Water Shall Refuse Them

by Lucie McKnight Hardy

The heatwave of 1976. Following the accidental drowning of her sister, sixteen-year-old Nif and her family move to a small village on the Welsh borders to escape their grief. But rural seclusion doesn't bring any relief. As her family unravels, Nif begins to put together her own form of witchcraft - collecting talismans from the sun-starved land. That is, until she meets Mally, a teen boy who takes a keen interest in her, and has his own secret rites to divulge. Reminiscent of the suspense of Shirley Jackson and soaked in the folk horror of the British landscape, Water Shall Refuse Them is an atmospheric coming-of-age novel and a thrilling debut.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, Literary Fiction, Coming Of Age, Witches

198 pages, ebook

First published July 4, 2019

About the author

I am a writer of novels and short stories.

I grew up in West Wales and am a Welsh speaker. I have also lived in Liverpool, Cardiff, Zurich and Bradford, and have now settled in the far eastern reaches of Herefordshire, at the foot of the Malvern Hills, where I live with my husband, three children and other assorted creatures.

I have worked in the advertising, public relations and marketing industries, and have an MA in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University.

I am represented by Donald Winchester at Watson Little.

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s the summer of 1976, the year of an infamous heatwave in the UK, and teenage Nif and her family – mum, dad and little brother Lorry – are spending a month in a cottage on the Welsh borders. Together, they’re living through the aftermath of a shared tragedy; the getaway is supposed to be a chance to recalibrate. Left largely to her own devices, Nif pairs up with the strange boy next door, Mally. Meanwhile, her parents both (for very different reasons) become fascinated by Mally's mother.

The atmosphere is palpable in Lucie McKnight Hardy’s debut novel. The unnamed village is an inward-looking place where both Nif’s family and Mally’s are regarded as outsiders. Nif’s character is revealed in snatches, the same way she, believing she’s ugly, will only take brief glances at her own reflection. The summer heat does what summer heat does: makes everything feel slightly unreal, as though actions don't have the consequences they usually would.

I jerked round, expecting to see someone. Nothing, only the relentless stillness and the flat colours of a depleted landscape. Already, I could see the familiar shimmer of heat that rose from the lane, making the grass verge tremble and threaten to disappear.

When you’re reading it, you’re there: the burning sun, the baked earth, the sluggish inertia of too-hot weather. When you’re not reading it, you’re thinking about it.

Ambiguity is key to such atmosphere, and McKnight Hardy does it brilliantly. Take the opening paragraphs, in which Nif describes cradling a head in her lap during the car journey to Wales. Any explanation for the head is deliberately avoided, and it says a lot about the general mood that you can believe, if only for a couple of pages, that she might actually be holding a severed human head. There’s frequently a destabilising queasiness to the details here, such as Lorry’s ‘wounds’ and the repeated mentions of Nif’s unwashed smell. Nif also follows ‘the Creed’, an invented belief system – her way of managing what seems to be obsessive-compulsive disorder – and its demands are often disturbing. (Avoid this book if you are particularly sensitive to scenes involving animal cruelty.)

I didn’t want to spend too much time going on about the influence of folk horror – it’s an element sure to be discussed in any review of the book. But having read about the genre recently, and watched various films and TV from its 1970s heyday, it kept playing on my mind. In lesser hands, the story could’ve seemed like a retread of the genre's most obvious beats: rural setting + insular community with unconventional customs + oblivious outsiders. Nif’s buried anxieties are focused on a modern object (the telephone on which her mother receives a literally fatal call) and Mally’s outsider status has a historical precedent (the perceived sins of his ancestors). At times, the nods to folk horror cliches are almost cheeky; at this point, it takes both chutzpah and real talent to successfully pull off an ‘unwelcoming locals at the village pub’ scene! Yet it all works perfectly.

In terms of modern fiction, I found it impossible to read Water Shall Refuse Them without thinking about Andrew Michael Hurley’s The Loney. Both books are possessed of the same slow-burn mood of creeping dread and weirdness, both understand the importance of setting a folk horror story in the genre’s defining era, and both use religious allusions to add light and shade to their characters’ ritualistic practices. The two novels are like brother and sister, Hurley’s grey and dreary, McKnight Hardy’s hot and hazy.

Water Shall Refuse Them has been quietly gathering hype on social media, and I have to say it’s justified. This is one of those extraordinarily accomplished debut novels that doesn't feel like a debut at all. It's not the sort of book every reader will click with, but if you do ‘get’ it, you’ll quickly find yourself totally transfixed. I read most of it in the sunshine, and the rain started just as I reached the final chapter, and I finished the book feeling empty and bereft, but also like I’d had a near-perfect reading experience.

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[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I debated between a 2 and a 3 star rating, and decided on the higher. I enjoyed the writing style, and the story had promise. I think it moved a little too slowly for me until the last 20-30 pages, when the pace changed dramatically. For some, the ending is open to interpretation, which I appreciate. As I think about it, there could be a sequel written around the two main teens, who are clearly capable of some bad things.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the moment Malta is going through a heatwave. When you go out the sun’s heat pounds at your head, sweat drips off you and everything is hazy. Thankfully I read Water Shall Refuse them in my air-conditioned living room but I could definitely relate to the book.

The setting is the UK heatwave of 1976, the one that lasted a month and a half and temperatures went as high as 36 C. Nif’s (short for Jennifer) family (mother,father and younger brother) have just suffered a tragedy and are staying in rural Wales for a month in order to sort themselves out. Nif already has started some eccentric habits which she takes with her on this trip.

Nif then meets Mal and she discovers a kindred soul and in the process uncover the secrets the village and unearth some peculiarities.

Water Shall Refuse Them has a creepy factor which gets more intense as secrets are revealed. Mcknight cleverly does not reveal everything in the first chapter, rather teasing the reader and dropping clues and exposing secrets gradually. As I read the last half of the novel in the dark, I do admit that I did feel uneasy, especially during the conclusion. At times I was reminded of the looming sinister atmosphere that Iain Banks’ Wasp factory exudes, with the pastoral traces of The Wicker Man and the intensity of Ari Aster’s Hereditary, all reference points are positive for me.

I enjoyed reading Water Shall Refuse Them. In a time where coming of age stories are common it’s refreshing to find one that stands out. Not only does this debut suck you in from page one but also manages to evoke that hot feeling of a heatwave. An immersive novel.

[Alice Slater · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this witchy ritualistic obsessive coming of age story, set in a remote English village during the heatwave of 1976. Languid, dark, tragic: it’s like The Wasp Factory meets The Girls, but also kind of like nothing else.

[Sian Lile-Pastore · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is compelling enough that I read it in a day - but I was so disappointed in it. The Welsh village didn't feel real and neither did the people who lived there and I didn't really get the feeling of the 1976 heatwave either. The twist is pretty obvious from the start and it just all felt really tropey.

[Johann (jobis89) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the witchy vibes and the folklore. Beautifully written too! 3.5 stars.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was younger I used to love watching the old British hammer horror movies, there was a certain elegance to them that you just didn't get in other movies. This book is based in 1976 and in the middle of a long heatwave, everything feels slightly washed out, right from the off I got the same feeling of awe that I got when I started a hammer horror as a kid. Due to the heatwave, in the book, characters like Nif stand out more than they normally would. It's very clever writing to have created something so visual with words.

One of my favourite things about this book is the witchcraft, it is nothing like the billions of YA paranormal books, this witchcraft has a rawness to that makes it more real. Nif's family have had a recent tragedy and are struggling to hold themselves together. Nif in particular is struggling and has had way too much responsibility put on her, after a series of finds she develops a new religion based around The Creed. The family then borrow a cottage in a weird little Welsh village, where Nif tries to complete her spell.

This is a wonderful book, the plot draws you in nicely, it is one of those rare books that is always on your mind when you've put it down. A fantastic debut, I'm gonna miss this one.

Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2019...

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down

My first venture into the "horror folk" genre, this is a creepy slow-burn of a novel set in the heatwave of '76. It sounds a bit silly but I think it helped that I read this in the mini heatwave we had earlier this month - the atmosphere was perfectly fitting for the sweaty, lazy afternoons I spent reading the novel. The setting is a Welsh valley village where the locals fear outsiders, especially the new arrivals - Nif, our teenage protagonist and her family. They move to the village for the summer ostensibly to look after a cottage for a friend, but really they're there to escape the memories of the recent drowning of Nif's younger sister. The story takes place over a few short weeks in that summer, where Nif meets a local boy, Molly, and becomes interested in witchcraft.

I think the comparisons to Shirley Jackson are fair (albeit generous), and I'd venture to say McKnight Hardy is one to watch - a promising debut.

[Dan Coxon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having been a fan of Lucie McKnight Hardy's stories for some time, I couldn't wait to read this debut novel - and I wasn't disappointed. The term 'Folk Horror' will be used in many reviews, and rightly so. This is a novel that taps into local folklore and insular rural societies, spinning an unsettling yarn that's set in the mid-70s but feels unmistakably contemporary in its themes and concerns. Beyond that, though, I was reminded most strongly of Iain Banks's The Wasp Factory, with its Gothic reimagining of a childhood gone feral, complete with its own rituals, totems, and the occasional sadistic twist. Brilliant stuff - the wait was worth it.

[Tom Mooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jesus wept!

This takes a long while to get going but the payoff is massive. It's as dark and disturbing a book as I've read in a long time, full of brooding violence, creepy religious ritual and with a killer ending.

It reminded me a lot of The Wasp Factory, Shirley Jackson and, weirdly at times, Hot Fuzz.

A strange, horrible, rewarding book that is close to - but not quite - great. Still, highly recommended!

[SK · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was bewitched by the comparisons readers are making between this book and the novels of Andrew Michael Hurley. Many of the same intriguing elements are at play: atmospheric and brooding UK settings, clueless pilgrims finding themselves surrounded by volatile locals, a syncretism of Christian and pagan beliefs, unreliable first person narrators, etc. But I'm finding when it comes to my consumption of folk horror that there is a fine line between feeling satisfyingly creeped out and suffocated by dread. Water Shall Refuse Them definitely had the latter effect and will hopefully make me into a more discerning reader of this genre.

Though I certainly did not enjoy the scenes garnering all the "trigger warnings," I was way more put off by Nif's cruel treatment of her younger siblings. The violence inflicted on vulnerable and neglected Lorry was especially hard for me to take and, to my mind, far more deserving of a so-called "trigger warning." The anticipation of these scenes and the somewhat predictable revelation regarding Petra filled me with nauseating despair. Not the cathartic, generative kind of sadness that elevates a reader's knowledge of the human condition, but just a toxic, dead-end feeling of disquietude.

[Nina The Wandering Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Some people believe in God, I suppose, and some people believe in nothing…And some people believe in something else.”

Taking place during the heatwave of 1976, sixteen year old Jennifer (Nif) and her family journey to the Welsh countryside for a fresh start and to escape the grief and loss of Nif's baby sister. Throughout the story, the tragedy of the baby's death haunts Nif’s parents, creating a dysfunctional family environment and a gradual emotional unravelling.

Nif herself practices her own form of witchcraft she calls The Creed—a belief that the universe demands balance. If a bad thing happens, she feels she must cancel out the negative energy by repeating said bad thing. She collects “relics” in nature--bird’s eggs and bones--and when she finds said relics in a certain order, she interprets it as spiritual affirmation from The Creed. When Nif befriends Mally, the neighbor boy who takes an interest in her, they form a bond over secret rites. But with the summer heat, comes a hazy, ominous spell over Nif and her family.

This was a leisurely-paced, coming-of-age, folk horror with accumulating unease. The plot progresses slowly like a lazy, hot summer day. But readers will relish in the chill of foreboding and Shirley Jackson fans will enjoy this one!

[Chris Browning · Rating 1 out of 5]

Two stars is actually pretty generous because this book makes me so unreasonably cross. From the heavy handed metaphor, used a gazillion times by better writers, of the 1976 heatwave being a bit like an emotional tinderbox to the constant attempts to flog the novel as folk horror on the cover, this just really annoyed me. It’s an interesting short story extended way, way beyond it’s thin emotional weight and has a central problem where it mistakes the building of tension for boring you to death with attempts to “do atmosphere”. It mistakes building up to something for a state of narrative ossification: the book grinds to occasional narrative peaks, but they’re all ones we’ve seen before. Even the twists are visible a mile and the animal cruelty feels a bit like a slightly clumsy attempt to emulate The Wasp Factory. I’ve also sufficiently annoyed myself remembering bits of it as I write this review to decide that no, it deserves one star actually. Awful

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sixteen-year-old Nif and her family have escaped bustling city life for a rural Welsh village for the summer. They also hoped to evade the heatwave the entire UK is suffering from and the grief that just their family is haunted by, after the tragic death of Nif's younger sister, but both seemed to determined to follow them on their travels.

I've never read a book so completely infused with such equal amount of searing summer heat and gloomy, autumnal, Gothic vibes. Both were equally as well presented here and I fell in love with the interplay between them.

