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The Ritual
The Ritual is Adam Nevill's horror novel depicting a group of friends lost in a remote wilderness in Sweden where something supernatural lurks.
When four old University friends set off into the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle, they aim to briefly escape the problems of their lives and reconnect with one another. But when Luke, the only man still single and living a precarious existence, finds he has little left in common with his well-heeled friends, tensions rise. With limited experience between them, a shortcut meant to ease their hike turns into a nightmare scenario that could cost them their lives. Lost, hungry, and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, Luke figures things couldn't possibly get any worse.
But then they stumble across an old habitation. Ancient artifacts decorate the walls and there are bones scattered upon the dry floors. The residue of old rites and pagan sacrifice for something that still exists in the forest. Something responsible for the bestial presence that follows their every step. As the four friends stagger in the direction of salvation, they learn that death doesn't come easy among these ancient trees�
When four old University friends set off into the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle, they aim to briefly escape the problems of their lives and reconnect with one another. But when Luke, the only man still single and living a precarious existence, finds he has little left in common with his well-heeled friends, tensions rise. With limited experience between them, a shortcut meant to ease their hike turns into a nightmare scenario that could cost them their lives. Lost, hungry, and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, Luke figures things couldn't possibly get any worse.
But then they stumble across an old habitation. Ancient artifacts decorate the walls and there are bones scattered upon the dry floors. The residue of old rites and pagan sacrifice for something that still exists in the forest. Something responsible for the bestial presence that follows their every step. As the four friends stagger in the direction of salvation, they learn that death doesn't come easy among these ancient trees�
432 pages, Paperback
First published May 28, 2011
2,074 people are currently reading
44.6k people want to read
About the author
Adam L.G. Nevill
73books5,126followersADAM L. G. NEVILL was born in Birmingham, England, in 1969 and grew up in England and New Zealand. He is an author of horror fiction. Of his novels, The Ritual, Last Days, No One Gets Out Alive and The Reddening were all winners of The August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel. He has also published three collections of short stories, with Some Will Not Sleep winning the British Fantasy Award for Best Collection, 2017.
Imaginarium adapted The Ritual and No One Gets Out Alive into feature films and more of his work is currently in development for the screen.
The author lives in Devon, England.
Imaginarium adapted The Ritual and No One Gets Out Alive into feature films and more of his work is currently in development for the screen.
The author lives in Devon, England.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,239 reviews
September 27, 2014
[Spoilers.] Every now and then you come across a book that causes you to examine your life: the good you've done in the world, the ill. What sin did I commit to have deserved a book as god awful as The Ritual?
Here it is in brief: The Ritual is a derivative, shallow, insidiously sexist novel from an author whose ideas far exceed his technical skill.
In the foreword, Nevill credits a number of other authors for inspiring him, among them Cormac McCarthy. Within the first chapter of The Ritual, it was painfully obvious that Nevill is trying - and failing tremendously - at aping McCarthy's stylistic flourishes. Run-on sentences and sentence fragments, abandoned phrases, writhe across the page. Where McCarthy uses these structures to create atmosphere, by providing cold and grounded details, Nevill uses them as hammers to beat into your head what he wants you to think and to feel.
What could be more powerfully accomplished in a brief, curt sentence, he fluffs into page after page of navel-gazing, Intro to Theology philosophizing. Scenes that ought to be tense and frightening, or tense and thrilling, are instead slogs: why allow the reader to infer that it is instinct that causes Luke to turn and run to the tent when Nevill could instead write a paragraph-long treatise about ancient ancestral instincts reawakening, etc?
Structurally The Ritual's great problem is that it is two novels, neither one of which ought to be even a quarter so long as the actual product. After perhaps the eighth or ninth chapter devoted to informing the reader that The Hiking Crew is Exhausted Physically and Psychologically, with the prose retreading the exact same ups and downs with every iteration, I was praying for them to die. Die and be released, and in your releasing so also release me. Amen. Then - oh, then! - in the second half of the book, the reader is taken on a new, wonderful journey into grinding repetition! Oh, boy, what fun to read another couple hundred pages with insufferable and superficially drawn characters saying the same garbage over and over and over again! Then I was praying for them to die, too, or for some god to come to me and gently take the book from my hands and set their cool knuckles on my brow as they bend to whisper into my ear, "No more. You have atoned."
(What did I do? What did I do to deserve this book? This wretched, endless, sluggish hell of unexplored archetypes rattling off, on the fly, the sort of interminable speeches no human being has ever spoken? Is it because I stole a Beanie Baby Sleeping Bag from a school fair when I was nine? Because I'm sorry! Is it because I purposefully farted on my dog? I'm sorry for that, too!)
I don't particularly care about originality so long as the execution is decent, but there is little decency to this execution. All the usual tropes of two separate horror narratives (argumentative once friends lost in the woods and stalked by some unseen thing; man held captive by murderous weirdos) are present, and they are exceptionally boring. The monster is picking them off one by one! Will Luke survive? If he calls Dom and Phil "fatties" another five hundred times, he might just make it out. But oh, no, now he's being held captive by three drunk teens who listen to (oh, God!) BLACK METAL, and a silent old woman. Oh, cool, more endless fucking speeches (from the teens, not the old woman).
About that silent old woman: no, I need another intro. Okay. This is where I expect people to start complaining. If a book (or a movie, or whatever) is sexist, people expect you to be "objective" in your review aka not discuss the sexism; but I don't give a fuck about that. This book is sexist. It is insidiously, cruelly, dehumanizing-ly sexist.
In the first half of the book, women are referenced only as "moody" and as "bitches," as things to be disposed of (along with the trash - straight up that is a thing Luke says); they're gold-diggers and they're psychologically damaged and they're ball-busters and they're completely off the page. Somewhere Luke has a mother (who is described once as "smiling," and that's that) and a sister, I guess, but more importantly he has a maybe girlfriend, who's referenced a whopping three times and by the third time all I know about her is she has an overbite and the overbite is sexy. Whatever. That's the usual horror shit. It's gross and it shouldn't be a thing but whatever.
Thankfully the second half of the book is here to RAMP IT UP!!! Whoo!!!!!! Finally, women exist on the page! Women like Surtr, who is written as if she were a feral animal, whose fatness is deemed repulsive, who is repeatedly defined by her smell (the smell of her cunt, Luke puts it), who cavorts (repulsively, stinkily) naked. Then there's the old woman, who is: speechless, ignored, a ghost. For some inexplicable reason she needs Luke to off the three murderous, Satanic teenagers. I say inexplicable because (here's the spoiler) the Big Reveal at the end is OMFG the old woman's mom is THE THING IN THE WOODS, and she can summon it to take sacrifices. Presumably she could have gotten rid of her unwanted house guests by, you know, at some point calling out to her monstrous, ungodly, life-consuming mother, but it was very important to Nevill that Luke murder those kids on the page, and then the old woman summons her ma to eat Luke, so that Luke has just cause to shoot the old woman's heart out. Sure. Nothing remotely resembling logic exists in this book, so why the fuck not. That totally makes sense.
(Oh, wait, LMAO, I forgot: Luke, upon killing the two dudes, thinks something along the lines of "of course, they could hurt the beast in the woods with the rifle or the knives!" only weapons didn't do jack shit for him and his friends, there are a hundred enormously easy ways to lure out habitual drunks who fall asleep outside at night around pyres for the beast to kill, and Luke, having had this eureka moment that the rifle can be used to kill the beast, immediately forgets and leaves the house, with its high, clear vantage points, for a truck parked all the way across the god damn clearing so Nevill can write a SCARY CHASE SEQUENCE.)
There is a scene where Luke goes into an attic and kills the undead creatures there. Needlessly, Nevill writes that Luke innately understands one of them is a woman. Where Luke efficiently dispatches of all the others, he both strikes this dead-and-not-dead woman through the skull and throttles her, in the longest section of this passage.
Again and again Nevill returns to the belief that women destroy men; they weigh them down. Ultimately, what surprise is it that the inhuman monstrosity in the woods should be a woman, a mother? "No more sons and fathers and friends should hang from trees." This, Nevill writes in a book where Phil's wife is a gold-digger, a bitch, that Luke once slept with years ago (and her orgasm is described in animal terms, as profoundly off-putting to Luke), and Dom's wife is frail, ill, sapping the strength from him. Over and over, Nevill reinforces the weakness of Phil and Dom, or the wrongness of the two teen boys, Fenris and Loki, by describing their hands, their habits, their personalities as feminine.
In Nevill's world of Ritual and its primordial "truths," women are beasts, demons, hideous and defined by their sex. They consume men. They destroy them. They steal from them and drive them to madness and death. To survive women, men must slough them off, put them out on the curb for the trash man to collect, kill them with especial violence. Mothers are smiling. Sisters exist. Daughters are tools to create sympathy for a dying man, who will never see them again, no, not even on those rare visitation days his harpy wife will allow him.
I know that Nevill has written a novel wherein the main character is a woman. After The Ritual, I find that prospect actively horrifying. There's your real terror.
I hated this book. I hated it. H A T E D it. I don't burn books. I don't destroy them. I usually donate them, but this book, this book I could not give into the hands of another. I can't chance it. When I'm buried in the earth I want this book to go in my grave, not so that I can keep it close to me always, but because it is now my burden to carry. Into the soil I will go, lifeless yet eternally vigilant, to stand guard over this wretched waste of a tree. Perhaps one day a tree might grow out of soil nourished by myself and by this novel, as in its putrescence might The Ritual atone for its own sins.
Hated this fucking book.
Here it is in brief: The Ritual is a derivative, shallow, insidiously sexist novel from an author whose ideas far exceed his technical skill.
In the foreword, Nevill credits a number of other authors for inspiring him, among them Cormac McCarthy. Within the first chapter of The Ritual, it was painfully obvious that Nevill is trying - and failing tremendously - at aping McCarthy's stylistic flourishes. Run-on sentences and sentence fragments, abandoned phrases, writhe across the page. Where McCarthy uses these structures to create atmosphere, by providing cold and grounded details, Nevill uses them as hammers to beat into your head what he wants you to think and to feel.
What could be more powerfully accomplished in a brief, curt sentence, he fluffs into page after page of navel-gazing, Intro to Theology philosophizing. Scenes that ought to be tense and frightening, or tense and thrilling, are instead slogs: why allow the reader to infer that it is instinct that causes Luke to turn and run to the tent when Nevill could instead write a paragraph-long treatise about ancient ancestral instincts reawakening, etc?
