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Hawthorn: A Scottish Ghost Story
For fans of Michelle Paver and Sarah Waters, the first in a haunting quartet of ghost stories set in the wilds of Scotland.
'I was so impressed by Hawthorn' MICHELLE PAVER, author of Dark Matter
'Delightfully brooding and gloriously gothic, Hawthorn sucked me in like the deepest bog, refusing to let me go' CJ COOKE, author of The Book of Witching
'Reminded me of The Little Stranger . . . a hugely entertaining and evocative treat' BRIDGET COLLINS, author of The Binding
'A new classic' SARA SHERIDAN, author of The Fair Botanists
'The best Scottish ghost story of the 21st century so far' THE HERALD
_________
Caithness, October 1871.
The Ordnance Survey are charting Scotland's most remote north-easterly county, a bleak landscape of endless moorland and lonely crofts. When a strange vision leads cartographer Robert Sutherland out onto the moor, an accident leaves him inches from death. He is taken to Leask House, to recuperate under the care of Mrs Sinclair and her beautiful daughter Isabel.
At first, Robert thinks the dreadful visions that plague him at Leask House are the result of the laudanum he has been prescribed. But as events take ever stranger and more terrifying turns, Robert begins to wonder whether his presence at Leask House is really a coincidence at all.
Someone - or something - has summoned him here.
And they don't intend for him to leave.
'I was so impressed by Hawthorn' MICHELLE PAVER, author of Dark Matter
'Delightfully brooding and gloriously gothic, Hawthorn sucked me in like the deepest bog, refusing to let me go' CJ COOKE, author of The Book of Witching
'Reminded me of The Little Stranger . . . a hugely entertaining and evocative treat' BRIDGET COLLINS, author of The Binding
'A new classic' SARA SHERIDAN, author of The Fair Botanists
'The best Scottish ghost story of the 21st century so far' THE HERALD
_________
Caithness, October 1871.
The Ordnance Survey are charting Scotland's most remote north-easterly county, a bleak landscape of endless moorland and lonely crofts. When a strange vision leads cartographer Robert Sutherland out onto the moor, an accident leaves him inches from death. He is taken to Leask House, to recuperate under the care of Mrs Sinclair and her beautiful daughter Isabel.
At first, Robert thinks the dreadful visions that plague him at Leask House are the result of the laudanum he has been prescribed. But as events take ever stranger and more terrifying turns, Robert begins to wonder whether his presence at Leask House is really a coincidence at all.
Someone - or something - has summoned him here.
And they don't intend for him to leave.
264 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 25, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
November 20, 2025
May the Devil Take
These Wild Northern Lands...
HAWTHORN: A Scottish Ghost Story
by Elaine Thomson
4 stars. In 1861, Robert Sutherland, while incarcerated in an asylum, and knowing that he was not insane...
... was determined to write his own testimony of the events at Leask House in Wick Parrish, Caithness...
Sutherland was part of an expedition sent to map the British Isles for the Crown. Every river, bridge, tor, sheep cote, house, fence, farm, and mountain...
England and Ireland were already completed, but Scotland defied them all with its wild north places of mystery and secrets...
Secrets their instruments couldn't unmask...
One night, while sitting before the stove in their tent, one of the men saw an old woman watching them from the nearby dubh lochs...
They all had a laugh...
Mocking the man, they said it was probably that mythical old hag, the Cailleach (veiled one), one of the many local superstitions...
Samhain was a week away, and it was believed that the veil separating the living from the dead was at its thinnest...
Next morning...
While in the field, Sutherland fell into an icy bog, injured his ankle, and came down with a severe fever...
The local doctor arranged for him to stay at Leask House to convelesce...
However, rest would evade him there due to the strange family living in the house...
May the Devil take these wild Northern lands with their customs and folklore...
This was an excellent Victorian Gothic horror story with all the atmosphere and things that go bump in the night a reader could ask for. Like all good Victorian stories, there is a mystery that is solved at the end.
The first 50% was a slow but interesting burn. The second half is where things began to come together with everything explained nicely at the end. I see why many reviewers compared this novel to the writings of Michelle Paver.
Recommended for fans of Victorian Gothic horror!
These Wild Northern Lands...
HAWTHORN: A Scottish Ghost Story
by Elaine Thomson
4 stars. In 1861, Robert Sutherland, while incarcerated in an asylum, and knowing that he was not insane...
... was determined to write his own testimony of the events at Leask House in Wick Parrish, Caithness...
Sutherland was part of an expedition sent to map the British Isles for the Crown. Every river, bridge, tor, sheep cote, house, fence, farm, and mountain...
England and Ireland were already completed, but Scotland defied them all with its wild north places of mystery and secrets...
Secrets their instruments couldn't unmask...
One night, while sitting before the stove in their tent, one of the men saw an old woman watching them from the nearby dubh lochs...
They all had a laugh...
Mocking the man, they said it was probably that mythical old hag, the Cailleach (veiled one), one of the many local superstitions...
Samhain was a week away, and it was believed that the veil separating the living from the dead was at its thinnest...
Next morning...
While in the field, Sutherland fell into an icy bog, injured his ankle, and came down with a severe fever...
The local doctor arranged for him to stay at Leask House to convelesce...
However, rest would evade him there due to the strange family living in the house...
May the Devil take these wild Northern lands with their customs and folklore...
This was an excellent Victorian Gothic horror story with all the atmosphere and things that go bump in the night a reader could ask for. Like all good Victorian stories, there is a mystery that is solved at the end.
The first 50% was a slow but interesting burn. The second half is where things began to come together with everything explained nicely at the end. I see why many reviewers compared this novel to the writings of Michelle Paver.
Recommended for fans of Victorian Gothic horror!
November 11, 2025
This book is about as gothic as you can get and pulls out all the stops when it comes to the classic tropes. Except, perhaps, for the fact that the narrator is a young man rather than woman, but you've got the crumbling, isolated estate, villagers with superstitions and secrets, a once-noble family whose fortune has been squandered away, old timey medical practices and class systems, and, of course, a ghostly figure haunting the grounds and dark chambers of the manor house.
As the protagonist is a young man who is part of a scientific expedition in a remote area with a harsh climate, I couldn't help but be reminded of Dark Matter. This short novel, too, is presented as journal entries. Although I don't think it's quite as good as Paver's book, I think other fans of that work will find much to enjoy here. The writing is more than good, and the setting on the flows (bog) of the far north of Scotland is such an austere, beautiful, and treacherous landscape that it's perfect for this type of story.
I will say that some of the big revelations at the end of the story were evident quite early on, but there is a little touch of ambiguity in the closing sections of the book that added a nice bit of nuance to the otherwise foregone conclusions. It took me a little while to get into this one, but once I was hooked, I couldn't put it down. I would definitely recommend to fans of Victorian-set gothic novels and ghost stories.
As the protagonist is a young man who is part of a scientific expedition in a remote area with a harsh climate, I couldn't help but be reminded of Dark Matter. This short novel, too, is presented as journal entries. Although I don't think it's quite as good as Paver's book, I think other fans of that work will find much to enjoy here. The writing is more than good, and the setting on the flows (bog) of the far north of Scotland is such an austere, beautiful, and treacherous landscape that it's perfect for this type of story.
I will say that some of the big revelations at the end of the story were evident quite early on, but there is a little touch of ambiguity in the closing sections of the book that added a nice bit of nuance to the otherwise foregone conclusions. It took me a little while to get into this one, but once I was hooked, I couldn't put it down. I would definitely recommend to fans of Victorian-set gothic novels and ghost stories.
February 11, 2026
A ghost story set in Scotland, in its most northerly county Caithness. Thomson is writing a ghost story for each of the equinoxes, and this is the first. It is set around the Gaelic/Celtic feast of Samhain (31st October): now unfortunately renamed Halloween. This is the time of year when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is supposed to be at its thinnest allowing spirits to return briefly to the mortal world. I believe the second in the series is due out at midsummer. The subtitle of the novel is:
“The True Account of Robert Sutherland concerning the Haunting of Leask House in the County of Caithness”
Robert Sutherland is the narrator and you know things aren’t going to go particularly well for him when on the first page you discover that he is writing his account from an asylum in Inverness. This is classic gothic with all the tropes. Sutherland is working for the Ordnance Survey who are mapping the bleak moorlands and bogs of Caithness. He manages to fall in a bog and almost drown. Catching a fever he ends up at Leask House which is nearby where he is allowed to stay and recuperate. There is more going on than he realises and he starts to see and feel things. The occupants of Leask House are Mrs Sinclair and her daughter Isabel, plus assorted servants. There are secrets and mysteries.