Lucie McKnight Hardy revealed a real knack for evoking sensation through setting and this leant itself well to the slowly increasing horrifying elements that began to appear as this coming-of-age tale progressed. I never felt truly terrified whilst reading but everything about this unnerved and enamoured me, in equal measures.

[Adrienne L · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

In the aftermath of her four year-old sister Petra's death, teenage Nif, her brother (and Petra's twin) Lorry, and their parents travel during the 1976 heatwave to a small, isolated village in rural Wales. Their vacation is Nif's father's misguided attempt at "moving on" from the tragedy, although Nif's mother is still clearly devastated by grief, to the point of madness. The concept of a rural idyll is quickly shattered by a lack of running water (due to drought), hostile villagers, and complete absence of any kind of amusement. Even the local pub is unwelcoming. Unsurprisingly, the relationships within the family go from bad to worse.

Nif soon meets Mally, the boy next door, and the two quickly form a bond based on their status as village outsiders. And their shared love of torturing birds.

You'll very rarely (if ever) see me complain that nothing happens in a horror novel. I love slow burns and usually the build-up to any action, when there's just that sense of the uncanny, of something off, is my favorite part of any book or movie, but I agree with other reviewers that Water Shall Refuse Them should have been a novella at most. That having been said, this book has some beautiful writing and is incredibly atmospheric. I felt the stifling heat of that long, dry summer while I was reading.

I also do think some of the animal cruelty was important to the plot and the character development. But I'm knocking off half a star, because in my opinion it was unnecessary for it to be as prevalent and protracted as it was here. I get it. These kids are f'd up, I really don't need to be hit over the head with the bird torture.

As far as the reveal at the end, I did see it coming and yet still feel like it doesn't quite work, like there's still something missing.

The author has also published a short story collection which I plan to check out, based on the quality of writing here. I'll just hope for less animal torture.

[Siobhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Water Shall Refuse Them is an retro coming-of-age novel with a horror edge, set in a heatwave in 1970s rural Wales. Sixteen-year-old Nif, her little brother Lorry, and her parents are spending the summer in a cottage in Wales following the death of her sister. Instead of healing, the sweltering atmosphere and isolation only exacerbates their problems: her mother's grief, her father's frustration, Nif's own belief in strange rituals that might bring her answers. Nif meets a strange teenage boy, Mally, who has his own secrets, but neither he nor his mother Janet seem to be quite what the family need and the locals seem to hate them.

The sense of atmosphere in the novel is impressive and unnerving, a kind of haze where heat and grief and twisted rituals float like logic. The combination of mundane and folk horror elements with retro coming-of-age give the story a real charge, and it feels like a very British twist on a style that may seem more American, from authors like Shirley Jackson. Grief and adolescence are made strange, whilst the logic of superstition and the power of belief are almost tangible. The senses are crucial too, with sound and scent prevalent and there being a feeling of the heatwave hanging over the entire story.

This is a debut novel that allows for ambiguity and doesn't tell the reader everything, building up atmosphere and a really eerie sense of what might happen. In her wild and unsettled protagonist, Lucie McKnight Hardy creates a character both sympathetic and menacing, and in some ways the whole novel feels like following a trail littered with bad omens, much like the dead animals littered throughout the book. The writing and atmosphere is what really makes it memorable, as well as the unnerving line between superstitious horror and twisted human nature and emotion.

[Sophy H · Rating 2 out of 5]

*March 2023 re-read: The animal cruelty has jumped out at me far too much during this re-read. It's too gratuitous and nasty. The atmosphere and description- great, storytelling- great, but I can't be doing with animal torture. No thank you, this book is getting (humanely) culled! Off to the library.

Original review: A moody and atmospheric tale, injected with a healthy dose of earthy, sultry realism.

This story builds beautifully, adding pressure page by page with stunning characterisation and delicious description ("The chapel was painted a dirty white and a coppery discharge was weeping from the walls. The windows reflected the morning sunlight, blank as cataracts.....")

And the ending, I honestly didn't see that coming! No spoilers, but there are some bloody good twists!

The only reason for the 4.5 stars instead of 5 is the amount of animal cruelty in the book (I know, I know I advocate freedom in reading and imagination). I know its crucial to the story but it felt a bit overdone at times and was quite upsetting to an ardent animal lover.

[Mandy Marsden · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book needs several trigger warnings: child neglect, child cruelty, animal cruelty, animal torture and death, child death.

