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alba_marie 's review for:
Wakenhyrst
by Michelle Paver
{3.5 stars}
“Like a witches lair in a fairytale, the ancient Manor House crouches in its tangled garden." What an opening line! Too bad that the rest of the book doesn't quite stand up.
“The man who painted the Doom believed in Hell as completely as he believed in his own existence. Such conviction is almost enough to make me believe in Hell myself.”
Yes, because hell's devils and demons are central to this story - though sadly not the fun, juicy kind of devils and demons we see in more contemporary interpretations.
This book starts off juicy - talks of witches and witchcraft in a great manor house in the fens (marshes) of Suffolk, murder inspired by something... infernal. But it doesn't quite come together. In the author's note, Paver admits that she pulled her inspiration not from one or two sources, but four or five - cobbling a story together from many different avenues, leaving things a little... jumbled.
I love everything gothic, everything devilish, and most things feminist. This book should appeal to me - after all, the main character becomes convinced that hell and therefore devils are real (so far, we're on the same page, ;) ) but then he goes on to think they are evil imps possessing people to be anti-Christain or whatever (no real reason given) which is decidedly less interesting to me.
This book flirts with feminism through Maud and her father's fraught relationship - he's a misogynistic arsehole and she hates him but does little to change her fate. The book is very anti-religion too - after all, Maud is a self-proclaimed atheist and all of the baddies in the book are also devout (particularly the father). Normally a book that looks down on religious zealots and sexists would be right up my alley but I think maybe Paver almost went too far - there was no way in hell anyone would ever maybe find the father likeable or redeemable so instead of wanting to hate him, he becomes an almost comical villain.
Maud's father is a sex addict who treats women like dumb objects, he's a religious zealot obsessed with 15th-century mysticism and exorcism, he's a coward and a murderer. He chooses to let his wife suffer (and die) by leaving her in a constant state of pregnancy. He later finds a weird painting outside a church, a medieval Doomsday painting full of little demons that haunts him.
His daughter, plain Maud who is intelligent but under-appreciated and lonely, seeks his approval but once she realises that's not going to happen, basically does not a whole lot besides snooping and fuming, at least until the very end when she finally finds it in herself to actually act (though afterwards she locks herself in Wake's End mannor and doesn't come out again so...yeah, she's not big on action).
I love the concepts but I think the story tying the various elements together don't really work. The witch thing was just awkwardly tacked on at the end - why? The relationship with Clem was so short that it was like, blink and you'll miss it, except oh wait you can't because Maud will obsess annoyingly about it for about 200 pages. The earlier parts of the book - Maud's childhood - feel distant and not totally needed. I feel like her childhood could have been cut out and the relevant bits filled in through flashbacks; instead, starting the book around the time that the father finds the Doom. The father's paintings thing was also tacked on at the end and didn't seem relevant at all - the story would not have changed by omitting them (this was one of Paver's many inspirations so I guess she felt like she had to include it?).
It's also quite a slow read. I'm not sure why, but it just isn't a page-turner, and though the syntax isn't complex, long paragraphs and slow plot make for slow reading.
I will say though that the atmosphere and setting were spot on - I loved the setting in the fens, Maud's love for it and her desire to protect it. I loved the idea of a big old creaking house on the road to nowhere, surrounded by a great marshy wilderness and occupied by devils, fairies and of course lots and lots of eels. Eel pie, anyone? ;)
So overall, Wakenhyrst (the title doesn't mean a whole lot either - I would have called it The Wakenhyrst Doom I think) was a middle-range addition to the modern gothic. If you're a lover of the genre then it's worth reading but if you just want to dip your toes into the gothic every so often, there are other gothic tales out there that will resonate more.
Looking for gothic recs? Here are a few modern gothic tales I enjoyed: The Widow of Pale Harbour, The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde, Once Upon A River, Melmoth (Parry's modern retelling), The Devil and the Dark Water, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankestein or Coraline or even Ambrose Parry's series. Or go classic gothic with books like Dorian Grey, The Woman in White, Carmilla, the Brontes, Rebecca (or Jamaica Inn or My Cousin Rachel) or Lady Audley's Secret.
