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The Hill in the Dark Grove
Moving and chilling, The Hill in the Dark Grove is a story about a lost way of life and the terrifying lengths we go to to protect what we know.
Carwyn and Rhian – the last in a long line of sheep farmers – are living out a brutal year on their hillside farm, deep in the mountains of North Wales.
When Carwyn discovers a buried prehistoric ruin in one of the fields on their land, his curiosity quickly descends into obsession. His wife, Rhian, meanwhile, is confronted with the growing realization that the man with whom she shares her life and home is becoming a frightening stranger.
As the harsh winter closes in, Rhian finds herself alone with her increasingly unrecognizable husband, and the mountains, and the looming megalithic stones.
'Vibrates with unease' - Anthony Shapland, author of A Room Above a Shop
Carwyn and Rhian – the last in a long line of sheep farmers – are living out a brutal year on their hillside farm, deep in the mountains of North Wales.
When Carwyn discovers a buried prehistoric ruin in one of the fields on their land, his curiosity quickly descends into obsession. His wife, Rhian, meanwhile, is confronted with the growing realization that the man with whom she shares her life and home is becoming a frightening stranger.
As the harsh winter closes in, Rhian finds herself alone with her increasingly unrecognizable husband, and the mountains, and the looming megalithic stones.
'Vibrates with unease' - Anthony Shapland, author of A Room Above a Shop
289 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 8, 2026
51 people are currently reading
1486 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
September 18, 2025
Some stories are waiting to be told. Unearthed from the land. ‘The Hill in the Dark Grove’ unfolds like something ancient and forgotten. Its bones lying dormant in the shadow of vast mountains and open skies. Born from the Welsh landscape, thrumming with history and echos of the past. A land of Cymraeg, drenched in song and story, legend and superstitions.
On a remote North Wales hillside, within sight of Yr Wyddfa is the Gwynnant farm, sheep roaming its craggy fields, tended by Carwyn and his wife Rhian. An older couple, farming in their blood. Their lives a continuation of heritage going back hundreds of years. It is hard work. Humbling. And they are the end of the line. A generational full stop. There is no one to continue the work, no children to take stewardship of the land. No-one to remember them.
Late one night, two walkers get lost on their land. Crossing the neglected lower pasture, unused and overgrown, Carwyn discovers something buried. An old figurehead, granite, ancient worn and imposing. And beneath that, a megalithic stone circle. But it isn’t all he has unearthed.
A quiet, uneasy tale of mounting dread. Of man, landscape, herd and home, haunted by a mystery. A myth. A prehistoric Celtic horror, buried and unremembered. Perhaps it should stay that way.
It’s also a love story, of two people bound inexorably to the land and each other. Battling with the elements, fighting to preserve a way of life, growing old together and discovering the lengths they will go to in order to protect everything they know and love.
It truly is exquisite writing. Brooding, lyrical, haunting and utterly enthralling, Liam Higginson’s debut is quite astonishing. It crawled beneath my skin, took up space and I didn’t dare look away.
Listen, just read it.
“Cofiwch, people say - remember - but remembering is a forgotten art.”
On a remote North Wales hillside, within sight of Yr Wyddfa is the Gwynnant farm, sheep roaming its craggy fields, tended by Carwyn and his wife Rhian. An older couple, farming in their blood. Their lives a continuation of heritage going back hundreds of years. It is hard work. Humbling. And they are the end of the line. A generational full stop. There is no one to continue the work, no children to take stewardship of the land. No-one to remember them.
Late one night, two walkers get lost on their land. Crossing the neglected lower pasture, unused and overgrown, Carwyn discovers something buried. An old figurehead, granite, ancient worn and imposing. And beneath that, a megalithic stone circle. But it isn’t all he has unearthed.
A quiet, uneasy tale of mounting dread. Of man, landscape, herd and home, haunted by a mystery. A myth. A prehistoric Celtic horror, buried and unremembered. Perhaps it should stay that way.
It’s also a love story, of two people bound inexorably to the land and each other. Battling with the elements, fighting to preserve a way of life, growing old together and discovering the lengths they will go to in order to protect everything they know and love.
It truly is exquisite writing. Brooding, lyrical, haunting and utterly enthralling, Liam Higginson’s debut is quite astonishing. It crawled beneath my skin, took up space and I didn’t dare look away.
Listen, just read it.
“Cofiwch, people say - remember - but remembering is a forgotten art.”
November 27, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is an exceptional debut and I will be eagerly waiting for more of Liam Higginson's exquisite writing.
The Hill in the Dark Grove is a gothic folk horror, set in rural North Wales and packed with layers upon layers of Welsh mythology, history and tradition. Anyone who loves Wales will find lots to get lost in here. But it's not all cwtches and cariad, because there's something out there just waiting to crawl under your skin.
Whilst still fiercely original, I found echoes of various influences from Bronte's Wuthering Heights to King's The Shining. The ability to draw on so many literary giants and still come out with what I think is likely to be the most memorable book I've read this year is no mean feat.
There is masterful building of tension and suspense throughout, making it gripping and unputdownable. The pace is fairly slow, with frequent reflections and reminisences that flesh out the characterisation of the two main characters, but that added a lot more to the story than simply packing in more contemporary "plot points", and led to a strong focus on their isolation and corruption. This is all set against the changing landscape - both within a year and over many years. (The cyclical 12 chapters, and backwards-moving historical vignettes at the head of each chapter, reinforce this very well.) Something that positively shines through the often dark and dreary imagery is the imperfect but strong and lifelong love between Carwyn and Rhian, who I deeply cared about right off the bat. The ending isn't what I expected (or necessarily hoped for), but it is tonally fitting and satisfying in its ambiguity.
One of my only major complaints is that this is the kind of book I have always dreamed of writing (right down to featuring a creepy sheep farm, chilly Welsh coast and ancient church), so I am jealous that this is a far better execution than I could ever achieve!
I definitely see myself reading this one again, and have already started recommending it to friends with a penchant for folk horror. Certainly one of my top reads this year.
This is an exceptional debut and I will be eagerly waiting for more of Liam Higginson's exquisite writing.
The Hill in the Dark Grove is a gothic folk horror, set in rural North Wales and packed with layers upon layers of Welsh mythology, history and tradition. Anyone who loves Wales will find lots to get lost in here. But it's not all cwtches and cariad, because there's something out there just waiting to crawl under your skin.
Whilst still fiercely original, I found echoes of various influences from Bronte's Wuthering Heights to King's The Shining. The ability to draw on so many literary giants and still come out with what I think is likely to be the most memorable book I've read this year is no mean feat.
There is masterful building of tension and suspense throughout, making it gripping and unputdownable. The pace is fairly slow, with frequent reflections and reminisences that flesh out the characterisation of the two main characters, but that added a lot more to the story than simply packing in more contemporary "plot points", and led to a strong focus on their isolation and corruption. This is all set against the changing landscape - both within a year and over many years. (The cyclical 12 chapters, and backwards-moving historical vignettes at the head of each chapter, reinforce this very well.) Something that positively shines through the often dark and dreary imagery is the imperfect but strong and lifelong love between Carwyn and Rhian, who I deeply cared about right off the bat. The ending isn't what I expected (or necessarily hoped for), but it is tonally fitting and satisfying in its ambiguity.
One of my only major complaints is that this is the kind of book I have always dreamed of writing (right down to featuring a creepy sheep farm, chilly Welsh coast and ancient church), so I am jealous that this is a far better execution than I could ever achieve!
I definitely see myself reading this one again, and have already started recommending it to friends with a penchant for folk horror. Certainly one of my top reads this year.