Structurally The Ritual's great problem is that it is two novels, neither one of which ought to be even a quarter so long as the actual product. After perhaps the eighth or ninth chapter devoted to informing the reader that The Hiking Crew is Exhausted Physically and Psychologically, with the prose retreading the exact same ups and downs with every iteration, I was praying for them to die. Die and be released, and in your releasing so also release me. Amen. Then - oh, then! - in the second half of the book, the reader is taken on a new, wonderful journey into grinding repetition! Oh, boy, what fun to read another couple hundred pages with insufferable and superficially drawn characters saying the same garbage over and over and over again! Then I was praying for them to die, too, or for some god to come to me and gently take the book from my hands and set their cool knuckles on my brow as they bend to whisper into my ear, "No more. You have atoned."
(What did I do? What did I do to deserve this book? This wretched, endless, sluggish hell of unexplored archetypes rattling off, on the fly, the sort of interminable speeches no human being has ever spoken? Is it because I stole a Beanie Baby Sleeping Bag from a school fair when I was nine? Because I'm sorry! Is it because I purposefully farted on my dog? I'm sorry for that, too!)
I don't particularly care about originality so long as the execution is decent, but there is little decency to this execution. All the usual tropes of two separate horror narratives (argumentative once friends lost in the woods and stalked by some unseen thing; man held captive by murderous weirdos) are present, and they are exceptionally boring. The monster is picking them off one by one! Will Luke survive? If he calls Dom and Phil "fatties" another five hundred times, he might just make it out. But oh, no, now he's being held captive by three drunk teens who listen to (oh, God!) BLACK METAL, and a silent old woman. Oh, cool, more endless fucking speeches (from the teens, not the old woman).
About that silent old woman: no, I need another intro. Okay. This is where I expect people to start complaining. If a book (or a movie, or whatever) is sexist, people expect you to be "objective" in your review aka not discuss the sexism; but I don't give a fuck about that. This book is sexist. It is insidiously, cruelly, dehumanizing-ly sexist.
In the first half of the book, women are referenced only as "moody" and as "bitches," as things to be disposed of (along with the trash - straight up that is a thing Luke says); they're gold-diggers and they're psychologically damaged and they're ball-busters and they're completely off the page. Somewhere Luke has a mother (who is described once as "smiling," and that's that) and a sister, I guess, but more importantly he has a maybe girlfriend, who's referenced a whopping three times and by the third time all I know about her is she has an overbite and the overbite is sexy. Whatever. That's the usual horror shit. It's gross and it shouldn't be a thing but whatever.
Thankfully the second half of the book is here to RAMP IT UP!!! Whoo!!!!!! Finally, women exist on the page! Women like Surtr, who is written as if she were a feral animal, whose fatness is deemed repulsive, who is repeatedly defined by her smell (the smell of her cunt, Luke puts it), who cavorts (repulsively, stinkily) naked. Then there's the old woman, who is: speechless, ignored, a ghost. For some inexplicable reason she needs Luke to off the three murderous, Satanic teenagers. I say inexplicable because (here's the spoiler) the Big Reveal at the end is OMFG the old woman's mom is THE THING IN THE WOODS, and she can summon it to take sacrifices. Presumably she could have gotten rid of her unwanted house guests by, you know, at some point calling out to her monstrous, ungodly, life-consuming mother, but it was very important to Nevill that Luke murder those kids on the page, and then the old woman summons her ma to eat Luke, so that Luke has just cause to shoot the old woman's heart out. Sure. Nothing remotely resembling logic exists in this book, so why the fuck not. That totally makes sense.
(Oh, wait, LMAO, I forgot: Luke, upon killing the two dudes, thinks something along the lines of "of course, they could hurt the beast in the woods with the rifle or the knives!" only weapons didn't do jack shit for him and his friends, there are a hundred enormously easy ways to lure out habitual drunks who fall asleep outside at night around pyres for the beast to kill, and Luke, having had this eureka moment that the rifle can be used to kill the beast, immediately forgets and leaves the house, with its high, clear vantage points, for a truck parked all the way across the god damn clearing so Nevill can write a SCARY CHASE SEQUENCE.)
There is a scene where Luke goes into an attic and kills the undead creatures there. Needlessly, Nevill writes that Luke innately understands one of them is a woman. Where Luke efficiently dispatches of all the others, he both strikes this dead-and-not-dead woman through the skull and throttles her, in the longest section of this passage.
Again and again Nevill returns to the belief that women destroy men; they weigh them down. Ultimately, what surprise is it that the inhuman monstrosity in the woods should be a woman, a mother? "No more sons and fathers and friends should hang from trees." This, Nevill writes in a book where Phil's wife is a gold-digger, a bitch, that Luke once slept with years ago (and her orgasm is described in animal terms, as profoundly off-putting to Luke), and Dom's wife is frail, ill, sapping the strength from him. Over and over, Nevill reinforces the weakness of Phil and Dom, or the wrongness of the two teen boys, Fenris and Loki, by describing their hands, their habits, their personalities as feminine.
In Nevill's world of Ritual and its primordial "truths," women are beasts, demons, hideous and defined by their sex. They consume men. They destroy them. They steal from them and drive them to madness and death. To survive women, men must slough them off, put them out on the curb for the trash man to collect, kill them with especial violence. Mothers are smiling. Sisters exist. Daughters are tools to create sympathy for a dying man, who will never see them again, no, not even on those rare visitation days his harpy wife will allow him.
I know that Nevill has written a novel wherein the main character is a woman. After The Ritual, I find that prospect actively horrifying. There's your real terror.
I hated this book. I hated it. H A T E D it. I don't burn books. I don't destroy them. I usually donate them, but this book, this book I could not give into the hands of another. I can't chance it. When I'm buried in the earth I want this book to go in my grave, not so that I can keep it close to me always, but because it is now my burden to carry. Into the soil I will go, lifeless yet eternally vigilant, to stand guard over this wretched waste of a tree. Perhaps one day a tree might grow out of soil nourished by myself and by this novel, as in its putrescence might The Ritual atone for its own sins.
Hated this fucking book.
May 6, 2020
i’d say that adam nevill should have quit while he was ahead with this one, but then no book would exist (although maybe it’d be better that way)
November 19, 2022
Four college pals, now in their thirties, reconnect with a trip to Sweden. Do they catch up over a few beers and reminisce? No, they take a hike in a forest. Big, big mistake.
March 25, 2012
Wow. This one came soooo very close to getting five stars from me. I am a horror buff and I LOVE to be scared ...really, truly freaked out. Not grossed out (I'll take a bit of that in good fun) but creeped out. My ideal physiological response to horror is when I get the heebie-jeebies (pardon my use of technical terms here) -- you know, the tingling spine, sweaty palms, paranoia, pounding pulse. I'm addicted to dread, and if you can make me want to sleep with the light on I will love you forever and ever.
I’ve pretty much seen it all when it comes to the genre; sometimes suffering from “been there done that� fatigue. It takes a lot to freak me out these days, but that’s not to say it’s impossible. Because it isn’t. I can suspend disbelief with the best of them. In fact, I want to. I won’t fight you. Give me something to work with and I’m your gal. I don’t want to say I’m easy, but pretty close ;-)
I didn't have any expectations when I picked up this book. In fact, I can't even remember where or how I heard about it. The premise caught my eye though, because I'm a sucker for "group in peril" scenarios and getting lost in the woods. I've been lost in the woods ... there's nothing scarier in my books. It doesn't take long to start feeling hunted. I mean, there could be anything out there. Anything.
The first 200 pages of this book are some of the creepiest I've read in a loooong time. There's this irresistible slow build that sucks you in to the primeval environment. As the situation worsens and becomes more threatening, Neville's tight descriptive prose has put you into the story so completely that the threat feels unbearably close. Read this camping or tucked away in a cabin somewhere remote and I guarantee you your blood will chill. I read it with all the lights on in the middle of a city and I still didn't want to look out my back window into the darkness. The thought of going camping again this summer is giving me serious heebie-jeebies.
The book shifts gears in Part II (240 pages in) and for awhile, I thought something was lost in the momentum and intensity. It starts to feel like a different novel altogether, about something else entirely. That feeling lasted for about 100 pages. Fortunately, the last 60 pages are an outstanding turnabout, an adrenaline rush that, while lacking in the epic creep from the first half of the novel, nevertheless delivers the goods on sheer terror.
May 13, 2022
The Netflix movie by the same title whet my appetite for this book and I wasn't disappointed. The novel was even better! Four friends alienating from each other over the years have a hiking trip in Sweden. Soon they are hunted by a mysterious entity in the woods (It). Will they get out of the woods alive? Then we encounter a black metal band (Bloody Frenzy) who plan to summon a God of old. They are satanic and talk about wild hunts. Is there any real magic with them? They stay with an old uncanny woman (she talks about mother) who also plays a role in the allusions to Northern mythology (The Black Yule God). Will the old ones come back? Is Luke being sacrificed to those old gods or do those things the band calls God have no future? We have the Gods of insane, many nail biting situations, an absolutely eerie atmosphere in Swedish woods and some nasty monster like creature you are seriously frightened from. What a great horror novel! In slow motion you'll witness life and death in the forest unread before. One of the creepiest novels ever. Lots of reference to old myths and totally scary setting. Not for the faint hearted. Highly recommended horror highlight!
March 24, 2018
I first saw this movie on Netflix & then I found out on GR that is was a book. I went right to Amazon to buy it! I loved it! I love both the book and the movie although I'm glad they left out the first part of the movie in the book. I didn't care for it.
And on the second day things did not get better. The rain fell hard and cold, the white sun never broke through the low grey cloud, and they were lost. But it was the dead thing they found hanging from a tree that changed the trip beyond recognition. All four of them saw it at the same time.
This is the story of four old friends who get together to go camping. Some of them hadn't seen each other in years and didn't hit it off like they did when they were younger. But Luke, Hutch, Phil, and Dom finally come to a realization they need to stick together, get over their shit and get out of the damn black woods. (Never take a short cut through some black woods you know nothing about. I don't care who is injured, you will be dead instead)
They come across a hideous monster and crazy arse people.
It's a book/movie you will either love or hate. I loved it because it's so messed up I couldn't not love it!
Happy Reading!
Mel �
MY BLOG:
AMAZON:
January 29, 2025
Luke, Dom, Phil and Hutch have been friends since college. Over the years since, however, they have begun to drift apart. Particularly Luke, who is the only one still single and without a stable career.
The men decide to travel from their homes in the UK, to the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle for a backpacking adventure; a reunion of sorts.
Unfortunately, the camaraderie of the group isn't as strong as you would hope. In fact, it's slightly hostile. Dom and Phil are condescending to Luke, treating him like a child, or worse.
Hutch is the happy one. The bond that seems to tie them all together. His positive energy is half the reason they decided to take this trip in the first place.
Adding additional stress for the group is the fact that Dom and Phil are ill-prepared for this type of holiday. As in, they're out of shape AF.
The group is not making the mileage they need to be making per day to reach their goals. Because of this, Hutch suggests they take an off piste short cut.
As a frequent hiker of the rugged mountains of Maine, this is a nightmare scenario for me.
Just the thought...
The men agree to Hutch's plan, although they are definitely nervous and skeptical; particularly Luke.
The forest is so dark and thick, the rain not giving them a moment of rest. They are exhausted, they are physically no match for the rough terrain. They see things. Everything starts to go really badly.
Forced to take shelter for a night in what clearly is a haunted cabin, the men are finally pushed to their breaking points by what lay inside.
Y'all, these hiking scenes legit chilled me to the bone. I loved Nevill's descriptions of being in the wilderness. How it swallows you, completely cutting you off from the modern world and returning your senses to their more primal nature.
I thought he captured that fear being in the deep woods can evoke in us so freaking well. I absolutely loved the first half of this.
The second half does take a twist that shifts the feeling more from fear to anger, as the narrative directs focus from the devil we don't know, to the devil we do.
I had jaw dropping, stomach-turning moments right up to the very end. The final scene was so intense. Overall, I think this is an extremely well done Survival Horror story; especially depending on what your fears are.
My only negative would be that I felt certain sections dragged on a bit. Particularly some of the interactions between the men, although I do understand the author's choice with those moments.
I definitely will be thinking of this one for a long time to come, especially on my next hiking trip!
The men decide to travel from their homes in the UK, to the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle for a backpacking adventure; a reunion of sorts.
Unfortunately, the camaraderie of the group isn't as strong as you would hope. In fact, it's slightly hostile. Dom and Phil are condescending to Luke, treating him like a child, or worse.
Hutch is the happy one. The bond that seems to tie them all together. His positive energy is half the reason they decided to take this trip in the first place.
Adding additional stress for the group is the fact that Dom and Phil are ill-prepared for this type of holiday. As in, they're out of shape AF.
The group is not making the mileage they need to be making per day to reach their goals. Because of this, Hutch suggests they take an off piste short cut.
As a frequent hiker of the rugged mountains of Maine, this is a nightmare scenario for me.
Just the thought...
The men agree to Hutch's plan, although they are definitely nervous and skeptical; particularly Luke.
The forest is so dark and thick, the rain not giving them a moment of rest. They are exhausted, they are physically no match for the rough terrain. They see things. Everything starts to go really badly.
Forced to take shelter for a night in what clearly is a haunted cabin, the men are finally pushed to their breaking points by what lay inside.
Y'all, these hiking scenes legit chilled me to the bone. I loved Nevill's descriptions of being in the wilderness. How it swallows you, completely cutting you off from the modern world and returning your senses to their more primal nature.
I thought he captured that fear being in the deep woods can evoke in us so freaking well. I absolutely loved the first half of this.
The second half does take a twist that shifts the feeling more from fear to anger, as the narrative directs focus from the devil we don't know, to the devil we do.
I had jaw dropping, stomach-turning moments right up to the very end. The final scene was so intense. Overall, I think this is an extremely well done Survival Horror story; especially depending on what your fears are.
My only negative would be that I felt certain sections dragged on a bit. Particularly some of the interactions between the men, although I do understand the author's choice with those moments.
I definitely will be thinking of this one for a long time to come, especially on my next hiking trip!
October 11, 2024
“Their packs were soaked. Rivulets of water ran from their coats and soaked the thighs of their trousers…From the cuffs of their sleeves the rain poured onto their scratched and red hands…They were dirty and dripping and exhausted and no one had the nerve to ask Hutch out loud where they would pitch a tent in the forest. But that was what they had all been thinking; he knew it. On either side of the trail, the undergrowth was as high as a man’s waist. And it was during that time, when the fear in Hutch’s own belly began to turn into a shivery panic reminding him of childhood, and when the realization of the fact that he had made a terrible misjudgment and was now endangering the lives of his three friends hit him, that they found the house…�
- Adam Nevill, The Ritual
One of the reasons that horror is such a hit-and-miss literary genre for me is that I don’t really know what I’m looking for. The things that scare me are real: cancer, heart disease, car accidents, job security, finances, and the fact that all my wealth is tied up in used books. However, there is one reliable setup that usually gets me spooked: folks lost in the woods. Simply put, I’ve been lost in the woods before, so I can relate.
Adam Nevill’s The Ritual is a book I’d never heard of until I stumbled across it completely by accident. Rather, I stumbled across it due to an extremely sophisticated online algorithm developed by Amazon.
Its premise drew me in. Four English blokes are on holiday in the ancient Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle. They are Luke, Dom, Hutch, and Phil. Dom and Phil are a wee bit on the overweight side, and having difficulty keeping pace. In order to make things easier on them, Hutch � the de facto leader � decides to take a short cut. It spoils nothing to say that this decision leads to trouble. Indeed, along with premarital sex, shortcuts are the quickest way to disaster in horror books or films.
Given my penchant for judging books by their cover, I must also admit that the artwork helped. My paperback version features a moss-filled animal skull on a stump in the midst of a spooky, fog-shrouded forest that looks so clammy you can feel the moisture.
Satisfied that even if the ceiling was low, the floor was high, I dove into it.
***
The Ritual is a tale of two books. The first half is one kind of story, and it’s mostly okay-to-good but sometimes meh-to-terrible. The second is a different kind of story, and it’s mostly absurd-to-terrible, but sometimes okay-to-unforgettable. And when I say “okay-to-unforgettable,� I mean that it takes a lap around the its-so-bad-its-good-and-back-to-bad track.
***
The beginning of The Ritual, is sturdy and old fashioned, and very much in the vein of The Blair Witch Project. It’s a short � probably a bit too short � exploration of the ways that small decisions, little mistakes, and incidental happenings tend to accumulate in harsh environments. Though the characterizations are thin, the execution of the atmosphere is quite good.
***
At about the halfway point, things take a turn for the surreal. Nevill initially keeps the menace grounded in reality, while subtly infusing a bit of potential supernaturalness. But then The Ritual skips the tracks, the train plunging into Crazy Town carrying a full load of What-the-Hell. The end result is a minor disaster is somewhat beautiful to behold, like a forest fire as viewed from a distance.
If you want a small taste of what the “twist� is like, I’ve hidden it beneath the spoiler tag.
***
The opening to The Ritual is not in any means perfect. Nevill makes the decision to start his story in media res, at the point that Hutch realizes they are going to need to take a shortcut. The result is that we are never properly introduced to the four English “friends� before they are placed in extremis.
If you are going to place fictional people into made-up danger, it’s fundamental � especially in this genre � to at least sketch them out, so that there is some impetus to care about their fate. Here, all four men are just names and vague descriptors. Dom and Phil are called fat so many times I started to wonder if I was getting fat-shamed. Hutch’s only back-story is that he recently got married, joining Dom and Phil in having a disapproving spouse back home. More than that, despite being “friends,� all four men seem to despite each other’s existences.
Later on, when things fall apart, Nevill tries to make up for his earlier elisions by having his characters engage in clunky dialogues about their feelings and friendship. The dialogue itself is graceless, but it’s rendered fully ludicrous by the fact that it occurs while the men are running for their lives.
***
That said, I appreciated Nevill’s sense of atmosphere, his creation of tension. Dialogue aside, he has a keen and perceptive eye for environment. He has a knack for describing the dense, unrelenting forest; the oppressive wet and cold; the exhaustion of the men as they trudge through thick tangles of underbrush.
This book brims with talent, even if I did not remain entirely engaged. It is � if nothing else � the product of a lively imagination. Nevill goes to some unique places that are far afield from what I imagined at the outset. There is a lot of mythology woven into the story: animal carcasses hung from trees; tired old buildings in the middle of the forest; the potential for an ancient and primeval malevolence. I was certainly impressed with Nevill’s dedication to his vision, even as it bordered on the loopy.
***
The Ritual is pretty graphic in terms of violence. Nevill puts his four misbegotten buddies through a punishingly macabre wringer, pushing at the boundaries of gore and horrible happenings. Everyone’s mileage on this varies. For me, a single memorably bloody scene goes a long way to wiping out pages of dog-poo dialogue. If Nevill had pushed it a little farther, I might have enjoyed this more. Instead, I felt like he ran out of energy and ideas by the final pages.
***
Cinephile note: In 2017, Netflix made a movie version. It’s pretty good! In fact, in might be better than the source material. This is not totally surprising, since Nevill’s talent is creating imagery, which the film captures nicely.
***
It’s funny the books we remember and those we forget. When I put this on the shelf, I knew I’d probably end up remembering it better than Crime and Punishment or The Sun Also Rises. There are somewhat-objective literary merits we can look to when judging a book. Clever plotlines. Memorable characters. Universal themes. By those measures, The Ritual fails. In more important ways, it succeeds. It was not a great book, perhaps not even a good one, but I loved the experience of reading it.
- Adam Nevill, The Ritual
One of the reasons that horror is such a hit-and-miss literary genre for me is that I don’t really know what I’m looking for. The things that scare me are real: cancer, heart disease, car accidents, job security, finances, and the fact that all my wealth is tied up in used books. However, there is one reliable setup that usually gets me spooked: folks lost in the woods. Simply put, I’ve been lost in the woods before, so I can relate.
Adam Nevill’s The Ritual is a book I’d never heard of until I stumbled across it completely by accident. Rather, I stumbled across it due to an extremely sophisticated online algorithm developed by Amazon.
Its premise drew me in. Four English blokes are on holiday in the ancient Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle. They are Luke, Dom, Hutch, and Phil. Dom and Phil are a wee bit on the overweight side, and having difficulty keeping pace. In order to make things easier on them, Hutch � the de facto leader � decides to take a short cut. It spoils nothing to say that this decision leads to trouble. Indeed, along with premarital sex, shortcuts are the quickest way to disaster in horror books or films.
Given my penchant for judging books by their cover, I must also admit that the artwork helped. My paperback version features a moss-filled animal skull on a stump in the midst of a spooky, fog-shrouded forest that looks so clammy you can feel the moisture.
Satisfied that even if the ceiling was low, the floor was high, I dove into it.
***
The Ritual is a tale of two books. The first half is one kind of story, and it’s mostly okay-to-good but sometimes meh-to-terrible. The second is a different kind of story, and it’s mostly absurd-to-terrible, but sometimes okay-to-unforgettable. And when I say “okay-to-unforgettable,� I mean that it takes a lap around the its-so-bad-its-good-and-back-to-bad track.
***
The beginning of The Ritual, is sturdy and old fashioned, and very much in the vein of The Blair Witch Project. It’s a short � probably a bit too short � exploration of the ways that small decisions, little mistakes, and incidental happenings tend to accumulate in harsh environments. Though the characterizations are thin, the execution of the atmosphere is quite good.
***
At about the halfway point, things take a turn for the surreal. Nevill initially keeps the menace grounded in reality, while subtly infusing a bit of potential supernaturalness. But then The Ritual skips the tracks, the train plunging into Crazy Town carrying a full load of What-the-Hell. The end result is a minor disaster is somewhat beautiful to behold, like a forest fire as viewed from a distance.
If you want a small taste of what the “twist� is like, I’ve hidden it beneath the spoiler tag.
***
The opening to The Ritual is not in any means perfect. Nevill makes the decision to start his story in media res, at the point that Hutch realizes they are going to need to take a shortcut. The result is that we are never properly introduced to the four English “friends� before they are placed in extremis.
If you are going to place fictional people into made-up danger, it’s fundamental � especially in this genre � to at least sketch them out, so that there is some impetus to care about their fate. Here, all four men are just names and vague descriptors. Dom and Phil are called fat so many times I started to wonder if I was getting fat-shamed. Hutch’s only back-story is that he recently got married, joining Dom and Phil in having a disapproving spouse back home. More than that, despite being “friends,� all four men seem to despite each other’s existences.
Later on, when things fall apart, Nevill tries to make up for his earlier elisions by having his characters engage in clunky dialogues about their feelings and friendship. The dialogue itself is graceless, but it’s rendered fully ludicrous by the fact that it occurs while the men are running for their lives.
***
That said, I appreciated Nevill’s sense of atmosphere, his creation of tension. Dialogue aside, he has a keen and perceptive eye for environment. He has a knack for describing the dense, unrelenting forest; the oppressive wet and cold; the exhaustion of the men as they trudge through thick tangles of underbrush.
He passed himself from tree to tree, using the great trunks and lower branches as crutches. The constant swoop and hover of flies became a loud whine when one of them disappeared inside his ear to probe. His hands were wet with lymph from where he had clumsily torn at the great white lumps growing into his cuffs. Some of the bites thickened under his watch strap. The splashes the insects made when he swatted them made him thirstier. He prayed it would rain again so the clouds of flies might go…After every ten steps he leaned against a tree or sat down in the wet verdure and waited for his vision to settle. His breathing was so heavy that the very act of drawing his breath was tiring him as much as pushing his leaden legs forward, time after time.
This book brims with talent, even if I did not remain entirely engaged. It is � if nothing else � the product of a lively imagination. Nevill goes to some unique places that are far afield from what I imagined at the outset. There is a lot of mythology woven into the story: animal carcasses hung from trees; tired old buildings in the middle of the forest; the potential for an ancient and primeval malevolence. I was certainly impressed with Nevill’s dedication to his vision, even as it bordered on the loopy.
***
The Ritual is pretty graphic in terms of violence. Nevill puts his four misbegotten buddies through a punishingly macabre wringer, pushing at the boundaries of gore and horrible happenings. Everyone’s mileage on this varies. For me, a single memorably bloody scene goes a long way to wiping out pages of dog-poo dialogue. If Nevill had pushed it a little farther, I might have enjoyed this more. Instead, I felt like he ran out of energy and ideas by the final pages.
***
Cinephile note: In 2017, Netflix made a movie version. It’s pretty good! In fact, in might be better than the source material. This is not totally surprising, since Nevill’s talent is creating imagery, which the film captures nicely.
***
It’s funny the books we remember and those we forget. When I put this on the shelf, I knew I’d probably end up remembering it better than Crime and Punishment or The Sun Also Rises. There are somewhat-objective literary merits we can look to when judging a book. Clever plotlines. Memorable characters. Universal themes. By those measures, The Ritual fails. In more important ways, it succeeds. It was not a great book, perhaps not even a good one, but I loved the experience of reading it.
September 23, 2024
Creepy Book Alert! One of my picks for you as a total winner with Halloween on way.
I saw the movie at the cinema and loved it. Do check out the movie after reading the book!
Adam Nevill never fails to thrill me as a fan and a reader. I am working my way through all of his books and The Ritual perked my interest late at night on a cold February evening here in England. I was sucked in from very early pages and picked this book back up at every opportunity I got eager to know what was coming next in the journey of four friends who have found themselves in a terrifying and horrific situation deep in the dense woods of Scandinavia.
Nevill is brilliant at building up tension and creating atmosphere. I always feel tangible fear when reading one of his books and this was no exception, hairs standing up on the back of my neck, my breathing out of whack and a frenzied need to keep going, wanting more, but terrified it might be worse than what had gone before.
Four old university friends reunite for a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle. No longer young men, they have little left in common and tensions rise as they struggle to connect. Frustrated and tired they take a shortcut that turns their hike into a nightmare that could cost them their lives.
Lost, hungry and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, they stumble across an isolated old house. Inside, they find the macabre remains of old rites and pagan sacrifices; ancient artefacts and unidentifiable bones. A place of dark ritual and home to a bestial presence that is still present in the ancient forest, and now they’re the prey.
The plot is really interesting in this book, it went nowhere where I expected it to and cleverly combines the intense analysis of friendships under pressure along with some very dark themes of pagan practices, ancient Scandinavian lore and evil rituals. It's not a book you can predict in anyway. The plot can be broken up into three distinct "stages" and unlike some other reviewers I liked all of them and found all had their purpose in the overall bigger storytelling picture.
There are some scenes in this book that when you picture them in your head you can see so clearly, this is where Nevill's descriptive writing really stands out and I could see this book as a movie no problem at all, and a good one at that. Some reviewers have said that parts of the book are too longwinded, and I get what they are saying but from my perspective this is where Nevill uses detail to really build a powerful picture of either a character or event and not for one second did it lose it's hold on me. It just flowed.
One of the strengths of this novel is the character building, watching what happens to these four men in this highly stressful, terrifying situation is just spectacular. It's not all easy to digest, but there is a lot of realism I feel included in how it's done. As for the evil thing that is hunting them I was desperate to know what it was and why, and when truth came to light it was just so dark that I was hoping and praying this was truly just fiction. Some of the human characters in this book truly are from the dark side themselves and dysfunctional is an understatement.
It's got all that I wanted, it was creepy, interesting, scary, shocking at times and as usual with all of Nevill's books I could really almost feel, smell and taste everything that was going on in the book. You are going to hope you don't also as it's not a nice experience. I will never, ever go walking in the woods in Scandinavia or go camping there after reading this book. It would be interesting to know where the author drew his research from around the ancient rites and beliefs that are a feature of this creepy novel.
Do not, I repeat, do not read this book on a hiking or camping trip. You have been warned.
Highly enjoyable, loved every minute of it and this one gets 5 stars from me. On to the next Adam Nevill book soon so watch out for more reviews! He is still my favourite horror author to date.
Thank you Adam for my copy of The Ritual. Proudly on my shelf with all your books on it. Still your No.1 Fan!
I saw the movie at the cinema and loved it. Do check out the movie after reading the book!
Adam Nevill never fails to thrill me as a fan and a reader. I am working my way through all of his books and The Ritual perked my interest late at night on a cold February evening here in England. I was sucked in from very early pages and picked this book back up at every opportunity I got eager to know what was coming next in the journey of four friends who have found themselves in a terrifying and horrific situation deep in the dense woods of Scandinavia.
Nevill is brilliant at building up tension and creating atmosphere. I always feel tangible fear when reading one of his books and this was no exception, hairs standing up on the back of my neck, my breathing out of whack and a frenzied need to keep going, wanting more, but terrified it might be worse than what had gone before.
Four old university friends reunite for a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle. No longer young men, they have little left in common and tensions rise as they struggle to connect. Frustrated and tired they take a shortcut that turns their hike into a nightmare that could cost them their lives.
Lost, hungry and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, they stumble across an isolated old house. Inside, they find the macabre remains of old rites and pagan sacrifices; ancient artefacts and unidentifiable bones. A place of dark ritual and home to a bestial presence that is still present in the ancient forest, and now they’re the prey.
The plot is really interesting in this book, it went nowhere where I expected it to and cleverly combines the intense analysis of friendships under pressure along with some very dark themes of pagan practices, ancient Scandinavian lore and evil rituals. It's not a book you can predict in anyway. The plot can be broken up into three distinct "stages" and unlike some other reviewers I liked all of them and found all had their purpose in the overall bigger storytelling picture.
There are some scenes in this book that when you picture them in your head you can see so clearly, this is where Nevill's descriptive writing really stands out and I could see this book as a movie no problem at all, and a good one at that. Some reviewers have said that parts of the book are too longwinded, and I get what they are saying but from my perspective this is where Nevill uses detail to really build a powerful picture of either a character or event and not for one second did it lose it's hold on me. It just flowed.
One of the strengths of this novel is the character building, watching what happens to these four men in this highly stressful, terrifying situation is just spectacular. It's not all easy to digest, but there is a lot of realism I feel included in how it's done. As for the evil thing that is hunting them I was desperate to know what it was and why, and when truth came to light it was just so dark that I was hoping and praying this was truly just fiction. Some of the human characters in this book truly are from the dark side themselves and dysfunctional is an understatement.
It's got all that I wanted, it was creepy, interesting, scary, shocking at times and as usual with all of Nevill's books I could really almost feel, smell and taste everything that was going on in the book. You are going to hope you don't also as it's not a nice experience. I will never, ever go walking in the woods in Scandinavia or go camping there after reading this book. It would be interesting to know where the author drew his research from around the ancient rites and beliefs that are a feature of this creepy novel.
Do not, I repeat, do not read this book on a hiking or camping trip. You have been warned.
Highly enjoyable, loved every minute of it and this one gets 5 stars from me. On to the next Adam Nevill book soon so watch out for more reviews! He is still my favourite horror author to date.
Thank you Adam for my copy of The Ritual. Proudly on my shelf with all your books on it. Still your No.1 Fan!
March 19, 2019
3 - 3.5�
Hmm. I enjoyed this novel, for the most part; until it went in a direction I wasn't expecting. The 'South of Heaven' chapters, didn't really work for me, much - though it did redeem itself, slightly, with the attic scene, and the seemingly, harmless, little old woman (who I would've despatched first).
Four friends: Luke, Hutch, Dom and Phil, reunite, to go on a hiking-trip through the Scandinavian wilderness, and get more than they bargained for, after taking a shortcut, into unknown territory. Dom and Phil, aren't as prepared for the three-day hike, as the other two - so Hutch consults his map, looking for a shorter route. Bad, idea. Will any of them get out of there alive?
There were some genuinely, creepy scenes: the eviscerated animal in the tree, the dilapidated church (which fascinated Hutch, momentarily), the house in the forest, the attic in the second building/house in another part of the dark, ancient forest, that one lucky guest, gets the guided tour of - and the scenes, where the little old woman was present (I definitely would've taken her out first). Not sure what to make of the characters' that were introduced, about a third of the way into the story.