“Like a witches lair in a fairytale, the ancient Manor House crouches in its tangled garden." What an opening line! Too bad that the rest of the book doesn't quite stand up.
“The man who painted the Doom believed in Hell as completely as he believed in his own existence. Such conviction is almost enough to make me believe in Hell myself.”
Yes, because hell's devils and demons are central to this story - though sadly not the fun, juicy kind of devils and demons we see in more contemporary interpretations.
This book starts off juicy - talks of witches and witchcraft in a great manor house in the fens (marshes) of Suffolk, murder inspired by something... infernal. But it doesn't quite come together. In the author's note, Paver admits that she pulled her inspiration not from one or two sources, but four or five - cobbling a story together from many different avenues, leaving things a little... jumbled.
I love everything gothic, everything devilish, and most things feminist. This book should appeal to me - after all, the main character becomes convinced that hell and therefore devils are real (so far, we're on the same page, ;) ) but then he goes on to think they are evil imps possessing people to be anti-Christain or whatever (no real reason given) which is decidedly less interesting to me.
This book flirts with feminism through Maud and her father's fraught relationship - he's a misogynistic arsehole and she hates him but does little to change her fate. The book is very anti-religion too - after all, Maud is a self-proclaimed atheist and all of the baddies in the book are also devout (particularly the father). Normally a book that looks down on religious zealots and sexists would be right up my alley but I think maybe Paver almost went too far - there was no way in hell anyone would ever maybe find the father likeable or redeemable so instead of wanting to hate him, he becomes an almost comical villain.
Maud's father is a sex addict who treats women like dumb objects, he's a religious zealot obsessed with 15th-century mysticism and exorcism, he's a coward and a murderer. He chooses to let his wife suffer (and die) by leaving her in a constant state of pregnancy. He later finds a weird painting outside a church, a medieval Doomsday painting full of little demons that haunts him.
His daughter, plain Maud who is intelligent but under-appreciated and lonely, seeks his approval but once she realises that's not going to happen, basically does not a whole lot besides snooping and fuming, at least until the very end when she finally finds it in herself to actually act (though afterwards she locks herself in Wake's End mannor and doesn't come out again so...yeah, she's not big on action).
I love the concepts but I think the story tying the various elements together don't really work. The witch thing was just awkwardly tacked on at the end - why? The relationship with Clem was so short that it was like, blink and you'll miss it, except oh wait you can't because Maud will obsess annoyingly about it for about 200 pages. The earlier parts of the book - Maud's childhood - feel distant and not totally needed. I feel like her childhood could have been cut out and the relevant bits filled in through flashbacks; instead, starting the book around the time that the father finds the Doom. The father's paintings thing was also tacked on at the end and didn't seem relevant at all - the story would not have changed by omitting them (this was one of Paver's many inspirations so I guess she felt like she had to include it?).
It's also quite a slow read. I'm not sure why, but it just isn't a page-turner, and though the syntax isn't complex, long paragraphs and slow plot make for slow reading.
I will say though that the atmosphere and setting were spot on - I loved the setting in the fens, Maud's love for it and her desire to protect it. I loved the idea of a big old creaking house on the road to nowhere, surrounded by a great marshy wilderness and occupied by devils, fairies and of course lots and lots of eels. Eel pie, anyone? ;)
So overall, Wakenhyrst (the title doesn't mean a whole lot either - I would have called it The Wakenhyrst Doom I think) was a middle-range addition to the modern gothic. If you're a lover of the genre then it's worth reading but if you just want to dip your toes into the gothic every so often, there are other gothic tales out there that will resonate more.
Looking for gothic recs? Here are a few modern gothic tales I enjoyed: The Widow of Pale Harbour, The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde, Once Upon A River, Melmoth (Parry's modern retelling), The Devil and the Dark Water, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankestein or Coraline or even Ambrose Parry's series. Or go classic gothic with books like Dorian Grey, The Woman in White, Carmilla, the Brontes, Rebecca (or Jamaica Inn or My Cousin Rachel) or Lady Audley's Secret.