It is ideal reading on a dark night in front of an open fire, possibly in a dark creaky house. It’s a good read.
“The True Account of Robert Sutherland concerning the Haunting of Leask House in the County of Caithness”
Robert Sutherland is the narrator and you know things aren’t going to go particularly well for him when on the first page you discover that he is writing his account from an asylum in Inverness. This is classic gothic with all the tropes. Sutherland is working for the Ordnance Survey who are mapping the bleak moorlands and bogs of Caithness. He manages to fall in a bog and almost drown. Catching a fever he ends up at Leask House which is nearby where he is allowed to stay and recuperate. There is more going on than he realises and he starts to see and feel things. The occupants of Leask House are Mrs Sinclair and her daughter Isabel, plus assorted servants. There are secrets and mysteries.
It is ideal reading on a dark night in front of an open fire, possibly in a dark creaky house. It’s a good read.
October 16, 2025
4⭐️
Slow burn, old skool, psychological ghost story written in the classic Victorian style, much like Susan Hill's The Woman in Black. Although predictable (I guessed the premise for the shenanigans pretty early on), it was atmospheric and very 'of the place'. I lived in Tain for a little while whilst my husband worked on designing oil rigs, so it was a pleasure to be back in that beautiful, if unsettling, landscape.
Slow burn, old skool, psychological ghost story written in the classic Victorian style, much like Susan Hill's The Woman in Black. Although predictable (I guessed the premise for the shenanigans pretty early on), it was atmospheric and very 'of the place'. I lived in Tain for a little while whilst my husband worked on designing oil rigs, so it was a pleasure to be back in that beautiful, if unsettling, landscape.
September 25, 2025
thank you Little Brown Books for sending me an arc of this book. all opinions are my own.
// 𝕤𝕪𝕟𝕠𝕡𝕤𝕚𝕤: Robert Sutherland, now a patient of the Inverness District Asylum, writes his account of an ordnance study in the Scottish Highlands gone wrong. Returning to Caithness to map the mysterious terrain that was once walked by the mother he doesn’t remember and the father who has long since died, an accident leaves Robert incapacitated and forced to convalesce in the haunting Leask House. But plagued by nightmares and strange disturbances, Robert sets out to escape - but will he leave with his mind still intact?
// 𝕡𝕝𝕠𝕥, 𝕡𝕒𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕘 & 𝕨𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕤𝕥𝕪𝕝𝕖: now THIS is a horror story! the suspense, the drama, the spooky apparitions - *chef’s kiss* i really enjoyed how encapsulating this book felt, like we were right there in Caithness with our hero, and how well the reveals were done (as someone who predicts the ending of 85% of the books i read, i honestly didn’t see this one coming)
// 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕤: given the current political climate in scotland (and the whole of the uk) i appreciated that the main character in this story wasn’t ‘traditionally scottish’ yet felt an immense connection to the land and country - consistently reiterating that despite his darker complexion and ‘different’ features “scotland is for all”
will definitely be picking up more of this authors work!
// 𝕤𝕪𝕟𝕠𝕡𝕤𝕚𝕤: Robert Sutherland, now a patient of the Inverness District Asylum, writes his account of an ordnance study in the Scottish Highlands gone wrong. Returning to Caithness to map the mysterious terrain that was once walked by the mother he doesn’t remember and the father who has long since died, an accident leaves Robert incapacitated and forced to convalesce in the haunting Leask House. But plagued by nightmares and strange disturbances, Robert sets out to escape - but will he leave with his mind still intact?
// 𝕡𝕝𝕠𝕥, 𝕡𝕒𝕔𝕚𝕟𝕘 & 𝕨𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕤𝕥𝕪𝕝𝕖: now THIS is a horror story! the suspense, the drama, the spooky apparitions - *chef’s kiss* i really enjoyed how encapsulating this book felt, like we were right there in Caithness with our hero, and how well the reveals were done (as someone who predicts the ending of 85% of the books i read, i honestly didn’t see this one coming)
// 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕤: given the current political climate in scotland (and the whole of the uk) i appreciated that the main character in this story wasn’t ‘traditionally scottish’ yet felt an immense connection to the land and country - consistently reiterating that despite his darker complexion and ‘different’ features “scotland is for all”
will definitely be picking up more of this authors work!
