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The Feast of the Innocents: A Novel of Astonishing Terror
In the spirit of Mary Shelley and Thomas Ligotti, a new novel that unites the charismatic, scheming villains and chilling atmosphere of classic Gothic horror with visceral, supernatural terrors and historical intrigue...
Winter 1665. Cyrus flees England to escape the human monster who murdered his father, but the horrors of Laughlin Priory are as inescapable. Pursued by a mysterious killer from France — haunted by a one-eyed chimney sweeper with sinister motives and an insatiable curiosity — in the Priory, Cyrus learns some secrets are worse than death.
Winter 1665. Cyrus flees England to escape the human monster who murdered his father, but the horrors of Laughlin Priory are as inescapable. Pursued by a mysterious killer from France — haunted by a one-eyed chimney sweeper with sinister motives and an insatiable curiosity — in the Priory, Cyrus learns some secrets are worse than death.
415 pages, Paperback
Published February 25, 2022
7 people are currently reading
125 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 4, 2022
Like Gothic literature in the classical tradition? Allow Colin Harker to cure your itch with The Feast of the Innocents, her debut novel which packs twists, turns, blood, and richly descriptive pose that swims round and round your head in the aforementioned classical tradition.
Oh, and more blood.
It's a bit of a tome this one, with a wide-ranging character roster (I loved the 'cast of principal characters' at the beginning - classy touch) and a deepening story that sprawls over 500 pages. Yes, you're getting your money's worth here, but not just in page count. Nothing satisfies me more than tight editing and a story that's clearly been cared for. Every page feels like a labour of love, and knowing first-hand Colin's unbridled passion for Gothic fiction, I think it probably was.
Like all works in the vein of Stoker, Shelley, Maturin (Colin's personal hero), or Lewis (serious lashings of THE MONK vibes here), it takes our modern, attention-flittering sensibilities a few chapters to lock into the description-heavy, lengthy sentences and paragraphs of this kind of book. But I feel Colin also manages to inject enough contemporary influence so that it won't be too jarring to those unaccustomed to this style of writing. There's humour, dynamic characters, a forward-driving plot, and - of course - true horror.
Dive into THE FEAST OF THE INNOCENTS today.
Oh, and more blood.
It's a bit of a tome this one, with a wide-ranging character roster (I loved the 'cast of principal characters' at the beginning - classy touch) and a deepening story that sprawls over 500 pages. Yes, you're getting your money's worth here, but not just in page count. Nothing satisfies me more than tight editing and a story that's clearly been cared for. Every page feels like a labour of love, and knowing first-hand Colin's unbridled passion for Gothic fiction, I think it probably was.
Like all works in the vein of Stoker, Shelley, Maturin (Colin's personal hero), or Lewis (serious lashings of THE MONK vibes here), it takes our modern, attention-flittering sensibilities a few chapters to lock into the description-heavy, lengthy sentences and paragraphs of this kind of book. But I feel Colin also manages to inject enough contemporary influence so that it won't be too jarring to those unaccustomed to this style of writing. There's humour, dynamic characters, a forward-driving plot, and - of course - true horror.
Dive into THE FEAST OF THE INNOCENTS today.
April 14, 2022
Nail biting terror with a heart of gold
Harker has created a Gothic novel with the sense of humor of Dickens, the mystery and eeriness of any Brontë novel, and every loving homage to Dracula you’d want.
The secret to great longreada is a sense of humor that keeps you turning the page. I am reminded of George Eliot’s Middlemarch, where if you’ve gotten halfway through it, you will absolutely not be able to put it down until you know what happens on the next page.
There’s a real sense of joy here; Harker clearly knows the genre well enough to bend it while honoring the roots of Gothic horror. This is an incredible debut, and I demand a trilogy!!
Harker has created a Gothic novel with the sense of humor of Dickens, the mystery and eeriness of any Brontë novel, and every loving homage to Dracula you’d want.
The secret to great longreada is a sense of humor that keeps you turning the page. I am reminded of George Eliot’s Middlemarch, where if you’ve gotten halfway through it, you will absolutely not be able to put it down until you know what happens on the next page.
There’s a real sense of joy here; Harker clearly knows the genre well enough to bend it while honoring the roots of Gothic horror. This is an incredible debut, and I demand a trilogy!!
July 6, 2022
Colin Harker's The Feast of the Innocents is terrific evidence that the best Neo-Gothic is far more than pastiche.
Yes, the author proudly wears her influences on her sleeve garter in a way that, say, Sylvia Moreno-Garcia does not, but Harker’s debut novel is every bit as passionate, personal and deeply imagined as Moreno-Garcia’s acclaimed Mexican Gothic, while being (as it should) very English, complete with a splendidly decadent, perfidious French aristocrat in Antoine St. Aubert.
But unlike so many of its predecessors, it features a genuinely engaging protagonist in Cyrus Plainstaff, a “young man of dubious parentage . . . who has traveled from London to the moors of Scotland in escaping the relentless doom that has haunted his steps since the death of his father.”
That quote is from the Cast of Principal Characters, a prefatory tradition that Harker delightfully revives. I knew I was all in when I got to Shipwash. I won’t spoil that one-sentence description, but if it doesn’t make you grin, you might be the first castaway or lifeboat passenger I’d regretfully devour in a situation of dire necessity.
The G-word is too often applied to any spooky period novel, particularly (and particularly inappropriately) if that period is Victorian or Edwardian. But Harker harks back, not to Monty or Henry James, or Bram Stoker (whom she outdoes in blood-and-thunder and just plain blood, not to mention feeling and finesse), but Charles Maturin, William Godwin, Mary Shelley, and at her most delightfully depraved, Mathew Gregory Lewis. If there’s any Victorian, as opposed to late 18th or early 19th century author she should be compared to, it’s Dickens. Thankfully, she lacks the treacle that provoked a Wildean guffaw, but has Dickens’ humor and humanity, while retaining and amplifying the High Gothic art and heart of darkness of her earlier literary models.
That The Feast of the Innocents is neither pastiche nor parody does not mean it’s humorless. If I hadn’t already adored the novel before I got to this passage in chapter 13, the author would have won my heart.
“I pray you, sir,’ I interrupted. ‘Do you not find it rather cold to be standing out here in a field telling such a lengthy tale to a shepherd?”
Making a particularly splendid use of the omniscient third person, and featuring perhaps my favorite literary castle since Gormenghast, The Feast of the Innocents is as labyrinthine, unashamedly over-the-top, and sprawling as its influences, but never a slog. Even at its most ornate, her prose is smart, deft and graceful, and the narrative never lags.
One two things sadden me about this delightful book: that I didn’t’ write it, and that it doesn’t come with an album of wassail songs by the Worshipful Company of Grocers.
Yes, the author proudly wears her influences on her sleeve garter in a way that, say, Sylvia Moreno-Garcia does not, but Harker’s debut novel is every bit as passionate, personal and deeply imagined as Moreno-Garcia’s acclaimed Mexican Gothic, while being (as it should) very English, complete with a splendidly decadent, perfidious French aristocrat in Antoine St. Aubert.
But unlike so many of its predecessors, it features a genuinely engaging protagonist in Cyrus Plainstaff, a “young man of dubious parentage . . . who has traveled from London to the moors of Scotland in escaping the relentless doom that has haunted his steps since the death of his father.”
That quote is from the Cast of Principal Characters, a prefatory tradition that Harker delightfully revives. I knew I was all in when I got to Shipwash. I won’t spoil that one-sentence description, but if it doesn’t make you grin, you might be the first castaway or lifeboat passenger I’d regretfully devour in a situation of dire necessity.
The G-word is too often applied to any spooky period novel, particularly (and particularly inappropriately) if that period is Victorian or Edwardian. But Harker harks back, not to Monty or Henry James, or Bram Stoker (whom she outdoes in blood-and-thunder and just plain blood, not to mention feeling and finesse), but Charles Maturin, William Godwin, Mary Shelley, and at her most delightfully depraved, Mathew Gregory Lewis. If there’s any Victorian, as opposed to late 18th or early 19th century author she should be compared to, it’s Dickens. Thankfully, she lacks the treacle that provoked a Wildean guffaw, but has Dickens’ humor and humanity, while retaining and amplifying the High Gothic art and heart of darkness of her earlier literary models.
That The Feast of the Innocents is neither pastiche nor parody does not mean it’s humorless. If I hadn’t already adored the novel before I got to this passage in chapter 13, the author would have won my heart.
“I pray you, sir,’ I interrupted. ‘Do you not find it rather cold to be standing out here in a field telling such a lengthy tale to a shepherd?”
Making a particularly splendid use of the omniscient third person, and featuring perhaps my favorite literary castle since Gormenghast, The Feast of the Innocents is as labyrinthine, unashamedly over-the-top, and sprawling as its influences, but never a slog. Even at its most ornate, her prose is smart, deft and graceful, and the narrative never lags.
