Happy Goat Horror

Dark bleatings, my ritualistic tribe! Oh look, here I am talking about Adam Nevill again. Will I ever stop? Am I sorry? No sirreeeee! Last year, I made a video ranking all of Adam’s novels, but since then he has released another novel, and I’ve also changed my mind about the order I rank them all in. So I’ve returned in written form with an updated opinion!

Note: to be clear, I LOVE 13 of these books, and merely VERY MUCH LIKE 2 of them. They’re all brilliant, so don’t be deterred from reading the ones nearer the bottom of the list.

There are two ebook releases but we’re just focusing on the novels and collections available in print.

15. Lost Girl

It’s 2053 and climate change has left billions homeless and starving – easy prey for the pandemics that sweep across the globe, scything through the refugee populations. Easy prey, too, for the violent gangs and people-smugglers who thrive in the crumbling world where ‘King Death’ reigns supreme.

The father’s world went to hell two years ago. His four-year-old daughter was snatched from his garden when he should have been watching. The moments before her disappearance play in a perpetual loop in his mind. But the police aren’t interested; amidst floods, hurricanes and global chaos, who cares about one more missing child? Now it’s all down to him to find her, him alone . . .

This comes in last place simply because it’s not so much horror, in the traditional sense. There are, however, horrific things going on here, and it’s a gripping and suspenseful story about a father looking for his kidnapped child, during a time for humanity in which a random missing child is not a priority for anyone else. This scenario is a parent’s worst nightmare, and it changes our protagonist…

14. The Reddening

One million years of evolution didn’t change our nature. Nor did it bury the horrors predating civilisation. Ancient rites, old deities and savage ways can reappear in the places you least expect.

Lifestyle journalist Katrine escaped past traumas by moving to a coast renowned for seaside holidays and natural beauty. But when a vast hoard of human remains and prehistoric artefacts is discovered in nearby Brickburgh, a hideous shadow engulfs her life.

Helene, a disillusioned lone parent, lost her brother, Lincoln, six years ago. Disturbing subterranean noises he recorded prior to vanishing, draw her to Brickburgh’s caves. A site where early humans butchered each other across sixty thousand years. Upon the walls, images of their nameless gods remain.

Amidst rumours of drug plantations and new sightings of the mythical red folk, it also appears that the inquisitive have been disappearing from this remote part of the world for years. A rural idyll where outsiders are unwelcome and where an infernal power is believed to linger beneath the earth. A timeless supernormal influence that only the desperate would dream of confronting. But to save themselves and those they love, and to thwart a crimson tide of pitiless barbarity, Kat and Helene are given no choice. They were involved and condemned before they knew it.

‘The Reddening’ is an epic story of folk and prehistoric horrors written by Adam Nevill, the author of ‘The Ritual’, ‘Last Days’, ‘No One Gets Out Alive’ and the three times winner of The August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel.

This has one of the freakiest opening scenes and I will never get the image of painted red faces with their shockingly white eyes staring at me out of my mind. It’s a coastal horror story and we follow two separate people in their increasingly disturbing and weird narratives. Had me on the edge of my seat (and also wondering what might be buried and lurking in my own natural surrounding mountainous scenery…).

13. The House of Small Shadows

Catherine’s last job ended badly. Corporate bullying at a top TV network saw her fired and forced to leave London, but she was determined to get her life back. A new job and a few therapists later, things look much brighter. Especially when a challenging new project presents itself — to catalogue the late M. H. Mason’s wildly eccentric cache of antique dolls and puppets. Rarest of all, she’ll get to examine his elaborate displays of posed, costumed and preserved animals, depicting bloody scenes from the Great War. Catherine can’t believe her luck when Mason’s elderly niece invites her to stay at Red House itself, where she maintains the collection until his niece exposes her to the dark message behind her uncle’s “Art.” Catherine tries to concentrate on the job, but Mason’s damaged visions begin to raise dark shadows from her own past. Shadows she’d hoped therapy had finally erased. Soon the barriers between reality, sanity and memory start to merge and some truths seem too terrible to be real… in The House of Small Shadows.

This book had me constantly wondering just what the f*** was going on. I found Catherine to be a relatable and sympathetic protagonist and Adam did a wonderful job with her character. Every time a question arose for her (there were many), I felt like my own increasing confusion just mirrored hers. Never have I felt so absolutely in the mind of a character I’m reading. That town really gives me the creeps too.

12. Under a Watchful Eye

Seb Logan is being watched. He just doesn’t know by whom.

When the sudden appearance of a dark figure shatters his idyllic coastal life, he soon realizes that the murky past he thought he’d left behind has far from forgotten him. What’s more unsettling is the strange atmosphere that engulfs him at every sighting, plunging his mind into a terrifying paranoia.

To be a victim without knowing the tormentor. To be despised without knowing the offence caused. To be seen by what nobody else can see. These are the thoughts which plague his every waking moment.

Imprisoned by despair, Seb fears his stalker is not working alone, but rather is involved in a wider conspiracy that threatens everything he has worked for. For there are doors in this world that open into unknown places. Places used by the worst kind of people to achieve their own ends. And once his investigation leads him to stray across the line and into mortal danger, he risks becoming another fatality in a long line of victims . . .

At first, I was intrigued, then plunged into a most uncomfortable place of despair, anger, and frustration. Then it lead me down this dark, creepy path that at times spooked me so much I wanted to put the book in the freezer. It gave me unrelenting anxiety, which I normally don’t like in real life, but it was very effective in terms of attaching me to the protagonist, so it was good!

11. Banquet for the Damned

Few believed Professor Coldwell was in touch with an unseen world—that he could commune with spirits. But in Scotland’s oldest university town something has passed from darkness into light. Now, the young are being haunted by night terrors and those who are visited disappear. This is certainly not a place for outsiders, especially at night. So what chance do a rootless musician and burned out explorer have of surviving their entanglement with an ageless supernatural evil and the ruthless cult that worships it? This chilling occult thriller is both an homage to the great age of British ghost stories and a pacy modern tale of diabolism and witchcraft.

This story was so cool, and made me a bit embarrassed about how much I fan girl over certain high profile figures, because the protagonist here and his unquestioned love of his idol really reminded me of… me. I’m NEVER going to recover from how ridiculous I was when I met Mick Garris, but that’s irrelevant right now and a story for a different post.

Anyway, I so desperately wanted things to work out for our main character but this is an Adam Nevill book, and by the time I got to this novel, I’d realised that you absolutely can not trust him to deliver a sunshine ending. I was scared at all times.

10. Hasty for the Dark

Rarely do I love every single story in a collection, but then this came along and made my day. Something Nevill excels at is really putting you in a location, and by that I mean that he doesn’t just show you how a place looks, but has you hearing, smelling, and feeling the atmosphere. In some cases, you can practically taste the pollution. I’ve never read anyone better at doing this, and every story here puts you somewhere different (but equally stressful and creepy!).

9. Some Will Not Sleep

A bestial face appears at windows in the night.
In the big white house on the hill angels are said to appear.
A forgotten tenant in an isolated building becomes addicted to milk.
A strange goddess is worshipped by a home-invading disciple.
The least remembered gods still haunt the oldest forests.
Cannibalism occurs in high society at the end of the world.
The sainted undead follow their prophet to the Great Dead Sea.
A confused and vengeful presence occupies the home of a first-time buyer . . .

In ghastly harmony with the nightmarish visions of the award-winning writer’s novels, these stories blend a lifelong appreciation of horror culture with the grotesque fascinations and childlike terrors that are the author’s own.

And here I rank his first (if I’m not mistaken) collection, which only beat the previous one on this list because it contains the story ‘Yellow Teeth’, which had me feeling intensely frustrated and stressed. Everything in this collection is excellent, but I’d put this book in this place based on ‘Yellow Teeth’ alone, even if all the other stories weren’t as great as they are.

8. Cunning Folk

Money’s tight and their new home is a fixer-upper. Deep in rural South West England, with an ancient wood at the foot of the garden, Tom and his family are miles from anywhere and anyone familiar. His wife, Fiona, was never convinced that buying the money-pit at auction was a good idea. Not least because the previous owner committed suicide. Though no one can explain why.

Within days of crossing the threshold, when hostilities break out with the elderly couple next door, Tom’s dreams of future contentment are threatened by an escalating tit-for-tat campaign of petty damage and disruption.

Increasingly isolated and tormented, Tom risks losing his home, everyone dear to him and his mind. Because, surely, only the mad would suspect that the oddballs across the hedgerow command unearthly powers. A malicious magic even older than the eerie wood and the strange barrow therein. A hallowed realm from where, he suspects, his neighbours draw a hideous power.

