What do you think?
Rate this book
Witch Bottle
A deeply atmospheric literary horror novel about the nature of repressed guilt, grief and fear.
Daniel once had a baby brother, but he died, a long time ago now. And he had a wife and a daughter, but that didn’t work out, so now he’s alone. The easy monotony of his job as a milkman in the remote northwest of England demands nothing from him other than dealing with unreasonable customer demands and the vagaries of his enigmatic boss.
But things are changing. Daniel’s started having nightmares, seeing things that can’t possibly be there – like the naked, emaciated giant with a black bag over its head which is so real he swears he could touch it . . . if he dared.
It’s not just at night bad things are happening, either, or just to him. Shaken and unnerved, he opens up to a local witch. She can’t t discern the origins of his haunting, but she can provide him with a protective ward – a witch-bottle – if, in return, he will deliver her products on his rounds.
But not everyone’s happy to find people meddling with witch-bottles. Things are about to get very unpleasant . . .
Witch Bottle is literary horror at its finest, perfect for fans of Andrew Michael Hurley’s The Loney and Starve Acre.
Daniel once had a baby brother, but he died, a long time ago now. And he had a wife and a daughter, but that didn’t work out, so now he’s alone. The easy monotony of his job as a milkman in the remote northwest of England demands nothing from him other than dealing with unreasonable customer demands and the vagaries of his enigmatic boss.
But things are changing. Daniel’s started having nightmares, seeing things that can’t possibly be there – like the naked, emaciated giant with a black bag over its head which is so real he swears he could touch it . . . if he dared.
It’s not just at night bad things are happening, either, or just to him. Shaken and unnerved, he opens up to a local witch. She can’t t discern the origins of his haunting, but she can provide him with a protective ward – a witch-bottle – if, in return, he will deliver her products on his rounds.
But not everyone’s happy to find people meddling with witch-bottles. Things are about to get very unpleasant . . .
Witch Bottle is literary horror at its finest, perfect for fans of Andrew Michael Hurley’s The Loney and Starve Acre.
293 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 12, 2020
22 people are currently reading
1013 people want to read
About the author
Tom Fletcher
24 books1,023 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Tom Fletcher is a writer of horror and dark fantasy novels and short fiction. His first three horror novels, The Leaping, The Thing on the Shore and The Ravenglass Eye, were followed by Gleam and Idle Hands, the first two books in The Factory Trilogy, his first fantasy series. His new novel, Witch-Bottle, is a deeply atmospheric modern gothic tale of grief and guilt. He lives in a remote village in Cumbria with his wife and family.
Tom Fletcher is a writer of horror and dark fantasy novels and short fiction. His first three horror novels, The Leaping, The Thing on the Shore and The Ravenglass Eye, were followed by Gleam and Idle Hands, the first two books in The Factory Trilogy, his first fantasy series. His new novel, Witch-Bottle, is a deeply atmospheric modern gothic tale of grief and guilt. He lives in a remote village in Cumbria with his wife and family.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
May 30, 2024
Everyone Sees Inside Eventually...
WITCH BOTTLE by Tom Fletcher
No spoilers. 4 stars. Daniel is a country milkman making his deliveries along single lane lonnings (ancient remote roads)...
Daniel lives alone since leaving his wife and infant daughter. He's had a longstanding fear that he'll hurt the people around him...
He doesn't understand the origins of this fear, but he believes it's subconsciously about wounds not yet healed...
His first day on his own...
Daniel experienced the manifestation of a portal to another world in which a giant sat behind a wall eating humans...
Not long after...
He began to be haunted by a figure in a black hooded robe gradually nearing his house until, finally, the being was in his house...
Something inhaling and exhaling in the night, waiting...
As Daniel travels the narrow, one-laned lonnings of his delivery route, he is routinely run off the road and threatened by drivers of the Fallen Stock vans...
These mysterious rough workers travel the narrow roads collecting the carcasses of dead farm animals, making other delivery trucks give them the right of way...
Or else!...
On one of his deliveries, Daniel meets a woman named Katheryn, who is a witch...
Katheryn owns La'al Tattie Shop and makes side money selling witch bottles to farmers along Daniel's route to ward off the spate of hauntings lately plaguing the farm folk...
Eventually...
Daniel and Katheryn begin dating, and he agrees to make her occult merchandise deliveries while delivering his milk...
But...
The Fallen Stock drivers are not happy about the witch bottle business being conducted along "their" lonnings...
One day...
Daniel asks to look in the back of one of the Fallen Stock wagons, and the driver tells him: Absolutely not...
Although...
The driver slyly tells Daniel: Everyone sees inside eventually. It's all connected...
This was a hard story to get into. I found the first 60 pages to be very confusing, but after that, it was a good story. I can't say too much due to spoilers, but I will say that at times, it felt like the main character was telling this story while tripping on hallucinogenic drugs.
It's a good story, but get ready to put your thinking cap on!
WITCH BOTTLE by Tom Fletcher
No spoilers. 4 stars. Daniel is a country milkman making his deliveries along single lane lonnings (ancient remote roads)...
Daniel lives alone since leaving his wife and infant daughter. He's had a longstanding fear that he'll hurt the people around him...
He doesn't understand the origins of this fear, but he believes it's subconsciously about wounds not yet healed...
His first day on his own...
Daniel experienced the manifestation of a portal to another world in which a giant sat behind a wall eating humans...
Not long after...
He began to be haunted by a figure in a black hooded robe gradually nearing his house until, finally, the being was in his house...
Something inhaling and exhaling in the night, waiting...
As Daniel travels the narrow, one-laned lonnings of his delivery route, he is routinely run off the road and threatened by drivers of the Fallen Stock vans...
These mysterious rough workers travel the narrow roads collecting the carcasses of dead farm animals, making other delivery trucks give them the right of way...
Or else!...
On one of his deliveries, Daniel meets a woman named Katheryn, who is a witch...
Katheryn owns La'al Tattie Shop and makes side money selling witch bottles to farmers along Daniel's route to ward off the spate of hauntings lately plaguing the farm folk...
Eventually...
Daniel and Katheryn begin dating, and he agrees to make her occult merchandise deliveries while delivering his milk...
But...
The Fallen Stock drivers are not happy about the witch bottle business being conducted along "their" lonnings...
One day...
Daniel asks to look in the back of one of the Fallen Stock wagons, and the driver tells him: Absolutely not...
Although...
The driver slyly tells Daniel: Everyone sees inside eventually. It's all connected...
This was a hard story to get into. I found the first 60 pages to be very confusing, but after that, it was a good story. I can't say too much due to spoilers, but I will say that at times, it felt like the main character was telling this story while tripping on hallucinogenic drugs.
It's a good story, but get ready to put your thinking cap on!
October 27, 2023
Grim. Folky urban horror about a depressed milkman with PTSD We are deep in Shane Meadows territory, no smiling, no happiness, just grey landscapes, sadness, witchcraft and milkbottles. One for fans of Andrew Michael Hurley.
May 21, 2024
‘I’ve always found nature and the physical world itself a more comfortable companion than other human beings.’
Witch Bottle instantly grabbed me. It was full of intrigue. The strange characters and creepy, folkloric horror simmering in the background set the tone nicely.
Fletcher’s writing is sharp and precise, he gives a firm sense of place and his characters are easy to visualise. However, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was missing.
As I got to about half way, my enjoyment levels started to dwindle, it was becoming so bleak, characters past trauma came into the forefront and it lost some of its magic. I think perhaps too much reality had kicked in when I just wanted folklore and witchiness.
That said, I was totally invested in the story and I was still happy enough to stay with it and finish. It wasn’t particularly fun, it was dreary, dark, and at times, deeply depressing, but the witchcraft elements kept me turning the pages.
3 ⭐️ - It was good. I liked it.
Witch Bottle instantly grabbed me. It was full of intrigue. The strange characters and creepy, folkloric horror simmering in the background set the tone nicely.
Fletcher’s writing is sharp and precise, he gives a firm sense of place and his characters are easy to visualise. However, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was missing.
As I got to about half way, my enjoyment levels started to dwindle, it was becoming so bleak, characters past trauma came into the forefront and it lost some of its magic. I think perhaps too much reality had kicked in when I just wanted folklore and witchiness.
That said, I was totally invested in the story and I was still happy enough to stay with it and finish. It wasn’t particularly fun, it was dreary, dark, and at times, deeply depressing, but the witchcraft elements kept me turning the pages.
3 ⭐️ - It was good. I liked it.
October 13, 2022
“As a teenager, I found it easier being around people than either before or afterwards. Partly I think because everyone else was in flux, too. There was chaos in everybody – not just me. Not that I understand why I feel the way I do. Generally, I just have this sense of guilt, and a feeling I shouldn’t spend too much time around other people.”