Anyway, I may watch the movie, sometime; to see how closely it resembles the book. There are some characters' I don't recognise: Robert, Sara, Gayle, and the junkie - and the premise is slightly different to that of the book. Francesca Mula plays the witch in the movie. Must be the harmless? little old woman, then? - I guess.
Hmm. I enjoyed this novel, for the most part; until it went in a direction I wasn't expecting. The 'South of Heaven' chapters, didn't really work for me, much - though it did redeem itself, slightly, with the attic scene, and the seemingly, harmless, little old woman (who I would've despatched first).
Four friends: Luke, Hutch, Dom and Phil, reunite, to go on a hiking-trip through the Scandinavian wilderness, and get more than they bargained for, after taking a shortcut, into unknown territory. Dom and Phil, aren't as prepared for the three-day hike, as the other two - so Hutch consults his map, looking for a shorter route. Bad, idea. Will any of them get out of there alive?
There were some genuinely, creepy scenes: the eviscerated animal in the tree, the dilapidated church (which fascinated Hutch, momentarily), the house in the forest, the attic in the second building/house in another part of the dark, ancient forest, that one lucky guest, gets the guided tour of - and the scenes, where the little old woman was present (I definitely would've taken her out first). Not sure what to make of the characters' that were introduced, about a third of the way into the story.
Anyway, I may watch the movie, sometime; to see how closely it resembles the book. There are some characters' I don't recognise: Robert, Sara, Gayle, and the junkie - and the premise is slightly different to that of the book. Francesca Mula plays the witch in the movie. Must be the harmless? little old woman, then? - I guess.
October 30, 2018
A little personal history on my encounters with The Ritual.
First, I had seen it around on various horror book lists, so I bookmarked it long ago (it was published in 2011!)
Then, Book Outlet was having a sale on horror and I bought like a dozen titles for my Christmas present last year. So this has been on my shelf almost a year.
This summer, my son and husband watched the Netflix movie adaptation and I don't really "do" horror movies but my husband assured me I would like it. And I did! It was very good-sold me out on reading the book in October this year.
Well this was the perfect book to read for the spookiest month of the year!
Let me persuade you that if you have watched the movie and you're hesitant to read a story you "already know"; the book is different. It goes deeper. It's darker. The film went in a different direction for the last half of the story and I think I enjoyed the book version better. Plus it was fun to imagine the monster that the movie created (excellent monster imagery in the movie).
The dynamic between the four, male friends that set out on a holiday excursion in the woods of Scandinavia, is so much more developed and layered in the book.
There's a scene somewhere in the middle where tension is very high and the men are arguing and exchanging insults and it was so heart wrenching and painful. They go after each other in a cutting, hurtful way--so strongly that it leapt off the page for me. In the movie, some of the actors were kind of over-the-top annoying, so it turned me off of investing in him as a person going through a serious trial (you almost want something to happen to him so he would shut up) but in the book, I was able to see all the men as complicated individuals. They made choices based on the author's ability to flesh out real people. I was invested in them and I was hoping desperately for their survival.
This is one of the most intensely frightening books I've read in a long time. I think the fact that the men find themselves lost in some strange woods is that top layer of fear. I wouldn't want to find myself in that situation anyways--let alone the fact that they discover something terrifying is hunting them. So the "something in the woods" element is this deeper layer of fear and then towards the last 100+ pages or so, a new, fresh horror is introduced which only turns up the heat that much more! I mean, these pages are stocked up with so much horror retail, there's not much more that could have been in this story-Adam Nevill brought everything to the fear party.
It was so much fun.
I highly recommend this one as a top ten scariest books for me. A must have!
First, I had seen it around on various horror book lists, so I bookmarked it long ago (it was published in 2011!)
Then, Book Outlet was having a sale on horror and I bought like a dozen titles for my Christmas present last year. So this has been on my shelf almost a year.
This summer, my son and husband watched the Netflix movie adaptation and I don't really "do" horror movies but my husband assured me I would like it. And I did! It was very good-sold me out on reading the book in October this year.
Well this was the perfect book to read for the spookiest month of the year!
Let me persuade you that if you have watched the movie and you're hesitant to read a story you "already know"; the book is different. It goes deeper. It's darker. The film went in a different direction for the last half of the story and I think I enjoyed the book version better. Plus it was fun to imagine the monster that the movie created (excellent monster imagery in the movie).
The dynamic between the four, male friends that set out on a holiday excursion in the woods of Scandinavia, is so much more developed and layered in the book.
There's a scene somewhere in the middle where tension is very high and the men are arguing and exchanging insults and it was so heart wrenching and painful. They go after each other in a cutting, hurtful way--so strongly that it leapt off the page for me. In the movie, some of the actors were kind of over-the-top annoying, so it turned me off of investing in him as a person going through a serious trial (you almost want something to happen to him so he would shut up) but in the book, I was able to see all the men as complicated individuals. They made choices based on the author's ability to flesh out real people. I was invested in them and I was hoping desperately for their survival.
This is one of the most intensely frightening books I've read in a long time. I think the fact that the men find themselves lost in some strange woods is that top layer of fear. I wouldn't want to find myself in that situation anyways--let alone the fact that they discover something terrifying is hunting them. So the "something in the woods" element is this deeper layer of fear and then towards the last 100+ pages or so, a new, fresh horror is introduced which only turns up the heat that much more! I mean, these pages are stocked up with so much horror retail, there's not much more that could have been in this story-Adam Nevill brought everything to the fear party.
It was so much fun.
I highly recommend this one as a top ten scariest books for me. A must have!
April 7, 2018
Dizzy with exhaustion, weary like the dying, you hang between the bindings of vine and the scaffolding of sticks. And wait...Wait for it.
I read this novel over a year back, and I recently watched the movie adaptation of the story which brought me back to the sinister uncharted woods of Scandinavian forests, where the unspeakable thing lurks in the shadows, cunningly stalking its prey.
The novel tells the story of four long-time friends getting together for a hike in the woods, but the trip is not going smoothly as they planned. These guys are no longer young men, and they are grumpy about the whole trip. They decide to take a shortcut through the woods to gain time and that, my friend, is what I call the rookie mistake.
Goodbye, Walk in the Woods. Hello, Blair Witch Project!
The story is divided into two parts, and the plot and the style of story warrant such division. The first part plays with the terror: the anticipation and the dread of being stalked, and second part let the reader catch their breath, maybe for a bit too long. That's why I thought the first half was creepy and excellent, and the second half is a bit of a let down after the spectacular beginning. Nevertheless, Nevil's writing throughout the book is scary good, especially the abandoned cottage scene.
At the end of the day, characters going into an unexplored area and coming face to face with indescribable horror is a classic tried and tested horror trope, but Nevil's execution brings the story to a whole new level, even though the horror factor flat lines in second half.
Still, Recommended.
May 27, 2023
"Loping through complete darkness that begins a foot from your eyes, it's stride covers thickets you could not even crawl through. Sweat cools from your neck down to your waist and turns to shivers.
Will it be quick? The end?"
4.75 🌟's
Initial Thoughts
Horror is what got me into reading and I'm always on the look out for new authors, the next big thing, the new Stephen King. Well it just so happens that English author Adam Nevill has been described as the British Stephen King. Although I'm a touch sceptical when it comes to labels like that. Is the comparison deserved? Well by the end of this review I'm going to answer that one for you.
To be honest his third published novel, The Ritual, has been sat on my shelf for over a year and it was the offer of a group read on The Night Shift group on Facebook that reminded me it was still there. I know you've all been there, when you're thinking "I'm sure I've got that book somewhere!"
This book in particular is probably the one Nevill is most famous for as it received a fairly successful adaptation in 2017. One which I've managed to avoid, which means I can stick to my number one rule of always reading the book before the movie.
The Story
Things are kicking off in the Scandinavian wilderness, on the Norwegian border, when we're introduced to a group of old university friends who are having a bit of a reunion while on a trekking expedition. What begins as a chance to reminisce turns into a battle for survival when they find themselves completely lost before discovering a dead animal hung, drawn and quartered in the branches of a tree. Question is, who put it up there?
Things get very creepy very quickly and the group are convinced there's someone, or something stalking them. When they take refuge in an abandoned cabin in the woods, that's full of occult decoration and animal bones, it becomes clear there is something very sinister at play. Each member of the group is plagued by visions and it seems there's something very evil watching them. Who's ready to get the crap scared out of them?
"The dark trees they had been amongst all afternoon and evening had left a stain inside him; a taint upon every thought and feeling if he allowed his mind to drift."
The Writing
The first thing that struck me with this book was the actual quality of the prose. It's tight and concise while having a touch of flair with the description that works fantastically in helping create atmosphere and tension. Nevill really sets the scene and I could almost taste the oppressive environment and air of desperation.
The story itself can be broken into two parts that compliment each other really well. I've already outlined the first aspect taking place in the forest. A survival horror where the men slowly succumb to the elements and the entity that hunts them. Starvation, dehydration and physical injury are an ever present danger that proves just as deadly for the group. It's a real man versus nature battle that was reminiscent of Dan Simmons' The Terror. Neville shows great restraint and gave brief glimpses of the supernatural element while building a sense of dread that had me on the edge of my seat. Honestly if this had been all this book was about I'd have still had a great time.
But the story then shifts in the second part, becoming much more of an all out horror. I'm not going to say how it changes as that would completely spoil things for you, but there's a definite change in the style and tone as the supernatural element takes more of a backseat, while the stakes jump through the roof. It's bizarre and unexpected but works fantastically well.
"So keep your eyes closed at the end. You don't want to see such a mouth up close. Before the bite, before it's oblivion in the goring of the soft parts, the speckled lips will curl back in a whinny of excitement. You just know it."
The Characters
The characterisation in this one is also top draw. There's hardly any setup, as you're dropped right into the thick of it. Things are going down right from the very first page and at first I thought the four main characters were a bit stereotypical. But each one is fleshed out as the story progresses with the help of some effective dialogue that reminded me of how guys actually talk.
As events take a turn for the worst the tension that exists between the group becomes evident. Each of them has changed since they last spent any significant time with one another and they struggle to connect. Life has took them in drastically different directions and they soon realise they now have very little in common. Nevill perfectly illustrates how the expectations of being an adult can change us and not always for the best. Early banter soon degenerates into argument and fighting inevitably kicks off between them. It's really well done and I found myself becoming more sympathetic to each of them as the story progressed. That's despite taking an initial dislike to at least two of them.