October 31, 2025
Robert Sutherland is working for the Ordance Survey charting the remote north easterly of Scotland. After an accident Robert is sent to recover at Leask House in the company of Mrs Sinclair and her daughter Isobel. Whilst there things start to take an eerie turn for Robert. Is it the lauderman or is there really a ghost.
This is the first time for me reading a book by the author. The book is the first in a set of four set at the turning points of the year: Samahain, midwinter, midsummer and the spring equinox. This book is set in the period and including Halloween so perfect for this time of year.
The story certainly has a gothic feel to it. It has everything that I enjoy in the genre, a rambling old house, isolated setting, family secrets and a brooding atmosphere.
The story is a slow burn but plods on nicely until everything is revealed. The secrets I didn't guess which is always nice so I'm surprised with what is happening.
I didn't find the story scary but it takes a lot for me to be scared by a book but it certainly had a foreboding feel. The descriptions bring the story to life from the peat bogs and the surrounding area.
I really enjoyed this book and I would say its on par with The Woman in Black. I will certainly continue with the next three books.
This is the first time for me reading a book by the author. The book is the first in a set of four set at the turning points of the year: Samahain, midwinter, midsummer and the spring equinox. This book is set in the period and including Halloween so perfect for this time of year.
The story certainly has a gothic feel to it. It has everything that I enjoy in the genre, a rambling old house, isolated setting, family secrets and a brooding atmosphere.
The story is a slow burn but plods on nicely until everything is revealed. The secrets I didn't guess which is always nice so I'm surprised with what is happening.
I didn't find the story scary but it takes a lot for me to be scared by a book but it certainly had a foreboding feel. The descriptions bring the story to life from the peat bogs and the surrounding area.
I really enjoyed this book and I would say its on par with The Woman in Black. I will certainly continue with the next three books.
January 10, 2026
Brilliant: set in the 19th century (my favourite) and a ghost story (my favourite). I loved the writing, the characters were so vivid and Leask House up there with some of the most iconic old/haunted/creepy houses. It was actually pretty spooky at times in the way that The Woman in Black (my favourite) is. I enjoyed the twists, reveals and the ending. I CANNOT wait for the next book in this quartet!
August 1, 2025
not for me! i really wanted to like this. spooky Scottish old timey ghosts is right up my alley but i just wasnt a fan! i think the lack of chapter separation made reading feel like a bit of a slog. it felt similar in vibe to the woman in black and crimson peak, but ultimately a little boring for me.
September 3, 2025
This is a perfect ghost story - a spooky setting, complicated characters and the supernatural just there, in the corner of your eye. I loved the concept of the haunting beginning with cartographers mapping the far north too. It is a totally compelling read and would be perfect for increasingly dark autumn nights. It really reminded me of the fantastic Dark Matter by Michelle Paver.
September 21, 2025
A cartographer recovering at a remote Caithness house soon learns his arrival was no accident and something won’t let him leave.
Although this does start slow, it did not feel like a chore as the writing was so atmospheric. I thought the setting was fantastic and I liked the inclusion of the Gaelic words.
By the end I was invested in all the characters and the story, I didn’t see the twists coming. I’m glad to have read this Scottish gothic tale.
Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Although this does start slow, it did not feel like a chore as the writing was so atmospheric. I thought the setting was fantastic and I liked the inclusion of the Gaelic words.
By the end I was invested in all the characters and the story, I didn’t see the twists coming. I’m glad to have read this Scottish gothic tale.
Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
September 4, 2025
It is October 1871, and cartographer Robert Sutherland is with the Ordnance Survey as they chart Scotland’s most remote north-easterly country, an endless, desolate, and eerie moorland. When a haunting vision leads Robert out into the moor, he sustains an injury that leaves him incapacitated and on the brink of death. He is transported to an old house, under the care of Mrs Sinclair and her daughter Isabel, to recuperate, but as he languishes in the dilapidated home, strange occurrences make him question his sanity. Initially, he believes it is the laudanum he has been prescribed, but as he is enveloped in nightmares, hauntings, and visions, the vast Scottish highlands begin to close around him, and the house becomes increasingly stifling. Robert must discern what is reality, as he slowly descends into madness and begins to wonder whether his presence at Leask House is really a coincidence at all and whether he is trapped there for eternity. We discover unfolding events as Robert Sutherland recounts his experiences that led to his incarceration in Inverness District Asylum.