One two things sadden me about this delightful book: that I didn’t’ write it, and that it doesn’t come with an album of wassail songs by the Worshipful Company of Grocers.
November 6, 2025
The gothic prose is really well done and utterly readable. I re-read several passages just to soak it all in. This book is full of atmosphere and I really enjoyed settling into its world. For a long time you just enjoy yourself getting to know the characters and being immersed into this gothic world ... and then the last fifth of the book sends you straight to the really good stuff. Clive Barker would be really proud of this one. While the horror reminded me so much of him, it stands on its own as well. While I wish some of that was sprinkled through the book a little more, I did enjoy just poking around in the corners of the priory until I was sent into hell in the end. Loved it.
January 2, 2023
Colin Harker crafts a lengthy gothic tale in The Feast of the Innocents. It is set in an English priory where a colorful cast of characters is introduced on the heels of our main character, Cyrus, arriving there. What begins from there is a mystery enshrouded in urgency that Colin skillfully intertwines with fleshed-out characters, ulterior motives, and murder at every turn. A must-read for the lover of gothic tales or those who love bloody, dark mysteries beset with dark magic and dark halls.
I look forward to Miss Harker's next work.
I look forward to Miss Harker's next work.
March 18, 2022
Colin Harker's The Feast of the Innocents is the first book in ages that I've read from cover to cover in less than a week. It was so good - every twist and turn in the narrative kept on making me want more and more. The last time I was this addicted to a book must have been five or six years ago!
Everything, from the setting, to the many, many characters, to the atmosphere, to the gruesome events, to the dark humour just fits so well together. In many ways this almost feels like a Baroque opera would have been, if the era had allowed for horror. I couldn't help but see some scenes as painted by Artemisia Gentileschi (Judith killing Holofernes) or El Greco. Colin Harker writes characters that are either larger than life and beset with an addictive charisma, or grounded in a way that makes you relate heavily to their anxieties. If I were a puritan hunted by a charmingly sadistic French assassin in 17th century Scotland I'd probably react very similar to Cyrus in the narrative! There are moments where the atmosphere feels so heavy that you could cut it with a knife, which are contrasted beautifully with the dark humour that can sometimes make you laugh out loud in spite of yourself while simultaneously being positively terrified for the characters.
It's hard to pick which parts were my favourites, but almost every character in the Tolstoyan-style list that comes in the beginning of the novel is a delight to be with. If I write any more I'll almost certainly spoil the plot, so I'll just end up saying that if you like gothic horror or you just really need to read a narrative set in the bloodthirsty 17th century where people wear elegant clothes and large wigs and do unspeakable things to each other, then I'd definitely recommend this book to you.
Everything, from the setting, to the many, many characters, to the atmosphere, to the gruesome events, to the dark humour just fits so well together. In many ways this almost feels like a Baroque opera would have been, if the era had allowed for horror. I couldn't help but see some scenes as painted by Artemisia Gentileschi (Judith killing Holofernes) or El Greco. Colin Harker writes characters that are either larger than life and beset with an addictive charisma, or grounded in a way that makes you relate heavily to their anxieties. If I were a puritan hunted by a charmingly sadistic French assassin in 17th century Scotland I'd probably react very similar to Cyrus in the narrative! There are moments where the atmosphere feels so heavy that you could cut it with a knife, which are contrasted beautifully with the dark humour that can sometimes make you laugh out loud in spite of yourself while simultaneously being positively terrified for the characters.
It's hard to pick which parts were my favourites, but almost every character in the Tolstoyan-style list that comes in the beginning of the novel is a delight to be with. If I write any more I'll almost certainly spoil the plot, so I'll just end up saying that if you like gothic horror or you just really need to read a narrative set in the bloodthirsty 17th century where people wear elegant clothes and large wigs and do unspeakable things to each other, then I'd definitely recommend this book to you.
April 22, 2023
This might possibly be my favorite book I've read. As far as Gothics go, this one is intense in the atmosphere, the imagery, the violence and the setting. The author really does the horror aspects of this book justice and it was thrilling, especially the run up to the end. I loved all the characters so much, especially the two mains, between whom there is a lot of delicious tension and the hints of what goes on between them is a delight. The villain is genuinely so brutal in the way that he attains his goals and you can't help but adore him for it. The pace on this reads fairly quickly, but I honestly loved it so much that I delayed getting to the end because I didn't want to get to the point where it was over. I cannot recommend this book enough!