Oh, how I love this book! This was a one-sitting read for me, and I fondly remember my reading experience. Feet up, facing the window with my view of the woods, with Whirly (cat) on my lap, eating snacks and drinking tea until about 7am (because I foolishly started reading it late at night and then, of course, simply couldn’t put it down).

Funny in places, in a seriously dark way, and totally relatable. The main character moves himself and his wife and daughter into a fixer-upper of a house, and there’s a lot of pressure on him to make it work because it was against his wife’s better judgment and preference that they do this. And then there are the heinous neighbours next door, and the persistently – sometimes comically petty – dispute that almost immediately arises between them. Oh… and the really scary folk horror. That also threw a spanner in the works for him. It’s such a great story.

7. The Ritual

Four old university friends reunite for a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle. No longer young men, they have little left in common, and tensions rise as they struggle to connect. Frustrated and tired, they take a shortcut that turns their hike into a nightmare that could cost them their lives.

Lost, hungry and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, they stumble across an isolated old house. Inside, they find the macabre remains of old rites and pagan sacrifices; ancient artefacts and unidentifiable bones. This place of dark ritual is home to a bestial predator that is still alive in the ancient forest. And now they’re the prey.

As the four friends struggle for salvation, they discover that death doesn’t come easy among these ancient trees…

My first Adam Nevill book… ah, memories! Also, the first time in my whole life that I read a 400 page novel cover to cover in one sitting. Couldn’t put it down! This, on the surface, is a great horror story about a group of men who go hiking in the Scandinavian wilderness, only to discover that there’s more in the forest than they bargained for. Beneath the surface, it’s a story about a man dealing with recent trauma, and – due to their increasingly horrific and terrifying circumstances – retroactively discovering things about his friendships, his place within the group, and his own shortcomings in relation to himself and the people around him.

There’s also an extra surprising element that had me practically clapping. Just as I was thinking, “I like how he’s building this with big events, but somehow remains subtle, and that he hasn’t just gone fully balls out with the… oh, wtf, he’s gone fully balls out!” GREAT horror novel.

6. Apartment 16

Some doors are better left closed…In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever. A young American woman, Apryl, arrives at Barrington House. She’s been left an apartment by her mysterious Great Aunt Lillian who died in strange circumstances. Rumours claim Lillian was mad. But her diary suggests she was implicated in a horrific and inexplicable event decades ago. Determined to learn something of this eccentric woman, Apryl begins to unravel the hidden story of Barrington House. She discovers that a transforming, evil force still inhabits the building. And the doorway to Apartment 16 is a gateway to something altogether more terrifying…

This is the perfect book to read at night, especially if you’re home alone, or perhaps working a night shift in a job that gives you lots of quiet reading time… heheheh.

Dual narratives, which I love. The story is split into alternating character chapters, which made it so goddamn moreish because I’d finish a chapter dying to know what was next for Seth, but then be on an Apryl chapter, which also ended all mysterious and like I wanted to continue, so I basically just couldn’t stop until I finished the whole book. A creepy inherited apartment, a night time security guard that fears there’s something hideous going on within the building, what more could you ask for?

5. The Vessel

Struggling with money, raising a child alone and fleeing a volatile ex, Jess McMachen accepts a job caring for an elderly patient. Flo Gardner—a disturbed shut-in and invalid. But if Jess can hold this job down, she and her daughter, Izzy, can begin a new life.

Flo’s vast home, Nerthus House, may resemble a stately vicarage in an idyllic village, but the labyrinthine interior is a dark, cluttered warren filled with pagan artefacts.

And Nerthus House lives in the shadow of a malevolent secret. A sinister enigma determined to reveal itself to Jess and to drive her to the end of her tether. Not only is she stricken by the malign manipulation of the Vicarage’s bleak past, but mercurial Flo is soon casting a baleful influence over young Izzy. What appeared to be a routine job soon becomes a battle for Jess’s sanity and the control of her child.

It’s as if an ancient ritual was triggered when Jess crossed the threshold of the vicarage. A rite leading her and Izzy to a terrifying critical mass, where all will be lost or saved.

An eerie folk horror novel from the author of Cunning Folk, The Reddening, The Ritual, No One Gets Out Alive and the four times winner of the August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel.

