The Reddening is a folk-horror novel from Adam Nevill released on Halloween of 2019. It centers around the town of Devon where secret, long held rites begin to spill over into the modern world. Two women in particular, Kat and Helene, become entangled with the epochal horrors that spew forth from the red earth.
Outside having watched The Ritual (which I quite enjoy), this was my first outing with Mr. Nevill, and I feel I’ve been missing out. His command of mood and imagery within the written word is something that I aspire to, and he wields it with a cold brutality in The Reddening. Every chapter is laced with an ever increasing unease that set me on edge. Notably, the dreams that the characters are plagued with at the mere sight of skeletal remains within a museum, as well as “the ritual” that is conducted roughly halfway through the book remain emblazoned within my mind. There’s also a section where dramatic irony is used to wonderful effect, causing me to want to scream out warnings to a character who was none the wiser.
Another thing I found interesting with the characters was that Nevill found a way to have them feel smart and powerful in the face of indescribable horrors while not sacrificing said horror. It is often a difficult task to not have your horror protagonists remain passive to the atrocities perpetrated upon them and keep what’s hiding in the shadows mysterious and scary.
The story is well paced; slowing enough in parts to let the reader become empathetic to the characters while not getting bogged down in any fluff. The book is tightly edited, leaving only enough details to let your mind fill in the rest of the world’s lore. Nevill deftly swings the tone of a scene so that the effect of a jump scare is nearly attained in parts. I’ll admit I was often afraid to glance at my window after putting the book down for the night. It all leads into a satisfying, and bloody, conclusion that still leaves enough unsaid to let the horror linger beyond the final page.
The only issue I had with The Reddening was with Kat’s boyfriend, Steve. He’s set up to be rather unlikeable (at least, I found him to be so) and her character’s arc is heavily dependent on her feelings for him, even though she knows, as well as the reader, that he’s an immature man who openly flirted with another woman in front of Kat. I feel her arc would have been much more understandable if her stake in the game had been over someone a bit more sympathetic.
I highly recommend you read The Reddening. It’s mentally unsettling in parts and viscerally grotesque when it needs to be.
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