Positives-some decent writing, fairly good writing of a teen protagonist, very atmospheric and feels like a good folk horror set up.
Negatives-none of the above goes anywhere. So much gratuitous cruelty and vivid descriptions of harm with no value. Rushed ending, which was predictable. Red herring characters just sort of abandoned in the last chapter without satisfying conclusion. There’s a lot of fatphobic content. The writer’s treatment of the 16 year old protagonist’s body is way too “She breasted boobily to the stairs”.

Also, I felt like a lot of Nif’s behaviours are coded as OCD-ish-the counting, the Creed, the mantra repeating. The lumping in of *murdering* with those traits feels really insulting. Hopefully it’s just naive characterisation rather than intending to be a harmful description of mental illness...

There was so much promise here but readers seeking a satisfying, creepy read will be disappointed.

[K.J. Charles]

British folk / psychological horror, somewhere between The Wasp Factory and The Wicker Man. It's set in the 1976 heatwave, and both the stifling heat and the sense of impending threat roll off the page. Beautifully written, properly horrible, a completely compelling read. It doesn't unfold exactly as you expect, and leaves a few loose ends--something of a shame in a shortish and otherwise tight book--but it is definitely a deeply satisfying read in a very nasty way. I was quite unnerved.

[Alexandra Pearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good but not great book. I love a bit of Folk Horror, but felt this relied more on stereotypes of village people than conjuring up the untameable power of nature or the eerieness you can find in folk tales and lore. I also saw the end coming. It's far from terrible, and I know a lot of people will love it, but I found it a little disappointing.

[Lady R · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me sadly as several people I know loved this. Lots of tropey/cliched characters and an ending that I spotted from very early on but which when it came still seemed too rushed.
Trigger Warnings too for lots of animal and child cruelty.
I really struggled with this book :-(

[Abbie | ab_reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many thanks to @deadinkbooks for gifting me a copy of Water Shall Refuse Them - I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it if you’re looking for a sultry, oppressive read with a serious dark streak!
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Nif and her family are still recovering from a tragic accident, deciding to spend a month in rural Wales to clear their heads. But the intense heatwave and strange influence of their new neighbours means their retreat is anything but restful, and Nif finds herself becoming more involved in the occult as a way of forgetting what happened.
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Witchcraft, small village drama, and a coming of age story all collide in this book, creating an atmosphere that is tangible. I loved Hardy’s writing, she has an eye for all things rotten and cruel (possibly worrying, but we love a bit of dark fiction), and there were passages that really made me feel uncomfortable. A few parts were maybe a bit heavy handed, but overall I enjoyed the effect!
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Nif was a fascinating narrator, as she’s not at all likeable and it was quite unnerving to watch events unfold through her lens. Hardy does a great job with the other characters too, although I do agree with Jess’s @lunchpoems criticism that it was a bit tone deaf to refer to certain characters constantly by their weight - even though I get that Nif is not a good person and a teenager.
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Definitely a good end-of-summer read exploring some very dark places!

[Charles Thorpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this book down. There's a centripetal force to the narrative that pulls you with it, and you find you're being sucked deeper and deeper toward the center of a mystery, a dark and nasty black hole. It left me feeling profoundly unsettled. It somehow taps into feelings that I think everyone experiences in childhood about order and chaos and the excitement and fear of transgression. It explores the mystery of human beings and who they really are and can they be trusted. The writing manages to totally envelop the reader in the mind of the protagonist.

[Contrary Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

It appears folk horror is my new thing.

Hail Merricat, mother of all disturbed teens. This one sees Mally and Nif maurauding through the Welsh Valleys, wearing their outsider status as a badge of pride. Totemic and portentous. Oozing with a malignant atmosphere.

Glorious

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars--this was tough to read in places, but I really liked the book. Reader warning for animal violence (lots!).

This has elements of folk horror and witchcraft mixed with the revulsion of The Wasp Factory. It's a horror-adjacent book that takes place during a drought in the 1970s, with nasty characters, weirdly religious villagers, and a ton of violence.

[Priya Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book because it puts you right there, in the long, hot summer of 1976, in a Welsh town full of strangeness. I love the witchery skill of the writing. Water shall indeed refuse Lucie McKnight Hardie.

[Precious · Rating 5 out of 5]

ᴛʜɪꜱ ʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴡᴀꜱ ᴡᴇɪʀᴅ, ᴜɴꜱᴇᴛᴛʟɪɴɢ, ᴅᴀʀᴋ, ʙɪᴢᴀʀʀᴇ, ᴀᴛᴍᴏꜱᴘʜᴇʀɪᴄ.