This is a sort of gothic folk horror story with some literary pretensions. The protagonist is Daniel. He has left his wife and daughter for reasons that become clearer later in the novel. He also has memories of his younger brother who died when he was five. He is now living in a remote area of North West England (Cumbria) close to the A595. He is working as a delivery person, in actuality a milkman, but as the area is remote he also delivers fruit, veg and a variety of other things. The significant themes are repressed guilt, grief and fear. The descriptions of the countryside are good and give a sense of the numinous:
“the wind picks up and blows a hail of bright yellow leaves across the brooding black sky, and at just the same moment a flock of crows rises from the fields and flies in the opposite direction. The leaves are like fire against all of the darkness. The crows make it look as if the wind is blowing in two directions at once.”
The novel is mainly written from Daniel’s point of view and things soon take a sinister turn. He starts to see things, odd things like a naked emaciated giant with a black bag over its head, along with a few other groaning apparitions who seem to wander round his house. He lunches in a local baked potato shop and its owner Kathryn and he strike up a friendship. He talks to her about what is happening to him. She happens to be a modern witch and prepares a witch bottle for him which he has to bury near/in his home. This witch bottle is distinctly earthier than the ones you can buy on e-bay these days. It is effective and Daniel soon discovers lots of other people on his rounds are having similar problems. He starts making deliveries for Kathryn as well as others seek her help. The antagonist takes the form of Fallen Stock vans which pick up dead livestock from farms. They start appearing an awful lot on Daniel’s round and things start to get strange.
If you like a broken central character majoring in loneliness and hiding in a dead-end job this may be for you. Some of the links are a bit tenuous and the ending is rather abrupt and not thought out. This is a slow burn and is not the usual gore fest, although there is some. I haven’t used the words “deeply atmospheric”, which is apparently mandatory for this sort of novel. That’s remedied that. It had its moments but the working out at the end felt problematic.
This is a sort of gothic folk horror story with some literary pretensions. The protagonist is Daniel. He has left his wife and daughter for reasons that become clearer later in the novel. He also has memories of his younger brother who died when he was five. He is now living in a remote area of North West England (Cumbria) close to the A595. He is working as a delivery person, in actuality a milkman, but as the area is remote he also delivers fruit, veg and a variety of other things. The significant themes are repressed guilt, grief and fear. The descriptions of the countryside are good and give a sense of the numinous:
“the wind picks up and blows a hail of bright yellow leaves across the brooding black sky, and at just the same moment a flock of crows rises from the fields and flies in the opposite direction. The leaves are like fire against all of the darkness. The crows make it look as if the wind is blowing in two directions at once.”
The novel is mainly written from Daniel’s point of view and things soon take a sinister turn. He starts to see things, odd things like a naked emaciated giant with a black bag over its head, along with a few other groaning apparitions who seem to wander round his house. He lunches in a local baked potato shop and its owner Kathryn and he strike up a friendship. He talks to her about what is happening to him. She happens to be a modern witch and prepares a witch bottle for him which he has to bury near/in his home. This witch bottle is distinctly earthier than the ones you can buy on e-bay these days. It is effective and Daniel soon discovers lots of other people on his rounds are having similar problems. He starts making deliveries for Kathryn as well as others seek her help. The antagonist takes the form of Fallen Stock vans which pick up dead livestock from farms. They start appearing an awful lot on Daniel’s round and things start to get strange.
If you like a broken central character majoring in loneliness and hiding in a dead-end job this may be for you. Some of the links are a bit tenuous and the ending is rather abrupt and not thought out. This is a slow burn and is not the usual gore fest, although there is some. I haven’t used the words “deeply atmospheric”, which is apparently mandatory for this sort of novel. That’s remedied that. It had its moments but the working out at the end felt problematic.
November 9, 2020
Daniel has left his wife and baby daughter and has become a milkman in Cumbria. He is living in a cottage that belongs to his uncle and working in a dead end job, but one that he enjoys. He likes the driving, the interaction with customers, and the fact that he spends much of the time on his own. In flashbacks, we learn about Daniel’s past, the reasons why he made the decision to leave his family and his childhood.
During his day, Daniel often visits the La’al Tattie Shop, where he becomes friend with Kathryn. Although he has made the decision to live alone, he finds himself attracted to Kathryn and that will be useful for him, because Daniel has an unwanted visitor and it turns out that Kathryn is a witch. On his rounds, Daniel realises that other people are struggling with the same problem he is and, when Kathryn begins to create ‘witch bottles,’ for his customers, he agrees to deliver them.
There is much about this novel that I really liked. I thought it was wonderfully written and I enjoyed Daniel’s company (although I could have done without the author using him as a mouthpiece for his political views) as we met the other characters in the novel. I especially enjoyed the creepy Fallen Stock men, who drive around and dispose of dead farm animals. They were believably unnerving, as was the mix of spooky and psychological.
This is an interesting literary read, which has a good sense of place and has characters you come to care about. I received a copy of this novel from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.
During his day, Daniel often visits the La’al Tattie Shop, where he becomes friend with Kathryn. Although he has made the decision to live alone, he finds himself attracted to Kathryn and that will be useful for him, because Daniel has an unwanted visitor and it turns out that Kathryn is a witch. On his rounds, Daniel realises that other people are struggling with the same problem he is and, when Kathryn begins to create ‘witch bottles,’ for his customers, he agrees to deliver them.
There is much about this novel that I really liked. I thought it was wonderfully written and I enjoyed Daniel’s company (although I could have done without the author using him as a mouthpiece for his political views) as we met the other characters in the novel. I especially enjoyed the creepy Fallen Stock men, who drive around and dispose of dead farm animals. They were believably unnerving, as was the mix of spooky and psychological.
This is an interesting literary read, which has a good sense of place and has characters you come to care about. I received a copy of this novel from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.
November 26, 2020
Easily one of the most bizarre things I have read recently..
In Witch Bottle we are introduced to Daniel. Daniel is an everyman...a nobody. He is a man who has lived and lost, a mundane and relatable enough character. But as the story progresses strange things begin to happen to and around him. Nightmares, hallucinations, odd behaviours and so much death....
Witch Bottle is most defintely a slow burn. The creepiness and sense of dread slowly build as you continue to read. I will admit there were times I considered giving up on this one but I am glad I didn't.
Fletcher does an outstanding job creating a juxtaposition between reality and the supernatural. As you read you will be drawn into his atmospheric and spooky world and begin questioning your own grip on what is and isnt real.
If you are a fan of more folk style or atmospheric horror then I highly recommend you give this book a shot!
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
In Witch Bottle we are introduced to Daniel. Daniel is an everyman...a nobody. He is a man who has lived and lost, a mundane and relatable enough character. But as the story progresses strange things begin to happen to and around him. Nightmares, hallucinations, odd behaviours and so much death....
Witch Bottle is most defintely a slow burn. The creepiness and sense of dread slowly build as you continue to read. I will admit there were times I considered giving up on this one but I am glad I didn't.
Fletcher does an outstanding job creating a juxtaposition between reality and the supernatural. As you read you will be drawn into his atmospheric and spooky world and begin questioning your own grip on what is and isnt real.
If you are a fan of more folk style or atmospheric horror then I highly recommend you give this book a shot!
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
November 26, 2020
Daniel is an aspiring writer. Although, if you’re not feeling generous, you could describe him as a “failed” one, seeing that his long-planned novel never seems to get off the ground. Things are hardly any better for Daniel in the family sphere. Unable to cope with a fraught situation at home, he abandons his wife and baby daughter and settles down in a remote part of Cumbria. There he works as a milkman, driving around the rural lanes delivering groceries to villagers and local businesses. A budding relationship with Kathryn, who runs the La’al Tattie Shop, promises a fresh start. Kathryn is also a part-time witch and ward-maker. Lately, demand for her services seems to be thriving. In fact, something strange is clearly afoot. Daniel is being visited by a chilling nocturnal entity, a hooded figure who follows him and turns up at his house at the least unexpected moments. Moreover, the other villagers are also complaining of disturbed nights and ghostly visitations. These apparitions coincide with increased business for the sinister “Fallen Stock”, a company which collects and disposes of dead farm animals. Its vans are suddenly ubiquitous on the roads, driven by menacing employees who seem to know more than they are letting on. The novel follows Daniel as he tries to face and come to terms with his demons, which might well be related to the dread and unease which burdens the whole area.
The blurb compares Witch Bottle to Andrew Michael Hurley’s The Loney and Starve Acre. There are similarities for sure – the rural setting, the folk-horror vibes, the link between personal trauma and supernatural events and between the fears of the “individual” and those of the “community”. However, this comparison also does Tom Fletcher a disservice, because his is a distinctive and personal voice. Fletcher knows how to ratchet up the tension and his book is bleak and scary. But most of it is also a description of the life of a milkman, told from the protagonist’s perspective. I was also pleasantly surprised at the fact that for such a dark and atmospheric novel, it has its fair share of quick-fire dialogue and humour.
What I found less convincing about Witch Bottle, was its ending. For much of the novel, Fletcher manages a tricky balance between gritty realism and supernatural stuff. In the final chapters, however, there is a sudden shift towards the bizarre, what with surreal dream sequences and a gory finale which skirts the “low fantasy” genre.