January 19, 2026
This debut novel is described as 'Welsh Folk Horror', but actually it reminded me more of novels such as Seascraper, The Colony by Audrey Magee and Clear by Carys Davies about a disappearing way of life. It follows a couple of old sheep farmers, Carwyn and Rhian, facing a series of hardships and becoming increasingly isolated. But when mysterious historical objects are being discovered on their land a possible improvement may be in sight.
The book does have its fair share of Welsh mythology as well as strange dreams, especially towards the end (and it's not really my thing), but by then I was already fully absorbed in the story of the couple, one of who is clearly losing their grip on reality...but who?
Highly recommended, and I am pencilling it down for a possible Booker longlisting this summer.
The book does have its fair share of Welsh mythology as well as strange dreams, especially towards the end (and it's not really my thing), but by then I was already fully absorbed in the story of the couple, one of who is clearly losing their grip on reality...but who?
Highly recommended, and I am pencilling it down for a possible Booker longlisting this summer.
December 2, 2025
This was very well-written and I can see why people love it. You'll probably love it! Go ahead and read it! But while I liked it, I did not, alas, love it.
The plot surrounds a couple of 60-something Welsh farmers, Carwyn and Rhian. They live a challenging but lovely life together running the farm...until Carwyn digs up some weird, ancient artefacts in one of their fields and starts becoming obsessed by their origin.
I found it a bit slow-going and just so...bleak. Both in terms of the well-drawn grimness of the North Wales winters and the direction the plot was travelling in (it's fairly apparent where this one is gong from early on).
The supernatural side was all kind of hinty and vague - shadows glimpsed, strange noises, movement in peripheral vision, etc. There was definitely an ominous feel to the book but I'm possibly a less subtle individual and prefer actual monsters to appear in plain view and run amok. :-)
What I actually did love about the book were the sections outlining how Carwyn and Rhian got together. These are touching and beautifully written. In fact pretty much all of the non-scary stuff was excellent, I just wasn't feeling the supernatural parts.
I'll definitely keep an eye on Liam Higginson as there was a lot of talent on display here.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.
The plot surrounds a couple of 60-something Welsh farmers, Carwyn and Rhian. They live a challenging but lovely life together running the farm...until Carwyn digs up some weird, ancient artefacts in one of their fields and starts becoming obsessed by their origin.
I found it a bit slow-going and just so...bleak. Both in terms of the well-drawn grimness of the North Wales winters and the direction the plot was travelling in (it's fairly apparent where this one is gong from early on).
The supernatural side was all kind of hinty and vague - shadows glimpsed, strange noises, movement in peripheral vision, etc. There was definitely an ominous feel to the book but I'm possibly a less subtle individual and prefer actual monsters to appear in plain view and run amok. :-)
What I actually did love about the book were the sections outlining how Carwyn and Rhian got together. These are touching and beautifully written. In fact pretty much all of the non-scary stuff was excellent, I just wasn't feeling the supernatural parts.
I'll definitely keep an eye on Liam Higginson as there was a lot of talent on display here.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.
January 8, 2026
This is it peeps. This is quite possibly the most unsettling book I have read this year. The fact that this is a debut novel is impressive. It is a well written, tension filled, haunting tale.
The setting for The Hill in the Dark Grove is North Wales, an area of natural beauty that is steeped in folklore, and many of those stories, such as the tale of Gelert, form part of the narrative of the novel. 🏴
The main protagonists are Carwyn and Rhian, who breed sheep on their isolated farm, which has been in Carwyn's family for generations. There is one area of the farm that Carwyn has never set foot on, until now. Suddenly, strange things start to happen, and people begin to disappear 🏴
The pace of the story is slow, but as the unease builds, the pages almost thrum with tension. The changes in Carwyn are unsettling, and Rhian's dread is almost contagious. 🏴
This won't be for everyone, but if you love folk horror and/or Welsh myths and legends, as I do, you will definitely want to read this gem. 🏴
Thanks to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the digital ARC.
The setting for The Hill in the Dark Grove is North Wales, an area of natural beauty that is steeped in folklore, and many of those stories, such as the tale of Gelert, form part of the narrative of the novel. 🏴
The main protagonists are Carwyn and Rhian, who breed sheep on their isolated farm, which has been in Carwyn's family for generations. There is one area of the farm that Carwyn has never set foot on, until now. Suddenly, strange things start to happen, and people begin to disappear 🏴
The pace of the story is slow, but as the unease builds, the pages almost thrum with tension. The changes in Carwyn are unsettling, and Rhian's dread is almost contagious. 🏴
This won't be for everyone, but if you love folk horror and/or Welsh myths and legends, as I do, you will definitely want to read this gem. 🏴
Thanks to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the digital ARC.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 11, 2026
At the start of this book I wasn't sure whether I was going to manage to engage with it.
However I was glad that I continued to read on, as it started to grow on me like the sense of unease and menace that was always present throughout.
I couldn't help but get sucked in to the characters story, and having the weather as almost its own character provided a general sense of foreboding. It's worth mentioning that this book feels like it should be read during wintery months due to its setting.
I've seen some reviews that indicate this is a horror, but if you don't enjoy horror but don't mind something a bit darker than your average tale,then you may enjoy this one.
Hard to believe this is a debut by this author as it feels very accomplished, so I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.
However I was glad that I continued to read on, as it started to grow on me like the sense of unease and menace that was always present throughout.
I couldn't help but get sucked in to the characters story, and having the weather as almost its own character provided a general sense of foreboding. It's worth mentioning that this book feels like it should be read during wintery months due to its setting.
I've seen some reviews that indicate this is a horror, but if you don't enjoy horror but don't mind something a bit darker than your average tale,then you may enjoy this one.
Hard to believe this is a debut by this author as it feels very accomplished, so I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.
January 13, 2026
Brooding, moody and quietly unsettling. Just what you want in a folk horror.
The Hill in the Dark Grove is a story of love, loyalty and survival, with obsession and sinister dealings thrown into the mix to craft out a menacing tale. The haunting descriptions of the way of life in rural Wales and the relationship dynamics between the main characters were at once achingly beautiful and fraught with tension. Full of foreboding, brutal landscapes and ominous folklore, this was an edgy, gritty and raw look on the unrelenting passage of time. There is a sprinkle of cosiness here and there but a cloying one that only made the story all the more threatening.
This was a quiet one, one I took a while to settle into but it crept up on me until I was in thrall and found myself in its tight grip.
The Hill in the Dark Grove is a story of love, loyalty and survival, with obsession and sinister dealings thrown into the mix to craft out a menacing tale. The haunting descriptions of the way of life in rural Wales and the relationship dynamics between the main characters were at once achingly beautiful and fraught with tension. Full of foreboding, brutal landscapes and ominous folklore, this was an edgy, gritty and raw look on the unrelenting passage of time. There is a sprinkle of cosiness here and there but a cloying one that only made the story all the more threatening.
This was a quiet one, one I took a while to settle into but it crept up on me until I was in thrall and found myself in its tight grip.
January 1, 2026
A truly excellent bit of folk horror that’ll have you yearning for a trip to North Wales before quickly revising those plans.
The writing in this novel is stupendously good. It doesn’t rush, but takes its time to paint a beautiful but vicious landscape against which to set this story. Just as our main characters have lived on the mountain for decades, so do we become embedded in that unforgiving nature.
This book lives and dies on the lead pairing of Rhian and Carwyn, the old, loveable and haunted couple battling to make ends meet and keep their farm ticking along. You feel invested in them from the start and care deeply for them throughout. Through memories and flashbacks you learn of their courting, of their love for each other, and of their hardships. As the story goes on and their relationship changes, all of that emotion you’ve invested in them makes it all the more harrowing to read.
