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The Reddening

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The Reddening

By: Adam Nevill
Narrated by: Conner Goff
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A gripping folk-horror thriller from the author of The Ritual

One million years of evolution didn't change our nature. Nor did it bury the horrors predating civilization. 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 artifacts 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 60,000 years. Upon the walls, images of their nameless gods remain.

Amidst rumors 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 super-normal 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.

©2019 Adam L. G. Nevil (P)2019 Journalstone
Genre Fiction Horror Literary Fiction Supernatural Thriller & Suspense Scary Mind-bending
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It isn't like there aren't dozens of British voice actors out there, so I don't know why they choose to use a US actor for this. It isn't his fault, although maybe checking the pronunciation of some of the words would have made it slightly less jarring.

Overall it didn't put me off the book as the story was is engaging folk horror and one of Neville's better books.

So yeah, good book. However, of you are from the British Isles you might find the narrator's mispronunciation of British words a little off putting.

The American narrator was a bad idea.

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Imaginative and different horror. Heart was in my mouth from the first chapter, couldn't stop listening. Good character development. Too many loose ends for my liking.

Narration was not so terrible as some of the comments suggest. Would've been nice if the (American) reader had bothered to research the local vernacular (esp re: place names).

Imaginative and different horror

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The story was really enjoyable and gave me all the bits of classic folk horror tension I was looking for, but as a book written in a colloquial British vernacular, it pulled me out of the story when there were frequently "British-isms" that were pronounced completely wrong or confusingly. However, still an enjoyable story.

Enjoyable grimy folk horror but narration detracts

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Adam Neville has delivered another pretty good horror story but it goes on and on, and the gore is repetitive and a bit desperate. In previous books MR Neville has left more to the imagination - with better effect. none of the characters were likeable. I was much more concerned about the animals than the people which isn't what I suspect was intended. Some passages are excellent and would rate more stars (e.g. the long swim, the village fair, the Willows's history) and the premise of a 60's hippy star gone mad on drugs is great, but in my view a bit of editing would have sharpened it up. What I found most annoying, however, was the narration. The book is set in the west country and yet we had an American narrator without even the most basic knowledge of English-speaking English. I could have tolerated the accent but not the bizarre pronunciation of basic English words. They jarred and it spoilt the audio book for me. I wish I'd read it instead and cc it's made me cautious about how other books are narrated.

less is more

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An enjoyable story that occasionally gets bogged down in the characters' internal monologues. The performance is well read but the reader is totally wrong for this story; struggles with some pronunciations and the Australian/cockney Devonian accents are jarring.

Good, if incongruous performance.

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