The story is told through the POV of Luke who is the black sheep of the group, and certainly my favourite character as you get a real sense of his isolation as he tries to fit in. Hutch is the resourceful, adventurous type who initially holds the group together. While Phil and Dom are the most successful of the group, in financial terms, but are completely out of their depth when facing a fight for survival. They've done zero training and struggle from the very start while constantly bitching and complaining. Everyone has got a friend who's idea of getting fit is purchasing a gym membership without actually going. Well that's Phil and Dom.
Nevill expertly explores the group dynamics as fear and panic take hold. Each of them develops significantly through the course of the novel as they struggle to salvage what little shred of friendship remains between them. I did start to think a monster wouldn't be required as they look set to kill each other but it's skillfully done and I think most men will be able to identify with it .
Final Thoughts
As a self confessed horror fan, I've got to say I'm a touch disappointed with lack of quality authors in the current market. But The Ritual is a novel that really delivered. It's good, old fashioned horror that genuinely had me gripping those pages tight with some very unsettling moments. Maybe the kickstart that the genre needs and Adam Nevill has certainly given me renewed hope.
The set up was pretty standard. Things we've seen done before in the Blair Witch Project and Evil Dead. But the absolute quality of writing really sets this one apart and is exactly what I was looking for. Nevill is a fantastic storyteller with a compelling voice that he uses expertly to build real tension without needing to resort to cheap tricks or excessive gore.
So is the comparison to Stephen King deserved? Based on this one entry, I'd have to say yes. They both have a talent for developing realistic and believable characters and getting the reader invested, before introducing that element of horror. Still, they're very different in style and tone. So don't be expecting a carbon copy. Nevill is his own man and that is always a good thing.
All that's left for me to say is why has it took me so long to read this extremely talented author? I'm certainly making up for lost time and eyeing up my next book as I we speak. Have you read Adam Nevill and if you have what would you recommend?
And if you haven't read him then stop messing about and grab a copy of the Ritual. Then you can join me in watching the movie. Bring a bag of popcorn while you're at it!
Thanks for reading and...cheers!
Adam Nevill
October 12, 2022
Mehhhhh, this book started off interesting enough, but I quickly lost interest. I think this author just isn't for me, this is the second book I've read from him and I haven't enjoyed either. I also hate the way he writes women in this book, it's obnoxious.
Here's the vlog where I read it:
Here's the vlog where I read it:
November 5, 2012
The first half of this book was genuinely terrifying -- it's as harrowing as "The Descent," and in very similar ways. Luke and his three friends meet to go hiking and camping together, but Phil and Dom's less-than-stellar physical condition forces Hutch, the leader of the group, to propose a shortcut through a section of national forest. This shortcut turns frightening very quickly: not only is the forest much more dense and difficult to navigate than anyone anticipated, but early on they discover the fresh corpse of a large animal dangling grotesquely from the trees. Tempers fray as they become increasingly lost, finally taking refuge in an abandoned cabin that holds hints of dark secrets. The psychological terror is magnificent, and I actually had nightmares when I made the mistake of reading the passage about the cabin right before bed.
Unfortunately, after the first 250 pages or so, the book changes directions somewhat and ends up falling short. I don't want to give it away, but it all becomes a bit silly and oddly mundane, not to mention oddly contradictory. It rather feels like two novellas written around a central theme and mushed together a bit inexpertly. I was severely disappointed with how everything wrapped up, after the terror of the first half.
Unfortunately, after the first 250 pages or so, the book changes directions somewhat and ends up falling short. I don't want to give it away, but it all becomes a bit silly and oddly mundane, not to mention oddly contradictory. It rather feels like two novellas written around a central theme and mushed together a bit inexpertly. I was severely disappointed with how everything wrapped up, after the terror of the first half.
April 11, 2020
Underwhelming. I struggled with the main characters, and lost interest in the ridiculous aspect of the latter part of the story. Maybe the movie is better?
May 4, 2017
I just finished this book and I am utterly exhausted emotionally and physically. What a harrowing journey through the Scandinavian wilderness this turned out to be. Mr. Neville has such a beautiful and descriptive voice. Some of the passages are so lyrical yet horrifying. I honestly felt the fatigue, agony, and utter hopelessness these characters felt. While some readers didn't care for what some are calling the second half of the book, South of Heaven, I found it just as frightening as the first half. My only complaint would be that the story as a whole could of been wrapped up in about 100 less pages. There are a lot of wordy passages, that while beautiful and excellently written, may of been unnecessary in the grand scope of the novel and wouldn't have effected the plot at all. I look forward to reading more work by this incredibly talented author.
June 26, 2022
The first part of this book was so scary. I loved it!! Then the second part- I never saw coming! Overall I enjoyed the book & read. I read it a lot faster than I thought I would.
2nd reading: just as great this time around as the first. The first part is just scary AF. The second part is so full of tension and anticipation. I liked it more in this reading than the first.
2nd reading: just as great this time around as the first. The first part is just scary AF. The second part is so full of tension and anticipation. I liked it more in this reading than the first.
July 23, 2024
I am genuinely mystified by how contentious this novel seems to have been since its publication. I’ve never looked at the reviews on GR and goodness gracious was there some weird sociopolitical and author/character conflation balderdash infiltrating the discourse. I don't have a particular jötunn in the fight, but Loki must be behind it because it reeks of mischief.
My experience with Nevill's breakout was one of solitary revelry.
I am sometimes reluctant to elaborate on books that are more personally purposeful for various reasons, but I may have to work on a more long-form advocacy since I so frequently recommend The Ritual.
My experience with Nevill's breakout was one of solitary revelry.
I am sometimes reluctant to elaborate on books that are more personally purposeful for various reasons, but I may have to work on a more long-form advocacy since I so frequently recommend The Ritual.
September 30, 2014
The Ritual was a stunning book to get lost in. The beginning with the four University friends trying to hike out through some ruthless Scandinavian forests ravages more than their clothes, they all have personal issues that over time have formed thorns between them and what better time to hash it out then out in the wild where tempers flare. So it's a double lost in the bushes story, physically and mentally, it's a grueling non hold barrel of a good time, for the reader who is safe on the couch that is.
Big fan of the prose here, it's real, dark and often desperate in it's surrounding, it was such a treat to read that I could think of little else when I wasn't reading it. This was scary, and I mean real scary not even scary because of the dark, rank animal like thing stalking the hikers but due to the description of the isolation, the cold woods, bleak realism of being lost on this huge planet without much help, when it's easier to just stumble down, lay among the leaves and branched and let Earth take you back was so huge that it truly pushed on pure survival and the instinct to keep going, basic point of life, thought the story and that is very real.
My favorite part of reading this was the constant walk between life and death, you felt the razor's edge at all times, balance being key was at most importance. I loved the vivid descriptions of the scents and textures, the animal musk, the hay, the wet leaves, it all was powerful and explosive, many times I had to go back and re-read certain portions because they were so visually powerful. Some reviewers didn't find it scary, sure from the comfort of your home it might seem meek, but stand alone between miles of trees, their solitude and timelessness can truly spook you, never mind a blood thirsty antler covered hooved jackal scented something something being five steps ahead of you...this is a winner in my eyes and something that I still think about days after finishing it. Don't expect happy endings and roses, this is a real bloody ride and it rides out until skin peels and chaffs and there's little left but will to live.
A stunning lost in woods tale with an element of the supernatural that delivers some truly scare your boots off moments.
- Kasia S.
Big fan of the prose here, it's real, dark and often desperate in it's surrounding, it was such a treat to read that I could think of little else when I wasn't reading it. This was scary, and I mean real scary not even scary because of the dark, rank animal like thing stalking the hikers but due to the description of the isolation, the cold woods, bleak realism of being lost on this huge planet without much help, when it's easier to just stumble down, lay among the leaves and branched and let Earth take you back was so huge that it truly pushed on pure survival and the instinct to keep going, basic point of life, thought the story and that is very real.
My favorite part of reading this was the constant walk between life and death, you felt the razor's edge at all times, balance being key was at most importance. I loved the vivid descriptions of the scents and textures, the animal musk, the hay, the wet leaves, it all was powerful and explosive, many times I had to go back and re-read certain portions because they were so visually powerful. Some reviewers didn't find it scary, sure from the comfort of your home it might seem meek, but stand alone between miles of trees, their solitude and timelessness can truly spook you, never mind a blood thirsty antler covered hooved jackal scented something something being five steps ahead of you...this is a winner in my eyes and something that I still think about days after finishing it. Don't expect happy endings and roses, this is a real bloody ride and it rides out until skin peels and chaffs and there's little left but will to live.
A stunning lost in woods tale with an element of the supernatural that delivers some truly scare your boots off moments.
- Kasia S.
October 16, 2017
Survival Horror!
Just in time for October. Wanna dive into some very nicely creepy atmospherics and get reacquainted with your old buddies on a camping trip, just getting away from the old world, finding out what the big deal about Scandinavia is?
Welcome home.
Of course, these four men are a bunch of ponces. They eventually grow on me after some of the real festering shit comes out, but before then, there's very little positive I can say about it other than the fact that the atmospherics are pretty awesome. And that's fine. We're used to horrors that are filled with all manner of flawed characters and they either eventually step up to the plate or they're served on it.
Welcome home!
Of course, that's only half the novel. The second half was much better, in my opinion. It kept up the oppression and atmosphere but changed it into a glorious death metal tribute full of cliches and old school satanism tripes AND remained a survival horror with the same creepy vibe as before. We've just added new layers to the creepy. The payoff is pretty sweet, too, and all my struggling with the initial characterization was worth it.
It's so hard to see a character grow with something like genuine understanding, but when it happens, it is delightful. :)
Just in time for October. Wanna dive into some very nicely creepy atmospherics and get reacquainted with your old buddies on a camping trip, just getting away from the old world, finding out what the big deal about Scandinavia is?
Welcome home.
Of course, these four men are a bunch of ponces. They eventually grow on me after some of the real festering shit comes out, but before then, there's very little positive I can say about it other than the fact that the atmospherics are pretty awesome. And that's fine. We're used to horrors that are filled with all manner of flawed characters and they either eventually step up to the plate or they're served on it.
Welcome home!
Of course, that's only half the novel. The second half was much better, in my opinion. It kept up the oppression and atmosphere but changed it into a glorious death metal tribute full of cliches and old school satanism tripes AND remained a survival horror with the same creepy vibe as before. We've just added new layers to the creepy. The payoff is pretty sweet, too, and all my struggling with the initial characterization was worth it.
It's so hard to see a character grow with something like genuine understanding, but when it happens, it is delightful. :)
June 22, 2021
I feel like this could have been so much better. The horror aspects, the creature itself, the twist all are very well done. Unfortunately, the horror gets very much bogged down in internal moralizing/dialogue. I feel like this book could have been half as short and been that much better for it. This would have made an excellent novella/short story, as it is; it gets much too bogged down in its own internal preaching to make the horror as punchy and spine-tingling as it could have been. A shame, really.
