Really enjoyed "The Dark Between the Trees" by Fiona Barnett. The sense of place was set really well, and you felt the claustrophobia, the disorientation and confusion. Set in two time periods, each chapter mirrored the one after and even though they were set hundreds of years apart, each set of characters experienced the same sense of dwindling hope of getting out of there alive. Brilliantly written!

My thanks to Rebellion Solaris for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Dark Between The Trees’ by Fiona Barnett. I am always drawn to fiction that features trees and woods, especially when steeped in folklore. Fiona Barnett’s debut novel certainly made good use of the idea that woods are places where worlds can overlap. She also uses this motif to examine how close to the surface of consciousness primordial dread can reside. In 1643 a small group of Parliamentarian soldiers are ambushed in an isolated area of Northern England and flee into Moresby Forest, believed by the locals to be an unnatural place, the realm of witchcraft and shadows, where the devil is said to go walking by moonlight. Seventeen men enter and only two are seen again. They share alarming accounts of shifting landscapes, of trees that appear and disappear and something else that stalks the woods - something dark and hungry. In the present five women are heading into the woods led by Dr Alice Christopher, a historian who has dedicated her academic career to uncovering the secrets of Moresby Forest. They are armed with the latest technology in order to discover once and for all what happened to the soldiers. We learn that local superstitions have remained through the centuries and that the Army has fenced the majority of the forest off due to a ‘dangerous microclimate’. Even National Parks employees refuse to enter, dubbing it the Black Hole. Still with all these modern gadgets and Dr Alice’s no nonsense attitude what could possibly go wrong? Given the folk horror genre, quite a lot actually. No further details to avoid spoilers. The narrative switches between 1643 and the present as Fiona Barnett slowly builds up the tension and the otherness of the forest that inevitably leads to an increasing sense of its wrongness in both times. Overall, I found ‘The Dark Between the Trees’ a genuinely creepy and claustrophobic work of folk horror. It is a novel that I may well reread in order to appreciate its multiple layers. I certainly will be interested in looking out for Fiona Barnett’s future projects whether she returns to explore further mysteries of Moresby or other tales.

A bit of "Blair Witch", a touch of "Lost", and a hint of "Annihilation", makes for quite an enjoyable mysterious forest adventure, written by a clearly intelligent author. Perhaps a little slow going at times, at least it reaches a fairly satisfactory end - something that's not so easy to achieve with this type of novel. (Jeff Vandemeer's extraordinary and brilliant "Annihilation" is let down by the subsequent parts of the trilogy, so my congratulations to Fiona Barnett for succeeding in rounding off her tale in a fashion as acceptable as it is probably possible to achieve!)

In 1643 a group of Parliamentarian soldiers are ambushed & take cover in Moresby Wood- a place that is steeped in scary stories & legends. Only two of the group are ever heard from again & their stories of shifting trees & monsters in the dark are not entirely disbelieved- the wood has secrets & people think it is best left alone! Present day & Dr Alice Christopher has spent her academic life studying the stories of these men. After years of trying she finally gets permission to got to the wood & try & find answers. The wood is surrounded by a high fence to discourage visitors! Along with Nuria, her PHD student & three others they unlock the padlocks. They have two maps that do not agree & all modern equipment seems to have stopped working. As time goes on, all apart from Alice think this is a huge mistake as they argue about their route & the path they should follow. The story is told in two time frames. One from the original soldiers & Alice's expedition. The author does a great job of creating a very unsettling creepy atmosphere & making the reader as confused as those in the wood as to what is going on. I did admire that part of the story but the fact that the reader is left with more questions that even by the end left me vaguely dissatisfied. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this disturbing book.