fanático religioso llamado Godwin Mann (algo así como "Dios se gana al hombre"), para quien ese y otros rituales no es más que una blasfemia pagana que debe ser erradicada. De modo que, tras haberse ganado a gran parte de los moradores del pueblo, quienes hasta el momento se sentían más que cómodo con su bondadoso párroco, decide descender a las profundidades de la cueva, para demostrar que no hay nada ahí... Y, aparentemente, resurge ileso de la misma.

Pero tras este acto, las cosas empiezan a cambiar en Moonwell. Una extraña oscuridad comienza a adueñarse del pueblo, al tiempo que parece ser "olvidado" por el resto del país. Comienzan a ocurrir accidentes, mientras que grotescos seres de piel blaquísima y carentes de ojos son vistos en diferentes circunstancias. Casi todas las esperanzas se vuelven hacia el predicador Godwin Mann, al parecer dotado de poderes sobrenaturales, pues se asegura que su rostro brilla con un resplandor lunar, y puede modificar partes de su cuerpo... Algo ha sido despertado, algo que está vivo y que nació antes de la aparición del hombre sobre la Tierra, que fuera venerado por los druidas y, aparentemente, erradicado - que no destruido - por los romanos. Este ser, de reminiscencias lovecraftianas, apenas podrá ser enfrentado por las pocas almas sensatas de Moonwell, es decir, quienes no hayan sucumbido previamente al fanatismo religioso del cual Godwin Mann es sólo una cabeza visible: el mal y la intolerancia habitaban desde hacía ya tiempo en Moonwell.

Lástima que el narrador de tan inquietante novela no haya sido H.P. Lovecraft o siquiera alguno de sus epígonos. No se si será cosa de la traducción, o es el estilo de Ramsey Campbell, pero a mi juicio la narración es, por decir lo menos, desangelada, al punto que los mejores momentos de la historia tienen la intensidad y tensión de un manual de electrodomésticos. Si a ello se suma la cantidad de personajes y puntos de vista, tenemos una novela en la cual no sabemos bien quienes son los héroes y quienes los malvados, cuando ocurre algo y cuando se sueña o imagina algo. Y la sensación final es que da lo mismo si uno u otro personaje ha muerto o no. Vamos, más que una novela, parece que el lector se enfrenta a un estupendo guión para una película o miniserie de terror.

Buenas ideas, narración - o traducción - deficientes. Sin embargo, vale la pena el esfuerzo de leerla.

[Ethan’s Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting idea, with a strong start. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to keep me entertained through out.

Maybe it’s just me? But my god, I couldn’t handle the constant jumping around through characters and situations without paragraph breaks or intermittent paragraphs.

There was a major lack of character development which made all the characters in the book dry and boring as hell. The first maybe five characters in the book I had a good handle on. But the rest I couldn’t tell you who were the kids and who were the parents.

There was one scene where two character couples were talking about the kids from school and then one of the couples started to watch porn, or both couples? Or the kids did? I didn’t get a clear understanding till one of parents confessed to watch porn to get “better ideas” for sex.

Anyways, the story was intriguing but the characters and run-on mix up of happenings was so annoying it really made it hard to enjoy the story.

Damn shame too. I really wanted to love this book and author. I’ll definitely try him again another day. But I really hope the story is more put together.

[Jim Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The description of the moon-drenched moors left me feeling genuinely unnerved and as if my skin were saturated by moonlight, while the Lovecraftian moon monster itself also existed on a disquieting plane of nightmare logic. It could stand to be tighter, and Campbell is striving for a pulpy kind of story here, clearly aiming for the King and Herbert crowd, but it works due to the sense of immeasurable awe it engulfs the reader in.

A second reading has been kind to this one. As schlocky as some parts are (some parts delightfully so -- I'm thinking mealtime at the hotel), the wyrd atmosphere is stunningly well-realised and the palpable feeling of maddening moonlight and demented darkness undoubtedly the work of a master.