Hawthorn is a deeply atmospheric read, with an abundance of mysteries and an unreliable narrator that added to the tension of the story. It is an eerie Victorian Gothic tale perfect for autumnal nights.
June 11, 2025
This was a breath of fresh air in the world of ghost stories. Beautifully written in a Victorian gothic style, Hawthorn delivered hauntingly dark, gripping, and suspenseful read. Although the book begins slowly, I was absorbed by the bleakly atmospheric and eerie setting. Very well structured. I took away half a star, purely for the time I spent looking up various Scottish terminology.
I would award this 4.5 stars. Great read!.
I would award this 4.5 stars. Great read!.
August 11, 2025
A hauntingly sad gothic novel set in remote Scotland. Hawthorn is a tragic tale that follows a man working for the Ordnance survey who is injured and has to stay at a local stately home while he recovers. Whilst there he experiences terrifying apparitions that will lead him to uncover secrets of the house, and his own past.
This novel does gothic horror very well. We have a character who is unable to trust what he’s seeing, who is feeling confused and disoriented. Who is being misled and dismissed by the people around him. We have an eerie home, with too few people rattling around, and family shame that can’t help but bubble to the surface. We have a bleak and haunting landscape, dangerous and with men seeking to map out and dredge up all its secrets. We have an area with folklore and supernatural beliefs that influence how some people react the main character, whilst others are dismissive.
This book is also very sad. Pain and suffering are abundant. Not just the residents of the home, but how it has spilled out into the local area. We see how the malicious actions a person commits can have ripples out, harming others in a wide radius.
This book was eerie, tense and tragic. It’s well written and I look forward to reading more from this author. I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.
This novel does gothic horror very well. We have a character who is unable to trust what he’s seeing, who is feeling confused and disoriented. Who is being misled and dismissed by the people around him. We have an eerie home, with too few people rattling around, and family shame that can’t help but bubble to the surface. We have a bleak and haunting landscape, dangerous and with men seeking to map out and dredge up all its secrets. We have an area with folklore and supernatural beliefs that influence how some people react the main character, whilst others are dismissive.
This book is also very sad. Pain and suffering are abundant. Not just the residents of the home, but how it has spilled out into the local area. We see how the malicious actions a person commits can have ripples out, harming others in a wide radius.
This book was eerie, tense and tragic. It’s well written and I look forward to reading more from this author. I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.
June 12, 2025
A wonderfully atmospheric read.
Thomson has written a gripping, dark, well paced Victorian gothic horror that I couldn't put down. The characters were excellently written and I loved that Sutherland was an unreliable narrator - this really added to the tension of the story.
Highly recommended.
Thomson has written a gripping, dark, well paced Victorian gothic horror that I couldn't put down. The characters were excellently written and I loved that Sutherland was an unreliable narrator - this really added to the tension of the story.
Highly recommended.
June 21, 2025
he field of Gothic horror has a new mistress.
"Hawthorn" opens in Inverness, 1871, where Robert Sutherland, geographer and cartographer, is writing his account of the events which led to his incarceration in Inverness District Asylum. In his own words, a haunting, an old house a series of events beyond his control all led to his downfall. As the narrative develops we learn that he and his team of Ordnance Survey surveyors were moving across the wilds of Caithness, charting the land for a new six-inch scale map. When he falls foul of the uneven ground, and badly injures his ankle, he is transported to an old house, under the care of an elderly woman and her daughter. But as he languishes in the house, things start to happen which make him question his sanity.
And so the reader, and Sutherland are slowly drawn deeper and deeper into a nightmare of visitations, hauntings and visions, as the house and the wild highlands of Scotland close around him. Readers who know this area will revel in the descriptive and captivating prose, and as we encounter dour highlanders, peaty bogs, and broken down mills, the reality of post-Clearances Highland is brough vividly to life. Sutherland's slow decline into madness is helped along by revelations, discoveries and mysteries, which make him question his entire life up til now. The cast includes an old, mysterious doctor, a dour miller and his daughter, and a benefactor who may not be what he seems. Each one, nicely painted against the wild canvas of Highland Scotland.
