Historical Horror is a thing, right?! THE WILD HUNT by Emma Seckel was superbly narrated by Ruth Urquhart. ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 for this extra atmospheric story.

Leigh is called home after her father's unexpected death and is forced to confront the tense family ties she still tenuously holds. Ian McTavish is a RAF veteran and even though WWII is over, he still carries his demons. When a local boy goes missing, in October no less, the Celtic sluagh (Raven-like bird creatures) are blamed and the town seems to be resigned. Leigh and Ian find they can't just let it be and are confronted with the deep darkness.

I have to say, listening was a perfect way to be enveloped in this haunting story. Specifically for the pronunciation of "sluagh." The spelling is pretty spot on for English, but we have a terrible lack of letters for the right sound here. Ruth Urquhart brought out all the Scottish and I am so grateful for her rich vocals.

This story was foray into a bit of folklore for which I am new. I can't say enough about the atmospheric feel of it with the lonely moors, the tense suspense of the sluagh, and all the angst of the human drama undercurrent. I didn't have an expectation other than something new and in the foggy gray mood, and this delivered. A fantastic choice for a fall read, but even better around these fading summer campfires, this book is available August 2.

You will hear more of this as it is an Indie Next pick, a Buzzfeed best historical fiction for summer, one of Crime Reads' most anticipated, Lit Hub best book of summer, and Library Journal top spring/summer debut. Thank you so much, @netgalley and @highbridgeaudio for this Advanced Listening Copy.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC audiobook for an honest review.

The Wild Hunt
by Emma Seckel
Pub Date: 02 Aug 2022

The Wild Hunt was definitely atmospheric...the writing lulls you into a dream like state filled with foggy moors and birdlike creatures. There is some suspense, mystery, and even a little romance.

3 stars

Every year, on a small Scottish island, the sluagh (a bunch of big, creepy crows that travel in threes) descend for the month of October. In the past, the small community’s rituals and talismans have kept them at bay, but this year something is different. