Rawblood cover art

Rawblood

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Rawblood

By: Catriona Ward
Narrated by: Victoria Fox, Peter Kenny
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About this listen

In 1910, eleven-year-old Iris Villarca lives with her father at Rawblood, a lonely house on Dartmoor.

Iris and her father are the last of their name. The Villarcas always die young, bloodily. Iris believes it's because of a congenital disease which means she must isolate herself from the world.

But one sunlit autumn day, beside her mother's grave, she forces the truth from her father: the disease is biologically impossible. A lie to cover a darker secret.

The Villarcas are haunted, through the generations, by her. She is white, skeletal, covered with scars. When a Villarca marries, when they love, when they have a child - she comes, and death follows.

When Iris is fifteen, she breaks her promise to remain alone all her life, and the consequences are immediate and horrific.

©2015 Catriona Ward (P)2015 Orion Publishing Group
Genre Fiction Ghosts Horror Literary Fiction Scary Fiction Haunted

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All stars
Most relevant
It all got terribly boring and confusing - the language is amazing and for the first third I loved it and was recommending it to everyone as had read Needless Street but it all got a bit dull and I just wanted it to end there was no big reveal to me. Sorry, confusing!

Not as good as I hoped…

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The most beautifully written horror story I've ever read/heard. The acting is phenomenal. It lulls you into a false sense of security and is genuinely terrifying and heart-breaking at the same time.

Gothic horror

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I had a really hard time following what I was listening to. I ended up having to dl the ebook to actually understand, and even then it was a bit difficult to put it all together towards the end.

Hard to follow

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Gripping and compelling page turner amazing vivid and lucid really comes to life and chills the bones with love...

Amazing the best fiction read in a long time...

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What other book might you compare Rawblood to, and why?

Rawblood reminds me of Woman in Black - it has the same kind of menacing presence haunting the protagonist, but I don't think I've ever read/listened to another book quite like this. The non-linear narrative makes it challenging to follow but it's very much worth the effort.

What does Victoria Fox and Peter Kenny bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

The narrators drew me into the story and characters in a way that only a human voice can. There are scenes that I think would have felt merely melodramatic in print, but that the audible narration brought to life, making the tragedy of Iris's life seem real.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The story builds toward a climax that I never saw coming. Toward the end I began to suspect the origin of the ghost/curse. When the reveal comes, it's like a dam bursting, a torrent and there are so many emotions one after the other it's almost disorienting. You wouldn't get that effect in print, where you can pause for a moment or put the book aside.

Any additional comments?

It is a challenging read - the story takes place in multiple time periods, overlapping and twisted together. It's not a book to listen to while driving or doing something else you need to concentrate on: you'd miss important details. But if you have a long flight or commute, it's perfect.

Intricate and terrifying

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