Despite my reservations, this is a novel which I enjoyed reading and I will look out for future work by Tom Fletcher.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
The blurb compares Witch Bottle to Andrew Michael Hurley’s The Loney and Starve Acre. There are similarities for sure – the rural setting, the folk-horror vibes, the link between personal trauma and supernatural events and between the fears of the “individual” and those of the “community”. However, this comparison also does Tom Fletcher a disservice, because his is a distinctive and personal voice. Fletcher knows how to ratchet up the tension and his book is bleak and scary. But most of it is also a description of the life of a milkman, told from the protagonist’s perspective. I was also pleasantly surprised at the fact that for such a dark and atmospheric novel, it has its fair share of quick-fire dialogue and humour.
What I found less convincing about Witch Bottle, was its ending. For much of the novel, Fletcher manages a tricky balance between gritty realism and supernatural stuff. In the final chapters, however, there is a sudden shift towards the bizarre, what with surreal dream sequences and a gory finale which skirts the “low fantasy” genre.
Despite my reservations, this is a novel which I enjoyed reading and I will look out for future work by Tom Fletcher.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
January 19, 2022
Witch Bottle is a story that will constantly have your guard up. Fear surrounds this small hamlet-like fog clinging to the mountainside. It envelops around you, constricting you, breathing becomes more difficult, your sight becomes hazy, it’s an all-sense assault. This novel surprised me by the sheer force of its raw veracity and its human emotion. It leaves you feeling deeply unsettled with its supernatural element complemented perfectly with the decline of mental health and broken relationships. Cumbria has never felt so unearthly in this modern gothic thriller.
Daniel is on his own, after leaving his wife and baby daughter he has moved to Cumbria to become a milkman. He is renting his uncle’s house for a pittance as a favour to his mother. A very desolate figure that has suffered incredible loss. Being a milkman might not be for everyone, but Daniel sees it as very freeing, he enjoys driving and being out in the countryside. He doesn’t much like his colleague, Ryan.
Throughout the story, we get snippets from Daniel’s past. We see the experience of his wife’s pregnancy and childbirth through his eyes. I found these to be some of the most dramatic and nightmare-inducing scenes I’ve ever read in a book. He’s experienced a lot of trauma and pain in his life, it’s harrowing.
Dark and twisted. Witch Bottle was a story that went blind into, this did end up tripping me up a few times leaving me with a busted ankle with no way out. I genuinely believe that the author didn’t use these topics for shock value only no, it was used to examine just how mental illness and trauma can leave you wanting to isolate from the rest of the world. There are parts that are difficult to read but I believe that only strengthened the connection between plot, characters, and reader.
During his milk rounds, Daniel often pops into the La’al Tattie Shop. A local shop owned and run by Kathryn. He has a growing attraction to her but after feeling burned by his last relationship he is hesitant to take it further. The only thing is he has an unwelcome visitor and Kathryn is revealed to be a witch and can make him a trinket that will keep it away. Others in the hamlet seem to be having the same problem so she makes witch bottles for his customers and he delivers them during his rounds.
The writing was dramatic and it’s the kind of story that immediately pulls you in with its sense of foreboding. The backdrop to the story just added another layer to the feeling of dread, it reminded me of becoming lost on the fells as dusk approached – you knew it wasn’t going to be good but just how bad was at the mercy of the imagination.
Witch Bottle is an exquisite puzzle box. It’s off the wall, buckle up because Fletcher takes you on a rollercoaster ride that will have your mouth and stomach swapping places!
Daniel is on his own, after leaving his wife and baby daughter he has moved to Cumbria to become a milkman. He is renting his uncle’s house for a pittance as a favour to his mother. A very desolate figure that has suffered incredible loss. Being a milkman might not be for everyone, but Daniel sees it as very freeing, he enjoys driving and being out in the countryside. He doesn’t much like his colleague, Ryan.
Throughout the story, we get snippets from Daniel’s past. We see the experience of his wife’s pregnancy and childbirth through his eyes. I found these to be some of the most dramatic and nightmare-inducing scenes I’ve ever read in a book. He’s experienced a lot of trauma and pain in his life, it’s harrowing.
Dark and twisted. Witch Bottle was a story that went blind into, this did end up tripping me up a few times leaving me with a busted ankle with no way out. I genuinely believe that the author didn’t use these topics for shock value only no, it was used to examine just how mental illness and trauma can leave you wanting to isolate from the rest of the world. There are parts that are difficult to read but I believe that only strengthened the connection between plot, characters, and reader.
During his milk rounds, Daniel often pops into the La’al Tattie Shop. A local shop owned and run by Kathryn. He has a growing attraction to her but after feeling burned by his last relationship he is hesitant to take it further. The only thing is he has an unwelcome visitor and Kathryn is revealed to be a witch and can make him a trinket that will keep it away. Others in the hamlet seem to be having the same problem so she makes witch bottles for his customers and he delivers them during his rounds.
The writing was dramatic and it’s the kind of story that immediately pulls you in with its sense of foreboding. The backdrop to the story just added another layer to the feeling of dread, it reminded me of becoming lost on the fells as dusk approached – you knew it wasn’t going to be good but just how bad was at the mercy of the imagination.
Witch Bottle is an exquisite puzzle box. It’s off the wall, buckle up because Fletcher takes you on a rollercoaster ride that will have your mouth and stomach swapping places!
October 1, 2024
Quite an unusual book! It’s described as horror - but it’s not of the slasher/blood variety – it’s atmospheric horror which I think crosses over into dark magical realism.
The protagonist is Daniel, currently living as a Milkman in rural Cumbria after the collapse of his former life. The milk-round with its routine seems fundamental to his being able to function. He is clearly only just surviving -shown, for example, by a lack of self-care and his withdrawal from society. The setting, with its desolate nature and dereliction is perfect, and an echo of Daniel himself.
Part of his routine is buying his lunch from Kathryn, who turns out to be a local witch (I hadn't heard of a ‘witch bottle' before reading this, but they are real things). I wish her part had been larger and, thinking back, she seemed to be the only character who had any positivity in her life. We get a glimpse of other characters in the rural community too, which serve as a reminder of the neglect some people experience, especially as they age.
I think, ultimately, it is a book about psychological trauma. The intense wrongness you feel throughout could be a manifestation of Daniel’s past traumatic experiences. There is one particular recurring grotesque image (first appearing at the very beginning) that you could read as a consequence if PTSD is not treated (i.e the intensity increases).
I had a few isolated niggles very early on – an inconsistency and maybe the odd isolated spelling/grammatical error, but that might have only been in my early copy. It was only an initial thing though before the slow building creepiness took over.
So, a strange imaginative work, and one which put me in mind of folk tales, or dark fairy tales. I wish it hadn’t ended so abruptly, but that has to be a good sign doesn’t it? (meaning I wanted to read more).
It was hard to choose a rating, but the originality, the quality of the writing, and the time I spent thinking about it helped me decide.
It is quite unique.
The protagonist is Daniel, currently living as a Milkman in rural Cumbria after the collapse of his former life. The milk-round with its routine seems fundamental to his being able to function. He is clearly only just surviving -shown, for example, by a lack of self-care and his withdrawal from society. The setting, with its desolate nature and dereliction is perfect, and an echo of Daniel himself.
Part of his routine is buying his lunch from Kathryn, who turns out to be a local witch (I hadn't heard of a ‘witch bottle' before reading this, but they are real things). I wish her part had been larger and, thinking back, she seemed to be the only character who had any positivity in her life. We get a glimpse of other characters in the rural community too, which serve as a reminder of the neglect some people experience, especially as they age.
I think, ultimately, it is a book about psychological trauma. The intense wrongness you feel throughout could be a manifestation of Daniel’s past traumatic experiences. There is one particular recurring grotesque image (first appearing at the very beginning) that you could read as a consequence if PTSD is not treated (i.e the intensity increases).
I had a few isolated niggles very early on – an inconsistency and maybe the odd isolated spelling/grammatical error, but that might have only been in my early copy. It was only an initial thing though before the slow building creepiness took over.
So, a strange imaginative work, and one which put me in mind of folk tales, or dark fairy tales. I wish it hadn’t ended so abruptly, but that has to be a good sign doesn’t it? (meaning I wanted to read more).
It was hard to choose a rating, but the originality, the quality of the writing, and the time I spent thinking about it helped me decide.
It is quite unique.
November 26, 2020
Witch Bottle is terrifying and deeply unsettling modern gothic horror with an intoxicating infusion of normal, quotidian moments woven into the story alongside the chilling, supernatural ones. Since he walked out on his family, Daniel has lived a solitary, soulless life in a remote part of Cumbria… he doesn’t have his hair cut, he never shaves and seldom showers. Instead he dreams about the fantasy novel he will one day write and immerses himself in the routine of his daily milk round. Daniel once had a baby brother but he died a long time ago, and his marriage didn’t work out. So now he’s alone and the only demand on him is coping with unreasonable customer demands and the vagaries of his enigmatic depot boss Bean, who doesn’t just look like a runner bean but is also ‘tall, flat and tough.’ But things are changing. Daniel has started having nightmares, seeing things that can’t possibly be there… like the naked, emaciated, stinking giant which voraciously consumes flesh and bone, and which Daniel knows instinctively is a ‘real thing’ happening ‘somewhere beneath the surface of the world.’
And it’s not just at night that bad things are happening to him… more and more locals are seeing ghosts, and who are the increasingly numerous, creepy and threatening Fallen Stock men who collect heaps of animal corpses from ‘the shadiest corners’ of farm yards? Shaken and unnerved, and with a deepening inner knowledge that ‘something terrible approaches,’ Daniel opens up to local white witch Kathryn from the La’al Tattie Shop. She can’t discern the origins of his haunting, but she can provide him with a ‘witch bottle’ to protect from unwanted spirits if, in return, he will deliver her products on his rounds. But not everyone is happy to find people meddling with witch bottles and things are about to get a whole lot worse… This is a compulsive and engrossing work of literary horror complete with a rich, immersive atmosphere and a creeping sense of claustrophobia Fletcher portrays so well. The tension throughout rises palpably with each page turn and the evocative landscape is as beguilingly bleak as it is compelling. This is a menacing, slow-burn, imaginative read and one I highly recommended.
And it’s not just at night that bad things are happening to him… more and more locals are seeing ghosts, and who are the increasingly numerous, creepy and threatening Fallen Stock men who collect heaps of animal corpses from ‘the shadiest corners’ of farm yards? Shaken and unnerved, and with a deepening inner knowledge that ‘something terrible approaches,’ Daniel opens up to local white witch Kathryn from the La’al Tattie Shop. She can’t discern the origins of his haunting, but she can provide him with a ‘witch bottle’ to protect from unwanted spirits if, in return, he will deliver her products on his rounds. But not everyone is happy to find people meddling with witch bottles and things are about to get a whole lot worse… This is a compulsive and engrossing work of literary horror complete with a rich, immersive atmosphere and a creeping sense of claustrophobia Fletcher portrays so well. The tension throughout rises palpably with each page turn and the evocative landscape is as beguilingly bleak as it is compelling. This is a menacing, slow-burn, imaginative read and one I highly recommended.
January 30, 2025
A rather depressing book set in Cumbria, mostly from the viewpoint of Daniel, a man who left his wife and young child for reasons that gradually become clear. Most of the book is in present tense and follows Daniel on his round, delivering produce to remote hamlets. Although sometimes referred to as a milkman, this is a misnomer as he also carries fruit and vegetables, bread, and dairy produce other than milk. The minutiae of his job is presented, including his role in being one of the few faces some of his clientele, often elderly, get to see.
It’s clear from the disturbing introduction, where he experiences a vision of a repulsive giant gorging on flesh pushed through an aperture overhead, that either the supernatural or mental illness has a major part to play. Daniel starts to experience visitations by a hooded apparition that he can't keep out of his house. At first, this might appear to be another manifestation of the possible mental disturbance that produced his earlier vision, but Daniel soon discovers that a lot of his boss' customers are having the same problem. Many are farmers who also appear to be suffering more losses of livestock than usual, with sinister and aggressive Fallen Stock operatives paying them visits to remove the carcasses.
Since moving to Cumbria, Daniel has let himself go, but despite his unprepossessing appearance, he starts a relationship with Kathryn, who owns the baked potato shop where he stops to grab lunch.
Kathryn has a side-line in making folk remedies and begins to make witch bottles to keep the apparitions at bay. She makes one for Daniel and at first it gives some relief but eventually Daniel must recover the childhood memory which is responsible for the haunting. Danger looms as someone objects to the witch bottles, and a violent and misogynistic colleague makes life difficult.
This is a bleak story with gruesome scenes, the worst being one of the past-tense flashbacks to Daniel’s earlier life. This merits a content warning for anyone who has issues around pregnancy, particularly an almost botched delivery by neglectful hospital staff. The chief weakness in the story is the bizarre and unconvincing concluding section, starting from around the time that Fallen Stock visit a funeral home (no spoilers). It's also a disappointment that Kathryn, the only positive character in the story, plays a relatively minor role.
Overall, a 3 star read.
It’s clear from the disturbing introduction, where he experiences a vision of a repulsive giant gorging on flesh pushed through an aperture overhead, that either the supernatural or mental illness has a major part to play. Daniel starts to experience visitations by a hooded apparition that he can't keep out of his house. At first, this might appear to be another manifestation of the possible mental disturbance that produced his earlier vision, but Daniel soon discovers that a lot of his boss' customers are having the same problem. Many are farmers who also appear to be suffering more losses of livestock than usual, with sinister and aggressive Fallen Stock operatives paying them visits to remove the carcasses.
Since moving to Cumbria, Daniel has let himself go, but despite his unprepossessing appearance, he starts a relationship with Kathryn, who owns the baked potato shop where he stops to grab lunch.
Kathryn has a side-line in making folk remedies and begins to make witch bottles to keep the apparitions at bay. She makes one for Daniel and at first it gives some relief but eventually Daniel must recover the childhood memory which is responsible for the haunting. Danger looms as someone objects to the witch bottles, and a violent and misogynistic colleague makes life difficult.
This is a bleak story with gruesome scenes, the worst being one of the past-tense flashbacks to Daniel’s earlier life. This merits a content warning for anyone who has issues around pregnancy, particularly an almost botched delivery by neglectful hospital staff. The chief weakness in the story is the bizarre and unconvincing concluding section, starting from around the time that Fallen Stock visit a funeral home (no spoilers). It's also a disappointment that Kathryn, the only positive character in the story, plays a relatively minor role.
Overall, a 3 star read.
November 24, 2020
My thanks to Quercus Books/Jo Fletcher Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Witch Bottle’ by Tom Fletcher in exchange for an honest review.
Daniel has left his old life behind and aspires to be a fantasy writer while undertaking the easy monotony of working as a milkman in a remote area in the northwest of England. It demands little of him though some customers can be unreasonable.
Then Daniel starts having nightmares and visions of a naked giant with a black bag over its head. Deeply shaken he opens up to a local witch. She is unable to discern the origins of his haunting, but provides him with a witch-bottle, a protective ward. In exchange he is to deliver her products during his milkman rounds. However, the idea of meddling with witch-bottles seem to upset some of the locals, leading to unpleasant consequences.
This premise sounded ideal for me, especially as ‘Witch Bottle’ is described as a literary horror in the tradition of ‘The Loney’. Still despite this, it was quickly apparent that I just wasn’t engaging with Daniel or his situation. I set it aside for a bit and then tried two more times from the beginning with no improvement. I resisted DNFing and did finish.
Fletcher uses stream-of-consciousness for Daniel and the occasional chapter for local witch, Kathryn. It’s a narrative form often utilised in literary fiction but I struggle with it.
Daniel flips between his daily life, reminisces about the past, especially the traumatic breakdown of his marriage, and of course the nightmare visions of the present.
When Kathryn came into his life I was intrigued but towards the end his increasingly grotesque visions just left me feeling confused. There was also a lot of detail about his daily routine as a milkman that disrupted the building of the overall atmosphere for me.
As a result, I found its pacing uneven; as if two narratives were striving for dominance: the extremely weird visions and the mundane life of a rural milkman.
I am aware that literary novels can be challenging and this novel proved a struggle, though clearly it has appealed to other readers yet ultimately it just wasn’t one for me.
Daniel has left his old life behind and aspires to be a fantasy writer while undertaking the easy monotony of working as a milkman in a remote area in the northwest of England. It demands little of him though some customers can be unreasonable.
Then Daniel starts having nightmares and visions of a naked giant with a black bag over its head. Deeply shaken he opens up to a local witch. She is unable to discern the origins of his haunting, but provides him with a witch-bottle, a protective ward. In exchange he is to deliver her products during his milkman rounds. However, the idea of meddling with witch-bottles seem to upset some of the locals, leading to unpleasant consequences.
This premise sounded ideal for me, especially as ‘Witch Bottle’ is described as a literary horror in the tradition of ‘The Loney’. Still despite this, it was quickly apparent that I just wasn’t engaging with Daniel or his situation. I set it aside for a bit and then tried two more times from the beginning with no improvement. I resisted DNFing and did finish.
Fletcher uses stream-of-consciousness for Daniel and the occasional chapter for local witch, Kathryn. It’s a narrative form often utilised in literary fiction but I struggle with it.
Daniel flips between his daily life, reminisces about the past, especially the traumatic breakdown of his marriage, and of course the nightmare visions of the present.
When Kathryn came into his life I was intrigued but towards the end his increasingly grotesque visions just left me feeling confused. There was also a lot of detail about his daily routine as a milkman that disrupted the building of the overall atmosphere for me.
As a result, I found its pacing uneven; as if two narratives were striving for dominance: the extremely weird visions and the mundane life of a rural milkman.
I am aware that literary novels can be challenging and this novel proved a struggle, though clearly it has appealed to other readers yet ultimately it just wasn’t one for me.
September 27, 2022
Witch Bottle
Daniel is a milkman in Cumbria. He left his wife and child and is trying to be a writer, but this part of his life has stalled.
In great (and rather beautiful) detail we are given a ride along with Daniel as he delivers milk and other groceries to remote farms and hamlets around Cumbria.
Although this doesn’t exactly sound like one of the most fast-moving ideas for a book, it’s actually my favourite part of this novel.
Because the mundanity of a delivery route suddenly melds into a much darker, slightly sinister and totally bonkers story.
We meet Daniel’s co-workers, his customers, other delivery drivers and his new girlfriend Kathryn.
Those other delivery drivers? The ‘Fallen Stock’ company who drive round in a bizarre ‘Lord of the Manor’ style of clothing picking up dead animals from the farms. Not only are they bullying drivers but it turns out that will be integral to this story.
And Kathryn runs the La’al Tattie Shop but also sells Witch Bottles as a side business. Not the kind you might find on Etsy which look all cute and cottage-core. These actually work because Kathryn is a Witch. And her business has taken a sudden upswing with more and more of the farmers and rural dwellers being plagued by unwanted Ghosts.
Daniel has the need for his own Witch Bottle and in return for one, the deal is that he’ll deliver Kathryn’s goods to the customers on his milk round.
As the book progresses we find out more about Daniel’s past, including the reasons he left his wife and child. It’s clear Daniel is battling with his own inner demons - but are they inner or more tangible than he (or we, as the readers) can guess.
With a totally bonkers childhood Fairy Tale (in the full-on terrifying Grimm mould) ending, I was left with a feeling of not knowing how to process what I had just read. Hopefully, the five stars I’ve given this shows how it worked out for me!
Daniel is a milkman in Cumbria. He left his wife and child and is trying to be a writer, but this part of his life has stalled.
In great (and rather beautiful) detail we are given a ride along with Daniel as he delivers milk and other groceries to remote farms and hamlets around Cumbria.
Although this doesn’t exactly sound like one of the most fast-moving ideas for a book, it’s actually my favourite part of this novel.
Because the mundanity of a delivery route suddenly melds into a much darker, slightly sinister and totally bonkers story.
We meet Daniel’s co-workers, his customers, other delivery drivers and his new girlfriend Kathryn.
Those other delivery drivers? The ‘Fallen Stock’ company who drive round in a bizarre ‘Lord of the Manor’ style of clothing picking up dead animals from the farms. Not only are they bullying drivers but it turns out that will be integral to this story.
And Kathryn runs the La’al Tattie Shop but also sells Witch Bottles as a side business. Not the kind you might find on Etsy which look all cute and cottage-core. These actually work because Kathryn is a Witch. And her business has taken a sudden upswing with more and more of the farmers and rural dwellers being plagued by unwanted Ghosts.
Daniel has the need for his own Witch Bottle and in return for one, the deal is that he’ll deliver Kathryn’s goods to the customers on his milk round.
As the book progresses we find out more about Daniel’s past, including the reasons he left his wife and child. It’s clear Daniel is battling with his own inner demons - but are they inner or more tangible than he (or we, as the readers) can guess.
With a totally bonkers childhood Fairy Tale (in the full-on terrifying Grimm mould) ending, I was left with a feeling of not knowing how to process what I had just read. Hopefully, the five stars I’ve given this shows how it worked out for me!
August 29, 2021
I’ll have two pints of milk, a slab of cheese and your best witch bottle please!
Later in the year James Brogden’s excellent Bone Harvest is released, one of the main story threads is based around rural village allotments and you might be forgiven by asking how on earth a horror novel can be based around this quaint and rather middle-England subject? Tom Fletcher does something similar in his equally impressive Witch Bottle, however, switching topics from allotments to the countryside milkman who delivers milk, fruit, and vegetables to those who live in the wilds of Cheshire, including farms, and villages. As with Bone Harvest you might be curious how a supernatural story can be built around such the humdrum topic of milkmen? However, Tom Fletcher pulls it off with aplomb, with the repetitiveness of the daily deliveries playing a big part in the action and if you make it past the particularly slow first 30% Witch Bottle is both a great and beguiling read.
What is a ‘Witch Bottle’ you may ask? As I had a feeling it was based in historical fact, the novel had me reaching for Google and Wikipedia which revealed:
“A witch or folk healer would prepare the witch's bottle. Historically, the witch's bottle contained the victim's (the person who believed they had a spell put on them, for example) urine, hair or nail clippings, or red thread from sprite traps. Later witch bottles were filled with rosemary, needles and pins, and red wine.”
If you feel inclined, you can visit Ebay for all sorts of modern-day ‘Wikka’ equivalents and spent less than a tenner (which I guess does not include authentic semen or other bodily fluids, but I guess, you never know!) That is not the case in Witch Bottle, in which a modern-day witch creates bottles and protection wards holding supernatural properties and has her new boyfriend deliver these ‘extras’ to her customers whilst on his daily milk run around the rural parts of north west England. As she hopes to keep her witch identity anonymous and separate from her day job, she relies on her boyfriend Daniel, who is the story’s main character and has a host of his own problems, to make these special deliveries. Part of the entertainment is Danny keeping this side-line secret from his work colleagues and does not want anybody saying, “I’ll have two pints on milk, a kilo of cheese and a witch bottle please!”
Witch Bottle has been namechecked in comparison to Andrew Michael Hurley who wrote The Loney, Devil’s Day and Starve Acre, having read all of Hurley’s work, this is a fair comparison and Fletcher more than holds his own. I would not necessarily call this novel Folk Horror, however, there are definitely vibes, and similar to Hurley, location is critical and truly dominates the book as we head along the A595 to Beckermet, Thornhill, Westlakes, Craggesund and other remote locations delivering eggs, bacon, fruit and milk. The location helps develop atmosphere and as Daniel greets his customers, often rural farmers, one gets a true sense of isolation as this might be the only human contact the customers receive all day. And Danny is not exactly a great talker.
Although it was not a long novel, the length of time and detail spent on the milk rounds might test the patience of some readers, myself, I rather enjoyed it. The business, owned by ‘Bean’, is forever a small step away (or so she says) from bankruptcy and the team of milkmen are forever under the cosh to deliver on time, hold onto orders, have enough loafs of bread in their vans, decide whether the milk has curled or if extending the credit of a customer who is a few pounds short is acceptable without incurring Bean’s wrath. And whatever the milkmen do their boss is rarely happy, pleading poverty, and threatening them with pay-cuts. I enjoyed the compelling balance between the trials of rural working-class life and the supernatural which is kept on the quiet, where cash and conversation is in short supply, but a belief in the old ways exists, even if never spoken about.
The use of the undiagnosed supernatural was truly superb; lots of people (including Daniel) start seeing ghosts and without going into detail, most accept this as relatively normal and turn to the witch bottles as a way of protection or release. Ghosts are big business in rural Cheshire and so the side-business sees immediate success, if it was not for the fact that the witch bottles are sold via the internet, the book has a feeling of being set much further back in time, perhaps the seventies. Even though it took a while for this main story strand to find its legs I wish it had been developed further, but in the end, it seemed to be side-lined before the book concluded and I found this to be frustrating as it was one of the strongest elements of Witch Bottle with the witch herself being written out of the plot before her story seemed truly concluded. Whilst the milkmen are out on their routes they often bump into another organisation, Fallen Stock, which collects animal carcasses which was another fascinating part of the plot, but again I was not convinced the way it was ultimately connected to the witch bottle story. Ultimately the ending seemed a bit rushed in bringing the threads together, which was not necessary in a relatively short novel and what had previously been relatively ‘quiet’ horror became jarringly loud and I am not sure it gelled together.
A deep sense of loneliness permeates throughout Witch Bottle, much of it centres around Daniel and his problems regarding repressed guilt, loss, grief, fear, and his estranged family. Various aspects of this is covered in flashback, which has a deliberately disjointed style which mirrors his state of mind which worsens when he also begins to see a ghost and becomes tied to a witch bottle. If you are a fan of broken central characters, hiding in dead-end jobs, then Daniel is hard to beat and spending time in his head is not a comfortable experience, nor is it meant to be.
I love atmospheric and slow-burning horror novels which are top heavy with an undiagnosed sense of the supernatural, and even though I have highlighted a couple of shortcomings, I found Witch Bottle tremendously entertaining and am very happy to recommend it. How often are you going to read a grittily realistic horror novel with a milkman as a central character? “I’ll have three pints and a half dozen eggs please!”
Later in the year James Brogden’s excellent Bone Harvest is released, one of the main story threads is based around rural village allotments and you might be forgiven by asking how on earth a horror novel can be based around this quaint and rather middle-England subject? Tom Fletcher does something similar in his equally impressive Witch Bottle, however, switching topics from allotments to the countryside milkman who delivers milk, fruit, and vegetables to those who live in the wilds of Cheshire, including farms, and villages. As with Bone Harvest you might be curious how a supernatural story can be built around such the humdrum topic of milkmen? However, Tom Fletcher pulls it off with aplomb, with the repetitiveness of the daily deliveries playing a big part in the action and if you make it past the particularly slow first 30% Witch Bottle is both a great and beguiling read.
What is a ‘Witch Bottle’ you may ask? As I had a feeling it was based in historical fact, the novel had me reaching for Google and Wikipedia which revealed:
“A witch or folk healer would prepare the witch's bottle. Historically, the witch's bottle contained the victim's (the person who believed they had a spell put on them, for example) urine, hair or nail clippings, or red thread from sprite traps. Later witch bottles were filled with rosemary, needles and pins, and red wine.”
If you feel inclined, you can visit Ebay for all sorts of modern-day ‘Wikka’ equivalents and spent less than a tenner (which I guess does not include authentic semen or other bodily fluids, but I guess, you never know!) That is not the case in Witch Bottle, in which a modern-day witch creates bottles and protection wards holding supernatural properties and has her new boyfriend deliver these ‘extras’ to her customers whilst on his daily milk run around the rural parts of north west England. As she hopes to keep her witch identity anonymous and separate from her day job, she relies on her boyfriend Daniel, who is the story’s main character and has a host of his own problems, to make these special deliveries. Part of the entertainment is Danny keeping this side-line secret from his work colleagues and does not want anybody saying, “I’ll have two pints on milk, a kilo of cheese and a witch bottle please!”
Witch Bottle has been namechecked in comparison to Andrew Michael Hurley who wrote The Loney, Devil’s Day and Starve Acre, having read all of Hurley’s work, this is a fair comparison and Fletcher more than holds his own. I would not necessarily call this novel Folk Horror, however, there are definitely vibes, and similar to Hurley, location is critical and truly dominates the book as we head along the A595 to Beckermet, Thornhill, Westlakes, Craggesund and other remote locations delivering eggs, bacon, fruit and milk. The location helps develop atmosphere and as Daniel greets his customers, often rural farmers, one gets a true sense of isolation as this might be the only human contact the customers receive all day. And Danny is not exactly a great talker.
Although it was not a long novel, the length of time and detail spent on the milk rounds might test the patience of some readers, myself, I rather enjoyed it. The business, owned by ‘Bean’, is forever a small step away (or so she says) from bankruptcy and the team of milkmen are forever under the cosh to deliver on time, hold onto orders, have enough loafs of bread in their vans, decide whether the milk has curled or if extending the credit of a customer who is a few pounds short is acceptable without incurring Bean’s wrath. And whatever the milkmen do their boss is rarely happy, pleading poverty, and threatening them with pay-cuts. I enjoyed the compelling balance between the trials of rural working-class life and the supernatural which is kept on the quiet, where cash and conversation is in short supply, but a belief in the old ways exists, even if never spoken about.
The use of the undiagnosed supernatural was truly superb; lots of people (including Daniel) start seeing ghosts and without going into detail, most accept this as relatively normal and turn to the witch bottles as a way of protection or release. Ghosts are big business in rural Cheshire and so the side-business sees immediate success, if it was not for the fact that the witch bottles are sold via the internet, the book has a feeling of being set much further back in time, perhaps the seventies. Even though it took a while for this main story strand to find its legs I wish it had been developed further, but in the end, it seemed to be side-lined before the book concluded and I found this to be frustrating as it was one of the strongest elements of Witch Bottle with the witch herself being written out of the plot before her story seemed truly concluded. Whilst the milkmen are out on their routes they often bump into another organisation, Fallen Stock, which collects animal carcasses which was another fascinating part of the plot, but again I was not convinced the way it was ultimately connected to the witch bottle story. Ultimately the ending seemed a bit rushed in bringing the threads together, which was not necessary in a relatively short novel and what had previously been relatively ‘quiet’ horror became jarringly loud and I am not sure it gelled together.
A deep sense of loneliness permeates throughout Witch Bottle, much of it centres around Daniel and his problems regarding repressed guilt, loss, grief, fear, and his estranged family. Various aspects of this is covered in flashback, which has a deliberately disjointed style which mirrors his state of mind which worsens when he also begins to see a ghost and becomes tied to a witch bottle. If you are a fan of broken central characters, hiding in dead-end jobs, then Daniel is hard to beat and spending time in his head is not a comfortable experience, nor is it meant to be.
I love atmospheric and slow-burning horror novels which are top heavy with an undiagnosed sense of the supernatural, and even though I have highlighted a couple of shortcomings, I found Witch Bottle tremendously entertaining and am very happy to recommend it. How often are you going to read a grittily realistic horror novel with a milkman as a central character? “I’ll have three pints and a half dozen eggs please!”
February 1, 2023
Fletcher is a local author and I have been keen to read something by him for a while.
The protagonist here, Daniel, is a delivery driver. Much of the story is ocused on his life and daily routine, and his difficulties associating with other people in the area. He has just come suffered a traumatic end to his previous relationship and is struggling with the lack of contact he now has with his daughter.
Its a character-driven novel with occasional wafts of the supernatural, but for much of the book they are very underplayed. Fletcher's subtlety is what gives the novel its identity and real interest. Rather than the mystic elements, chiefly involving witchcraft, him being exacted upon Daniel, they become instead an extension of his character.
This is Fletcher's fourth novel, a follow up to The Factory Trilogy which I believe had more elements of fantasy. From this, his talents are evident, and it will be interesting to see what he comes up with next.
The protagonist here, Daniel, is a delivery driver. Much of the story is ocused on his life and daily routine, and his difficulties associating with other people in the area. He has just come suffered a traumatic end to his previous relationship and is struggling with the lack of contact he now has with his daughter.
Its a character-driven novel with occasional wafts of the supernatural, but for much of the book they are very underplayed. Fletcher's subtlety is what gives the novel its identity and real interest. Rather than the mystic elements, chiefly involving witchcraft, him being exacted upon Daniel, they become instead an extension of his character.
This is Fletcher's fourth novel, a follow up to The Factory Trilogy which I believe had more elements of fantasy. From this, his talents are evident, and it will be interesting to see what he comes up with next.
April 13, 2023
I bought this entirely on a whim (a mention by someone on Twitter, maybe?) and I'm glad I did. It's absolutely brilliant, a really disturbing slow burn of a novel.
October 24, 2020
How a small thing like chatting with a lonely person can brighten up someone's day. When you give them the chance to talk about their problems, you might even help them by becoming the middleman between the ward maker and the one visited by unwanted nocturnal guests. In that sense, milkman Daniel does a far better job than those who turn a blind eye to all the terrible things happening in the world.
The opening scene had me hooked: what am I reading? Where can I open a window to watch that giant? It is the perfect teaser for what's to come later in the book. There’s also a more symbolic role for the giant (monster) in the story. Past experiences can linger with you for a long time, eating you from within, until they bring the worst out in you and those around you. So, who is the actual monster, the giant or the human?
With every chapter you learn about another part of Daniel’s life, be it a story from the past, the introduction of an acquaintance, or a continuation of the present. The now is the most interesting as this is where the giant and the witch live. All these memories from the past serve a purpose but make for a slow first half of the book. Then out of nowhere, the witch bottle makes its entrance. Something is happening in Cumbria, and by page 100 you know it and they know it.
Every chapter ends with an anticlimactic sentence to end the scene, killing the action and any further thoughts, almost as if the Witch Bottle is a theater piece. Because of this, the book feels more like a collection of anecdotes and encounters held together by what’s going on in the area. Witch Bottle by Tom Fletcher is an interesting book to read, though not as suspenseful as the synopsis suggests. It is, as advertised, a “deeply atmospheric literary horror novel”.
I’m still not sure whether I like the ending. To me, it felt like the stories and troubles of the farmers - my favorite part of the book - were left behind in favor of finishing the bigger story. The supporting cast felt more like real people, while Bean, Ryan, and Graham were not as interesting. Kathryn's story seems unfinished as well, even more because some of the chapters were written from her perspective. I would have thought she would be more on top of things. On the other hand, Daniel stayed true to his personality until the end.
The opening scene had me hooked: what am I reading? Where can I open a window to watch that giant? It is the perfect teaser for what's to come later in the book. There’s also a more symbolic role for the giant (monster) in the story. Past experiences can linger with you for a long time, eating you from within, until they bring the worst out in you and those around you. So, who is the actual monster, the giant or the human?
With every chapter you learn about another part of Daniel’s life, be it a story from the past, the introduction of an acquaintance, or a continuation of the present. The now is the most interesting as this is where the giant and the witch live. All these memories from the past serve a purpose but make for a slow first half of the book. Then out of nowhere, the witch bottle makes its entrance. Something is happening in Cumbria, and by page 100 you know it and they know it.
Every chapter ends with an anticlimactic sentence to end the scene, killing the action and any further thoughts, almost as if the Witch Bottle is a theater piece. Because of this, the book feels more like a collection of anecdotes and encounters held together by what’s going on in the area. Witch Bottle by Tom Fletcher is an interesting book to read, though not as suspenseful as the synopsis suggests. It is, as advertised, a “deeply atmospheric literary horror novel”.
I’m still not sure whether I like the ending. To me, it felt like the stories and troubles of the farmers - my favorite part of the book - were left behind in favor of finishing the bigger story. The supporting cast felt more like real people, while Bean, Ryan, and Graham were not as interesting. Kathryn's story seems unfinished as well, even more because some of the chapters were written from her perspective. I would have thought she would be more on top of things. On the other hand, Daniel stayed true to his personality until the end.
December 9, 2020
Bear with me on this, because I may ramble. I've hidden this review on Goodreads because I think it's better to go in completely blind on this one.
I've enjoyed Tom Fletcher's work for a long time. He writes incredible short stories, and one of my fondest memories of Manchester is hearing him read at a horror event in Waterstones, Deansgate (where Ramsey Campbell took exception to Fletcher's crying child). In short, I'm a fan.
I was so excited to see a new horror novel from Fletcher, and Witch Bottle absolutely didn't disappoint. I raced through it in four days. Mostly because I wanted to know where the story was going.
Witch Bottle is an incredibly engrossing mixture of the mundane, ambiguous, and horrific. Our main character, Daniel, is a milkman with an unclear past. We learn of his annoying colleagues, eccentric customers, and the oppressive yet sprawling landscape. But when vans from a mysterious, evasive company start causing problems on his round, things start to unravel in inconceivable ways. Will he find solace in a local witch/baked potato vendor, or is she inadvertently making matters worse? I cannot sum up this book in a pithy paragraph; there is so much going on.
2020 has been the year of bonkers, cosmic horror novels hiding in plain sight (see You Let Me In, Mexican Gothic, Wonderland). Witch Bottle is another one of those. The ending to this book quickly spirals into something otherworldly, and ends abruptly, but not completely without resolution. And like the best novels, a lot is left to the imagination of the reader, which is often the most terrifying place of all.
I anticipated I would enjoy Witch Bottle, but I was absolutely engrossed. Fletcher's writing is effortless, but by no means simplistic. He has become a real master of his craft. This is absolutely one of my favorite books of 2020.
I've enjoyed Tom Fletcher's work for a long time. He writes incredible short stories, and one of my fondest memories of Manchester is hearing him read at a horror event in Waterstones, Deansgate (where Ramsey Campbell took exception to Fletcher's crying child). In short, I'm a fan.
I was so excited to see a new horror novel from Fletcher, and Witch Bottle absolutely didn't disappoint. I raced through it in four days. Mostly because I wanted to know where the story was going.
Witch Bottle is an incredibly engrossing mixture of the mundane, ambiguous, and horrific. Our main character, Daniel, is a milkman with an unclear past. We learn of his annoying colleagues, eccentric customers, and the oppressive yet sprawling landscape. But when vans from a mysterious, evasive company start causing problems on his round, things start to unravel in inconceivable ways. Will he find solace in a local witch/baked potato vendor, or is she inadvertently making matters worse? I cannot sum up this book in a pithy paragraph; there is so much going on.
2020 has been the year of bonkers, cosmic horror novels hiding in plain sight (see You Let Me In, Mexican Gothic, Wonderland). Witch Bottle is another one of those. The ending to this book quickly spirals into something otherworldly, and ends abruptly, but not completely without resolution. And like the best novels, a lot is left to the imagination of the reader, which is often the most terrifying place of all.
I anticipated I would enjoy Witch Bottle, but I was absolutely engrossed. Fletcher's writing is effortless, but by no means simplistic. He has become a real master of his craft. This is absolutely one of my favorite books of 2020.
April 13, 2022
This book scared the bejesus out of me. Slow-burning, menacing, and set in our mundane world, this is the present day, and it’s not pretty. In the last sections of the book one of the characters observes that everyone around him has been screaming for help, but no one can do anything and there just isn’t the help available. This books is a fucking masterpiece, frankly; a delicate, deft indictment of the horrors of modern-day life and the traumas that they inflict on the psyche.
The story? Daniel is a milkman in Cumbria. He gets up and delivers milk to all the villages and farms and other buildings on his route. He has trauma from his past he’s working through, but that is not helped by the nightmares he’s having of a ravenous giant, and a man with a black bag on his head. He turns for help to Kathryn, who runs the local jacket potato shop, and who also dabbled in witchcraft. But there are more sinister forces at work, and they’re not happy with people’s nightmares being eased.
We follow Daniel for the most part, and we cover all the various things which we accept as ‘normal’ and part of life, and which will absolutely traumatise the fuck out of people. Bereavement, parenthood, existential dread, the state of the world, racial tensions, war trauma, the state of farming in the UK (!), the stress of being a carer, loneliness, untreated mental illness, sexual harassment, pregnancy, post-partum depression, domestic violence… the list goes on. It never feels excessive or unreal; in fact, the horror stems primarily from how much damage these ‘normal’ life events cause.
Highly recommended, 5/5*.
The story? Daniel is a milkman in Cumbria. He gets up and delivers milk to all the villages and farms and other buildings on his route. He has trauma from his past he’s working through, but that is not helped by the nightmares he’s having of a ravenous giant, and a man with a black bag on his head. He turns for help to Kathryn, who runs the local jacket potato shop, and who also dabbled in witchcraft. But there are more sinister forces at work, and they’re not happy with people’s nightmares being eased.
We follow Daniel for the most part, and we cover all the various things which we accept as ‘normal’ and part of life, and which will absolutely traumatise the fuck out of people. Bereavement, parenthood, existential dread, the state of the world, racial tensions, war trauma, the state of farming in the UK (!), the stress of being a carer, loneliness, untreated mental illness, sexual harassment, pregnancy, post-partum depression, domestic violence… the list goes on. It never feels excessive or unreal; in fact, the horror stems primarily from how much damage these ‘normal’ life events cause.
Highly recommended, 5/5*.
May 10, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was strange, gloomy, and just creepy enough. I know some people have complained about how slow the book is and the monotony of the milk delivery scenes. However, I found it reflective of the character's life. He's disconnected from the world and his routine is slow and mundane. The pacing and redundancy drew me deeper into the character's world, helped me understand the dead-end path he's on and the traumatic events that got him there. It also made the strange occurrences even more bizarre. This is a man who unusual things don't happen to. So, when they do happen, is it reality, or is it a descent into madness?
Then, there's the character himself. Despite his uninteresting life, I was deeply compelled by Daniel. I found him relatable and amiable. I enjoyed his company throughout the story and kept hoping for things to work out for him. While I understand his reasons for leaving his family and pulling away from all relations, I felt he unfairly demonized himself.
The ending was abrupt and felt a little out of place. It gave me the impression that the author had rushed through it. However, it was still satisfying and the intrigue of the rest of the book made up for it.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a horror novel that sets the scene with a feeling of of unease, one that gets inside your head and keeps you guessing, all without the cheap scares of gratuitous violence and gore.
Then, there's the character himself. Despite his uninteresting life, I was deeply compelled by Daniel. I found him relatable and amiable. I enjoyed his company throughout the story and kept hoping for things to work out for him. While I understand his reasons for leaving his family and pulling away from all relations, I felt he unfairly demonized himself.
The ending was abrupt and felt a little out of place. It gave me the impression that the author had rushed through it. However, it was still satisfying and the intrigue of the rest of the book made up for it.
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a horror novel that sets the scene with a feeling of of unease, one that gets inside your head and keeps you guessing, all without the cheap scares of gratuitous violence and gore.
September 27, 2020
Daniel has left his wife and daughter and has moved to a remote rural area where he works as a milkman. His new start doesnt go quite as planned as he has started to have nightmares, and has been seeing a hooded figure watching him from outside his window. He is helped by a local witch, who makes "witch bottles" to protect from hauntings. Daniel soon discovers that these hauntings are happening all over the local area and he soon starts to run deliveries of the witch bottles on his rounds. What is happening to all of the "villagers" and who is sending the threatening messages to stop the witch bottle deliveries? Something is not quite right.
The Witch Bottle leaves you feeling uneasy . You can feel the deep sense of loneliness in Daniel as he comes to terms with his ghosts. It's a good read , even if a little rushed at the end. This story leaves you thinking about it, long after the last page is read. I'm thinking I may need a Witch Bottle of my own.
The Witch Bottle leaves you feeling uneasy . You can feel the deep sense of loneliness in Daniel as he comes to terms with his ghosts. It's a good read , even if a little rushed at the end. This story leaves you thinking about it, long after the last page is read. I'm thinking I may need a Witch Bottle of my own.
November 19, 2020
Witch Bottle sounded like a fantastic book. I really liked the description and so I was excited to read it.
Sadly it was awful and I eventually gave up after struggling though until I got to a part I decided I could no longer put myself though any more. (Having been a Midwife the part where his wife has her baby was wrong, No human would be able to turn a baby the way he writes it happens. Now I know this is a work of fiction but its not humanly possible to do a cephalic version that way!!!) A little research on the subject would have made him aware of this and it would have seemed more plausible if that had been the case.
I felt the whole story was very disjointed and all over the place. I feel it would have made a for a great short story without all the added bits. There was a lot of filler with huge detail about delivering milk.
Sadly not for me.
Thanks to Netgalley and Quercus Books for the ARC. (My Review is my own option)
Sadly it was awful and I eventually gave up after struggling though until I got to a part I decided I could no longer put myself though any more. (Having been a Midwife the part where his wife has her baby was wrong, No human would be able to turn a baby the way he writes it happens. Now I know this is a work of fiction but its not humanly possible to do a cephalic version that way!!!) A little research on the subject would have made him aware of this and it would have seemed more plausible if that had been the case.
I felt the whole story was very disjointed and all over the place. I feel it would have made a for a great short story without all the added bits. There was a lot of filler with huge detail about delivering milk.
Sadly not for me.
Thanks to Netgalley and Quercus Books for the ARC. (My Review is my own option)
April 13, 2022
I'm not completely sure what I thought about this novel - but it will stay with me. Fletcher writes of a damaged man working as a milkman and delivery driver in rural Cumbria, dealing with his internal demons and the strains of the job. The book is written with such unrelenting grimness and misery that it made for an admirable, but uncomfortable read - though compelling too. It's hard to explain without giving away important plot points but there are so many dark and depressing aspects to this novel, so many points at which you hoped things would improve for the characters only to find things getting worse.. I'm not sure I wasn't left feeling that it was a shame the author hadn't dialled it back a little and written something not quite as depressing. The supernatural element, for all that I understood it was important to the plot, I didn't much like either - as that wasn't convincing to me.
May 27, 2022
So. Okay. This is a book I have read. And I really don’t know what more I can say about it. I spent the entire thing completely baffled. It felt disjointed, weirdly written and poorly researched. I honestly don’t know why I kept reading to be fair. Perhaps I thought it would make sense eventually? It definitely didn’t. I’ve read some surreal books in my time but this one has given me fresh new frown lines.
February 23, 2022
One of the weirdest reads. Very surreal and unnerving. I like the general concept and the folk-lore vibe in an odd English town. The writing style was easy to follow and felt like a stream of consciousness, it wasn’t trying too hard. But it was slow paced and confusing when it came to flashbacks and switching narrators. Still good doe
November 26, 2020
This is a a story with an air of menace throughout - and I loved it! It's dark, unsettling and liable to take you on a very dark journey! It certainly kept me on the edge of my seat and was really unsettling and I think that's why I couldn't put it down once I'd started.
It really explores the human emotion of loss, of grief, of loneliness and of self preservation. Those times when you need to take yourself off and be by yourself, and when you push others away in your times of need as you're in fear of hurting those you love. The main character, Daniel, a milkman, is just one of those people who has faced tragedy in his life, and while trying to get his life back on track he encounters a local witch who he comes to see as a ray of light in these darker times, but she's involved in making 'witch bottles' which are supposed to protect people from nightmares and harm....not all those in the area are as understanding as he is of 'witchy' ways so more strange things begin to happen and there seems no escape from them.
This is a really different read - there's a lot of time devoted to the milk round he is on as it becomes his life. Out on the road by himself, spending too much time in his own head and the strange things he encounters along the way. It's not a scream out loud horror, but it's one of those really unsettling reads that you never quite know just where it is going to take you.
The more you learn about Daniel and his past, the more you begin to understand his current state of mind. I sometimes even wanted just a bit more shock from the story as it was often a bit of a slow burn. That didn't distract from the overall feel of the story as it was just so different from my recent reads, and nothing prepares you for the twists and turns along the way!!
I really did enjoy the contrasts of his normality - the daily milkround - alongside the darker struggles he faced daily. Seeing how those traumatic events from his past had taken their toll on him was the chilling aspect of the story.
A haunting, dark and twisty story!!
It really explores the human emotion of loss, of grief, of loneliness and of self preservation. Those times when you need to take yourself off and be by yourself, and when you push others away in your times of need as you're in fear of hurting those you love. The main character, Daniel, a milkman, is just one of those people who has faced tragedy in his life, and while trying to get his life back on track he encounters a local witch who he comes to see as a ray of light in these darker times, but she's involved in making 'witch bottles' which are supposed to protect people from nightmares and harm....not all those in the area are as understanding as he is of 'witchy' ways so more strange things begin to happen and there seems no escape from them.
This is a really different read - there's a lot of time devoted to the milk round he is on as it becomes his life. Out on the road by himself, spending too much time in his own head and the strange things he encounters along the way. It's not a scream out loud horror, but it's one of those really unsettling reads that you never quite know just where it is going to take you.
The more you learn about Daniel and his past, the more you begin to understand his current state of mind. I sometimes even wanted just a bit more shock from the story as it was often a bit of a slow burn. That didn't distract from the overall feel of the story as it was just so different from my recent reads, and nothing prepares you for the twists and turns along the way!!
I really did enjoy the contrasts of his normality - the daily milkround - alongside the darker struggles he faced daily. Seeing how those traumatic events from his past had taken their toll on him was the chilling aspect of the story.
A haunting, dark and twisty story!!
November 16, 2020
Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for the opportunity to read the e-ARC of Witch Bottle, in exchange for an honest review.
The story follows Daniel, a man who is living a fairly solitary life as a milkman when strange occurrences and appearances begin in the town he works in.
While the novel is a slow starter, this adds to the atmosphere which Fletcher builds throughout the novel, one of distrust and uncertainty, both of the ghostly goings on and of Daniel. Daniel, as a main character, is far from perfect and we are instantly led to believe there is a dark past which we do not know the details of, yet there is something endearing about his simplicity, his routine and his enjoyment of solitude.
The imagery is somewhat haunting - from that first encounter with the Fallen Stock man to the image on the television in Daniel's childhood flashback - and we are regularly left with a feeling of unease throughout the novel. Kathryn's addition, while integral to the plot, feels two-dimensional, even once we've heard her own story. However, she is in the minority as The Bean and Ryan - two other minor characters - certainly make up for it. While neither are particularly likeable, both are incredibly realistic.
This is not a ghost story of horrible occurrences to good people, this is the haunting of normal people and, frankly, this is how it reads.
This is an enjoyable read, with just the right amount of the supernatural and, while the true villain may seem laughable, there is something horribly poignant about a villain that no one can see, but they certainly can feel.
The story follows Daniel, a man who is living a fairly solitary life as a milkman when strange occurrences and appearances begin in the town he works in.
While the novel is a slow starter, this adds to the atmosphere which Fletcher builds throughout the novel, one of distrust and uncertainty, both of the ghostly goings on and of Daniel. Daniel, as a main character, is far from perfect and we are instantly led to believe there is a dark past which we do not know the details of, yet there is something endearing about his simplicity, his routine and his enjoyment of solitude.
The imagery is somewhat haunting - from that first encounter with the Fallen Stock man to the image on the television in Daniel's childhood flashback - and we are regularly left with a feeling of unease throughout the novel. Kathryn's addition, while integral to the plot, feels two-dimensional, even once we've heard her own story. However, she is in the minority as The Bean and Ryan - two other minor characters - certainly make up for it. While neither are particularly likeable, both are incredibly realistic.
This is not a ghost story of horrible occurrences to good people, this is the haunting of normal people and, frankly, this is how it reads.
This is an enjoyable read, with just the right amount of the supernatural and, while the true villain may seem laughable, there is something horribly poignant about a villain that no one can see, but they certainly can feel.
December 10, 2021
*Copy provided by netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
The moment I started reading this book, I had the immediate thought I was reading something different, and yet very familiar.
Set in the magical realism world of our main character, and with heavy influences from Murakami's writing style, we follow a man in a spiritual and horrible journey of grief, madness and, ultimatly, confrontation with his worst self.
And enjoyable read in every way of the word, and for sure recommended to magical realism readers that wish for a little bit more creepiness in their lives.
The moment I started reading this book, I had the immediate thought I was reading something different, and yet very familiar.
Set in the magical realism world of our main character, and with heavy influences from Murakami's writing style, we follow a man in a spiritual and horrible journey of grief, madness and, ultimatly, confrontation with his worst self.
And enjoyable read in every way of the word, and for sure recommended to magical realism readers that wish for a little bit more creepiness in their lives.
April 23, 2025
Creepy and unsettling, I found the fallen stock drivers far more unnerving than the actual ghosts and I really felt sorry for Daniel.
I'm not entirely sure I understood the ending but I suspect that may be the point.
It did make me crave jacket potatoes.
I'm not entirely sure I understood the ending but I suspect that may be the point.
It did make me crave jacket potatoes.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews