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Fellstones
Fellstones takes its name from seven objects on the village green. It’s where Paul Dunstan was adopted by the Staveleys after his parents died in an accident for which he blames himself. The way the Staveleys tried to control him made him move away and change his name. Why were they obsessed with a strange song he seemed to have made up as a child?
Now their daughter Adele has found him. By the time he discovers the cosmic truth about the stones, he may be trapped. There are other dark secrets he’ll discover, and memories to confront. The Fellstones dream, but they’re about to waken.
Now their daughter Adele has found him. By the time he discovers the cosmic truth about the stones, he may be trapped. There are other dark secrets he’ll discover, and memories to confront. The Fellstones dream, but they’re about to waken.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published September 13, 2022
61 people are currently reading
503 people want to read
About the author
Ramsey Campbell
857 books1,593 followersRamsey Campbell is a British writer considered by a number of critics to be one of the great masters of horror fiction. T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today," while S. T. Joshi has said that "future generations will regard him as the leading horror writer of our generation, every bit the equal of Lovecraft or Blackwood."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
October 7, 2022
Michael Staveley was a classically gifted singer as a child and was being trained in music by the Staveleys's who had adopted Michael after his parents were killed in a tragic auto accident. The Staveley's lived in the village called the Fellstones after the seven large stone objects that stood in the village green. Paul felt forced to take lessons and perform while growing up which he hated. He enjoyed music but not the way it was forced upon him. So as soon as he graduated from college he changed his name to Paul Dunstan and never had contact again with the Staveley's.
Many years later their daughter Adele found Michael and told him he was needed back home, that her parents weren't doing well and really needed to see him. Michael went back and he felt bad for staying away so long but he still felt the unnatural pull that the Staveley's had on him and the strange memories and dreams that were coming back to him especially about the stones. Michael wanted to get away but each time he left there was some reason he kept having to go back to the village. A big festival was coming up that the whole village was looking forward to and the Staveley's said he must stay and enjoy the festivities with them and then he could leave. What Michael didn't know but would always hear the villagers saying was that the Fellstones always called you back and you would never want to leave again. Even though he found all the talk and people's actions peculiar especially the Staveley's, Michael felt he could indulge them this one last time. Michael would finally find out many answers to his questions and he would find that he now would experience a living nightmare that there was no waking up from.
This was a slow burn of a novel which all of Ramsey Campbell's novels seem to be but he engages you with interesting characters and an intriguing, creepy storyline that is subdued as it slowly continues to build until reaching an unexpected climax. Paul Dunstan (Michael Staveley) was a wonderfully fledged out character to build the story around. Paul was a likeable although naive, sympathetic and an empathetic character whereas most of the others were very unlikable especially his girlfriend back home and his adopted mother who was so overbearing and nauseatingly selfish, yet these characters made the story more interesting. The dialogue was hard for me to enjoy in the beginning people would respond back to questions or statements with the same question and sometimes it was frustrating for all that repetition of words. I must say though, that if this is a way of small villages speaking then who am I to question their dialect. The last thirty percent of the book started picking up and I felt it was worth waiting for. I could have never imagined what would take place and how the story would end. With that said I'm very pleased that I read this book and it really was a delightful, stylized older fashioned Lovecraftian horror novel.
I want to thank the publisher "Flame Tree Press" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this novel and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!
I recommend this book to other horror readers and have given a rating of 3 1/2 CREEPY AND LOVECRAFTIAN 🌟🌟🌟🌠 STARS!!
Many years later their daughter Adele found Michael and told him he was needed back home, that her parents weren't doing well and really needed to see him. Michael went back and he felt bad for staying away so long but he still felt the unnatural pull that the Staveley's had on him and the strange memories and dreams that were coming back to him especially about the stones. Michael wanted to get away but each time he left there was some reason he kept having to go back to the village. A big festival was coming up that the whole village was looking forward to and the Staveley's said he must stay and enjoy the festivities with them and then he could leave. What Michael didn't know but would always hear the villagers saying was that the Fellstones always called you back and you would never want to leave again. Even though he found all the talk and people's actions peculiar especially the Staveley's, Michael felt he could indulge them this one last time. Michael would finally find out many answers to his questions and he would find that he now would experience a living nightmare that there was no waking up from.
This was a slow burn of a novel which all of Ramsey Campbell's novels seem to be but he engages you with interesting characters and an intriguing, creepy storyline that is subdued as it slowly continues to build until reaching an unexpected climax. Paul Dunstan (Michael Staveley) was a wonderfully fledged out character to build the story around. Paul was a likeable although naive, sympathetic and an empathetic character whereas most of the others were very unlikable especially his girlfriend back home and his adopted mother who was so overbearing and nauseatingly selfish, yet these characters made the story more interesting. The dialogue was hard for me to enjoy in the beginning people would respond back to questions or statements with the same question and sometimes it was frustrating for all that repetition of words. I must say though, that if this is a way of small villages speaking then who am I to question their dialect. The last thirty percent of the book started picking up and I felt it was worth waiting for. I could have never imagined what would take place and how the story would end. With that said I'm very pleased that I read this book and it really was a delightful, stylized older fashioned Lovecraftian horror novel.
I want to thank the publisher "Flame Tree Press" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this novel and any thoughts or opinions expressed are unbiased and mine alone!
I recommend this book to other horror readers and have given a rating of 3 1/2 CREEPY AND LOVECRAFTIAN 🌟🌟🌟🌠 STARS!!
July 30, 2022
4 stars--I really liked it.
This book uses one of my favorite tropes--creepy English villagers doing creepy things. There's also a stone circle, and the plot combines folk and cosmic horror. I really enjoyed the story.
The villagers are truly suffocating, and the narrator--bumbling and closed off--plays right into their hands. Sometimes Campbell's dialogue is hard for me to understand (not sure why), but that contributed to the sense of confusion the narrator felt.
I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!
This book uses one of my favorite tropes--creepy English villagers doing creepy things. There's also a stone circle, and the plot combines folk and cosmic horror. I really enjoyed the story.
The villagers are truly suffocating, and the narrator--bumbling and closed off--plays right into their hands. Sometimes Campbell's dialogue is hard for me to understand (not sure why), but that contributed to the sense of confusion the narrator felt.
I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!
July 18, 2022
We are lucky in the UK to have so many Neolithic stone circles. These ancient megaliths, built by our ancestors some 4000-5000 years ago, have proved an endless source of speculation, legend and folklore for artists and writers down through the centuries. Now, horror writer Ramsey Campbell- himself a legend in his field - has taken up the gauntlet and penned a story centreing on a group of seven standing stones in the fictional village of Fellstones.
The main character - Paul Dunstan - has not had the easiest of lives. His parents were killed in a car crash for which he has always felt responsible. He was adopted and brought up by a family called the Staveleys but years before the story begins, he broke off all contact with them. Their controlling influence had become too great to bear. Now, with a troubled personal relationship increasing his vulnerability, the sudden reappearance of the Staveleys' natural daughter - Adele - kicks off a chain of events that sees him back in Fellstones for the first time in years. Not merely back there, but trapped.
The stones have their purpose and their ancient secrets. Paul's future is inextricably woven in and, as the tension mounts and the danger becomes ever more real, Campbell's unsurpassed talent for creating mounting, creeping dread is at the forefront. Let's just say that the Fellstones are not as friendly or benign as dear old Stonehenge or Avebury.
This was a fantastic read, demonstrating yet again that the master of horror has lost none of his power to entertain, thrill and surprise. More please!
The main character - Paul Dunstan - has not had the easiest of lives. His parents were killed in a car crash for which he has always felt responsible. He was adopted and brought up by a family called the Staveleys but years before the story begins, he broke off all contact with them. Their controlling influence had become too great to bear. Now, with a troubled personal relationship increasing his vulnerability, the sudden reappearance of the Staveleys' natural daughter - Adele - kicks off a chain of events that sees him back in Fellstones for the first time in years. Not merely back there, but trapped.
The stones have their purpose and their ancient secrets. Paul's future is inextricably woven in and, as the tension mounts and the danger becomes ever more real, Campbell's unsurpassed talent for creating mounting, creeping dread is at the forefront. Let's just say that the Fellstones are not as friendly or benign as dear old Stonehenge or Avebury.
This was a fantastic read, demonstrating yet again that the master of horror has lost none of his power to entertain, thrill and surprise. More please!
August 14, 2022
This book had so much promise but unfortunately for me it did not deliver. It just did not work. A very slow burner and I can see some readers giving up. I nearly did but I perserverence. You know something bad is going to happen but when??? Reminds me very much of the tv programme Children of the Stones that was better and aimed at a youth audience say no more.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
June 4, 2023
Review Summary: Fellstones is very much a Ramsey Campbell novel 'of his type' with a blend of folk- and cosmic-horror [and just a touch of sex and gore] wrapped inside a shell of socially awkward and disjointed conversations and modern-meets-ancient expectations. Largely for pre-existing fans of Campbell, the story's initial premise of a person torn between two worlds has promise but ultimately it becomes a story about the old ways more so than the new world. Lots of music references with a dash of sassiness about working in modern day bookstores.
Ramsey Campbell is an absolute master of bridging the gap between weird fiction and weird social interactions. The master, really. Fellstones is basically Campbell just showing off his skills in this light.
Paul Dunstan is a somewhat lackluster bookstore clerk who specializes in music — unfortunately music people do not seem too keen to buy. He is also Michael, a brilliant musician with a heavenly voice and the ability to tap into the vital sounds around him. Having fled his foster family for their overbearing and strange ways (even his name being forced upon him by the foster family who refuses to call him Paul), he tries to create a new identity afloat in the modern world, seeking mostly just a way to live and enjoy his life. The Staverlies, however, know that Paul/Michael is destined for something more and want him back and part of their world.
For those keeping score, this means Campbell has set up a story where social weirdness shows up from two different fronts. For Paul, the days working the bookstore are fair but somewhat fruitless* and his relationship with a fellow clerk is adequate but never exactly satisfying. For Michael, the return to his old family life is fraught with innumerable strange encounters and a loss of personal control as memories — which he has largely buried — start returning to explain why he left and stayed so desperately away in the first place. Paul/Michael does not exist well in either place and yet finds himself beholden in both cases to other people's whims and expectations, with little room for himself to be himself.
Structurally, this is a "Innsmouth" story: the outsider brushing against a tightknit community that actually holds connections to themselves. You might even see this as doubly so such a story since the bookstore is another community full of strange ways and rituals that Paul cannot truly fathom. This form embraces a twisted helix of a hero myth: a descent into hell followed by transcendence brought about by the dissolution of self. The best variation on this theme is Fred Chappell's Dagon, a southern gothic rewrite of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". There, like here, the elements of romance and awe are mutated and distorted, outside of the protagonist's ability to grasp (and the reader's ability to approach) until the shutters fall away. The window to the great Other is open and the hero continuously balances upon the ledge precariously. To fall forward or backward is loss, but neither can they stay in the center. Eventually the choice is made by them or for them, and either way a transmutation must be endured.
Campbell is not so much concerned with balance — Fellstones is a novel about Michael and his music with Paul's own attempt to flee the gravity of an parasitic familial relationship treated more as a Rumspringa than a true identity — but stories grow a bit more organically than a writer can properly control and you feel Campbell trying to tug the slowburn and sometimes adrift-in-rural-England narrative into a path that might allow for Paul/Michael to have their own space. I am personally a sucker for Innsmouth stories where the hero gives into the pull of the Other but it would be no fun if they all were so clear cut and this one is never quite ready to give either side of the window an easy time of it.
Perhaps this novel is best thought of as a metaphor for abusive relationships: toxic families that consider their demands justified. The great music of yesteryear, the harmony of the spheres, the attempt to understand transmutations and what they mean — all are just ways of dealing with a family that considers Paul to be their own property and consider their use and abuse and control of Paul-int0-Michael to be an expression of love. Mostly love of themselves, sure, but narcissists rarely understand the difference.
The novel ultimately needs Paul/Michael to love himself (bonus if the reader loves him) and I think it finds a path that makes that almost work. Not necessarily during the course of the novel's text, but in the sense of us seeing a doorway towards it. Overcoming a lifetime of abuse, control, and neglect is never pat nor trite. Even without all the folksy, otherworldly stuff going on.
I am a fan of the story and for me it is easily five-stars.
If you are not a fan of Campbell, I do not think it will sway you. If you like Campbell but want something radically different from him, this is probably not it. But if you like Campbell and the way he turns paranoia and anxiety into a gateway of awe towards the Other, this one is awfully nice.
1-week-later-BONUS: I forgot to mention.... there is a Howard the Duck reference just given pretty baldly at one point. Not, like, someone mentions Howard the Duck. No, a character hallucinates seeing a giant duck coming towards him and then finds out it is a guy named Howard. What a strange thing. I hope Campbell has been waiting for years to slap that in where he could.
=====
* Those who have read The Overnight know of Campbell's time working in a bookstore himself and how he is quite able to channel that sort of fruitless modernity into frustration and anxiety.
Ramsey Campbell is an absolute master of bridging the gap between weird fiction and weird social interactions. The master, really. Fellstones is basically Campbell just showing off his skills in this light.
Paul Dunstan is a somewhat lackluster bookstore clerk who specializes in music — unfortunately music people do not seem too keen to buy. He is also Michael, a brilliant musician with a heavenly voice and the ability to tap into the vital sounds around him. Having fled his foster family for their overbearing and strange ways (even his name being forced upon him by the foster family who refuses to call him Paul), he tries to create a new identity afloat in the modern world, seeking mostly just a way to live and enjoy his life. The Staverlies, however, know that Paul/Michael is destined for something more and want him back and part of their world.
For those keeping score, this means Campbell has set up a story where social weirdness shows up from two different fronts. For Paul, the days working the bookstore are fair but somewhat fruitless* and his relationship with a fellow clerk is adequate but never exactly satisfying. For Michael, the return to his old family life is fraught with innumerable strange encounters and a loss of personal control as memories — which he has largely buried — start returning to explain why he left and stayed so desperately away in the first place. Paul/Michael does not exist well in either place and yet finds himself beholden in both cases to other people's whims and expectations, with little room for himself to be himself.
Structurally, this is a "Innsmouth" story: the outsider brushing against a tightknit community that actually holds connections to themselves. You might even see this as doubly so such a story since the bookstore is another community full of strange ways and rituals that Paul cannot truly fathom. This form embraces a twisted helix of a hero myth: a descent into hell followed by transcendence brought about by the dissolution of self. The best variation on this theme is Fred Chappell's Dagon, a southern gothic rewrite of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". There, like here, the elements of romance and awe are mutated and distorted, outside of the protagonist's ability to grasp (and the reader's ability to approach) until the shutters fall away. The window to the great Other is open and the hero continuously balances upon the ledge precariously. To fall forward or backward is loss, but neither can they stay in the center. Eventually the choice is made by them or for them, and either way a transmutation must be endured.
Campbell is not so much concerned with balance — Fellstones is a novel about Michael and his music with Paul's own attempt to flee the gravity of an parasitic familial relationship treated more as a Rumspringa than a true identity — but stories grow a bit more organically than a writer can properly control and you feel Campbell trying to tug the slowburn and sometimes adrift-in-rural-England narrative into a path that might allow for Paul/Michael to have their own space. I am personally a sucker for Innsmouth stories where the hero gives into the pull of the Other but it would be no fun if they all were so clear cut and this one is never quite ready to give either side of the window an easy time of it.
Perhaps this novel is best thought of as a metaphor for abusive relationships: toxic families that consider their demands justified. The great music of yesteryear, the harmony of the spheres, the attempt to understand transmutations and what they mean — all are just ways of dealing with a family that considers Paul to be their own property and consider their use and abuse and control of Paul-int0-Michael to be an expression of love. Mostly love of themselves, sure, but narcissists rarely understand the difference.
The novel ultimately needs Paul/Michael to love himself (bonus if the reader loves him) and I think it finds a path that makes that almost work. Not necessarily during the course of the novel's text, but in the sense of us seeing a doorway towards it. Overcoming a lifetime of abuse, control, and neglect is never pat nor trite. Even without all the folksy, otherworldly stuff going on.
I am a fan of the story and for me it is easily five-stars.
If you are not a fan of Campbell, I do not think it will sway you. If you like Campbell but want something radically different from him, this is probably not it. But if you like Campbell and the way he turns paranoia and anxiety into a gateway of awe towards the Other, this one is awfully nice.
1-week-later-BONUS: I forgot to mention.... there is a Howard the Duck reference just given pretty baldly at one point. Not, like, someone mentions Howard the Duck. No, a character hallucinates seeing a giant duck coming towards him and then finds out it is a guy named Howard. What a strange thing. I hope Campbell has been waiting for years to slap that in where he could.
=====
* Those who have read The Overnight know of Campbell's time working in a bookstore himself and how he is quite able to channel that sort of fruitless modernity into frustration and anxiety.
Read
September 17, 2022I do like a slow burn read and stories involving stone circles and villages and weird goings on (Avebury was always a favourite place of mine and the tv series Children of the Stones was a part of my childhood). The feeling of secrets being kept and memories recalled kept me turning the pages although the musical references, feeding into the theme of cosmic harmonies, tended to lose me - and if I had parents/guardians like the Staveleys, I wouldn't have just runaway to the city,I would have emigrated - there were a lot of unlikable characters in this book! Having said that, I loved the eerie atmosphere and the occult story of Dee and Bartholomew Kingseen which led to contact otherworldly beings and triggered the events which would control Paul Dunstan's life in the modern day. Whilst not as good as The Wise Friend, it is still worth your time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 11, 2022
Michael Paul Dunstan is performing the daily drudgery of his day job, buying music for the bookstore Texts when his dimly recalled past catches up to him. When he was a child, Paul's parents died in an auto wreck and he went to live with the Staveley family, music teachers and enthusiasts. Until that family's daughter Dell comes hunting after him, Paul doesn't realize just how many of the details of that childhood he's lost. She comes with bad news, that his guardians might not have much time left and wish to see him. Being a good lad, he of course agrees to drive out and see them, and so takes a road trip to a town named for the eerie standing stones found on the greenery of Kingseen Field within its borders. The guardians don't seem the worst for wear after all, and Paul winds up getting pulled into a mystery.
The longer Paul remains in his family's company, the more details he begins to recall. Some of these are good, of course. Some of them are pleasantly eerie, such as the childhood stories Dell told about Mr. Jellyfingers and his weird family. Some of them are downright unsettling, such as the lengths Rafe and Winifred Staveley went to keep Paul under their control and guide him toward a career they wanted for him, which he did not want for himself.
As the pieces fall into place, a festival looms and the role Paul has been subtly groomed for begins to take real shape. One by one, his family will strip away the safe life he built for himself in Liverpool, guiding him back into their sphere of influence. Will Paul be able to assemble the clues and understand the fate intended for him before it is too late to escape?
I've said it before, and I'll happily cry it from the rooftops for the rest of my days: a new book from Ramsey Campbell is a cause for celebration. He's a master of many branches of horror, dark fantasy, and suspense. He's got a terrific understanding of these fields' histories, but he's also developed his own style and approach. This is not simply Arthur Machen redux or cribbed notes from giants like Algernon Blackwood or M. R. James. Campbell has synthesized all the greats into his own visions, and his latest book Fellstones invokes a trifecta of terrors: folklore frights, cosmic creepiness, and acutely drawn psychological horror. It's a set of lovely ingredients for a flavorful story stew, and Campbell constantly surprises with the way these elements relate not only to one another but to assumptions that horror readers might have about how such stories can and do operate.
The psychological angle asks a lot of questions about memory, agency, and purpose. All of these get wrapped up in similar questions about identity that informed Campbell's previous book, Somebody's Voice. Paul Dunstan has been living under his parents surname, and when Dell comes asking for him as Michael Staveley her inquiries cause ripples in his work and love lives. Do his coworkers really know him? Why should Paul operate under an assumed name? If he can't bother to tell his girlfriend about his name and past, how much of what he has told her can she trust? It's a clever way to start drawing Paul away his safe and comfortable world and into a realm of instability.
This is only heightened when Paul returns to Fellstones, meets up with the family, has a relatively good time (with occasional spikes of WTF eeriness) and finds his day-to-day lifestyle choices challenged by people who claim to have his best interests at heart. None of the attacks are overtly malicious, but they are certainly pointed, and a few of the arguments are based on assumptions too spurious to be believed. Then again, shared history sometimes makes people blind to manipulation and deception.
The folk horror elements found in Fellstones are unlike some of the more scenarios readers may be accustomed to. Sure, the town of Fellstones has an unusual history, particularly surrounding those massive hunks of rock from which it draws its name. The townsfolk, however, are not overtly cruel, mad, or even standoffish people willing to kill in order to keep ancient traditions alive. On the surface, Paul's guardians and neighbors are generally welcoming, sociable, and considerate sorts. Everyday folks. However, they have an unspoken agenda, which emerges in dribs and drabs over several visits …
Few writers can pen passive-aggressive dialogue that rings with so much sinister intent as Campbell. It's one of the charms of his longer works, especially, that the people who talk often refuse to show their real motivations, couching them in false concern for another's wellbeing.
Imagine the worst relative you have, that uncle or aunt who seems well meaning but is really only interested in getting her own way for petty, seemingly inconsequential purposes. Now take that behavior to the nth degree, make a whole little corner of town filled with that personality type, and you have some idea of the adversaries of this book. They are not stock horror villains, but they are nevertheless awful buggers. Turning loose an honestly well-meaning and rational person amongst them makes for some fascinating and appropriately frustrating drama.
Finally, the cosmic horrors have nothing to do with Lovecraft's entities. There is a mythos at work underneath the titular stones, Kingseen Field, and the house overlooking them, but Cthulhu's all-too-familiar tentacles are not to be found here. Instead, Campbell's book invokes the ineffable in ways that recall M. R. James at his best.
Music is the connective tissue for this angle. Paul was a gifted singer as a child, who grew to hate the constant push into that field for his career, his life. He pushed back and veered into the realm of music history. A few bars are all he needs to recognize a piece's name, composer, and general length. He's still got a talent for singing, and that talent is what's getting him in trouble. There are cosmic vibrations, you see, which can tap into old powers. Paul alone seems to possess the right qualities to activate those, and the songs required are sunk deep in his memory (possibly in his DNA), but to what terrible, dare we ask fell, purpose?
Readers looking for heavy duty doses of more familiar family beset by an ineffable monstrous horror (ala Midnight Sun) or the skulking presences found in Campbell's earlier stab at folk horror, Ancient Images, may be somewhat disappointed. There are plenty of strange occurrences and unexplainable phenomenon (particularly when our protagonist interacts with the stones), but they often take a backseat to how those things affect the people who live in close proximity to them. It's a literary horror approach to the subject. One fixated on this poor schlub dealing with his insufferable guardians and their equally insufferable neighbors.
Folks who judge horror based on how many bloodlettings can be fitted between the covers will be left wondering what all the fuss is about and those looking for creepy creatures probably won't appreciate the Staveleys for the monsters they really are underneath those well-meaning guises.
Fellstones offers another welcome visit to Ramsey Campbell's personal and peculiar corner of horror fiction. It's perhaps not as continuously chilling as earlier works from the author such as the exemplary The Hungry Moon, but it's a page turner with something to say about the often toxic ways people interact with one another, and the narrative builds to an appropriately eerie supernatural conclusion that ranks among Campbell's best. It's a pleasure to see a master storyteller spinning his surprising and uncomfortable yarns.
The longer Paul remains in his family's company, the more details he begins to recall. Some of these are good, of course. Some of them are pleasantly eerie, such as the childhood stories Dell told about Mr. Jellyfingers and his weird family. Some of them are downright unsettling, such as the lengths Rafe and Winifred Staveley went to keep Paul under their control and guide him toward a career they wanted for him, which he did not want for himself.
As the pieces fall into place, a festival looms and the role Paul has been subtly groomed for begins to take real shape. One by one, his family will strip away the safe life he built for himself in Liverpool, guiding him back into their sphere of influence. Will Paul be able to assemble the clues and understand the fate intended for him before it is too late to escape?
I've said it before, and I'll happily cry it from the rooftops for the rest of my days: a new book from Ramsey Campbell is a cause for celebration. He's a master of many branches of horror, dark fantasy, and suspense. He's got a terrific understanding of these fields' histories, but he's also developed his own style and approach. This is not simply Arthur Machen redux or cribbed notes from giants like Algernon Blackwood or M. R. James. Campbell has synthesized all the greats into his own visions, and his latest book Fellstones invokes a trifecta of terrors: folklore frights, cosmic creepiness, and acutely drawn psychological horror. It's a set of lovely ingredients for a flavorful story stew, and Campbell constantly surprises with the way these elements relate not only to one another but to assumptions that horror readers might have about how such stories can and do operate.
The psychological angle asks a lot of questions about memory, agency, and purpose. All of these get wrapped up in similar questions about identity that informed Campbell's previous book, Somebody's Voice. Paul Dunstan has been living under his parents surname, and when Dell comes asking for him as Michael Staveley her inquiries cause ripples in his work and love lives. Do his coworkers really know him? Why should Paul operate under an assumed name? If he can't bother to tell his girlfriend about his name and past, how much of what he has told her can she trust? It's a clever way to start drawing Paul away his safe and comfortable world and into a realm of instability.
This is only heightened when Paul returns to Fellstones, meets up with the family, has a relatively good time (with occasional spikes of WTF eeriness) and finds his day-to-day lifestyle choices challenged by people who claim to have his best interests at heart. None of the attacks are overtly malicious, but they are certainly pointed, and a few of the arguments are based on assumptions too spurious to be believed. Then again, shared history sometimes makes people blind to manipulation and deception.
The folk horror elements found in Fellstones are unlike some of the more scenarios readers may be accustomed to. Sure, the town of Fellstones has an unusual history, particularly surrounding those massive hunks of rock from which it draws its name. The townsfolk, however, are not overtly cruel, mad, or even standoffish people willing to kill in order to keep ancient traditions alive. On the surface, Paul's guardians and neighbors are generally welcoming, sociable, and considerate sorts. Everyday folks. However, they have an unspoken agenda, which emerges in dribs and drabs over several visits …
Few writers can pen passive-aggressive dialogue that rings with so much sinister intent as Campbell. It's one of the charms of his longer works, especially, that the people who talk often refuse to show their real motivations, couching them in false concern for another's wellbeing.
Imagine the worst relative you have, that uncle or aunt who seems well meaning but is really only interested in getting her own way for petty, seemingly inconsequential purposes. Now take that behavior to the nth degree, make a whole little corner of town filled with that personality type, and you have some idea of the adversaries of this book. They are not stock horror villains, but they are nevertheless awful buggers. Turning loose an honestly well-meaning and rational person amongst them makes for some fascinating and appropriately frustrating drama.
Finally, the cosmic horrors have nothing to do with Lovecraft's entities. There is a mythos at work underneath the titular stones, Kingseen Field, and the house overlooking them, but Cthulhu's all-too-familiar tentacles are not to be found here. Instead, Campbell's book invokes the ineffable in ways that recall M. R. James at his best.
Music is the connective tissue for this angle. Paul was a gifted singer as a child, who grew to hate the constant push into that field for his career, his life. He pushed back and veered into the realm of music history. A few bars are all he needs to recognize a piece's name, composer, and general length. He's still got a talent for singing, and that talent is what's getting him in trouble. There are cosmic vibrations, you see, which can tap into old powers. Paul alone seems to possess the right qualities to activate those, and the songs required are sunk deep in his memory (possibly in his DNA), but to what terrible, dare we ask fell, purpose?
Readers looking for heavy duty doses of more familiar family beset by an ineffable monstrous horror (ala Midnight Sun) or the skulking presences found in Campbell's earlier stab at folk horror, Ancient Images, may be somewhat disappointed. There are plenty of strange occurrences and unexplainable phenomenon (particularly when our protagonist interacts with the stones), but they often take a backseat to how those things affect the people who live in close proximity to them. It's a literary horror approach to the subject. One fixated on this poor schlub dealing with his insufferable guardians and their equally insufferable neighbors.
Folks who judge horror based on how many bloodlettings can be fitted between the covers will be left wondering what all the fuss is about and those looking for creepy creatures probably won't appreciate the Staveleys for the monsters they really are underneath those well-meaning guises.
Fellstones offers another welcome visit to Ramsey Campbell's personal and peculiar corner of horror fiction. It's perhaps not as continuously chilling as earlier works from the author such as the exemplary The Hungry Moon, but it's a page turner with something to say about the often toxic ways people interact with one another, and the narrative builds to an appropriately eerie supernatural conclusion that ranks among Campbell's best. It's a pleasure to see a master storyteller spinning his surprising and uncomfortable yarns.
April 20, 2023
Hidastettu autokolari -tyyppinen kauhukokemus, juurevaa, kosmista ja klassisen hiipivää samassa paketissa. Teki mieli huutaa päähenkilölle koko ajan että älä nyt ainakaan tota tee! Tykkäsin!
June 24, 2022
DNF due to formatting issues. :(
The story itself seemed interesting.
The story itself seemed interesting.
February 1, 2023
2.75⭐️
Repetitious (especially the music references), although I like the folk horror vibe. Would have made a better short story.
Repetitious (especially the music references), although I like the folk horror vibe. Would have made a better short story.
December 27, 2023
British Folk Horror meets Cosmic Horror: When the stars are right ....
3 ½ gibt's von mir.
3 ½ gibt's von mir.
August 19, 2022
Fellstones follows a young man, Paul, who lives and works in Liverpool with his girlfriend, Caren. One day while at work, he is summoned by his adoptive sister, Adele, to his childhood village to visit their parents. At the heart of the village, named Fellstones, stand seven mysterious stones. A village that, once Paul returns to, is reluctant to allow him to leave.
Fellstones is driven by a sense of creeping paranoia, of family drama, and of ancient secrets and conspiracies. Fellstones is yet another great work by Ramsey Campbell, one of horror’s masters, and will appeal to fans of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space, Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, and Thomas Tryon’s Harvest Home.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.
Fellstones is driven by a sense of creeping paranoia, of family drama, and of ancient secrets and conspiracies. Fellstones is yet another great work by Ramsey Campbell, one of horror’s masters, and will appeal to fans of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space, Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, and Thomas Tryon’s Harvest Home.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for the opportunity to read an advanced copy.
August 20, 2022
Sadly I wasn’t a huge fan of this book despite being very excited to be approved for an arc. The trope is too similar to ones he’s done before and the concept felt a little old fashioned and tired. I know he can still pull one out the bag as he did with The Wise Friend which was released a couple of years ago and was subtle, creepy and very true to his old horror style. I wanted something a little fresher and more genuine, rather than a rehashing of similar themes.
September 15, 2022
The master of horror, Ramsey Campbell is back for another dose of some truly creepy cosmic horror. Paul is a young man is summoned back to his adoptive parents home in Fellstones. Paul left this family behind after college because he always felt that they wanted him to be someone that he didn’t want to be. Unfortunately, he agrees to see visit his family and somehow gets sucked back into all of the family’s drama. Throughout the book, the reader knows that something bad is going to happen and when it does it is very satisfying. This book was like a combination of cosmic horror meets village folklore with a dash of classical music thrown in just for fun. All in all, I enjoyed this fast paced unsettling read.
