I had read Sundial and didn't think that the author could write another book as horrific as that one, but she did. If you are a fan of slow, creeping horror and where nothing is as it seems, then you will love Catriona Ward's books. She is a master of the slow reveal.

This book takes place on an island called Altnaharra shrouded in fog off the coast of Scotland. The island is cut off from the mainland except for twice a day, when the tides subside enough to reveal a narrow ridge that connects to the mainland. There is a crumbling castle near the edge of a cliff where Eve, the main character, and her family live. They all practice an unusual religion, led by a man they call Uncle.

The story is mostly told from Eve's perspective and alternates between the past when she was a child and the present, when she is an adult. I don't want to give anything away as the subtle hints and the slow reveal of the truth behind the events is what makes the book such a compulsive read. We see what Eve observes as she grows up and when she begins to put the pieces together.

I received an advance reading copy of this book from the publisher Tor Nightfire via NetGalley, and voluntarily read and reviewed this book.

Such a great, creepy tale. Loved the coastal Scottish setting. The cult themes were also excellent. Any fan of horror or true crime will love this.

5⭐️

Trigger warning: implied rape

<b><i>What has happened here? A terrible thing. </b></i>

This book starts off strong with the tale of multiple strange deaths on the isle of Altnaharra. Jamie finds Dinah barely alive and missing her eye. She recounts that Eve killed the others and took their eyes because she believed it would give her power. Dinah is left to grieve all she has lost.

The reader is then taken back in time to see life through Eve’s eyes. She is young, and lives on Altnaharra with Uncle, Nora, Alice, Dinah, Abel, and Elizabeth. They follow Uncle’s lead and believe that the Adder watches over them and makes them pure. They all take the honey from Uncle’s fingers, and do not speak of the past. This life is all Eve has ever known, and she believes it all with her entire being. She hopes to one day become the Adder, and gives her blood to the snake, Hercules, in hopes of accelerating her trying.

Eve is curious, and loves learning the true names of the animals around her. She meets Chief Inspector Black one day after the murder of their school teacher. He speaks of scientific developments such as a microscope that can be used to compare hair follicles to match to the hair of the killer’s. Eve finds that she can easily talk to Chief Inspector Black, and confesses that she knew their teacher was dead because she saw it with the eye. Dinah finds Eve, and the two head back to Altnaharra and Eve realizes she has been impure and later resolves to change and be more pure and faithful.

This book is completely unexpected and the ending is so satisfying. This is a great gothic story that is hard to put down. Truly a wild ride, and one of my favorites from this year.

<b> Give them a villain. No need to create her. She is already made. It remains only to set her loose.</b>

When I read The Last House on Needless Street, I stayed up until 3 AM to finish it. I keep wishing to have a similarly enchanting experience with either of Catriona Ward's follow up novels, but it has eluded me. Personally, I lost interest in the story, but I appreciated the gothic atmosphere and the psychological aspect of this. I found everything else a bit much to keep track of.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I'm so glad this book got the chance to be republished and have a well deserved light shone on it, because it was fantastic.

This is set on a gothic Scottish island and opens up with the reclusive 'family' who lives there being discovered in the most gruesome murder scene where each family member is missing an eye. Dinah actually survives and is actually able to tell everyone that her little sister Eve is the one who killed everyone. Dinah's story is told between Eve's point of view of their life and how it escalated into her killing everyone. However, about halfway through you start to realize Dinah's version and Eve's version aren't the same and one or both perspectives are unreliable.

The majority of this is told from the POV of Eve as a child/teenager and the way she views the world is an entirely brainwashed worldview so you have to kind of put together what's going on based on her interactions with people outside of the island. This was deliciously atmospheric and gothic. I love Catriona Ward's writing even more every time I read another one of her books. This was brilliant. I love knowing that every time I read something of hers it will definitely be a unique experience.

“A great day is upon us. He is coming. The world will be washed away.”

This is a gothic historical fiction, with a side of mystery. Bouncing between the past and present from several different point of views, this story is about a cult and the influence/control that adults have over children. From the very first chapter you know that the story doesn't end well; and as it unfolds you begin to see cracks in those that are being controlled.
Little Eve is the very definition of a slow burn. It is probably the slowest burn that I've ever read. Due to the format of jumping between past and present from different points of view (which I typically love) I found it hard to keep up with what was happening. I found myself confused during large parts of the story and almost DNF'd this one. However, after reading reviews, I decided to push on as this is apparently the authors writing style - with great pay off in the end. The end did include a twist, but it was pretty easy to see it coming.
While I don't think this one was for me, I think that anyone who enjoys a gothic historical fiction with a very slow burn would enjoy it. The premise of the story was very good, the format just wasn't for me. This is the first book that I read from this author, but I will definitely read another to see if I feel the same way.

I have tried to read this book multiple time but it just is not my cup of tea. I am just so lost and unsure of what’s going on-which could be the point but it is not working for me.
I appreciate getting the book ahead of time but I won’t be finishing it. Therefore I won’t be posting a review. But thank you again for the opportunity to read it!

Unfortunately, I just could not get into “Little Eve.” I found it to be confusing at the onset and by the end, I still think I was missing something. It was atmospheric and painting the scene for spooky season, but for some reason it failed to draw me in. Accordingly, I can’t say I enjoyed this one and 2 stars ⭐️ seems appropriate. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the copy for review.

I got a fair way into this book but I must say I found things very hard to follow. I'm not sure if it's because there were no chapter headers to say which point of view we were seeing things from but it was a bit bouncy. I'm hoping that the finished copies have a bit better navigation.
Although I loved the beautiful, poetic writing, this was very slow moving and hard to get into and sometimes hard to keep characters and points of view from being confusing.
This was my 3rd book from Cat Ward and although I loved Needless Street, this one wasn't for me.

On the isle of Altnaharra on Scotland's Coast, a strange family worships The Adder. They believe The Adder will bring the end of the world and their rebirth. The family consists of John Bearings, who controls the family and their worship, Alice and Nora and the children, all said to be orphans: Dinah, Able, Eve and Elizabeth. Fairly isolated from the town, the family willingly believes and participates in the rituals that John brings forth and competes with each other for the favor from The Adder. Eve desperately wants to be chosen to receive the powers of The Adder and believes that she has found the key. However, Eve's world view is soon shaken after an incident in town and a meeting with Chief Inspector Black.

Little Eve is an extremely atmospheric Gothic Horror with a strong mystery, psychological undercurrent and a strange cult. The pacing of the story is told in a dizzying way to keep the reader off balance. Beginning with a horrifying discovery after an incident at Altnaharra, the timeline jumps back and forth from before and after the incident and between the points of view of the residents of Altnaharra and townspeople. Altnaharra and it's residents were vividly brought to life. I could feel the cold walls, the battering rain and wind and feel the character's hunger and yearning to be chosen. As the story bounces back and forth, more details of Altnaharra, the family members and the trauma that has incurred at Altnaharra is teased out slowly. I was tied to the pages as the details and truth slowly bubbled to the surface for a deeply satisfying ending.

Little Eve is the epitome of gothic horror. It’s a dark historical fiction tale set in Scotland about a creepy cult in a castle. I loved the setting and the time line and it just supplemented the plot beautifully!

Unfortunately not for me. I got about 40% into this and just really didn't care about it, so I put it down! The writing was atmospheric, but I was overall confused, disoriented and disinterested.

I really liked the Last House on Needless Street by this author but this one is not my thing!

Little Eve is the third book I have read by Catriona Ward, and even though this is her second novel from 2018, it has just been rereleased by Tor Nightfire. Even though it won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel that year, this is also the first American release. The last two novels released by Ward on Nightfire have been good, but I’ve been left a little underwhelmed by them, as if there is a better Catriona Ward novel coming, better than both The Last House on Needless Street and Sundial. I did not know that she had already written and published it.

The novel is a gothic novel, cult novel, and murder mystery wrapped into one. Set in a dilapidated castle, “Uncle” and his companions Alice and Nora have adopted four children, and they worship the Adder. The children spend most of their lives starving, trying not to get punished, and being gaslighted by “Uncle” who says that the Adder is going to come for them, and one of them will be chosen and will inherit the Adder’s powers. Everyone’s life is unhappy, the girls are always trying to escape in one way or another, and eventually things boil over when Inspector Black starts to look into the legality of the things that “Uncle” is doing. There are many layers to this story, and I did find myself reading this for hours at a time, getting engrossed in what might happen next. The tension and sadness between all of the characters is compelling, and I could not help but sympathize for the children who were just trying to be in the good graces of the adults in their lives.

Catriona Ward’s writing is superb, and her characters and settings feel alive. I like most of the story and loved it until the last quarter. I am seeing a pattern in her endings. Ward as a writer who has done the same trick that she has done in all three of the novels that I have read. That trick in the last two made me anticipate it in Little Eve so that by the time of the big reveal, it was already expected. I do not know how many more of her novels I can read if the twisty endings continue to be twisty endings because there really is no longer much surprise in it. I like the ending of Little Eve much better than the previous two, and of the three novels by her I have read, this one is my favorite. The complaint is that the ending of her novels are starting to get predictably unpredictable, like she is not going to use effective twists much longer before the readers grow tired of the gimmick. Even still, it is a pretty entertaining, engaging novel, and the Catriona Ward novel I would recommend most.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Another masterpiece from Catriona Ward!

Evelyn (Eve) lives on a remote, wild island of Scotland with Uncle and the others. They worship the adder and await the day of reckoning. Isolated, impoverished, and highly secretive, the“family” lives in a crumbling castle by the sea and are generally avoided by the locals.

Inside the castle, years of gaslighting and abuse give Uncle his powers over the women and children - but a shocking murder on the island leads to unwanted visitors and threatens their way of life. And with newcomers comes new information - information that may be deadly to some and offer freedom to others. Is freedom a price to be paid or a prize to be won? Little Eve has never known anything but the island, the adder, and its power. But questions and doubt may prove to be more powerful.

Catriona award is such a queen of psychological horror. Little Eve shows how an impressionable mind can be so skillfully bound, and how devastating and freeing its unwinding can be. But freedom is first a burden when independent thought has been long discouraged. Life has been cruel to Eve and the others, and cruelty can be learned just as well as obedience.

Probing the heartbreaking and heart-mending lessons of grief, faith, obsession, revenge, and forgiveness, Little Eve is a captivating, disturbing, and emotional work of historical horror, and it’s a 5-star read for me.

Does anyone remember the first book that sent chills up their spine ? Mine was Pretty Girls . If anyone has read it they know Slaughter set the bar for disturbing. Since, I have been chasing that feeling . I was in search of that up all night, can’t sleep, cant breathe, can’t think, kind of feeling and I found it ….

Little Eve

I think i made a subconscious decision to try everything in my power to give myself nightmares for the rest of my life . I can also tell you, I have achieved such goal without evening knowing I set it .

I’m officially terrified .

If you want to know what can scare the crap out of this thrill chasing, suspense lover than roll the dice and pick up your copy of Little Eve. You won’t regret it ….. or will you? 😏

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC!

~ ~ ~

On the isle of Altnaharra, Uncle and his young acolytes await the coming of Him, the snake from the sea.

~ ~ ~

My mind has been blown by Catriona Ward <b>yet again</b>! I've loved everything by her that I've read so far and had a hunch that this read would be equally fantastic. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this book exceeded all of my expectations. Even though I've been absolutely swamped with college classwork, I found myself sneaking in as much of this read as I could. Every time I had to put it down, the story stayed stuck in my head until I picked it up again.

Additionally, this book has one of the best opening chapters I've ever read. It hooked me right from the beginning, and Ward did a fantastic job building on that intrigue as the plot progressed. This was one of those reads where I found myself completely immersed in the events of the story and desperate to see how it was going to turn out. Unlike the other works I've read by this author, I was able to guess where this book was going, but it didn't make the experience of watching it unfold any less enjoyable, in a messed up kind of way.

When I started this review, I thought about not including a summary of the plot at all. I think that this book is best experienced with as little prior knowledge as possible, which is why I ultimately settled on the single sentence above. I will, however, let you know that this is a cult book. There is murder. There is intrigue. And it's a hell of a ride from start to finish. If any of those things sound enticing to you, you should give this a read.

✨ Review ✨ Little Eve by Catriona Ward;

Oh, man. The twisty, mind-bending queen of horror and confusion is back with Little Eve. This is SUCH a hard book to review because it felt like at least five books in one. I was SHOOK to find that it only had 288 pages. It was a lot to take in. I'm so grateful to have read this with friends who could help me disentangle the many stories within. After a full day processing this, I'm still not sure what happened or what to believe.

First, this book needs a whole lot of content warnings. If you're sensitive to abuse or other traumas, please check out a more complete list before reading. There's a lot of messed up stuff happening here.

There are a lot of thematic undercurrents about good vs. evil, about families and devotion, about how far is too far; but I felt as if it was hard to disentangle all of this through multiple timelines and POVs, untrustworthy narrators, and the twists that this took.

If you read this, this is definitely a perfect book for a buddy read so you can process it together!

⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: horror/thriller
Location: Scotland
Pub Date: out now!

Thanks to Tor and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

Horrifying, engaging, unique, and darkly gothic as only Catroina Ward can do. The characters are twisted, yet likable, the story engaging and enthralling. This author has permanently moved to my "must read" list.

Catriona Ward is a must read, must buy author for me. This tale doesn’t pull as many punches as Sundial or The Last House on Needless Street. This found family or rather, forced family shifts the villain from cult leader to Little Eve. Of course, Catriona Ward sets the scene perfectly for this gothic chiller. Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Nightfire for the ARC.

Many thanks to NetGalley and and Macmillan/Tor Nightfire as well as Ms. Ward for this ARC. It has been my pleasure.
#NetGalley #Macmillan/TorNightfire #CatrionaWard #LittleEve

Delicious!! I expect nothing less from this author. The opening of the book alone gave me the shivers. This is gothic horror at its finest. Ms. Ward has written a clever and twisty story filled to the brim with dread. This is perfect for Halloween.
I don’t want to go into too much detail about the plot so I don’t give too much away.
Off the coast of Scotland is an island where a cult lives. No contact with anyone outside this community is tolerated until one day, an outsider comes and everything changes.
This is a dark novel. It highlights several aspects of cult psychology, which is darkly fascinating, although it makes me feel somewhat guilty to admit it. The members of the “family” vie for favor and attention. The result is dread and tension at its finest.
Catriona Ward has once again blown me away with her wit and creativity.