There is plenty of folklore to be found here too, unearthing evocative and unnerving tales from that ancient land the same way Carwyn digs treasures from it. It all adds to the world-building, and I really appreciated how unashamedly Welsh it is - it has everything: the mountains, the weather, the disdain at English folk buying up houses for holiday homes, and the swathes of traditional stories, including a chilling sequence about the Mari Lwyd tradition…this book has rarebit, dragons and rugby union running through its veins.
And so to the horror, which is subtle at first, ambiguous throughout, and thoroughly compelling by the end, when it leans fully into The Shining-ness of it all. Yet perhaps some of the most haunting moments are connected to farm life: the opening of a terrible lambing in awful weather, or the grisly death of a sheep covered in maggots, or the horror of the livestock auction…these are told with such blunt language compared to that used to describe the landscape that they are all the more shocking scenes. Oh, and a sequence where Rhian wants to cook some eggs taken from their own chickens and each one becomes more and more horrific, a manifestation of the rot that has gripped their farm, was truly nasty.
Throughout this book, I became more and more unsettled by Carwyn, as he became more and more obsessed with the stone head he pulled from the ground. It gives the tale a sort of possession element that I really enjoyed, as well as evoking parts of The Tommyknockers…but in a good way!
Most of all, though, it’s a story about legacy, about making your mark and of the fear of being forgotten. Our couple has no children, and the grief at having no-one to pass your life onto runs throughout this book, and feeds into their desperation the longer it goes on. It adds a slice of haunted, Gothic sadness to this novel that really works.
This one is, without doubt, a slowburn. But that build over the first two thirds of the book makes the disturbing and sad ending all the more effective. If this isn't among my favourite releases of 2026 come the end of it I’ll be very surprised. A fantastic debut and one that will sit with me for a while.
Huge thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy!
The writing in this novel is stupendously good. It doesn’t rush, but takes its time to paint a beautiful but vicious landscape against which to set this story. Just as our main characters have lived on the mountain for decades, so do we become embedded in that unforgiving nature.
This book lives and dies on the lead pairing of Rhian and Carwyn, the old, loveable and haunted couple battling to make ends meet and keep their farm ticking along. You feel invested in them from the start and care deeply for them throughout. Through memories and flashbacks you learn of their courting, of their love for each other, and of their hardships. As the story goes on and their relationship changes, all of that emotion you’ve invested in them makes it all the more harrowing to read.
There is plenty of folklore to be found here too, unearthing evocative and unnerving tales from that ancient land the same way Carwyn digs treasures from it. It all adds to the world-building, and I really appreciated how unashamedly Welsh it is - it has everything: the mountains, the weather, the disdain at English folk buying up houses for holiday homes, and the swathes of traditional stories, including a chilling sequence about the Mari Lwyd tradition…this book has rarebit, dragons and rugby union running through its veins.
And so to the horror, which is subtle at first, ambiguous throughout, and thoroughly compelling by the end, when it leans fully into The Shining-ness of it all. Yet perhaps some of the most haunting moments are connected to farm life: the opening of a terrible lambing in awful weather, or the grisly death of a sheep covered in maggots, or the horror of the livestock auction…these are told with such blunt language compared to that used to describe the landscape that they are all the more shocking scenes. Oh, and a sequence where Rhian wants to cook some eggs taken from their own chickens and each one becomes more and more horrific, a manifestation of the rot that has gripped their farm, was truly nasty.
Throughout this book, I became more and more unsettled by Carwyn, as he became more and more obsessed with the stone head he pulled from the ground. It gives the tale a sort of possession element that I really enjoyed, as well as evoking parts of The Tommyknockers…but in a good way!
Most of all, though, it’s a story about legacy, about making your mark and of the fear of being forgotten. Our couple has no children, and the grief at having no-one to pass your life onto runs throughout this book, and feeds into their desperation the longer it goes on. It adds a slice of haunted, Gothic sadness to this novel that really works.
This one is, without doubt, a slowburn. But that build over the first two thirds of the book makes the disturbing and sad ending all the more effective. If this isn't among my favourite releases of 2026 come the end of it I’ll be very surprised. A fantastic debut and one that will sit with me for a while.
Huge thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy!
January 14, 2026
This is just like a horror steeped in folklore should be. Set in the rural Welsh countryside, we follow an old couple fighting to make a living as sheep farmers when the world wants to move forward, and something in the ground wants them to join it…
It’s eerie and atmospheric and it was absolutely perfect to read on snowy and wintry January nights. It’s not the most scary, it’s more the uncertainty and the unknown. And a feeling.
This is the first novel I’ve ever read from Wales and I loved learning more about Welsh history, mythology and sense of self.
It’s eerie and atmospheric and it was absolutely perfect to read on snowy and wintry January nights. It’s not the most scary, it’s more the uncertainty and the unknown. And a feeling.
This is the first novel I’ve ever read from Wales and I loved learning more about Welsh history, mythology and sense of self.
December 21, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and Picador for an advance copy of this book.
I found ‘The Hill in the Dark Grove’ a little slow starting - it is, after all, a story of a man digging a little decorative head out from the undergrowth. But this book has thorns, and they hook you in. What starts as a curiosity project soon occupies every waking moment of Carwyn’s life and as his obsession grows, so too do the strange happenings on the farm.
Written from a dual perspective, I appreciated the inclusion of Rhian’s point of view. While other books may have focused solely on Carwyn’s discovery and unravelling, Higginson’s highlights the *impact* of this behaviour too. He exposes the “invisible” labour of women in these stories, and how average people can be torn apart by something quite mundane. While this is rooted in folklore, it’s the human element which makes this book so unsettling.
Altogether, a wholly disquieting reflection on aging and isolation through the lens of family politics, folklore, and obsession. What an accomplished debut! Higginson is certainly one to watch.
I found ‘The Hill in the Dark Grove’ a little slow starting - it is, after all, a story of a man digging a little decorative head out from the undergrowth. But this book has thorns, and they hook you in. What starts as a curiosity project soon occupies every waking moment of Carwyn’s life and as his obsession grows, so too do the strange happenings on the farm.
Written from a dual perspective, I appreciated the inclusion of Rhian’s point of view. While other books may have focused solely on Carwyn’s discovery and unravelling, Higginson’s highlights the *impact* of this behaviour too. He exposes the “invisible” labour of women in these stories, and how average people can be torn apart by something quite mundane. While this is rooted in folklore, it’s the human element which makes this book so unsettling.
Altogether, a wholly disquieting reflection on aging and isolation through the lens of family politics, folklore, and obsession. What an accomplished debut! Higginson is certainly one to watch.
September 26, 2025
Liam Higginson's debut novel The Hill in the Dark Grove is set in the mountains of North Wales, where sheep farmers Carwyn and Rhian are trying to survive a brutal year on their hillside farm when Carwyn discovers something ancient on his land. This unsettling, haunting novel - both an elegy to a way of life coming to an end in the face of modernity and to old age - is beautifully rendered by Higginson. You can taste the mountain air, can feel the grit in the characters, both of whom are crafted well on the page. I know this landscape of North Wales very well - living there as Higginson does - and he has captured the beauty and mystery of the magnificence of Eryri. The sense of dread escalates as the novel progresses and Higginson maintains a tight grip on his reader, and this Welsh folk-horror novel really got under my skin by its end. I finished the novel in one sitting, fully enraptured with this tale.
This is a very fine debut and I'm very keen to see what he does next. Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.
This is a very fine debut and I'm very keen to see what he does next. Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.
