Back in 2022, Daniel Church impressed me greatly with The Hollows, his outstanding folk horror debut concerning a tiny snowbound remote English town being terrorised by deeply unpleasant creatures awakened by an ancient curse. It is intense, violent, and loaded with small town horror and a believable mythology rooted deeply in darker elements of British history. The Hollows is a terrifying trip which is well worth investigating should you have missed it upon initial release.

The Ravening is a significantly different beast, and although it has its moments, fails to grab in the same way as its predecessor. Like with The Hollows, the origins of the novel lurk in early British history and connections with the Crusades, but the end product is ultimately a contemporary supernatural story. The Hollows is an immediate pacey novel, with the attacks on the village happening ultra-fast. The Ravening lacks the same impact, as the core concept connects to an event which is yet to happen or might not for nearly a year. Without going into spoiler territory, this is a real tension killer and once the revelation is dropped, the book deflates somewhat, as the big reveal severely limits the options and dangers the central character faces.

Before arriving at the crunch part in the story, The Ravening has a supercool opening. Grumpy fifteen-year-old Jenna is travelling to a holiday rental home with her mum when their car breaks down on an isolated strip of forest road. With no functioning mobile signal, the pair are stranded, and when her mum tries to repair the engine, something grabs her. The following morning a traumatised Jenna is found shivering in the car and her mum is never seen again.

The story then jumps some years forward with Jenna still struggling to cope with the loss of her parent. Over the subsequent years she has led a transient life of short-term (fix me please) style relationships and has never escaped the horror of that night. Also bisexual, Jenna’s complex character is one of the great strengths of the book and even when faced against horrific odds, is a great fighter with a background in martial arts. When the main story opens, she is in the early stages of a relationship with Holly, which she has positive feelings about and is a prominent story arc.

Holly and Jenna’s relationship is very much grounded in reality, but after Jenna finds herself pregnant after a brief fling with the guy who preceded Holly, things get complicated. Soon, the novel enters a world of cults, the concept of everlasting life, blood sacrifices and ancient demons. How does any of this connect to Jenna you might ask? That is the million-dollar question.

The huge antlered Bonewalker is the novel’s main supernatural being and is a nightmarish creation, coming across as a cross between Clive Barker’s Redhead Rex and the forest dweller in Adam Nevill’s The Ritual. This monstrosity could have been given more to do (killed more people for a start) instead of occasionally popping up whilst hunting Jenna. The dream sequences, connected to the Greylands, the supernatural place where the monster lurked, is also terrific, especially when Jenna realises that whilst in that domain, the physical rules of our world no longer applied.

Whilst on the run there are some great action sequences, particularly in an estate in the north of Scotland where the Bonewalker makes its first appearance and Jenna shows her mettle. However, beyond the creature itself, the other members of the cult are one-dimensional and fail to have much in the way of threat. At 400-pages, The Ravening is also just too long and on a couple of occasions, there is heavy repetition regarding the predicaments Jenna finds herself in. The two women, and their strengthening relationship, carry The Ravening, especially when on the run, as well as their acceptance of the supernatural realm, whilst other aspects of the plot fall slightly flat or do not engage.