October 7, 2024
A few old friends embark on a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness.
Once the troop goes off the beaten path and gets lost, tensions flair.
But this is not the real horror. The real terror awaits them in the woods.
The Ritual is filled with creepy homes in the woods, pagan rituals, creatures, piles of bones, and plenty of visceral moments.
The creature elements and exploratory narrative portions were my favorite parts of the book. I really do not have much to say about the book. It was just okay.
Unfortunately, the conversations between the unlikeable friends and drama really did not do anything for me. For every bit that was fun and exciting, it had bits that did not work for me.
Overall: creepy moments, but a bit bloated on story elements that were uninteresting, imo.
3/5
Once the troop goes off the beaten path and gets lost, tensions flair.
But this is not the real horror. The real terror awaits them in the woods.
The Ritual is filled with creepy homes in the woods, pagan rituals, creatures, piles of bones, and plenty of visceral moments.
The creature elements and exploratory narrative portions were my favorite parts of the book. I really do not have much to say about the book. It was just okay.
Unfortunately, the conversations between the unlikeable friends and drama really did not do anything for me. For every bit that was fun and exciting, it had bits that did not work for me.
Overall: creepy moments, but a bit bloated on story elements that were uninteresting, imo.
3/5
February 2, 2021
Actual rating 3.5/5 stars.
Four university friends reunite a decade later for a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness. Relations, moods, and the weather quickly turn sour and what promised to be an adventurous retreat from their daily lives soon turns into a miserable and soggy trek. Blisters and wet socks soon become the least of their problems however and an isolated house found in the middle of virgin terrain is only the start of the nightmare they find themselves inside of...
I initially really struggled with this one. The four 'friends' displayed some of the most abhorrent character traits. I despise friendship groups who constantly complain about the other members, either to each other or in their internal monologues, and much of the first quarter was focused almost entirely on this. There was also a continuous stream of fat-shaming and sexist comments, which quickly ruined any attachment I could form for these characters. Not caring about the individuals initially meant I also did not care for them when they became exposed to torturous happenings, and much of the emotion this was supposed to elicit did not occur.
However, I did highly rate the atmosphere and this brought back much of my enjoyment and engagement. The increasingly suspenseful trek through the increasingly dark forestry brought some of the chills and thrills I was anticipating and the concluding third was just one big WTF, which I very much admired.
I didn't think Nevill could claw this one back for me, but he succeeded. I still hate these characters but the plot was unique, thrilling, and was what kept me reading.
Four university friends reunite a decade later for a hiking trip in the Scandinavian wilderness. Relations, moods, and the weather quickly turn sour and what promised to be an adventurous retreat from their daily lives soon turns into a miserable and soggy trek. Blisters and wet socks soon become the least of their problems however and an isolated house found in the middle of virgin terrain is only the start of the nightmare they find themselves inside of...
I initially really struggled with this one. The four 'friends' displayed some of the most abhorrent character traits. I despise friendship groups who constantly complain about the other members, either to each other or in their internal monologues, and much of the first quarter was focused almost entirely on this. There was also a continuous stream of fat-shaming and sexist comments, which quickly ruined any attachment I could form for these characters. Not caring about the individuals initially meant I also did not care for them when they became exposed to torturous happenings, and much of the emotion this was supposed to elicit did not occur.
However, I did highly rate the atmosphere and this brought back much of my enjoyment and engagement. The increasingly suspenseful trek through the increasingly dark forestry brought some of the chills and thrills I was anticipating and the concluding third was just one big WTF, which I very much admired.
I didn't think Nevill could claw this one back for me, but he succeeded. I still hate these characters but the plot was unique, thrilling, and was what kept me reading.
August 23, 2020
"There are some things worse than death."
I don't know what possessed me to bypass my next intended read for THE RITUAL....probably the wonderfully creepy cover? All I know is that once it showed on my GR feed, I was being drawn to it, and once I started, I couldn't stop the need to find out what IT was and how it would all end.
This story is about four university mates who get together for a hiking reunion in the wilderness of Sweden. If you're a horror reader, you know that often times characters do stupid stuff in horror books, and thus is the case in THE RITUAL.....but there's good reason for part of it.
Anyway, one of the four is an able-bodied leader, another is tough, but full if anger and two are unfit for any kind of short walk, let alone a laborious trek over treacherous ground, but the guys, despite some dissension in the ranks, slowly make their way and do have a few laughs....until it becomes imperative they take a shortcut off the beaten path....until they see the dead animal hanging in the tree....until the fight....and until it becomes obvious the storms and incessant rain are not their only enemy.
"Something terrible happened to each of them they could later blame on environment or tiredness. But they were not random, those dreams."
While being hunted, bad turns to worse as we enter Part II of THE RITUAL, a crazy and deadly part of the storyline I did not at all expect.....
"There was simply no preparation in life for the determined madness of others."
(now I must see the Netflix movie!)
April 10, 2025
Чи не жирно 5 зірок за горор? А не жирно, якщо це читання викликало стільки емоцій.
Зав’язк� тут як у найкласичнішому фільмі жахів: група випускників збирається, щоб разом піти у похід у Швеції. Бажаючи зекономити час, звертають у густий темний ліс. А ліс чаїть у собі дещо прадавнє.
2/3 я кайфувала від найкрутішої лячної атмосфери, 1/3 книги віддана оригінальному повороту сюжету. Насправді я дуже боялася, що саме завершення історії зіпсує мені усі враження від тексту, від цих запаморочливих описів, від цієї напруги і відчуття безнадії. Дочитуючи останні сторінки, зрозуміла, що автор таки заслуговує похвали за свою майстерність і фантазію (серйозно, не згадаю, коли востаннє я неспокій від книги жахів відчувала на фізичному рівні). Хотілося б почитати ще щось у Адама Невілла.
Хочеться ще похвалити видавництво «Богдан» за роботу з текстом � колись я читала у них тексти, об які повсякчас шпорталася, а тут � просто насолода від читання. Дякую!
Зав’язк� тут як у найкласичнішому фільмі жахів: група випускників збирається, щоб разом піти у похід у Швеції. Бажаючи зекономити час, звертають у густий темний ліс. А ліс чаїть у собі дещо прадавнє.
2/3 я кайфувала від найкрутішої лячної атмосфери, 1/3 книги віддана оригінальному повороту сюжету. Насправді я дуже боялася, що саме завершення історії зіпсує мені усі враження від тексту, від цих запаморочливих описів, від цієї напруги і відчуття безнадії. Дочитуючи останні сторінки, зрозуміла, що автор таки заслуговує похвали за свою майстерність і фантазію (серйозно, не згадаю, коли востаннє я неспокій від книги жахів відчувала на фізичному рівні). Хотілося б почитати ще щось у Адама Невілла.
Хочеться ще похвалити видавництво «Богдан» за роботу з текстом � колись я читала у них тексти, об які повсякчас шпорталася, а тут � просто насолода від читання. Дякую!
June 9, 2021
"Evil was, he decided, inevitable, relentless and predictable. Imaginative, he'd give it that much, but soulless."
This one is a truly maddening, horror filled reading experience. The situation these four friends have to face is unimaginable and it pushes Luke, our main character to the very brink of sanity and beyond. I highly recommend this one for anyone who appreciates a good scary page turner!
This one is a truly maddening, horror filled reading experience. The situation these four friends have to face is unimaginable and it pushes Luke, our main character to the very brink of sanity and beyond. I highly recommend this one for anyone who appreciates a good scary page turner!
June 15, 2022
Creepy Camping Vibes!
Backstory:
Four friends (Hutch, Phil, Dom, and Luke) all decide to go on a hiking/camping trip in the mountain hills of Scandinavia for a reunion get together as they haven't seen each other since college days.
Though once they end up in the Scandinavian wilds the friends come across something weird in the forest that is hanging up in the trees which cannot be explained which really unnerves them but they keep hiking as they try to figure out what they have seen. From that point on they are cautious but when something horrific happens to one of them is when the panic sets in as they realize they are not alone out in wilderness as something is out there and it is waiting!
That is about all I can give on a backstory without giving away spoilers so if you want to know more then you will need to read the book!
Thoughts:
This book was one creepy and dreadful suspense novel that right away you could feel the fear permeating the story. The author, Adam Nevill draws you right into the storyline and then adds a slow suspense buildup twisting your guts with fear the more you become involved in the story.
I have been reading some camping/hiking horror lately and I have decided that I am not going anywhere hiking or camping even with taking friends as they are usually the first ones that get snatched so to keep them safe they can stay home and to keep myself safe so will I! :)
Though I thought this story reminded me a little of one of Nevill's other books "Cunning Folk" as there are some creatures in the book that are parallel to this book. The folklore setting is deep in this book as well though this story was more twisted. I found this story to be more creepier and spookier as there seemed to be more of a "fear factor" that slowly builds up as you read the book.
The only reason that this book is not getting five stars is the length of being stuck in the wilds of Scandinavia for so long - almost the whole book is the friends trudging along through the backwoods hiking in fear. Though some stuff did happen along the way (not going into details because of spoilers) I felt that it took a long time to get to that point of something happening.
Nothing really happens till about the 34% mark and then after that it just slowly moves along before anything else happens. Also this book has two parts - the first half of the book is the friends hiking through the wilderness in fear of the unknown and the second half of the book is totally something different as things come to light but in an odd way which I wasn't expecting.
This book is little long in the tooth as I felt there was too much time spent in the wilderness before anything really happened, but all in all the book is a great one - now I need to track down the movie to see how well it holds up to the book. Giving this book four "Hiking Horror" stars!
Backstory:
Four friends (Hutch, Phil, Dom, and Luke) all decide to go on a hiking/camping trip in the mountain hills of Scandinavia for a reunion get together as they haven't seen each other since college days.
Though once they end up in the Scandinavian wilds the friends come across something weird in the forest that is hanging up in the trees which cannot be explained which really unnerves them but they keep hiking as they try to figure out what they have seen. From that point on they are cautious but when something horrific happens to one of them is when the panic sets in as they realize they are not alone out in wilderness as something is out there and it is waiting!
That is about all I can give on a backstory without giving away spoilers so if you want to know more then you will need to read the book!
Thoughts:
This book was one creepy and dreadful suspense novel that right away you could feel the fear permeating the story. The author, Adam Nevill draws you right into the storyline and then adds a slow suspense buildup twisting your guts with fear the more you become involved in the story.