November 4, 2025
I can't believe this is Hiiginson's debut - it is masterful. Welsh-oriented novels published by mainstream publishers (beyond Wales) are still a rarity, and this shows that they should absolutely not be! I would describe this as Welsh folk-horror, and it was genuinely chilling, as well as informative - no sheepish stereotypes here, but plenty on the rich history of North Wales and its myths. The set-piece with the Mari Lwyd, 'a grisly hobbyhorse', will endure in my memory for a long time - not least because my own mamgu (the Southern equivalent to Higginson's Nain in North Welsh dialect), was in charge of boiling down the horse's skull for this ceremony within very recent family history. The book reminded me of Scott Preston's The Borrowed Hills (which I also rated highly) in its subject matter, but it goes further, deeper, darker than that. I took so many notes, and I'm now digging down a Wicipedia (Welsh Wiki!) rabbit hole...
January 22, 2026
"If we don't leave our mark, we'll be forgotten."
Liam Higginson's novel is about Carwyn and Rhian, deep in the mountains of Eryri, North Wales, they are the last in a long line of sheep farmers living out a brutal year on their hillside farm. When Carwyn discovers a buried prehistoric ruin in one of the fields on their land, his curiosity quickly becomes obsession. His wife, Rhian, meanwhile, is confronted with the growing realisation that her husband is becoming a frightening stranger.
This story gave a tender insight into the lives of this couple. Those moments of peace are however quickly disturbed by the supernatural horrors that will plague them.
It was a slow burn and you could feel the tension when Carwyn began to display signs of not being himself. These parts were unsettling for Rhian. The suspense was palpable, the bond of this couple is tested and it shows as the story progresses.
I did like this story, the folk horror aspects with the shift between this couple was interesting and creepy.
Liam Higginson's novel is about Carwyn and Rhian, deep in the mountains of Eryri, North Wales, they are the last in a long line of sheep farmers living out a brutal year on their hillside farm. When Carwyn discovers a buried prehistoric ruin in one of the fields on their land, his curiosity quickly becomes obsession. His wife, Rhian, meanwhile, is confronted with the growing realisation that her husband is becoming a frightening stranger.
This story gave a tender insight into the lives of this couple. Those moments of peace are however quickly disturbed by the supernatural horrors that will plague them.
It was a slow burn and you could feel the tension when Carwyn began to display signs of not being himself. These parts were unsettling for Rhian. The suspense was palpable, the bond of this couple is tested and it shows as the story progresses.
I did like this story, the folk horror aspects with the shift between this couple was interesting and creepy.
Read
January 3, 2026a really fabulous debut of creeping, ancient horror. it's a slow burn but it's very much worth it. it's a story with so much heart alongside it's horror. I really grew to love the characters and their relationship, which makes the descent this book takes all the harder to read. hope we get more from this author!
January 9, 2026
Thanks to NetGalley for the free review copy!
The Hill in the Dark Grove is a strong start to my reading year, not only taking a five-star rating but establishing itself as a contender for My Favourite Book of the Year (yes, I know it's not even been ten days). This book is a masterful tour de force in slow, creeping horror, the kind that sneaks up behind you and then stabs you in the back with a hell of a finale. This is unsettling, psychological gothic horror, so steeped in its sense of place that I could at times hear the characters' Welsh accents coming to life in my head as I read their dialogue. If there is to be such a thing as North Wales Gothic, Higginson has mastered it.
What gripped me from the very beginning was the poetic, soaring way Higginson uses language. He already seems a master at his craft, and it's hard to believe this is only his debut novel. The language manages to be poetic and descriptive, painting word pictures without ever edging into overblown or purple prose. It's the exact kind of prose that gives you a perfect picture or feeling, that makes almost every sentence a joy to read, but which stops exactly where it needs to.
Of course, the skill employed in the language only gives more weight and depth to its setting. The setting in the North Wales mountains is the beating heart of this book, both in the sense of the characters' individual lives and the horrific thing that haunts them. The Hill in the Dark Grove is steeped in Welshness, and it's not afraid to revel in the deep joys of that while also exposing its aching pains. It's a novel about what we leave behind and how much we should care about it, as well as about how places shape us and how times change. It's a very smart novel in many ways, railing justifiably against the changes taking place in the country while acknowledging that they are just more in the series of changes that have swept the land, and how railing against them didn't change anything then. It raises many uneasy questions about the places we live, the culture we have, and how we treat others' cultures, and, crucially, lets you figure out your own answers. There's such depth to the Wales Higginson presents, a sense of layers of time and people caked over each other so deeply, of standing in the places your ancestors stood. He begins each chapter with a brief flashback to how the Grove was used or what happened nearby in earlier centuries, which I think can often be a strategy that risks boring the reader, but Higginson pulls it off perfectly. He creates intriguing little snippets of character, place, and action without ever lingering long enough to make the reader feel dragged away from the main story.
The Hill in the Dark Grove is definitely not for you if you like lots of action sequences, loud and obvious horror, or monsters in the night. This is a creeping, insidious type of horror; in fact, up until the end, you could make a strong argument that there was no 'presence' of any kind on the mountain, and everything that happened was the product of Carwyn's slow sink into despair and derangement. Higginson builds the horror up perfectly, piece by small piece, slowly chalking up the unsettling occurrences until it becomes clear something is Very Wrong - but of course, in the way of all the best horror stories, it's already too late to fix it.
I was particularly impressed by the finale - it's always hard to handle the transition from creeping horror to all-out strangeness, but Higginson does so in a totally believable yet totally terrifying way. Rhian's final walk through the fields, where ghosts of the past seem to haunt her with every step, was the perfect way to encapsulate the book's themes and call back to the opening of each chapter. And while the resolution was sad in its own way, it had that undeniable, perfect quality of being, in hindsight, the only way the characters could have ended up.
The Hill in the Dark Grove is a strong start to my reading year, not only taking a five-star rating but establishing itself as a contender for My Favourite Book of the Year (yes, I know it's not even been ten days). This book is a masterful tour de force in slow, creeping horror, the kind that sneaks up behind you and then stabs you in the back with a hell of a finale. This is unsettling, psychological gothic horror, so steeped in its sense of place that I could at times hear the characters' Welsh accents coming to life in my head as I read their dialogue. If there is to be such a thing as North Wales Gothic, Higginson has mastered it.
What gripped me from the very beginning was the poetic, soaring way Higginson uses language. He already seems a master at his craft, and it's hard to believe this is only his debut novel. The language manages to be poetic and descriptive, painting word pictures without ever edging into overblown or purple prose. It's the exact kind of prose that gives you a perfect picture or feeling, that makes almost every sentence a joy to read, but which stops exactly where it needs to.
Of course, the skill employed in the language only gives more weight and depth to its setting. The setting in the North Wales mountains is the beating heart of this book, both in the sense of the characters' individual lives and the horrific thing that haunts them. The Hill in the Dark Grove is steeped in Welshness, and it's not afraid to revel in the deep joys of that while also exposing its aching pains. It's a novel about what we leave behind and how much we should care about it, as well as about how places shape us and how times change. It's a very smart novel in many ways, railing justifiably against the changes taking place in the country while acknowledging that they are just more in the series of changes that have swept the land, and how railing against them didn't change anything then. It raises many uneasy questions about the places we live, the culture we have, and how we treat others' cultures, and, crucially, lets you figure out your own answers. There's such depth to the Wales Higginson presents, a sense of layers of time and people caked over each other so deeply, of standing in the places your ancestors stood. He begins each chapter with a brief flashback to how the Grove was used or what happened nearby in earlier centuries, which I think can often be a strategy that risks boring the reader, but Higginson pulls it off perfectly. He creates intriguing little snippets of character, place, and action without ever lingering long enough to make the reader feel dragged away from the main story.