This book reads like some classic 19th-century Gothic tale. The language is perfect - cold and stark, and the epistolary nature of the narrative means we only see events unfold from Sutherland's point of view - how much are we to believe and how much is in his head?
The final few pages nicely offer some answers, but still leave the reader wondering...
Fans of ES Thomson will know her for her Jem Flockhart books - but this new venture in to gothic horror will undoubtedly garner a whole new audience. If you enjoy Susan Hill, Laura Purcell or Michelle Paver you'll love this. Heartily recommended.
"Hawthorn" opens in Inverness, 1871, where Robert Sutherland, geographer and cartographer, is writing his account of the events which led to his incarceration in Inverness District Asylum. In his own words, a haunting, an old house a series of events beyond his control all led to his downfall. As the narrative develops we learn that he and his team of Ordnance Survey surveyors were moving across the wilds of Caithness, charting the land for a new six-inch scale map. When he falls foul of the uneven ground, and badly injures his ankle, he is transported to an old house, under the care of an elderly woman and her daughter. But as he languishes in the house, things start to happen which make him question his sanity.
And so the reader, and Sutherland are slowly drawn deeper and deeper into a nightmare of visitations, hauntings and visions, as the house and the wild highlands of Scotland close around him. Readers who know this area will revel in the descriptive and captivating prose, and as we encounter dour highlanders, peaty bogs, and broken down mills, the reality of post-Clearances Highland is brough vividly to life. Sutherland's slow decline into madness is helped along by revelations, discoveries and mysteries, which make him question his entire life up til now. The cast includes an old, mysterious doctor, a dour miller and his daughter, and a benefactor who may not be what he seems. Each one, nicely painted against the wild canvas of Highland Scotland.
This book reads like some classic 19th-century Gothic tale. The language is perfect - cold and stark, and the epistolary nature of the narrative means we only see events unfold from Sutherland's point of view - how much are we to believe and how much is in his head?
The final few pages nicely offer some answers, but still leave the reader wondering...
Fans of ES Thomson will know her for her Jem Flockhart books - but this new venture in to gothic horror will undoubtedly garner a whole new audience. If you enjoy Susan Hill, Laura Purcell or Michelle Paver you'll love this. Heartily recommended.
October 5, 2025
Hawthorn is a set in the north of Scotland, in 1871. A ghost story that doesn't frighten, yet is eerie and atmospheric, and will get under your skin.
Robert Sunderland is a cartographer: a member of a team working for Ordnance Survey, mapping a remote area in Scotland. An accident means he needs time and a space to recover, and he is taken in, begrudgingly, by the owner of a nearby mansion, Leask House.
A scientist and a rational man, Sunderland puts down his frequent nightmares and daytime sightings of ghostly apparitions by being caused by laudanum, which the local doctor has prescribed for him for pain.
Secrets abound in this remote mansion and surrounding area, and are revealed as the story goes on.
This is a good creepy gothic ghost story, that will keep you feeling slightly uneasy all the way through, until truth and answers are revealed.
Thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Robert Sunderland is a cartographer: a member of a team working for Ordnance Survey, mapping a remote area in Scotland. An accident means he needs time and a space to recover, and he is taken in, begrudgingly, by the owner of a nearby mansion, Leask House.
A scientist and a rational man, Sunderland puts down his frequent nightmares and daytime sightings of ghostly apparitions by being caused by laudanum, which the local doctor has prescribed for him for pain.
Secrets abound in this remote mansion and surrounding area, and are revealed as the story goes on.
This is a good creepy gothic ghost story, that will keep you feeling slightly uneasy all the way through, until truth and answers are revealed.
Thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
September 24, 2025
Hawthorn by Elaine Thomson is a modern take on the Victorian Gothic ghost story—familiar in its elements, yet somehow singular. Thomson draws on the well-worn staples of the genre: misdirects and misunderstandings, guilty consciences, lingering grief, the ominous old house, and wary neighbors and villagers. And yet, despite these ingredients, I found myself unable to fully enter the story. There was no moment where everything seemed to fall into place. It’s a reaction I’ve had before with writers like Shirley Jackson: I can admire the craft and the elegance of the prose, but still feel that something essential is missing. Perhaps these novels are better suited to being listened to than read.