I don’t hear much talk about this book which is sort of surprising to me. Especially with the current popularity of books featuring “weird and unhinged girlies”. This was published in 2019 so it is possible that there was more talk around the time of its release.

This story follows our main character Nif, a teenage girl vacationing with her family for the summer at a cottage in the Welsh countryside. We quickly learn that the family has recently experienced a tragedy that has dismantled them. The mother is almost in a catatonic state, chain smoking and is no longer capable of caring for her children. Nif’s younger brother Lorrie barely communicates anymore, and the father is hardly keeping it together trying to maintain this facade of normalcy to keep the family in good spirits.

There is apparent dysfunction and readers are in Nif’s head the entire time, which is absolute mind torture for the reader. She has turned to performing weird rituals involving birds and incantations.

There’s a lot more going on in the story that is best left for readers to experience all on their own. This is a definite slow burn, but the tension is built on each page. It was so compulsive, despite its slow pace I did not want to stop reading I just had to know what was going to happen.

The atmosphere in this book was on point. The heat felt like a character in, lending this stagnant, stifling, “boiling over” kind of vibe that is happening. After reading this and searching for more of this authors work, I’ve seen comparisons to Shirley Jackson, and I would have to agree. Mind you I’ve only ever read “We Have Always Lived in the Castle”, but this book definitely has similar vibes. There is also a folky horror kind of thing going on. I can’t categorize it as folk horror exactly , but it’s definitely got the vibe.

I would highly recommend to readers who enjoy weird books that explore themes of grief, teen angst, depression, isolation, religion, and feelings of loneliness.

[Kathryn Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

An atmospheric and well-written book which is just slightly the wrong length. As a novella it could have been enigmatic and suggestive, or with some of the slighter plot threads and ideas developed more it could have become a satisfying longer novel. As it is, it's just long enough to feel a little too repetitive, for the reader's deduction and imagination to get far enough ahead of the pace of revelation that the second half of the novel lacks punch or pace, and we have time to see the eventual twists coming from rather too far away.

A lot of the characters are a little too familiar and/or too undeveloped to really come to life or feel like they are being observed from a very particular point of view. The depressed mother and her faded beauty, the mysterious outsider boy, the petty and susperstitious villagers. The final-act behaviour of a couple of the characters feels a bit hollow and unbelievable compared to their previous writing.

The better books this could have been are visible but in itself it is still an intriguing read which successfully evokes an uneasy and disturbing atmosphere.

[Alex (The Bookubus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Water Shall Refuse Them is set in the UK during the heatwave of 1976. The story follows a family who are spending a holiday in Wales. There is a 16-year-old girl called Nif, along with her mum, dad and little brother. We find out that there was another child in the family who died in an accident and the holiday is a way for the family to get away for a while.

This is a dark character study with elements of folk horror and witchcraft. The main character is Nif and she has started collecting items that she calls relics and performing certain rituals. Alongside this we learn more about the death of the other child of the family and we follow the breakdown of the relationship between the parents. This story goes to some dark and disturbing places. I loved the tone of this book and the atmosphere is incredibly evocative. This is Lucy McKnight Hardy's debut novel and I thought it was excellent so I am definitely interested to see what she comes out with next.

Content warning for animal cruelty and animal death.

[Tabitha Vohn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Welp, minus the gratuitous animal abuse [it's no spoiler what kind of people show a clinical pattern of animal abuse as children; did you really need to describe it multiple times??] that started as a slow burn and eventually overwhelmed the text and became a blinding glare in the storyline--minus that, I would have genuinely enjoyed this story.

It's masterfully written, lovely even, in its beginning, setting, mood, and mystery.

I wanted to love it! Such an exquisitely-crafted book!

The drawbacks:

1) If you don't fancy gratuitous torture of innocent creatures (a fact grossly overlooked and misrepresented..."artifacts"? Really?), don't read this book.
2) If you're left with a bogged-down feeling in your spirit after reading a narrative where there are no redeemable human beings, but where you are otherwise exposed to the seedier, unredeemable facets of humanity, don't read this book.

Frankly, I don't understand why anyone wants to feel worse, not better, after escaping into literature. To each his own, I guess.

And what pisses me off to no end is how freaking amazing this story was before those artistic choices were revealed.

Disappointing.