The Hill in the Dark Grove is definitely not for you if you like lots of action sequences, loud and obvious horror, or monsters in the night. This is a creeping, insidious type of horror; in fact, up until the end, you could make a strong argument that there was no 'presence' of any kind on the mountain, and everything that happened was the product of Carwyn's slow sink into despair and derangement. Higginson builds the horror up perfectly, piece by small piece, slowly chalking up the unsettling occurrences until it becomes clear something is Very Wrong - but of course, in the way of all the best horror stories, it's already too late to fix it.
I was particularly impressed by the finale - it's always hard to handle the transition from creeping horror to all-out strangeness, but Higginson does so in a totally believable yet totally terrifying way. Rhian's final walk through the fields, where ghosts of the past seem to haunt her with every step, was the perfect way to encapsulate the book's themes and call back to the opening of each chapter. And while the resolution was sad in its own way, it had that undeniable, perfect quality of being, in hindsight, the only way the characters could have ended up.
January 21, 2026
I’d say that this is one of those stories where the horror lies more in the unseen than the seen.
There’s no obvious boogeyman character to fear here, just an ever-growing sense of unease that permeates through the pages as you watch one man devolve from a kind and friendly soul into a man caught in the throes of obsession over a prehistoric ruin. This is not a story of axe murderers, it’s a story about how an even bigger horror is watching a loved one transform into somebody you no longer recognize.
I would not have guessed this was a debut novel if I didn’t already know it was before picking it up! The writing is wonderfully atmospheric and Higginson did a fantastic job at setting the scene — the story told here perfectly fits into the backdrop of an isolated sheep farm deep in the Welsh mountains. Carwyn and Rhian were also both well-developed characters that truly felt like real people. In-between the creepy stuff happening in the present day, the novel intermingles flashbacks of their story from their first meeting up through married life that really helps readers get to know each of them properly — which makes the main story hit that much harder. And although I would say this story is a little slow-paced, I’m also saying it as a compliment. Everything is given just enough time for the plot to fully develop and for all that tension to really build up to a proper climax at the end. There’s also some folklore elements that really add some extra intrigue to the story and really help flesh everything out just a bit more (if you aren’t already familiar with the Mari Lwyd, you’re about to learn).
So if you like folk horror, and don’t mind a bit of a slow burn, then I highly recommend picking this one up! (And I’ll most definitely be putting Liam Higginson on my list of authors to keep an eye out for going forward.)
There’s no obvious boogeyman character to fear here, just an ever-growing sense of unease that permeates through the pages as you watch one man devolve from a kind and friendly soul into a man caught in the throes of obsession over a prehistoric ruin. This is not a story of axe murderers, it’s a story about how an even bigger horror is watching a loved one transform into somebody you no longer recognize.
I would not have guessed this was a debut novel if I didn’t already know it was before picking it up! The writing is wonderfully atmospheric and Higginson did a fantastic job at setting the scene — the story told here perfectly fits into the backdrop of an isolated sheep farm deep in the Welsh mountains. Carwyn and Rhian were also both well-developed characters that truly felt like real people. In-between the creepy stuff happening in the present day, the novel intermingles flashbacks of their story from their first meeting up through married life that really helps readers get to know each of them properly — which makes the main story hit that much harder. And although I would say this story is a little slow-paced, I’m also saying it as a compliment. Everything is given just enough time for the plot to fully develop and for all that tension to really build up to a proper climax at the end. There’s also some folklore elements that really add some extra intrigue to the story and really help flesh everything out just a bit more (if you aren’t already familiar with the Mari Lwyd, you’re about to learn).
So if you like folk horror, and don’t mind a bit of a slow burn, then I highly recommend picking this one up! (And I’ll most definitely be putting Liam Higginson on my list of authors to keep an eye out for going forward.)
January 13, 2026
The Hill in the Dark Grove
Liam Higginson
The dark days of winter are the perfect time to pick up Liam’s debut, The Hill in the Dark Grove. I’m not normally a fan of horror - jump scares on screen make me levitate - but thankfully the creep of a chilling scene unfolding across the page still unnerves but, at least for myself, does not manifest in such whole-body movements.
The tale takes place in a Welsh sheep farm deep in the valleys, and follows a married pair of farmers who have found themselves to be some of the remaining few that still follow their traditional ways, as scale and generational shift has hollowed out the hills, replacing their hill-bound peers with holiday lets most often empty. Thus, we find ourselves slipping back in time, while the world moves ahead, and get wrapped up into the hard-graft world eked out on the edge of the lands, where the hard hills are blown raw by even harder winds.
In this setting, one of our protagonists, stumbles upon a stone bust half-buried in the woods, which form the beginnings of something altogether bigger, darker and all consuming. What else is man with nothing but monotony and the mute daily companionship of his flock to do but dig further.
When we dig into the past, our own or that of unknown others, there are always secrets to be found. For want of reason, we often dig too deep, when the past is often best left as it lies.
And when we slip into the darkness, who is there to pull us back when all around us have left for a better life?
A devilish debut, with a rich world painted against the rough wilds of Northern Wales.
Liam Higginson
The dark days of winter are the perfect time to pick up Liam’s debut, The Hill in the Dark Grove. I’m not normally a fan of horror - jump scares on screen make me levitate - but thankfully the creep of a chilling scene unfolding across the page still unnerves but, at least for myself, does not manifest in such whole-body movements.
The tale takes place in a Welsh sheep farm deep in the valleys, and follows a married pair of farmers who have found themselves to be some of the remaining few that still follow their traditional ways, as scale and generational shift has hollowed out the hills, replacing their hill-bound peers with holiday lets most often empty. Thus, we find ourselves slipping back in time, while the world moves ahead, and get wrapped up into the hard-graft world eked out on the edge of the lands, where the hard hills are blown raw by even harder winds.
In this setting, one of our protagonists, stumbles upon a stone bust half-buried in the woods, which form the beginnings of something altogether bigger, darker and all consuming. What else is man with nothing but monotony and the mute daily companionship of his flock to do but dig further.
When we dig into the past, our own or that of unknown others, there are always secrets to be found. For want of reason, we often dig too deep, when the past is often best left as it lies.
And when we slip into the darkness, who is there to pull us back when all around us have left for a better life?
A devilish debut, with a rich world painted against the rough wilds of Northern Wales.
January 21, 2026
I hate January. It's dark, it's cold, it's gloomy, it's long - oppressively long! All the more reason to lean into winter reads and hibernation. And so I picked up this literary thriller by Liam Higginson, having been invited to read it on Netgalley by the publisher Picador Books.
Carwyn and Rhian come from a long line of sheep farmers in Wales. They met as teenagers and have eked out a happy but simple life on their farm over years. As they age, things grow increasingly difficult - their mobility is impaired, the extreme winter weather hampers their ability to run their isolated farm, and it's becoming ever harder to survive economically through the harsh Welsh winters. On top of this, when Carwyn has become consumed with some ancient buried relics he uncovers on their farmland, Rhian begins to see the husband she knew fade before her eyes.
This was a tough read with very little light in it to counter the darkness. I hung in there, hoping for some relief but the heavy story built steadily to a dramatic Shakespearean ending. I think lots will enjoy this as very well-written litfic with some Welsh mythology knitted into it- it may even appear on a few prize lists - but the story did little for me and my winter mood. It reminded me a little of Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan (a masculine tale that doesn't shy away from visceral descriptions and dark themes). While the story was not a favourite for me, the writing is undeniably excellent. 3/5 stars
*Many thanks to the publisher Picador Books for the invitation to read The Hill in the Dark Grove on Netgalley. It was published earlier this month (January 2026). As always, this is an honest review.
Carwyn and Rhian come from a long line of sheep farmers in Wales. They met as teenagers and have eked out a happy but simple life on their farm over years. As they age, things grow increasingly difficult - their mobility is impaired, the extreme winter weather hampers their ability to run their isolated farm, and it's becoming ever harder to survive economically through the harsh Welsh winters. On top of this, when Carwyn has become consumed with some ancient buried relics he uncovers on their farmland, Rhian begins to see the husband she knew fade before her eyes.