I have been reading some camping/hiking horror lately and I have decided that I am not going anywhere hiking or camping even with taking friends as they are usually the first ones that get snatched so to keep them safe they can stay home and to keep myself safe so will I! :)
Though I thought this story reminded me a little of one of Nevill's other books "Cunning Folk" as there are some creatures in the book that are parallel to this book. The folklore setting is deep in this book as well though this story was more twisted. I found this story to be more creepier and spookier as there seemed to be more of a "fear factor" that slowly builds up as you read the book.
The only reason that this book is not getting five stars is the length of being stuck in the wilds of Scandinavia for so long - almost the whole book is the friends trudging along through the backwoods hiking in fear. Though some stuff did happen along the way (not going into details because of spoilers) I felt that it took a long time to get to that point of something happening.
Nothing really happens till about the 34% mark and then after that it just slowly moves along before anything else happens. Also this book has two parts - the first half of the book is the friends hiking through the wilderness in fear of the unknown and the second half of the book is totally something different as things come to light but in an odd way which I wasn't expecting.
This book is little long in the tooth as I felt there was too much time spent in the wilderness before anything really happened, but all in all the book is a great one - now I need to track down the movie to see how well it holds up to the book. Giving this book four "Hiking Horror" stars!
October 13, 2024
3.5 stars
I really enjoyed the plot of The Ritual but I didn't love the execution.
The narrative was super fun--four friends lost and being hunted by a supernatural entity in an unknown woods. Fantastic!
The dialogue? A never-ending repetitive diatribe of whining for 400 pages.
After this and purple prose of The Cunning Folk, I realize that Nevill may just not be for me. I'm glad, though, that others enjoy his style.
I really enjoyed the plot of The Ritual but I didn't love the execution.
The narrative was super fun--four friends lost and being hunted by a supernatural entity in an unknown woods. Fantastic!
The dialogue? A never-ending repetitive diatribe of whining for 400 pages.
After this and purple prose of The Cunning Folk, I realize that Nevill may just not be for me. I'm glad, though, that others enjoy his style.
March 13, 2016
[Spoilers ahead] I will start this review by saying that I can kind of (if I squint) see how some people rate the book highly. This is the book equivalent of Human Centipede. It’s kind of gross and weird and has its moments of genuine horror and at the end you may go, ‘Haha, wasn’t that a laugh?� and move on with your life. So, if you’re the sort of person who wants a quick romp through some typical horror tropes, this is a great book. Four stars.
But, if you’re looking for more out of a novel, then don’t touch this book. Just don’t. By the time I was on page three-hundred, having suffered through paragraphs of inexplicable exposition from one douchebag in a smelly room, both suffering from a head injury whilst not being affected by it whatsoever, I was fantasising about doing something more entertaining with my time - banging my head into a wall, perhaps. See if I could still be witty with a fractured skull, like ‘Great Banter Lad� main character Luke is.
A previous review has covered the rampant sexism in this book, and that was what left a really sour taste in my mouth. I see some people disagree with it. That’s fine, you can! But, if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t think a woman should be characterised by her weight or smell, then this book might not be for you. And, after all, isn’t that variety what reviews are for?
I’m going to deal with the fact that Nevill is not a good writer. No, I don’t care that the book was scary at first (it was, it really was! I had so many high hopes in the first 150 pages!). You can like the book, but you cannot tell me Nevill understands how to properly write narratives. Seeing him compared to Lovecraft makes me gag.
I’m going to provide examples in case you don’t believe me. I was an English Teacher, I live for this shit.
As it all kicks off, we get this:
“In the sightless cold he had awoken to, Luke then comprehended, both with shock and sudden relief, that the noisy commotion was coming from the adjoining tent. It was Dom.
The loose fabric on the ceiling of his own tent rippled from the commotion in the neighbouring tent, from where the screams were issuing.�
The first sentence is alright. It’s too wordy, overcomplicated ('noisy commotion'?), but it does the job. Then the second sentence... Why? It’s the same. I get it. There’s screaming. Its happening next door. Somehow, the screaming is so loud, it’s literally shaking a tent (??). Nevill uses the word commotion twice like he just learned what it means and wanted to show it off. It’s like he wrote the first sentence, took a shot of whisky, immediately forgot what he was doing but he needed the audience to know shit was getting loud so he just banged out another line to tell us in case we didn’t get it the first time. Bizarre.
He starts sentences with ‘And� far too often, too many times for me to count because I’ve spent too long on this novel already but venting my spleen is the only way to get the bad taste out of my mouth. None of these ever have the effect of stylistic choice. Nevill constructs sentences by accident rather than by design.
On one page he switches tense three times, going from third-person past (like the ENTIRE BOOK TO THIS POINT, suddenly becoming ‘Loki shakes his head, in bitter despair, then looks up�). Holy shit, I’ve read English Literature coursework from 16 year olds and even THEY don’t manage that. How, Adam Nevill? You have an editor. Fuck sake.
Later on, Nevill is trying to show us that Luke is a deep-thinking man who contemplates the complexity of life (despite nearly getting himself killed multiple times because he couldn’t stop being a wanker for one moment). I realise some people argue that the characters are supposed to be laddish stereotypes, but there comes a point where I think Nevill wanted me to like Luke. Tension in horror narratives this long comes from sympathy, from not wanting to be in the position of the characters. That’s why the first half of this book was so effective. By this point, 350 pages or so in, every time I turned the page to find out Luke wasn’t dead yet was another weight of disappointment on my soul. Luke suddenly becomes profound; he discusses the nature of evil, deciding that it is “inevitable, relentless and predictable. Imaginative, he’d give it that much, but soulless.�
How. HOW, I want to know, does something manage to be both predictable and imaginative at the same time? Adam Nevill writes like a teenager given a minimum wordcount to meet but the only lesson he paid attention to was the one about adjectives, so he just piles them on and hopes for the best. Then he shrugs, submits the manuscript, and wins two goddamn awards for this book and I want to scream.
I would have genuinely enjoyed this book if it finished at page 200 or so. Honestly, at that point I was going to give it a half-decent review. The characters were stiff and (apart from Hutch, who I would have loved to have as the main POV because I liked him) the writing wasn’t great, but it had good atmosphere. Nevill wrote cool dream sequences and made me check over my shoulder once or twice, which I don't often get when reading horror. I honestly don’t understand why he felt the need to staple on what is essentially an entirely different book to the end of this one, because it ruined it. It baffles me, and left me feeling frustrated and a little bit nauseated that I spent the best part of a week with this book.
Some people love this book, and that’s fine. It’s great that Nevill has created something a lot of people seemed to enjoy, even if I don’t quite understand why. But I wish, with such intense regret, that I had read more reviews before I picked this up. Because I hated this book, and wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
But, if you’re looking for more out of a novel, then don’t touch this book. Just don’t. By the time I was on page three-hundred, having suffered through paragraphs of inexplicable exposition from one douchebag in a smelly room, both suffering from a head injury whilst not being affected by it whatsoever, I was fantasising about doing something more entertaining with my time - banging my head into a wall, perhaps. See if I could still be witty with a fractured skull, like ‘Great Banter Lad� main character Luke is.
A previous review has covered the rampant sexism in this book, and that was what left a really sour taste in my mouth. I see some people disagree with it. That’s fine, you can! But, if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t think a woman should be characterised by her weight or smell, then this book might not be for you. And, after all, isn’t that variety what reviews are for?
I’m going to deal with the fact that Nevill is not a good writer. No, I don’t care that the book was scary at first (it was, it really was! I had so many high hopes in the first 150 pages!). You can like the book, but you cannot tell me Nevill understands how to properly write narratives. Seeing him compared to Lovecraft makes me gag.
I’m going to provide examples in case you don’t believe me. I was an English Teacher, I live for this shit.
As it all kicks off, we get this:
“In the sightless cold he had awoken to, Luke then comprehended, both with shock and sudden relief, that the noisy commotion was coming from the adjoining tent. It was Dom.
The loose fabric on the ceiling of his own tent rippled from the commotion in the neighbouring tent, from where the screams were issuing.�
The first sentence is alright. It’s too wordy, overcomplicated ('noisy commotion'?), but it does the job. Then the second sentence... Why? It’s the same. I get it. There’s screaming. Its happening next door. Somehow, the screaming is so loud, it’s literally shaking a tent (??). Nevill uses the word commotion twice like he just learned what it means and wanted to show it off. It’s like he wrote the first sentence, took a shot of whisky, immediately forgot what he was doing but he needed the audience to know shit was getting loud so he just banged out another line to tell us in case we didn’t get it the first time. Bizarre.
He starts sentences with ‘And� far too often, too many times for me to count because I’ve spent too long on this novel already but venting my spleen is the only way to get the bad taste out of my mouth. None of these ever have the effect of stylistic choice. Nevill constructs sentences by accident rather than by design.
On one page he switches tense three times, going from third-person past (like the ENTIRE BOOK TO THIS POINT, suddenly becoming ‘Loki shakes his head, in bitter despair, then looks up�). Holy shit, I’ve read English Literature coursework from 16 year olds and even THEY don’t manage that. How, Adam Nevill? You have an editor. Fuck sake.
Later on, Nevill is trying to show us that Luke is a deep-thinking man who contemplates the complexity of life (despite nearly getting himself killed multiple times because he couldn’t stop being a wanker for one moment). I realise some people argue that the characters are supposed to be laddish stereotypes, but there comes a point where I think Nevill wanted me to like Luke. Tension in horror narratives this long comes from sympathy, from not wanting to be in the position of the characters. That’s why the first half of this book was so effective. By this point, 350 pages or so in, every time I turned the page to find out Luke wasn’t dead yet was another weight of disappointment on my soul. Luke suddenly becomes profound; he discusses the nature of evil, deciding that it is “inevitable, relentless and predictable. Imaginative, he’d give it that much, but soulless.�
How. HOW, I want to know, does something manage to be both predictable and imaginative at the same time? Adam Nevill writes like a teenager given a minimum wordcount to meet but the only lesson he paid attention to was the one about adjectives, so he just piles them on and hopes for the best. Then he shrugs, submits the manuscript, and wins two goddamn awards for this book and I want to scream.
I would have genuinely enjoyed this book if it finished at page 200 or so. Honestly, at that point I was going to give it a half-decent review. The characters were stiff and (apart from Hutch, who I would have loved to have as the main POV because I liked him) the writing wasn’t great, but it had good atmosphere. Nevill wrote cool dream sequences and made me check over my shoulder once or twice, which I don't often get when reading horror. I honestly don’t understand why he felt the need to staple on what is essentially an entirely different book to the end of this one, because it ruined it. It baffles me, and left me feeling frustrated and a little bit nauseated that I spent the best part of a week with this book.
Some people love this book, and that’s fine. It’s great that Nevill has created something a lot of people seemed to enjoy, even if I don’t quite understand why. But I wish, with such intense regret, that I had read more reviews before I picked this up. Because I hated this book, and wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
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