Hare House: An Atmospheric Modern-day Tale of Witchcraft – the Perfect Autumn Read

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I expect a book - even one billed as a psychological thriller - to have some kind of build up in the first chapter or so, but I got 1/4 of the way through and felt nothing had actually happened. And overall, the story is extremely depressing - nothing good happens to anyone, everyone is selfish, nobody is happy. My difficulties with this were partly linked to the fact that the tension between the psychological and the supernatural wasn’t resolved in a way I found particularly convincing, and partly to the representation of older and/or single women which seemed quite stereotypical.

I was willing to endure a certain amount of ambiguity in the hopes of seeing how everything came together at the end, but it just didn’t?The novel’s set in a remote area of rural Scotland where a rather enigmatic woman has retreated, after an unspecified incident ended her teaching career. But I can’t help but feel the author intended the protagonist to be more sympathetic than she is, as I was like, “why are you inviting this woman into your home? Like Pine, Hare House is set in Scotland, and features a sprinkling of dialect words and more than a sprinkling of snow.

It certainly wasn't what I was expecting, but I think that is because the book is difficult to categorise: like some of the characters and events within its pages, it is a bit like smoke as you try to grasp hold of it.An unnamed narrator arrives at a remote cottage in Scotland, one that is attached to the titular House. I’m a bit of a fussy reader and if a book doesn’t grab me in the first chapter or two then I give up on it. The words Exod 22:18 appear in inscriptions throughout the setting – Exodus Chapter 22, verse 18 reading “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”. I was sent an ARC of this creepy, modern gothic novel by Book Break in exchange for an honest review.