The Queen of the High Fields

by Rhiannon Grist

Winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella 2023. Shortlisted for the SCK Awards, longlisted for the BSFA awards.

Two misfits, Carys Price and Angharad 'Hazard' Evans, strike out from their disenfranchised seaside town to take ownership of the High Fields, a mythical island brimming with world-bending promise.

Objecting to the demands of modern society, they hope to find a place where they can live as they choose, but instead they find an ancient power that tears their friendship apart.

Ten years later, Carys returns to the collapsing world of the High Fields to face the terrifying power of the friend-turned-goddess she left behind.

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Short Stories

141 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 8, 2022

About the author

Rhiannon A Grist is an award-winning author of Weird, Dark and Speculative fiction. Her dark fantasy / folk horror 'The Queen of the High Fields' (Luna Press) won Best Novella at the 2023 British Fantasy Awards.

Reviews

[Runalong · Rating 5 out of 5]

A excellent story weaving Welsh mythology with a unusual friendship (and maybe more) of two young women who seek escape from boring lives

Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...

[Lyndsey Croal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and steeped in Welsh folklore, this novella was a joy to read. A magical tale with a dark mystery of mythical proportions at its heart. Loved it.

[Elna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was definitely interesting, but I'm finding that I don't remember much about it fairly soon after reading...

Very fey descriptions of nature as beautiful and terrible from one moment to the next; dreamy language

I got the vibe that Hazard was trans and that was going to be the big twist (that Hazard would go the the island and become the queen as they were meant to be) but I don't mind that that wasn't it.

[S. Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

My rating : 4.5 of 5 stars

Oh this one was spectacularly good. A modern tale drawing heavily on the Welsh myth of Pwyll and Arawn from the Mabinogion, it's a story of love and friendship and sacrifice, wrapped up in a contemporary fantasy package that's just really well written.

If you're looking for modern variations on classic mythology, this one is definitely worth a look.

[Emmalyn Renato · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella won the British Fantasy award in 2023.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this story of two women and their quest for an ideal world that doesn't go quite as planned. Imaginative and well-written.