September 13, 2022
Fellstones by Ramsey Campbell.
Fellstones takes its name from seven objects on the village green. It’s where Paul Dunstan was adopted by the Staveleys after his parents died in an accident for which he blames himself. The way the Staveleys tried to control him made him move away and change his name. Why were they obsessed with a strange song he seemed to have made up as a child?
An intriguing read. Different. I did like the cover. 4*.
Fellstones takes its name from seven objects on the village green. It’s where Paul Dunstan was adopted by the Staveleys after his parents died in an accident for which he blames himself. The way the Staveleys tried to control him made him move away and change his name. Why were they obsessed with a strange song he seemed to have made up as a child?
An intriguing read. Different. I did like the cover. 4*.
August 14, 2022
Fellstones, by Ramsey Campbell, is an interesting combination of cosmic and folk horror that takes place in Great Britain.
The story begins with the protagonist standing alone at the top of a building. He is at peace until someone comes to fetch him. “Someone wants you down here, Paul.” This clever element of foreshadowing sets the stage for mystery, or perhaps even better, danger emanating from below. Then to add to the tension, the voice adds, “She says she knows you. Knows your name.” As the legends go, knowing the true name of something or someone confers ownership. Does this visitor have some sort of hold on Paul? He treads down the stairs to the book shop where he works, and the adventure begins.
Why did Paul change his name? Could he be hiding from something or someone?
The protagonist, Paul Dunstan, is a person who has not reached his full potential. He is college educated, has a profound knowledge of classical music, and perfect pitch. He admits he has dreams of owing his own business, but instead, he appears to be hiding in someone else’s bookstore, where he is exploited by the owner. He is in a relationship devoid of depth, loyalty, and true intimacy. It’s as if he is sleepwalking through life. Why is he hiding in this unfriendly, defeatist situation?
Paul’s past has finally come calling. His real name is Michael Staveley. He must return to his hometown of Fellstones to face his past and to attend the Fellstones festival. When he gets there, the community raises their glasses to Paul, saying, “Here’s to maintaining our community.” Something just isn’t right.
The tale begins slowly, carefully, but gains speed and complexity when Michael begins to research the history of the town, a magician who once lived there, and the seven fellstones that supposedly fell from seven stars. As he stumbles toward his future while trying to come to terms with forgotten past and traumatic childhood, readers will come to root for him.
As always, Campbell’s writing, especially the realistic dialogue, is a pleasure to read. His style is consistent, especially with his use of metaphors. As in the great and wonderful The Wise Friend where Campbell introduces readers to the fantastic feminist surrealism of Leonora Carrington, in Fellstones he creates a motif via a repeated use of references to classical music. It would be interesting to find that any of those classical works harmonize with the tenor of the plot line.
Fellstones comes highly recommended as a fine and traditional example of cosmic horror that builds the intensity at a leisured pace where the past and present must come to terms with each other. In addition, due to the fact that the townspeople lust after a return of the glory from their collective past, Campbell offers an element of folk horror.
Will Michael overcome childhood trauma and become victorious, or will he end up like the storied straw man, sacrificed by the community.
The story begins with the protagonist standing alone at the top of a building. He is at peace until someone comes to fetch him. “Someone wants you down here, Paul.” This clever element of foreshadowing sets the stage for mystery, or perhaps even better, danger emanating from below. Then to add to the tension, the voice adds, “She says she knows you. Knows your name.” As the legends go, knowing the true name of something or someone confers ownership. Does this visitor have some sort of hold on Paul? He treads down the stairs to the book shop where he works, and the adventure begins.
Why did Paul change his name? Could he be hiding from something or someone?
The protagonist, Paul Dunstan, is a person who has not reached his full potential. He is college educated, has a profound knowledge of classical music, and perfect pitch. He admits he has dreams of owing his own business, but instead, he appears to be hiding in someone else’s bookstore, where he is exploited by the owner. He is in a relationship devoid of depth, loyalty, and true intimacy. It’s as if he is sleepwalking through life. Why is he hiding in this unfriendly, defeatist situation?
Paul’s past has finally come calling. His real name is Michael Staveley. He must return to his hometown of Fellstones to face his past and to attend the Fellstones festival. When he gets there, the community raises their glasses to Paul, saying, “Here’s to maintaining our community.” Something just isn’t right.
The tale begins slowly, carefully, but gains speed and complexity when Michael begins to research the history of the town, a magician who once lived there, and the seven fellstones that supposedly fell from seven stars. As he stumbles toward his future while trying to come to terms with forgotten past and traumatic childhood, readers will come to root for him.
As always, Campbell’s writing, especially the realistic dialogue, is a pleasure to read. His style is consistent, especially with his use of metaphors. As in the great and wonderful The Wise Friend where Campbell introduces readers to the fantastic feminist surrealism of Leonora Carrington, in Fellstones he creates a motif via a repeated use of references to classical music. It would be interesting to find that any of those classical works harmonize with the tenor of the plot line.
Fellstones comes highly recommended as a fine and traditional example of cosmic horror that builds the intensity at a leisured pace where the past and present must come to terms with each other. In addition, due to the fact that the townspeople lust after a return of the glory from their collective past, Campbell offers an element of folk horror.
Will Michael overcome childhood trauma and become victorious, or will he end up like the storied straw man, sacrificed by the community.
July 18, 2022
I’ve been a fan of the work of Ramsey Campbell from as far back as I can remember. Back in the day I always felt his novels had a rather different style to that of his short stories, however I’ve noticed more recently that this style seems to have spread across his output, giving him a very distinct tone and feel. This is to be celebrated, because I consider Campbell to be one of the most unique voices to come out of the British horror genre.
Fellstones tells of the story of Paul Dunstan, who was adopted by the Staveleys following the sudden death of his parents (for which he blames himself), who moved away and changed his name in an effort to escape their strictly controlling ways. When his adopted sister Adele finds him and persuades him to journey back to Fellstones, the small north-western village named after the seven stone monoliths marking the village green, he reluctantly agrees. What purpose do the Staveleys have in store for Paul, and what is real significance of those sinister standing stones?
As with much of Campbell’s fiction, the dialogue is quite brilliant, at times laugh out loud funny. He has such an ear for phrasing and a skill at building up layers upon layers of detail until the characters’ psychological torment is palpable. This novel blends folk horror with cosmic horror, and is a great example of how ‘less is more’ subtlety works to greater success in the genre of weird fiction.
Fellstones is published in September 2022 by Flame Tree Press. It’s a solid entry to the genre, and won’t disappoint fans of Ramsey Campbell or weird fiction in general. Recommended.
Fellstones tells of the story of Paul Dunstan, who was adopted by the Staveleys following the sudden death of his parents (for which he blames himself), who moved away and changed his name in an effort to escape their strictly controlling ways. When his adopted sister Adele finds him and persuades him to journey back to Fellstones, the small north-western village named after the seven stone monoliths marking the village green, he reluctantly agrees. What purpose do the Staveleys have in store for Paul, and what is real significance of those sinister standing stones?
As with much of Campbell’s fiction, the dialogue is quite brilliant, at times laugh out loud funny. He has such an ear for phrasing and a skill at building up layers upon layers of detail until the characters’ psychological torment is palpable. This novel blends folk horror with cosmic horror, and is a great example of how ‘less is more’ subtlety works to greater success in the genre of weird fiction.
Fellstones is published in September 2022 by Flame Tree Press. It’s a solid entry to the genre, and won’t disappoint fans of Ramsey Campbell or weird fiction in general. Recommended.
June 23, 2022
Paul, who fled the family who adopted him as they were too interfering, has his own life under another name. But his adopted sister, Adele, finds him and persuades him to see his parents once again. They live in Fellstones, named for the strange seven stones grading the village green. Soon, Paul is sucked back into coming back, while unbeknownst to him, his family is plotting something that has to do with him and the stones.