December 27, 2025
“Hawthorn” felt like it was written just for me. A ghost story set in Scotland, filled with dark secrets, eerie atmosphere and exactly the kind of gothic vibes I adore.
From about halfway through, I genuinely couldn’t put it down. The tension builds beautifully, pulling you deeper and deeper into the story until you’re completely absorbed. The haunting setting and creeping unease are masterfully done, without ever feeling overdone or cheap.
Elaine Thomson excels at atmosphere and slow-burning suspense, making Hawthorn an unforgettable reading experience. This was an absolute favourite for me and a must-read for anyone who loves gothic fiction, haunted places and stories that linger long after the final page.
From about halfway through, I genuinely couldn’t put it down. The tension builds beautifully, pulling you deeper and deeper into the story until you’re completely absorbed. The haunting setting and creeping unease are masterfully done, without ever feeling overdone or cheap.
Elaine Thomson excels at atmosphere and slow-burning suspense, making Hawthorn an unforgettable reading experience. This was an absolute favourite for me and a must-read for anyone who loves gothic fiction, haunted places and stories that linger long after the final page.
November 19, 2025
Dripping with atmosphere. Perfectly captures the vibes of a Victorian gothic ghost story with a layer of Scottish countryside for flavor. Slow burn into a satisfying climax.
This is the first of four books centered around the seasons (and their pagan traditions) that the author is writing. This was Autumn/Samhain and I'm glad I read it around that time of year. Very much looking forward to the next book for Midsummer/Litha.
This is the first of four books centered around the seasons (and their pagan traditions) that the author is writing. This was Autumn/Samhain and I'm glad I read it around that time of year. Very much looking forward to the next book for Midsummer/Litha.
December 6, 2025
Beautiful atmospheric Scottish horror. This book combines beautifully the erie atmosphere, softly building dread and fear. By the end of the book you are left questioning the sanity and development of various characters through the book. Reading it felt like Laura Purcell meets Michelle Parver to build a beautiful atmospheric novel.
May 22, 2025
Just the right amount of "is there something happening here, or is he mad?" going on, to have me wondering all the way through.
The story has plenty of atmosphere, and enough secrets to unravel to keep everyone happy.
An enjoyable read.
The story has plenty of atmosphere, and enough secrets to unravel to keep everyone happy.
An enjoyable read.
January 4, 2026
I really enjoyed this. I didn’t find the first part slow, it was a good build up and the scenes of the countryside are very evocative interweaved with detailed descriptions that help build a picture of the background and situation of the forthcoming story.
Can’t wait for the next one.
Can’t wait for the next one.
October 21, 2025
4.25 stars. Very atmospheric, creepy and intriguing. I raced through this to find out what was going on, and was not disappointed
November 14, 2025
3.5 (B+)
December 1, 2025
Excellent read, an a major page turner. My first 5 star this year. I truly look forward to the next book.
February 15, 2026
purva rēgi, kas nemaz nav sakarīgi rēgi..
pēdējās 50 lapās bija visa drāma, pārējais bija vibes un murgi
pēdējās 50 lapās bija visa drāma, pārējais bija vibes un murgi
November 11, 2025
Hawthorn: A Scottish Ghost Story is akin to 19th-century classics in its genre: quiet, foreboding, rich in emotion, and with darkness tainting every word. The story swept me away like the rain-dappled winds, trembling and cold yet determined to seek my destination. The atmosphere is a character.
In the vast and bleak (and beautiful) Scottish moorlands, a cartographer with a heart as lonely as the terrain finds himself injured and sent to recuperate at Leask House. A house whose past brings rot to its frames. In a laudanum induced state, he experiences nightmares and memories that rise like bog bodies in his brain.
I loved this book and crave more like it.
In the vast and bleak (and beautiful) Scottish moorlands, a cartographer with a heart as lonely as the terrain finds himself injured and sent to recuperate at Leask House. A house whose past brings rot to its frames. In a laudanum induced state, he experiences nightmares and memories that rise like bog bodies in his brain.
I loved this book and crave more like it.
November 24, 2025
I love the flow of E S Thomson's books. Hawthorn has no chapters because it is written as an account of events but there are natural breaks throughout. Not that these were necessary as it is such a page turner that I finished it in 3 nights. A change of direction for her but a hauntingly good one.
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