This was a tough read with very little light in it to counter the darkness. I hung in there, hoping for some relief but the heavy story built steadily to a dramatic Shakespearean ending. I think lots will enjoy this as very well-written litfic with some Welsh mythology knitted into it- it may even appear on a few prize lists - but the story did little for me and my winter mood. It reminded me a little of Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan (a masculine tale that doesn't shy away from visceral descriptions and dark themes). While the story was not a favourite for me, the writing is undeniably excellent. 3/5 stars
*Many thanks to the publisher Picador Books for the invitation to read The Hill in the Dark Grove on Netgalley. It was published earlier this month (January 2026). As always, this is an honest review.
December 2, 2025
I liked this, but I didn't love it. While I did like the characters, I felt like entirely too much time was spent in the past recounting their history. I would have liked more focus on the present, which I found to be the most interesting.
This really was a very slow burn novel and sadly I don’t think the build up paid off. The ending was okay, but I would have liked a bit more closure and understanding. It was all a bit too vague for me and it was lacking in horror elements.
Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This really was a very slow burn novel and sadly I don’t think the build up paid off. The ending was okay, but I would have liked a bit more closure and understanding. It was all a bit too vague for me and it was lacking in horror elements.
Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
January 20, 2026
An unsettling story - a slow burn read that moves inexorably towards its inevitable conclusion. I enjoyed it!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Excellent book. Atmospheric, spooky, strong characters. The horror element is generally implied not made express which in my view is always more scary. Lots of deliberate ambiguity which allows the reader to place their own interpretation on what's happening, which I enjoyed but some may find frustrating. I would read more by this author in a heartbeat. Thanks to him, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.
December 6, 2025
The Hill in the Dark Grove
A quiet, unsettling read.
The Hill in the Dark Grove by Liam Higginson thrives on atmosphere, building a steady sense of claustrophobic unease throughout. The evocative prose and a vividly realised Welsh setting evokes much of the emotional work. The story is set deep in the mountains of Eryri, North Wales, Carwyn and Rhian—the last in a long line of sheep farmers—are enduring a brutal year on their isolated hillside farm. They form the emotional core of the novel, a small, intimate cast whose inner lives are as stark as the landscape surrounding them.
When Carwyn uncovers a buried prehistoric ruin in one of their fields, his curiosity begins to slide into obsession. As he becomes consumed by what lies beneath the hill, Rhian is forced to confront a more personal horror: the growing realisation that the man she shares her life and home with is turning into a frightening stranger. Their strained relationship mirrors the widening fissures in the land itself.
Higginson, rather than relying on overt horror, allows the story to unfold slowly and deliberately, revealing its secrets through suggestion, fragments, and implication. This measured pacing rewards patient readers who enjoy mood-driven narratives and subtle psychological tension over nonstop action. For me, while some moments feel intentionally opaque—both in character motivation and story direction—that ambiguity ultimately deepens the haunting effect.
Overall, The Hill in the Dark Grove is a thoughtful, shadowy tale that will appeal to fans of dark, introspective fiction.
My thanks to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan the publisher for a free ebook and an honest review.
December 7, 2025
This was a fantastic eldritch horror seeped in rich history and an unsettling atmosphere.
The plot very much reminded me of The Shining if it was based upon Welsh folklore with more ambiguous horror elements and a deeper emotional depth and connection to the characters.
One of my favourite parts of this book was the tender memories enveloped in a stark contrast to the hysteria and falling-apart in the present tense. For me this really emphasized every emotion I felt when reading this book. I loved the way the book slowly crawled forward with creepiness with each discovery and each of Carwyn's revelations had me questioning my trust for him.
I would have preferred the book to come to a more conclusive ending but I appreciate that is not always what the author sets out to do, especially in this genre! But overall I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, especially on the dark, rainy nights we've been having lately.
Thank you Bookbreak and Pan Macmillan for sending me a proof copy of this book.
The plot very much reminded me of The Shining if it was based upon Welsh folklore with more ambiguous horror elements and a deeper emotional depth and connection to the characters.
One of my favourite parts of this book was the tender memories enveloped in a stark contrast to the hysteria and falling-apart in the present tense. For me this really emphasized every emotion I felt when reading this book. I loved the way the book slowly crawled forward with creepiness with each discovery and each of Carwyn's revelations had me questioning my trust for him.
I would have preferred the book to come to a more conclusive ending but I appreciate that is not always what the author sets out to do, especially in this genre! But overall I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, especially on the dark, rainy nights we've been having lately.
Thank you Bookbreak and Pan Macmillan for sending me a proof copy of this book.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
An extremely enjoyable reading experience.
Part historical fiction, Welsh mythology, folklore and horror. Expert story telling that really brings the reader on a journey. Our main protaganists are Rhian and Carwyn the last in a long line of sheep farmers but their story is interwoven with tales of mystery, death and doom associated with their land from times goneby.
When Carwyn stumbles across a neolithic monument on his land he becomes obsessed, possessed even by the thing and there seems to be an intrinsic connection to his demeanour and fortune from the discovery.
Perfectly creepy and an unsettling read. The land is angry at the lack of respect shown for it by the blow ins, the settlers, the colonisers, the non natives. It was there first, it will remain after current life is dead. Brilliant storytelling. I was creeped out in spades and enjoyed Rhian and Carwyn's backstory and their own thoughts on their legacy as they faced the winter of their lives.
Part historical fiction, Welsh mythology, folklore and horror. Expert story telling that really brings the reader on a journey. Our main protaganists are Rhian and Carwyn the last in a long line of sheep farmers but their story is interwoven with tales of mystery, death and doom associated with their land from times goneby.
When Carwyn stumbles across a neolithic monument on his land he becomes obsessed, possessed even by the thing and there seems to be an intrinsic connection to his demeanour and fortune from the discovery.
Perfectly creepy and an unsettling read. The land is angry at the lack of respect shown for it by the blow ins, the settlers, the colonisers, the non natives. It was there first, it will remain after current life is dead. Brilliant storytelling. I was creeped out in spades and enjoyed Rhian and Carwyn's backstory and their own thoughts on their legacy as they faced the winter of their lives.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
The Hill in the Dark Grove is an excellent blend of Welsh folklore, rural isolation, and the passing of time. This is a superb book with a stunningly Welsh landscape. We follow sheep farmer Carwyn who discovers an ancient stone circle on his farm - and becomes obsessed - and his wife Rhian, who watches as her once aloof husband and home becomes increasingly unfamiliar. I inhaled this book. Once you start, you cannot stop reading.
January 21, 2026
A truly original debut. Exquisitely crafted, Welsh gothic horror.
A book that is as beautiful as it is unsettling.
I can’t wait to read more from Liam Higginson.
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for the ARC to review
A book that is as beautiful as it is unsettling.
I can’t wait to read more from Liam Higginson.
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for the ARC to review
January 19, 2026
I loved the atmosphere and the writing style of this novel, but it was a bit too slow of a slow burn for my liking.
December 25, 2025
“They grew to dread the setting of the sun. When darkness fell, the children of the village were tormented by most fearful nightmares, though by daylight they could not recall, or would not speak of them. Tapers burned in every window, parents sitting wakeful, restless, waiting for the shrill screams to begin again. They had forgotten what it was to sleep. For near a week the crops had gone untended. Weeds straggled among them, and in the dusk and dawn a great sounder of boars came boldly from the forest to root up the unkempt fields.”
.
I remember, in a previous life, living up an isolated country road in deepest Carmarthenshire, the lane narrowed by tall, overgrown hedges. The house, my first real home away from home, was both isolated and partly derelict. My work took me through fields of Welsh Black cows and sheep. There was something to the place I couldn’t quite pin down.
.
It wasn’t until I read this book that I found the words for it: that deep sense of history and nature permeating the soil. It’s as if Robert Macfarlane or James Rebank had turned their hand to a shepherding folk-horror novel, one steeped in the familiar residues of British folklore. Therefore it did veer slightly into cliche territory with the folk horror tropes.
.
And yet, I don’t know, I was a bit bored by it. That’s not to deny the moments that made me tingle, but the scenes dwelling on the backstory felt oddly inert. I wanted the present, the immediate horrors, not the explanatory scaffolding. I’ll admit I skipped parts in the latter half of the book.
.
Still, despite my meagre rating, I found something to enjoy in his writing, in the Welsh folklore threaded through it. I just wanted to like it more than I did.
.
With thanks to Pan Macmillan Picador and netgalley. Let me know what you think!
.
I remember, in a previous life, living up an isolated country road in deepest Carmarthenshire, the lane narrowed by tall, overgrown hedges. The house, my first real home away from home, was both isolated and partly derelict. My work took me through fields of Welsh Black cows and sheep. There was something to the place I couldn’t quite pin down.
.
It wasn’t until I read this book that I found the words for it: that deep sense of history and nature permeating the soil. It’s as if Robert Macfarlane or James Rebank had turned their hand to a shepherding folk-horror novel, one steeped in the familiar residues of British folklore. Therefore it did veer slightly into cliche territory with the folk horror tropes.
.
And yet, I don’t know, I was a bit bored by it. That’s not to deny the moments that made me tingle, but the scenes dwelling on the backstory felt oddly inert. I wanted the present, the immediate horrors, not the explanatory scaffolding. I’ll admit I skipped parts in the latter half of the book.
.
Still, despite my meagre rating, I found something to enjoy in his writing, in the Welsh folklore threaded through it. I just wanted to like it more than I did.
.
With thanks to Pan Macmillan Picador and netgalley. Let me know what you think!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The circle, though, it spoke to him. That is to say, it spoke to him the same way as the carved head did–in his own inner voice, with his own thoughts. It spoke to him of comfort and familiarity. He had been born and bred in a land shaped by ancient stones: the interconnected rows and rings and monoliths, tumuli and dolmens; the crumbled ruins of the chieftains’ strongholds perched on lonely crags, and the many castles of King Edward; the vast slate quarries and their spoil tips that still scarred the landscape. It spoke to him of universal symbols that he understood implicitly. A circle like the seasons by which he still lived and worked; a circle like the cycles of the flock; a circle like the sun, the moon, eternity. It spoke to him of reassuring permanence. The stones represented something that endured, that would not rot or burn or melt away, perhaps placed there by people who felt just as he did that their very way of life was under threat and wished to mark their presence ineradicably on the changing world.
A debut novel – written in something of a folk horror genre although with clear literary fiction influences - inspired by the author’s lockdown walks in his native North Wales where he passed an overgrown Neolithic cairn and reflecting on it as an image for the transience of even things which at the time of their construction are assumed to be of eternal significance. It is set in the present day (as can be seen by references to foot and mouth and lockdown) but in an area where both the maintenance of tradition (almost in defiance of economic headwinds) and the practicalities of limited mobile and wifi signal give an appropriate timelessness.
At its heart are a sixty-something married couple Carwyn (whose third party point of view dominates the first part of the novel) and Rhian (who in turn takes over the second part) – sheep farmers now living close to hand to mouth (if not even beyond their means – as a balliffs begin to call in a series of over-extended loans) in a remote farm in the shadow of Yr Wydffa (Snowdon). At the book’s beginning Carwyn rescues a couple of lost English middle-class backpackers (a group of people he largely detests), the female of which has badly twisted her ankle. Returning to where she tipped – in a dark lower wood he was always encouraged to avoid – he finds first of all an ancient carved stone head and then over time some form of burial mound and a stone circle surrounding it.
Increasingly he becomes obsessed, almost bewitched by the need to excavate the circle, neglecting his farm duties to the consternation of Rhian particularly as his behaviour becomes increasingly odd, including starting to deny reality – as what starts as a novel of sustenance struggling turns more to increasingly palable if always understated horror – James Rebanks re-written by Shirley Jackson to partly borrow from another review.
Adding to the atmosphere the chapters of the novel which proceed through a calendar year as the tale unfolds (but which also include some retelling of both partners upbringing and how they came together) are interspersed with short mini italicised chapters which (each over 2-3 pages) trace the history of the patch of land back in time – starting with a Great War Burial but going back over the Civil War, Welsh rebellions and then back through the Saxons, Romans and much further.
The book has perhaps for my tastes too many dream sequences but it does explain well why they are included and what they might (or might not) signify:
And rather brilliantly (as I have a feeling it was deliberate? also the book remind me of Stewart Lee’s brilliant “Paul Nuttells of UKIPs” sketch on immigration managing both to include the Beaker Folk (“coming over here with their drinking vessels”) and the Neolithic people (“and their astrological stone circle temples” – although Lee and author seem to disagree on who designed those circles “What's wrong with just worshipping a tree?”) in the following passages:
But overall while not entirely to my tastes – folk horror is not really my genre so that in many ways I preferred the book before its descent into the more supernatural and when it was more focused on the evolving dynamic of the marriage - the book is incredibly effective at capturing a sense of time, of how a landscape preserves history, and particularly a remote Welsh one given its complex interactions with thousands of years of history and the way that it is not just in the present day that ways of life largely outmoded or even destroyed elsewhere in Britain (now by economic forces in the past by invasion or by religious changes) still linger. And all of this makes for a memorable read.
My thanks to Picador for an ARC via NetGalley
A debut novel – written in something of a folk horror genre although with clear literary fiction influences - inspired by the author’s lockdown walks in his native North Wales where he passed an overgrown Neolithic cairn and reflecting on it as an image for the transience of even things which at the time of their construction are assumed to be of eternal significance. It is set in the present day (as can be seen by references to foot and mouth and lockdown) but in an area where both the maintenance of tradition (almost in defiance of economic headwinds) and the practicalities of limited mobile and wifi signal give an appropriate timelessness.
At its heart are a sixty-something married couple Carwyn (whose third party point of view dominates the first part of the novel) and Rhian (who in turn takes over the second part) – sheep farmers now living close to hand to mouth (if not even beyond their means – as a balliffs begin to call in a series of over-extended loans) in a remote farm in the shadow of Yr Wydffa (Snowdon). At the book’s beginning Carwyn rescues a couple of lost English middle-class backpackers (a group of people he largely detests), the female of which has badly twisted her ankle. Returning to where she tipped – in a dark lower wood he was always encouraged to avoid – he finds first of all an ancient carved stone head and then over time some form of burial mound and a stone circle surrounding it.
Increasingly he becomes obsessed, almost bewitched by the need to excavate the circle, neglecting his farm duties to the consternation of Rhian particularly as his behaviour becomes increasingly odd, including starting to deny reality – as what starts as a novel of sustenance struggling turns more to increasingly palable if always understated horror – James Rebanks re-written by Shirley Jackson to partly borrow from another review.
Adding to the atmosphere the chapters of the novel which proceed through a calendar year as the tale unfolds (but which also include some retelling of both partners upbringing and how they came together) are interspersed with short mini italicised chapters which (each over 2-3 pages) trace the history of the patch of land back in time – starting with a Great War Burial but going back over the Civil War, Welsh rebellions and then back through the Saxons, Romans and much further.
The book has perhaps for my tastes too many dream sequences but it does explain well why they are included and what they might (or might not) signify:
He had long since disabused himself of his grandmother’s notion that dreams were veiled communications from the gods, which might predict the future or impart life-changing revelations or grim auguries of doom. For his nain, dreams might foretell ill health, a season of good hay, a wedding or a windfall. He viewed them now with a more corporeal regard. As clues, perhaps, to the preoccupations of the under-mind. A sort of nightly filing of the day’s events into the recesses of memory, a storing and consuming and discarding. Mostly they were little curiosities that he and Rhian might share for amusement over breakfast.
And rather brilliantly (as I have a feeling it was deliberate? also the book remind me of Stewart Lee’s brilliant “Paul Nuttells of UKIPs” sketch on immigration managing both to include the Beaker Folk (“coming over here with their drinking vessels”) and the Neolithic people (“and their astrological stone circle temples” – although Lee and author seem to disagree on who designed those circles “What's wrong with just worshipping a tree?”) in the following passages:
They seemed to him a proof of his belonging to the land–of the Welsh as the last true indigenous inhabitants of Britain. If Wales had been around a day, then the invaders were an eye-blink. Before Edward and his English came, before the Normans and the Vikings came, before the Roman legions came, before even the Beaker folk came with their pottery and their bronze, there had been people like him living in these mountains for a hundred thousand years.
They used to be everywhere, but when we came–I mean us, the Neolithic farmers–they retreated to their burial mounds and barrows and stone circles until those monuments were all that was left of them.’
But overall while not entirely to my tastes – folk horror is not really my genre so that in many ways I preferred the book before its descent into the more supernatural and when it was more focused on the evolving dynamic of the marriage - the book is incredibly effective at capturing a sense of time, of how a landscape preserves history, and particularly a remote Welsh one given its complex interactions with thousands of years of history and the way that it is not just in the present day that ways of life largely outmoded or even destroyed elsewhere in Britain (now by economic forces in the past by invasion or by religious changes) still linger. And all of this makes for a memorable read.
There were people who could set up home in a new city, a new country, a new continent, and she bore them neither envy nor disdain. She simply felt she was among a lucky few who came into existence right where she belonged. Hefted, as they would say of the sheep. Generation after generation brought to graze on the same pastures every spring for centuries until they were imbued with an instinctive sense of place, belonging to the mountain just as it in turn belonged to them. How much did landscape play a role in the formation of a person’s character? Did the familiar sight of rock and earth and water randomly configured by the chaos of creation leave an imprint on the mind? She could not speak for others, but she knew what her reply would be.
My thanks to Picador for an ARC via NetGalley
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This is a beautifully written debut novel set in rural Wales. It’s described as ‘folk horror’ but if that doesn’t appeal to you, don’t worry as I found this an unsettling book rather than a scary one.
Carywn and Rhian are a married couple in their sixties who own a sheep farm in the mountains of North Wales. It’s a difficult life but it’s the only one Carwyn has ever known and one that Rhian adapted to many years earlier. The farm is remote and lonely, the winters cold and harsh, but for the most part the couple are happy together – until the day Carwyn discovers an ancient head carved from granite buried in one of the fields on his land. As he continues to dig, he unearths bones, beads and arrowheads, and finally a megalithic stone circle. For reasons Carwyn can barely explain even to himself, he’s reluctant to share what he has found with the authorities; he can’t bear the thought of the head being taken to a museum, of archaeologists and tourists descending on the site. The stones, he tells himself, belong to him, to the land, to Wales.
As winter arrives and snow begins to fall, Carwyn becomes more and more obsessed with the ancient relics, continuing to dig and neglecting his work on the farm. Rhian, however, doesn’t have the same enthusiasm and as their relationship becomes increasingly strained, she begins to feel that she’s married to someone she no longer knows and doesn’t like.
The Hill in the Dark Grove, as I’ve said, is an unsettling novel, with a sense of foreboding that builds and builds as the story progresses. It’s obvious that nothing good is going to come of Carwyn’s single-minded obsessiveness and our sympathies are with Rhian as she’s forced to accept that the kind, gentle man she loves has now been replaced by a stranger. Although they do occasionally cross paths with other human beings – two hikers lost in the mountains; a neighbour Rhian meets at the livestock market in town; the bailiffs who come to speak to them about their debts – for most of the novel Carwyn and Rhian are alone together on their farm. The isolation and loneliness of their situation adds to the atmosphere, particularly as the bad weather closes in and Rhian starts to feel trapped and friendless.
Liam Higginson writes beautifully, but I found the book overly descriptive, which slowed things down to the point where my attention started to wander. There are also a lot of flashbacks to earlier times in Carwyn and Rhian’s lives and I felt that these happpened too often, breaking up the flow of the story. I did love one of these flashbacks, though: a wonderful passage describing the midwinter tradition of the Mari Lywd – a procession led by a skeletal horse – and the impression this makes on the five-year-old Rhian. If you enjoy reading about Welsh folklore and superstition there’s plenty of that in this novel, along with lots of details of sheep farming and an element of Welsh nationalism (the decline in use of the Welsh language, the properties being bought up by wealthy English people as second homes).
I didn’t love this book as much as I would have liked to, but as a first novel it’s quite impressive and I’ll be looking out for more from this author in the future.
Carywn and Rhian are a married couple in their sixties who own a sheep farm in the mountains of North Wales. It’s a difficult life but it’s the only one Carwyn has ever known and one that Rhian adapted to many years earlier. The farm is remote and lonely, the winters cold and harsh, but for the most part the couple are happy together – until the day Carwyn discovers an ancient head carved from granite buried in one of the fields on his land. As he continues to dig, he unearths bones, beads and arrowheads, and finally a megalithic stone circle. For reasons Carwyn can barely explain even to himself, he’s reluctant to share what he has found with the authorities; he can’t bear the thought of the head being taken to a museum, of archaeologists and tourists descending on the site. The stones, he tells himself, belong to him, to the land, to Wales.
As winter arrives and snow begins to fall, Carwyn becomes more and more obsessed with the ancient relics, continuing to dig and neglecting his work on the farm. Rhian, however, doesn’t have the same enthusiasm and as their relationship becomes increasingly strained, she begins to feel that she’s married to someone she no longer knows and doesn’t like.
The Hill in the Dark Grove, as I’ve said, is an unsettling novel, with a sense of foreboding that builds and builds as the story progresses. It’s obvious that nothing good is going to come of Carwyn’s single-minded obsessiveness and our sympathies are with Rhian as she’s forced to accept that the kind, gentle man she loves has now been replaced by a stranger. Although they do occasionally cross paths with other human beings – two hikers lost in the mountains; a neighbour Rhian meets at the livestock market in town; the bailiffs who come to speak to them about their debts – for most of the novel Carwyn and Rhian are alone together on their farm. The isolation and loneliness of their situation adds to the atmosphere, particularly as the bad weather closes in and Rhian starts to feel trapped and friendless.
Liam Higginson writes beautifully, but I found the book overly descriptive, which slowed things down to the point where my attention started to wander. There are also a lot of flashbacks to earlier times in Carwyn and Rhian’s lives and I felt that these happpened too often, breaking up the flow of the story. I did love one of these flashbacks, though: a wonderful passage describing the midwinter tradition of the Mari Lywd – a procession led by a skeletal horse – and the impression this makes on the five-year-old Rhian. If you enjoy reading about Welsh folklore and superstition there’s plenty of that in this novel, along with lots of details of sheep farming and an element of Welsh nationalism (the decline in use of the Welsh language, the properties being bought up by wealthy English people as second homes).
I didn’t love this book as much as I would have liked to, but as a first novel it’s quite impressive and I’ll be looking out for more from this author in the future.
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