I’m honestly not sure what to make of Fellstones, the forthcoming book by the great Ramsey Campbell. All the horror tropes are there - the mystical seven stones in the village green, the close mouthed villagers who are harboring a secret, and the duped main character, who is slow to realize what’s going on. Yet there was, at least for me, no sense of dread or horror, while reading the book. I had to force myself to finish the book, which at times, just dragged. All in all, a decent effort.
My thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of Fellstones.
I’m honestly not sure what to make of Fellstones, the forthcoming book by the great Ramsey Campbell. All the horror tropes are there - the mystical seven stones in the village green, the close mouthed villagers who are harboring a secret, and the duped main character, who is slow to realize what’s going on. Yet there was, at least for me, no sense of dread or horror, while reading the book. I had to force myself to finish the book, which at times, just dragged. All in all, a decent effort.
My thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of Fellstones.
August 1, 2022
Oh man! Talk about nightmare fuel with the lore that surrounds the legendary Fellstones in this story. Mr. Jellyfingers? No thanks!
This is a solid and unique horror story from an author I haven’t gotten the pleasure of reading yet.
The characters were all terribly ominous and frustrating which helped to give the book a heavy tension from the beginning. The feeling of dread continues to amp up as the story processes.
I feel like this book would be great for fans of cosmic horror with a dash of Misery vibes thrown in for good measure!
This is a solid and unique horror story from an author I haven’t gotten the pleasure of reading yet.
The characters were all terribly ominous and frustrating which helped to give the book a heavy tension from the beginning. The feeling of dread continues to amp up as the story processes.
I feel like this book would be great for fans of cosmic horror with a dash of Misery vibes thrown in for good measure!
September 24, 2022
A book for people who think their family is way scarier than any monster or serial killer. Also, at risk of repeating myself:
September 15, 2022
Fellstones is an atmospheric horror tale set in a creepy modern day English village.
Michael Paul Dunston comes home to the adopted family he has not seen in years. His adopted sister has called him home because his adopted parents are ill. However, when he arrives, they seem fine—but just as needy for his presence as before he left home. There is a boozy celebratory dinner with the neighbors. Michael Paul decides to stay the night as he in no condition to drive. But his hangover continues into a second day. What is really going on?
Fellstones is definitely creepy with clear origins like The Witches (1966). However, it has a leisurely pace, which seems more like older horror books. The eerie conclusion was great and worth waiting for. 3 stars!
Thanks to Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.
Michael Paul Dunston comes home to the adopted family he has not seen in years. His adopted sister has called him home because his adopted parents are ill. However, when he arrives, they seem fine—but just as needy for his presence as before he left home. There is a boozy celebratory dinner with the neighbors. Michael Paul decides to stay the night as he in no condition to drive. But his hangover continues into a second day. What is really going on?
Fellstones is definitely creepy with clear origins like The Witches (1966). However, it has a leisurely pace, which seems more like older horror books. The eerie conclusion was great and worth waiting for. 3 stars!
Thanks to Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.
September 17, 2022
Wow this was exactly the sort of book I love! It built up at a steady pace that left me with an eerie, creepy feeling. The Staveleys, who adopted Paul are wonderfully sinister and something just doesn't feel right about the community they live in. I'm fascinated with ancient sites such as stone circles, so that really drew me to want to read this. It's very rare I read or watch anything that really gives me the creeps but this hit the spot. A new author to me but one I will be reading more of!
September 15, 2022
After last year’s gripping excursion into (what we might clumsily call) social realist territory, SOMEBODY’S VOICE, Ramsey Campbell is back where perhaps he truly feels he belongs: the supernatural weird with more than a hint of cosmicism. Story-wise, FELLSTONES is relatively easy to describe: following the deaths of his parents, the care and supervision of young Paul is taken on by his music teachers, a family – mother, father, daughter – rather more expectant than the role ought to involve. Why on earth are they so insistent that he orient his whole life around music, especially his capacity to sing? We the readers join the story with Paul in later life, having fled the manipulative Staveleys, but he’s about to be brought back into the fold – a return to his native village, where seven mysterious stones stand, each a prompt to memories he’d rather remain dormant.
Thus begins one of Campbell’s typically accumulative narratives. Lurching back and forth in time, with childhood episodes running cheek-by-jowl with Paul’s current existence, it builds up a suggestive energy in much the way, say, THE WICKER MAN does. Indeed, with its evocation of prehistorical artefacts and the ancient traditions they have locally inspired, FELLSTONES bears more than a passing resemblance to that quintessential example of British strangeness. The villagers he encounters, certainly including his surrogate family, exhibit an offbeat care that is insidiously Oedipal. Police advise on legal matters and a doctor tends to injuries. But it is the Staveley parents and Paul’s pseudo sister (Adele) who wield the most menace. They seem so devoted to him that it would be rude to tell them to bugger off, and although an increasingly exasperated Paul tries to do so on several occasions throughout his life, he never quite manages to sever the connection.
The Staveleys put me in mind of the Denton family in THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN, with Paul cast as the beleaguered Benjamin and Adele as a creepy daughter. And I consider this comparison apposite as Campbell wrings more than a little dark comedy from the events that constitute Paul’s capture. There’s something rather funny and yet unsettling about the way ostensible love can have such a sinister undercurrent. Later in the book, an attempted escape from a house might be read as a novelistic depiction of a classic slapstick routine, complete with a comic telephone call packed with misunderstandings. As is often the case in later Campbell, the line between laughter and unease is blurred to forge something tantalisingly unique.
Elsewhere in the book, the comedy is much more explicit, particularly in the depiction of a Beatles scholar who seems so typical of latter-day revisionist types with an anti-elitist agenda that he might not even qualify as satire. The theme of music is crucial to the novel, as indeed it is important to Campbell himself, and the author has all kinds of dark fun lampooning an idiot who claims that, for example, the three bolted together song fragments at the end of ABBEY ROAD are as artistically weighty as Schubert’s song cycles. Now, please don’t get me wrong; I love The Beatles – I find them inventive, varied, joyful, witty, clever, eccentric, moving, brilliant and barbed. But I also know, say, the final movement of Mozart’s “Jupiter” symphony, and if anyone seriously believes that there is anything in the Fab Four’s oeuvre that matches up to this structurally miraculous masterwork, then back to school they must hie.
In short, a great deal of nonsense has been spouted about popular art, with The Beatles commonly cited as evidence in favour of erasing the distinction between High and Low culture (in the recent film YESTERDAY, Mr Richard Curtis in all earnestness compares the opening bars of “Let It Be” to the brush strokes of Leonardo da Vinci). In fairness, The Beatles themselves recognised this effusive critical excess: “we were just a great little band,” said Paul; “all we did is get dressed up,” said John; “he [Paul] goes on about that song [“Yesterday”] as if he’s Beethoven,” said George; Ringo has perhaps remained wisely silent on the matter. But these are the culturally complex times in which we live, where the Western canon has justifiably been stress-tested according to the political imperatives of socioeconomics, race and ethnicity, gender, and other crucial demographic considerations.
I might appear to be digressing, but please bear with me. What I mean to say is that the work of few artists, especially in the horror genre, is as mindful of such broad social trends as that of Ramsey Campbell. Which is not to say that he thumps a tub in any essayist manner. These themes are properly dramatised, become the discursive waters in which his characters sink or swim. In FELLSTONES, Paul works in a branch of Texts (you may remember this bookselling company from Campbell’s novel THE OVERNIGHT), and despite his best efforts to stock what he considers important music, he is forced by management to conform to mass market mediocrity. Which means that any attempt on his part to achieve authenticity is compromised. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, we might think, especially as we learn more about similar (and yet artistically inverted) restrictions imposed in his past by the ghastly Staveleys. What I’m suggesting is that, as in other later Campbell novels (for example, THIEVING FEAR), Paul’s tussles with a dumbed-down social realm tenderise him ahead of an engagement with the cosmic: at least the powers at work back home demand the profundity of great art.
