Reviews of three of my favourite folk horror books I’ve read this harvest season

Kelsie Johnston 

1. The Laws of the Skies by Grégoire Courtois 5/5 

Twelve six-year-olds and their three adult chaperones go into the woods. None of them make it out alive #notaspoiler  

Is this book a little extreme in the way it shamelessly kills children? Yes. Does this book require a certain suspension of disbelief to actually believe that the children in the book are six years old? Yes. Is this one of my favourite books of all time? Also yes. The reason I love this book so much is less because of the content of the book (though I will admit, I do enjoy my books on the more disturbing side), but because of the way it is written. The English translation, at only 148 pages with no chapter breaks, reads as a fairytale, and the way Courtois is able to switch perspectives in the middle of paragraphs is truly something to be admired. There is even a switch from the third-person perspective to the second-person perspective near the end of the book, that fully immerses the reader in the sad and horrific fate of one of the children by asking: What if this happened to you? Overall, while I struggle with recommending a book about the death of 12 six-year-olds, if you like horror and are fascinated by the way language functions within a book, I would highly recommend this one. 

2. The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher 3.5/5 

“And I twisted myself about like the twisted ones.” Enough said. 

I need to start this review with a little disclaimer. I did not read this book. I listened to the audiobook. For those of you who don’t think listening to an audiobook is the same as reading a book, I have one thing to say: I don’t care. If I’m being honest, for this book in particular, I don’t think reading the book would have had the same effect as it had when I was listening to it. There is a phrase that is repeated constantly throughout the book, and it’s described as less of a song and more as an intrusive thought. The more I listened to the book, the more I found myself thinking about that particular phrase, even when I wasn’t actively listening to it. It actually became an intrusive thought for me. While the ending of the book left a little to be desired, and there were some flaws in the way the main character was written, I would recommend this audiobook strictly for the way it gets stuck in your head. 

3. The Ritual by Adam Nevill 4/5

What could be better than a guy’s trip out to the Scandinavian wilderness? Satanic cults maybe? 
If you’re looking for a dark, atmospheric book to read this harvest season, I would look no further than The Ritual. Nevill’s ability to immerse you within the same environment as his characters is brilliant, and for the first part of the book, all I felt was dread and hopelessness. The book is a slow burn, but I think that only adds to the horror. The slowness of the read perfectly mirrors the slow realization that the main characters may never make it out of the woods alone, and the more lost the main characters get, the slower time seems to move. I only have one small qualm with the novel, the reason I only gave it four stars. I read this book only after I watched the movie, and while this is rarely the case for me, I enjoyed the ending of the movie more than I enjoyed the ending of the book. Not to say that the ending of the book is bad, but I was a little disappointed after seeing the movie. Regardless, I still think the book is definitely worth the read (and the movie is pretty good too).