ARC in exchange for an honest review🙌🏻

I’m not much of a horror fan but this book is a great example of a true folk horror
🤩 The cover gives hints of secrets and mystique which was what drew me to the book in the first place

10/10 Pan’s Labyrinth vibes

“Your suffering meant everything to us. It was as much a part of your offering as any flesh and blood.” -Tommy
This is a gloriously told folk horror story. The underlying fear combined with jovial complacency produce conflicting emotions that actually work well together. The atmospheric writing makes it hard to remember that this takes place in current times. It feels like it’s before electricity and you can feel the chill of the night, along with the sweat on your brow and the grime on your neck.
This book is meant to be savored slowly. Enjoy each bite like it’s a multiple course meal with friends. The flavor, the texture, and the rich feel as you swallow. Rinse it down with the complex coppery tasting wine. The candles are flickering, reflecting in the gleam in your friends eyes and in the blood dripping down their chin. That is what this book feels like to me.
The wheel gets turned every year, the sacrifices must be made, who will be chosen?
“The Dance claims us all.”

As winter comes to rural England, so does the Five Turns of the Wheel, a time of ritual celebration to honor the Lord of Umbra and his sons. Liza and her daughter Meghan are both Wheelborns and, like the previous generations of their honored family, have always participated in the Five Turns and all the horror that comes with it. But the two both believe that these rituals don’t actually honor their true deity, the Mother, and want to fight back to protect the women and the unborn of their land. But what sacrifices will it take to stop the turning of The Wheel?

I was absolutely blown away by this work of folk horror! The worldbuilding – stunning. I wish I had saved this to read around the end of October, because this is the perfect mood read for that time. The atmosphere and feeling of this book were perfect. I loved the folklore aspects of the worldbuilding, as well as the other side of the Veil and its creatures. The incorporation of the religious aspects and the commentary on that was also phenomenal.

The characters were wonderful, even the “evil” ones. I loved the amount of tension that was added to this work by them not being allowed to be truthful to each other or to say exactly what they believed. This created real tension and conflict that greatly added to the depth of the characters and the story.

The only thing I disliked was that it was difficult to place this work temporally. It wasn’t until about 30% through the book that the author said something that indicated this was occurring during modern times. With the magical/fantasy aspect of it, it was difficult to tell up until that point when this work was set; I had to reimagine the setting after having already read 30% of the book – not a huge deal, but not something I prefer.

My review doesn’t do this work justice. I highly recommend it to everyone, especially if you like magical realism, horror/suspense, and atmospheric reads. It was completely immersive for me, and I found myself lost from the real world when reading it. A big thanks to NetGalley and Brigids Gate Press for allowing me to read and review this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

TW: graphic ritual torture

I read Bottled earlier this year (or last) and really enjoyed it. I’ve also checked out several short stories by Stephanie Ellis in various anthologies, the most recent being Midnight in the Pentagram. When the cover was revealed for The Five Turns of the Wheel, I think everyone was stunned - it’s gorgeous and frightening and darkly vibrant. And as much as we all like to say don’t judge a book by its cover, the cover is the first thing your eye sees; if you win that attraction, the book is more likely to be read. Not only that, anticipation is built for those of us online who keep seeing images of the book. It makes you want it so bad. That was the case for this novel and, luckily for us all, the story delivers on all marks.

I’ve gone back and forth on how to propose this story, and I think simply providing its synopsis would do best:

Stalking the landscape of rural England are the sons of Hweol, Lord of Umbra. Creatures with a taste for blood and death, they lead the Dance—five nights of ritual, the Five Turns of the Wheel. Proclaiming these events as a celebration of Mother Nature, the grotesque mummers troupe of Tommy, Betty and Fiddler, visit five villages on successive nights to lead the rites as they have done for centuries.In this blend of folk horror and dark fantasy, two women decide it is time to put a stop to the horrors committed in the name of the Mother. Liza and Megan, mother and daughter, fight back to protect the unborn and to weaken the power of Hweol. But will it be enough to destroy it forever?

This novel is a blend of folk horror and dark fantasy. You don’t really have monsters running about, bringing havoc, but they are there in the story and more prominent as it moves along. The fear you feel in this story is upfront with the town and characters that have been under the hypnotic rule of Hweol for too long. He’s taken their husbands and wives, sons and daughters, all in horrific and gruesome ways over the years. Taking them back to the Mother. The loss you feel throughout this book is real and gripping. Aided by the disgusting and bloody deaths of each turn of the wheel, Stephanie Ellis creates a brazen world that somehow feels both fantastical and folkish, gothic and timeless.

The writing is fantastic, as is the story. The only complaint I had along the way was the name of the troupe - I just found them silly and distracting. Otherwise, I was hooked on this book from start to finish. If Ellis decides to write a sequel - seeing how she left it open for one - I would be scratching at her door for it to release. In little time, she has proven to be a writer to watch and recommend. Get this book.

**

Highlights: A scary and unique concept … violent, ritualistic murders … dramatic and horrifying … a strong cast of characters

Shadows: The troupe that parades into town to begin the Dance have silly human names like Tommy and Betty

For fans of: Folk horror … dark fantasy … demonic rituals and bonds … isolated towns

Takeaway: The Five Turns of the Wheel is not only a darkly unique experience, it is also a story of a ravaged town and its people trying to find purchase following constant and gruesome loss of life. This horrifying novel is a thing of nightmares.

Would I read this author again? Yes

You like folk horror? Stephanie Ellis brings the folk horror.

The imagery is vivid. The horror is real. It's dark. The "Five Turns" is a ritual where a trio happens upon a community and brings with them terror and nightmare. Folk Horror might be my favorite type of horror, for it reaches to the most primordial terrors between humankind and the land they inhabit. Folk horror posits the 'old ways' are right.

And here, through shocking bloodshed and terror, a mother and daughter decide to end the violence. The plot unfolds in grim layers as they attempt to bring an end to the dark trios' reign of evil, through twists and turns that leave the reader on the age of their seat.

Ellis's prose is poetic and most uniquely, she sets the novel from the POV of the monsters themselves. It allows for their knowledge to lead the reader through the story, with shocking violence and cruelty.

It's a beautifully unique and chilling book. We need more of it.

Every year in The Weald, as the autumn slides into winter, three figures appear to begin the annual tradition of the Five Turns. This year, two women will risk everything to put a stop to the centuries of slaughter. This story is a glorious take on folk horror, customs and rituals, sacrifice and trial, blood and pain. Horrific characters and wonderfully crafted dark scenes will haunt your dreams. And perhaps most terrifying is that disquieting feeling which settles deep inside when you read folk horror: what would YOU do if your whole world was one monstrous murderous ritual? Would you fight against it? Would you even realize it was wrong?

The Five Turns of the Wheel. Folklore meets blood. One look at the intriguing cover hints at its secrets and its mystique. A skull with a gaping hole being claimed by the mud and the autumnal leaves. We are all reclaimed by the mud eventually and Stephanie Ellis does a stellar job of making it a constant theme throughout the story. The illustration mirrors the intricacies held within the pages of this dark folklore tale.

I came to this story for the author but stayed for the vivid imagery that is a true testament to Ellis’s mastery.

The Five Turns of the Wheel – a yearly event to allow the land and people to prosper. This is a summary in its most basic form, it doesn’t sum up just the author puts you in a place. I was there – I could feel the wind blowing through my hair, a land haunted by yearly visitors, I could sense the devastation, the blood still a constant threat in the air. You just have to read it to grasp the magnificence of the time and place. No word is wasted, it seeps into your blood like the sweetest poison, one I was happy to ingest.

Each year the villages are visited by mysterious visitors – Tommy, Betty, and Fiddler, who lead the Five Turns of the Wheel, a centuries-old ritual carried out to appease Mother Nature. They do not seem to age and each year their cruelty and malevolence bring more suffering than the last. It’s all surreal – reading the acts gave me a burning sensation. Fear and pain are a heady cocktail. This feeling runs until the very last page.

Each turn of the wheel brings shocking levels of violence and although this is a beautifully narrated story it is horror and Ellis can bring it with the best of them. A mother and daughter decide to bring an end to the bloodshed, they’ve suffered enough at the hands of these creatures, and someone needs to bring it to an end. But of course, nothing is simple in horror. I was really taken aback by the ingenuity of the plot and just how each thread was meticulously crafted and held together. Everything has a meaning – not one stone was left unturned. The characters are deep, and I found myself being drawn to two in particular. They are multi-faceted and discovering who they were was enjoyable. Think of an onion – each layer got you deeper, an understanding being accomplished.

The Five Turns of the Wheel is intelligent storytelling at its very core. This was an enchanting fever dream.

Well done folklore horror. Very atmospheric and eerie. The characters are well written and their differences work well together. The supernatural aspects were quite believable. Looking forward to other books by this author. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This is definitely not Folk horror like it's being labeled. It was a decent story but I didn't finish it. I don't read much sword and kings type fantasy.

What’s with this book? How’d it get such good reviews? Anyway, I suppose I’ll be in the minority here since I didn’t like it. At all. Not even remotely.
I was interested in checking it out, because Ellis is a name I’m familiar with from Horrortree.com. So I requested this off Netgalley to see how good she is at fiction.
Well, maybe this isn’t a fine example. Or maybe it is. But going by this book…not very. At least, not the sort of fiction I enjoy.
First off, this is fantasy, straight up swords and sandals, medieval England sort of fantasy. It’s being marketed and sold as a fantasy/folk horror and, honestly, I’ve no idea where the folk horror is. I mean, maybe very, very tangentially in so much that a small medieval town or whatever can be evocative of folk horror, but that’s about it.
Secondly, what a muddled mess of a plot. I can barely tell you what this book is about. Something with five turns of the wheels, yes. Something with alternating timelines. Something with having babies. That’s about it.
The weird thing about this book is that individual sentences make sense and are reasonably well cobbled together, but the sum total never comes alive. It’s like an improperly assembled Frankenstein monster. Without the spark, it just lays there.
So yeah, didn’t find a single redeeming quality here. A total waste of time. Might work for you…looks like it did for so many. Who knows. But this is the review of the book I wish I saw prior to reading it. So maybe someone out there will appreciate it. Thanks Netgalley.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, this is the best example of folk horror I have ever read. Had the perfect amount of horror, darkness, and magic.

The writing style was beautiful, it was poetic and gave me a great visual of everything going on which made the horror elements that much better.

The Five Turns of the Wheel by Stephanie Ellis.
Welcome to the Weald. The Five Turns of the Wheel has begun. With each Turn, blood will be spilled, and sacrifices will be made. Pacts will be made…and broken. Will you join the Dance?
A good read with good characters. Unusual. Different. I loved the cover. 4*.