And what an engagement that is. I’ll crave indulgence in advance of this line, but once Paul returns to his native village, the stones really are better than The Beatles. Across a sequence of tension-filled episodes – I particularly enjoyed the festival performances, during which the limitations of magic, science and religion are artfully elucidated – Paul’s appointment with sheer otherness draws ever closer. Again in more recent novels, Campbell has grown increasingly fond of lengthy set-pieces (memorable examples include the search of the house that concludes BORN TO THE DARK and that of the deserted hotel in “The Wrong Game”), and he’s outdone himself here. I read the final part of FELLSTONES with a relentless feeling of intoxication, an experience that no other writer (and last year I read over 200) can ever offer me. I’ll give nothing away, and state only that it’s a triumph of technique, tone, characterisation, and theme. And if that’s not enough, what serves as the novel’s epilogue is every bit as weird – just weird. The pure stuff. What we true fans of the field un-secretly crave.
I might end this review here, but I’d like to qualify an arguably contentious position I took earlier. Campbell’s prose these days is so tricksy and refined that I find little to equal it in modern literature. Let’s look at one brief extract:
The car swept like a gale through the tangled country lanes, and Michael fought to stay convinced that Cyprian was winning the computer game they were trapped in. “Let me hear from you,” Cyprian said when they reached the deserted stage set of a station. Nobody connected with the production showed up while Michael waited for the train, which saved him from having to deliver a performance, though they cast him as a man wielding a credit card to buy a ticket once he was aboard. As the train raced south he sensed Fellstones creeping to meet him, which surely ought to be a relief. Bartholomew’s Reach felt like a gateway to Fellstones. Michael phoned the number on a dwarfish poster that welcomed him with all its corners outstretched opposite the shuttered ticket office. A taxi driven by a man who smelled of the tobacco that constituted his reddish eyebrows took him home. As it passed Kingseen Lane somebody among the ruins stooped out of sight behind a chunk of wall, and he wondered what prize they’d found. A leafy quiff drooped over the village sign, revising the first word to WE COME.
This is a depiction of a character negotiating reality after having smoked some particularly strong weed. In my experience, it effortlessly captures that feeling of existing in a slightly unreal reality. This is all grist to the novel’s mill, of course, and it’s by no means the only example of that sense of dislocation Campbell seemingly alone can induce. The point I’m trying to make is that what we crudely call popular fiction can sometimes achieve – hell, quite often, in the hands of Stephen King, John le Carré, James Lee Burke, Ruth Rendell, Peter Straub, Clive Barker, and many others – anything that so-called literary work can. And so, no, I’m not an artistic snob. I recognise greatness outside of artificial marketing categories. The artistic weight of the pop song is limited by its inherently simple ABACA form; who knows what Paul McCartney might have achieved with a formal musical education?* But the novel allows for more structural complexity, and for those who really know what they’re doing – peasant or king, PoC or Caucasian, lady or gent – art will manifest.
Ramsey Campbell really knows what he’s doing, and I offer FELLSTONES as evidence of his unique craft.
* Not to belabour the point, not least because it’s relatively tangential to this review, but let me just add on this matter that when Paul McCartney announced in the late 1990s that he would write an orchestral work called STANDING STONE, he said in response to a question about his influences that he didn’t know a lot of classical music and for that reason he felt his piece might be “more original” than others. This is patently ridiculous. Mozart studied Bach, Beethoven studied Mozart, Wagner studied Beethoven, Mahler studied Wagner, and so on. Great work arises from standing on the shoulders of giants and not ignoring them. McCartney’s ignorant comment reminds me of Robert Ludlum’s claim that he never read other authors while he wrote his own work in case he was unduly influenced. I’d suggest that if your style is that vulnerable, it’s probably not much of a style. Readers of Ludlum are welcome to challenge me, but I’d kindly request extracts in support of their view. And in case anyone is curious, I’m a huge McCartney fan – know even his B-sides and unpublished rarities, probably about 800 songs – but I’m also aware of his (current) artistic limitations.
Thus begins one of Campbell’s typically accumulative narratives. Lurching back and forth in time, with childhood episodes running cheek-by-jowl with Paul’s current existence, it builds up a suggestive energy in much the way, say, THE WICKER MAN does. Indeed, with its evocation of prehistorical artefacts and the ancient traditions they have locally inspired, FELLSTONES bears more than a passing resemblance to that quintessential example of British strangeness. The villagers he encounters, certainly including his surrogate family, exhibit an offbeat care that is insidiously Oedipal. Police advise on legal matters and a doctor tends to injuries. But it is the Staveley parents and Paul’s pseudo sister (Adele) who wield the most menace. They seem so devoted to him that it would be rude to tell them to bugger off, and although an increasingly exasperated Paul tries to do so on several occasions throughout his life, he never quite manages to sever the connection.
The Staveleys put me in mind of the Denton family in THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN, with Paul cast as the beleaguered Benjamin and Adele as a creepy daughter. And I consider this comparison apposite as Campbell wrings more than a little dark comedy from the events that constitute Paul’s capture. There’s something rather funny and yet unsettling about the way ostensible love can have such a sinister undercurrent. Later in the book, an attempted escape from a house might be read as a novelistic depiction of a classic slapstick routine, complete with a comic telephone call packed with misunderstandings. As is often the case in later Campbell, the line between laughter and unease is blurred to forge something tantalisingly unique.
Elsewhere in the book, the comedy is much more explicit, particularly in the depiction of a Beatles scholar who seems so typical of latter-day revisionist types with an anti-elitist agenda that he might not even qualify as satire. The theme of music is crucial to the novel, as indeed it is important to Campbell himself, and the author has all kinds of dark fun lampooning an idiot who claims that, for example, the three bolted together song fragments at the end of ABBEY ROAD are as artistically weighty as Schubert’s song cycles. Now, please don’t get me wrong; I love The Beatles – I find them inventive, varied, joyful, witty, clever, eccentric, moving, brilliant and barbed. But I also know, say, the final movement of Mozart’s “Jupiter” symphony, and if anyone seriously believes that there is anything in the Fab Four’s oeuvre that matches up to this structurally miraculous masterwork, then back to school they must hie.
In short, a great deal of nonsense has been spouted about popular art, with The Beatles commonly cited as evidence in favour of erasing the distinction between High and Low culture (in the recent film YESTERDAY, Mr Richard Curtis in all earnestness compares the opening bars of “Let It Be” to the brush strokes of Leonardo da Vinci). In fairness, The Beatles themselves recognised this effusive critical excess: “we were just a great little band,” said Paul; “all we did is get dressed up,” said John; “he [Paul] goes on about that song [“Yesterday”] as if he’s Beethoven,” said George; Ringo has perhaps remained wisely silent on the matter. But these are the culturally complex times in which we live, where the Western canon has justifiably been stress-tested according to the political imperatives of socioeconomics, race and ethnicity, gender, and other crucial demographic considerations.
I might appear to be digressing, but please bear with me. What I mean to say is that the work of few artists, especially in the horror genre, is as mindful of such broad social trends as that of Ramsey Campbell. Which is not to say that he thumps a tub in any essayist manner. These themes are properly dramatised, become the discursive waters in which his characters sink or swim. In FELLSTONES, Paul works in a branch of Texts (you may remember this bookselling company from Campbell’s novel THE OVERNIGHT), and despite his best efforts to stock what he considers important music, he is forced by management to conform to mass market mediocrity. Which means that any attempt on his part to achieve authenticity is compromised. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, we might think, especially as we learn more about similar (and yet artistically inverted) restrictions imposed in his past by the ghastly Staveleys. What I’m suggesting is that, as in other later Campbell novels (for example, THIEVING FEAR), Paul’s tussles with a dumbed-down social realm tenderise him ahead of an engagement with the cosmic: at least the powers at work back home demand the profundity of great art.
And what an engagement that is. I’ll crave indulgence in advance of this line, but once Paul returns to his native village, the stones really are better than The Beatles. Across a sequence of tension-filled episodes – I particularly enjoyed the festival performances, during which the limitations of magic, science and religion are artfully elucidated – Paul’s appointment with sheer otherness draws ever closer. Again in more recent novels, Campbell has grown increasingly fond of lengthy set-pieces (memorable examples include the search of the house that concludes BORN TO THE DARK and that of the deserted hotel in “The Wrong Game”), and he’s outdone himself here. I read the final part of FELLSTONES with a relentless feeling of intoxication, an experience that no other writer (and last year I read over 200) can ever offer me. I’ll give nothing away, and state only that it’s a triumph of technique, tone, characterisation, and theme. And if that’s not enough, what serves as the novel’s epilogue is every bit as weird – just weird. The pure stuff. What we true fans of the field un-secretly crave.
I might end this review here, but I’d like to qualify an arguably contentious position I took earlier. Campbell’s prose these days is so tricksy and refined that I find little to equal it in modern literature. Let’s look at one brief extract:
The car swept like a gale through the tangled country lanes, and Michael fought to stay convinced that Cyprian was winning the computer game they were trapped in. “Let me hear from you,” Cyprian said when they reached the deserted stage set of a station. Nobody connected with the production showed up while Michael waited for the train, which saved him from having to deliver a performance, though they cast him as a man wielding a credit card to buy a ticket once he was aboard. As the train raced south he sensed Fellstones creeping to meet him, which surely ought to be a relief. Bartholomew’s Reach felt like a gateway to Fellstones. Michael phoned the number on a dwarfish poster that welcomed him with all its corners outstretched opposite the shuttered ticket office. A taxi driven by a man who smelled of the tobacco that constituted his reddish eyebrows took him home. As it passed Kingseen Lane somebody among the ruins stooped out of sight behind a chunk of wall, and he wondered what prize they’d found. A leafy quiff drooped over the village sign, revising the first word to WE COME.
This is a depiction of a character negotiating reality after having smoked some particularly strong weed. In my experience, it effortlessly captures that feeling of existing in a slightly unreal reality. This is all grist to the novel’s mill, of course, and it’s by no means the only example of that sense of dislocation Campbell seemingly alone can induce. The point I’m trying to make is that what we crudely call popular fiction can sometimes achieve – hell, quite often, in the hands of Stephen King, John le Carré, James Lee Burke, Ruth Rendell, Peter Straub, Clive Barker, and many others – anything that so-called literary work can. And so, no, I’m not an artistic snob. I recognise greatness outside of artificial marketing categories. The artistic weight of the pop song is limited by its inherently simple ABACA form; who knows what Paul McCartney might have achieved with a formal musical education?* But the novel allows for more structural complexity, and for those who really know what they’re doing – peasant or king, PoC or Caucasian, lady or gent – art will manifest.
Ramsey Campbell really knows what he’s doing, and I offer FELLSTONES as evidence of his unique craft.
* Not to belabour the point, not least because it’s relatively tangential to this review, but let me just add on this matter that when Paul McCartney announced in the late 1990s that he would write an orchestral work called STANDING STONE, he said in response to a question about his influences that he didn’t know a lot of classical music and for that reason he felt his piece might be “more original” than others. This is patently ridiculous. Mozart studied Bach, Beethoven studied Mozart, Wagner studied Beethoven, Mahler studied Wagner, and so on. Great work arises from standing on the shoulders of giants and not ignoring them. McCartney’s ignorant comment reminds me of Robert Ludlum’s claim that he never read other authors while he wrote his own work in case he was unduly influenced. I’d suggest that if your style is that vulnerable, it’s probably not much of a style. Readers of Ludlum are welcome to challenge me, but I’d kindly request extracts in support of their view. And in case anyone is curious, I’m a huge McCartney fan – know even his B-sides and unpublished rarities, probably about 800 songs – but I’m also aware of his (current) artistic limitations.
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September 17, 2022ehhh this was not my favorite of Campbell's. There were good bones here but they were buried a bit too deeply beneath a lot of ridiculous dialogue and characters that were not just unlikable but uninterestingly unlikable.
September 13, 2022
This was a dark, chilling and intense reas with a creepy atmosphere all the way through. A great read for spooky season.
September 14, 2022
Another great read by Campbell
For a full review, please go to https://areviewerdarkly.blogspot.com/... and follow me on Twitter @josenher
For a full review, please go to https://areviewerdarkly.blogspot.com/... and follow me on Twitter @josenher
April 11, 2023
Love me some Ramsey Campbell, but sometimes I find his novels a bit too slow--in this case, that was the problem. It just went on too long with not enough movement towards the ending. The ending was *superb*, though. However, I think I needed a story of half the length to appreciate it properly!
August 28, 2022
Aghhhh, creepy people being super creepy. A little muddled in the beginning but the story ramped up well and turned uncomfortable very quickly. Unsettling and eerie. A perfect fall read for those of us who regularly reread Something Wicked This Way Comes.
July 6, 2022
Fellstones (Ramsey Campbell)
Paul Dunston tries to distance himself from the Staveley family, the people who adopted him after the tragic death of his parents. He tries to distance himself but he does not know why, and it’s only when his adoptive sister - Dell - tracks him down that he begins to remember strange moments from his house near the Fellstones. Remembering half seen creatures, and a string of musical notes that begin to haunt his waking hours. He remembers his parents' collection of classical music, the lessons they taught him, and their single minded insistence that his talent for music had some esoteric meaning.
But Paul has no idea the things that await him when Dell convinces him to return to his old home to visit his sick adoptive parents. The Fellstones is far closer to how he remembers it, with strange tunes and monsters intact.
Ramsey Campbell is widely considered one of the great living horror authors, but this is only the second of his books I have read, even though I have read a great many horror novels. In my defence there are lots of novels I have never read, and a great many authors, but I acknowledge this isn’t much of a defence.
For me Fellstones is a vindication of his position at the top of the literary horror food chain. A slow burn read that eases the reader into dark places without the need for the spilling of blood or mindless violence. Campbell is as classical a writer as the composers that grace the pages of Fellstones, orchestrating his effect on the reader with no less skill. He eases Paul into a place where he has few allies, while ensuring that his villains do not descend into two-dimensional villainy.
I am so very glad that Flame Tree Press allowed me to review a copy of this excellent book. Leading me to the simple conclusion that I have neglected this wonderful author for far too long.
Paul Dunston tries to distance himself from the Staveley family, the people who adopted him after the tragic death of his parents. He tries to distance himself but he does not know why, and it’s only when his adoptive sister - Dell - tracks him down that he begins to remember strange moments from his house near the Fellstones. Remembering half seen creatures, and a string of musical notes that begin to haunt his waking hours. He remembers his parents' collection of classical music, the lessons they taught him, and their single minded insistence that his talent for music had some esoteric meaning.
But Paul has no idea the things that await him when Dell convinces him to return to his old home to visit his sick adoptive parents. The Fellstones is far closer to how he remembers it, with strange tunes and monsters intact.
Ramsey Campbell is widely considered one of the great living horror authors, but this is only the second of his books I have read, even though I have read a great many horror novels. In my defence there are lots of novels I have never read, and a great many authors, but I acknowledge this isn’t much of a defence.
For me Fellstones is a vindication of his position at the top of the literary horror food chain. A slow burn read that eases the reader into dark places without the need for the spilling of blood or mindless violence. Campbell is as classical a writer as the composers that grace the pages of Fellstones, orchestrating his effect on the reader with no less skill. He eases Paul into a place where he has few allies, while ensuring that his villains do not descend into two-dimensional villainy.
I am so very glad that Flame Tree Press allowed me to review a copy of this excellent book. Leading me to the simple conclusion that I have neglected this wonderful author for far too long.
October 31, 2022
A creepy community, an overbearing family, strange secrets, something fantastical in and underneath the stones...I was sucked into this novel right out the gate. I was pulled back to it every chance I got over the course of three days. It's not often I devour a novel these days, but that's what I did here - I devoured FELLSTONES. It was eerie and interesting and frustrating (Campbell's characters are always frustrating to me); though the finale left a bit to be desired, I was too glued to this book to complain all that much in the end. This might be my favorite Campbell I've read so far.
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