Stylistically, Nevill took a risk with this one and I truly admire the bravery in it. We follow Jess, a care worker with a bad ex, and a particularly odd and difficult client. Flo, the old lady she cares for, is apparently mute, unpredictable, has a house full of weird stuff, and is prone to violent outbursts. But she seems to love Jess’s daughter, who often has to accompany her at work because Jess is struggling, single, and has no support network.

The difference with the narrative approach here is that there is no internal monologue whatsoever – we only experience Jess’s present, as she experiences it. This made for an interesting thought exercise for me in how important the inner monologue of the protagonist usually is. You can make a character likeable or at least relatable, no matter how deeply flawed they may be, when you put the reader in their head. If you know what they’re thinking, why they’re motivated to do even bad things, you can usually empathise and still cheer them on. It also greatly helps to inspire fear in a reader (needed for a horror story!), if they’re connected to the character who is feeling fear. Strip all that away, and what do you have?

I was initially more judgmental and critical of Jess than I might have been if the writing was more typical, but this encouraged me to think more deeply about her of my own accord, without being prompted to side with her. Also – and I don’t bloody know how Adam did this – there were details for the reader planted along the way that did give us a bit more of a heads up than Jess had, about certain things. Remarkable really, when we only knew the things because Jess was uncovering them.

Despite the almost complete lack of back story and context about Jess’s ex, I was also able to determine enough to feel wary of him, which is down to Adam’s skill as an author because I got those nerves totally out of Jess’s body language and whatnot.

I could talk about this all day. It’s a great story that sent me through various emotions – frustration, stress, sympathy, being creeped out, being outright scared… and also sort of happy. I don’t know what that says about me.

4. Last Days

When guerrilla documentary maker, Kyle Freeman, is asked to shoot a film on the notorious cult known as the Temple of the Last Days, it appears his prayers have been answered. The cult became a worldwide phenomenon in 1975 when there was a massacre including the death of its infamous leader, Sister Katherine. Kyle’s brief is to explore the paranormal myths surrounding an organization that became a testament to paranoia, murderous rage, and occult rituals. The shoot’s locations take him to the cult’s first temple in London, an abandoned farm in France, and a derelict copper mine in the Arizonan desert where The Temple of the Last Days met its bloody end. But when he interviews those involved in the case, those who haven’t broken silence in decades, a series of uncanny events plague the shoots. Troubling out-of-body experiences, nocturnal visitations, the sudden demise of their interviewees and the discovery of ghastly artifacts in their room make Kyle question what exactly it is the cult managed to awaken – and what is its interest in him?

Cult!!! Cuuuuuult!!! I love cults! Fictional ones, of course. This is about an indie documentary film maker called Kyle, and his journey as he embarks on researching a cult known as ‘The Temple of the Last Days’. He has been hired for this specific job, by someone who doesn’t seem to want to divulge anything about himself to Kyle. Kyle takes along a companion to help make the documentary, and then seriously weird and freaky things happen. I thought there might be more build up before anything flat out terrifying happens, but was pleasantly surprised to be very scared quite early on.

This book contains a scene that is possibly the scariest scene I’ve read – most definitely created the scariest few minutes for me personally, as a reader.

3. Wyrd and Other Derelictions

Derelictions are horror stories told in ways you may not have encountered before.

Something is missing from the silent places and worlds inside these stories. Something has been removed, taken flight, or been destroyed. Us.

Derelictions are weird tales that tell of aftermaths and of new and liminal places. Each location has witnessed catastrophe, infernal visitations, or unearthly transformations. But across these landscapes of murder, genocide and invasion, crucial evidence remains. And it is the task of the reader to sift through ruin and ponder the residual enigma, to behold and wonder at the full horror that was visited upon mankind.

Wyrd contains seven derelictions, original tales of mystery and horror from the author of Hasty for the Dark and Some Will Not Sleep (winner of The British Fantasy Award for Best Collection).

Another experimental work from Nevill, and a book that I would showcase if I were teaching a creative writing class, as an example of how to effectively break the “rules” of writing. This is a short story collection of horrors, and not a single one of them has a protagonist, or characters at all, for that matter. You might wonder how an author can makes a story scary if there’s no one in it to feel scared for, but he succeeded in spades, as far as I’m concerned. At the very least, I was extremely unnerved, and at most, quite scared.

The stories are set in the aftermath of some disastrous event, some events bigger than others. The absence of people in these settings is what is so scary, and the question of where they went and what happened to them. Adam described the settings beautifully, as always, but also feeds in clues about what might have taken place right before we arrived. The idea of being the first person to set foot in these eerily quiet, post-event places freaked me out to no end.

2. No One Gets Out Alive

Darkness lives within …Cash-strapped, working for agencies and living in shared accommodation, Stephanie Booth feels she can fall no further. So when she takes a new room at the right price, she believes her luck has finally turned. But 82 Edgware Road is not what it appears to be. It’s not only the eerie atmosphere of the vast, neglected house, or the disturbing attitude of her new landlord, Knacker McGuire, that makes her uneasy – it’s the whispers behind the fireplace, the scratching beneath floors, the footsteps in the dark, and the young women weeping in neighbouring rooms. And when Knacker’s cousin Fergal arrives, the danger goes vertical. But this is merely a beginning, a gateway to horrors beyond Stephanie’s worst nightmares. And in a house where no one listens to the screams, will she ever get out alive?

When I made my ranking video last year, I think this was about halfway down the list, but I’ve since realised that second place is where it really belongs. I loved it when I read it, and it’s the book I’ve thought the most about (and quite constantly) since I read it. Stephanie is a young woman with no real support network, forced by finances to move into a crappy apartment, despite her best judgment. She immediately realises that this was a terrible mistake, but she’s trapped. What gets so frustrating and anxiety-inducing to read is that she’s making every move that she can to better her circumstances, but is thwarted – through no fault of her own – at every turn. The landlords are a direct threat (and one that Adam captured very realistically, considering he was writing from a female perspective). And there’s something very very wrong with the building itself.

There’s also an exploration of PTSD in this story that is, in my opinion, second to none. A lot of stories use past trauma, but none have captured the actual essence of PTSD (as I personally experienced it – thankfully not because of anything like the situation in this book!) as well as it’s done here. It’s subtle, it’s respectful, it’s realistic, and it delves very deep.

I think this book is a masterpiece. A frightening, anxiety causing, dark, grimy, terrific masterpiece.

All the Fiends of Hell

The red night of bells heralds global catastrophe. Annihilation on a biblical scale. Seeing the morning is no blessing. The handful of scattered survivors are confronted by blood-red skies and an infestation of predatory horrors that never originated on earth. An occupying force intent on erasing the remnants of animal life from the planet. Across the deserted landscapes of England, bereft of infrastructure and society, the overlooked can either hide or try to outrun the infernal hunting terrors. Until a rumour emerges claiming that the sea may offer an escape.
Ordinary, unexceptional, directionless Karl, is one of the few who made it through the first night. In the company of two orphans, he flees south. But only into horrifying revelations and greater peril, where a transformed world and expanding race of ravening creatures await. Driven to the end of the country and himself, he must overcome alien and human malevolence and act in ways that were unthinkable mere days before.

His most recent novel and a work that dives outside what he’s mostly known for, which is folk horror. Considering how grounded in the real world (the real world with horrible extraordinary things happening within it) Adam’s work normally is, I never thought we’d see the day that he uses aliens. But oh my god… I mean… he’s excelled himself. I’ve been recommending this to everyone that will listen to me as the scariest book I’ve read, both in concept and execution. I’m also super happy to say that several people I recommended it to are in agreement with me.

It is relentlessly, unflinchingly, and progressively terrifying, bleak, and unnerving. The opening paints the most terrific picture, and then from there, the horror – oh, the horror! Karl wakes up to find himself almost entirely alone in his neighbourhood – everyone else just vanished in the night. As the story unfolds, the more we learn, the more we don’t know, and what’s even scarier is that what we do know… we’d.. er… rather not. Every new bit of information we get makes the situation so much worse.

I’m one of those people that enjoys trying to think my way out of the predicament but with this, I couldn’t. Karl is a rational, logical, problem-solver, and he’s doing the only things he can… but it doesn’t matter! He can’t stop what’s there… or what’s coming. It’s… well, it’s a work of horror genius, is what it is.

I’d go as far as to say that, for me, this is a perfect horror novel. Chef’s kiss!

If you’d like to check out Adam Nevill and his works, I’ve popped the link to his website below for you. If you haven’t already, I recommend signing up to his newsletter because that’s where he always first announces the limited editions of his new works.

ADAM’S WEBSITE

I’d love to know what your Nevill ranking order is, especially your Number 1 favourite book! You might have noticed already but I can talk all day about his work, so please indulge me!

Bleeeeat!