April 12, 2022
Ok, so, I was hoping to enjoy this but it was so much better than I even expected!
The first chapters are a little slow to get into as everything is set up and you get used to the language and characters and then... holy hell. It just takes off.
It draws from the Early Gothic (with plenty of Easter Eggs for the 18th century Gothic crowd) and mixes it in with liberal doses of incredibly effective horror. I am rarely if ever affected by horrifying things on the page because I'm not a visual person and my imagination...well, it just doesn't image anything but some of the scenes (trapped in the walls! the visitation of the hero's father's ghosts) absolutely got me. Also, absolutely loved all the tensions and ambiguities between characters - especially Childermass and Cyrus.
This is a rollicking adventure which will take you to some extremely unexpected places, is legitimately horrifying at times, leans in to an eroticism which relies not at all on sex at key moments, and is just an unhinged (in the best way) paean to the Gothic and horror which will grab you whether you're an expert or a newcomer to the genre.
I know the praise sounds over the top but I legitimately loved this book.
Behold my over 200 tweet live-reading thread xD (Spoilers galore) https://twitter.com/RomGothSam/status...
The first chapters are a little slow to get into as everything is set up and you get used to the language and characters and then... holy hell. It just takes off.
It draws from the Early Gothic (with plenty of Easter Eggs for the 18th century Gothic crowd) and mixes it in with liberal doses of incredibly effective horror. I am rarely if ever affected by horrifying things on the page because I'm not a visual person and my imagination...well, it just doesn't image anything but some of the scenes (trapped in the walls! the visitation of the hero's father's ghosts) absolutely got me. Also, absolutely loved all the tensions and ambiguities between characters - especially Childermass and Cyrus.
This is a rollicking adventure which will take you to some extremely unexpected places, is legitimately horrifying at times, leans in to an eroticism which relies not at all on sex at key moments, and is just an unhinged (in the best way) paean to the Gothic and horror which will grab you whether you're an expert or a newcomer to the genre.
I know the praise sounds over the top but I legitimately loved this book.
Behold my over 200 tweet live-reading thread xD (Spoilers galore) https://twitter.com/RomGothSam/status...
April 12, 2022
This was really good! It's a tome of the book, and the 18thc pastiche sentence length and tendency to run away with a metaphor and idea takes a bit to feel comfortable, so if you like the blurbs, give it four or five chapters - they're quite short themselves. Purple (crimson? burgundy?) prose but the plot is there and it goes *hard*. I enjoyed the omniscient 3rd person narrator shepherding (ha!) along his cast of characters through the maze of the Priory and the plot, and one of the benefits of not actually *being* a 18th-c gothic is that it plays around with more modern horror effects and really delivers on the tension that has been built up without putting sexual violence on the table (except for the witch interlude). (one of many) CWs: blood. SO MUCH BLOOD. also torture. Loved Childermass and Cyrus (and Childermass/Cyrus) and Saint Aubert is... the platonic ideal of the evil French aristocrat. Such refinement. SO MUCH BLOOD.
Comps: biiiiiig Hannibal vibes. If you liked Childermass's relationship with the Priory and you don't mind a lot of swearing, Ricky/Fairwood from C.M. Rosens' The Crows will enchant you.
Comps: biiiiiig Hannibal vibes. If you liked Childermass's relationship with the Priory and you don't mind a lot of swearing, Ricky/Fairwood from C.M. Rosens' The Crows will enchant you.
August 13, 2022
I absolutely loved this gothic horror mixed with a subdued comedic undertone. I felt like I knew the characters, and I didn’t want to leave when it was over. Harker writes up deep emotions, unsettling events, with a little monster and intrigue thrown in. It’s a gem of a book, and a very vocabulary delicious feast. What a spectacular ride…especially for Cyrus
(That’s all I’ll say about that!)
(That’s all I’ll say about that!)
March 30, 2022
Though it took me a while to read this book, it’s not due to any fault within, it’s just that I enjoyed the story so much I chose to dole it out a little at a time.
Lots of creepy atmosphere and enjoyable characters. Fans of the gothic will enjoy seeing the story play out. The chapter titles are a lot of fun too! Harker is obviously having a ball telling this tale of terror, and the reader will have a lot of fun too.
Lots of creepy atmosphere and enjoyable characters. Fans of the gothic will enjoy seeing the story play out. The chapter titles are a lot of fun too! Harker is obviously having a ball telling this tale of terror, and the reader will have a lot of fun too.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews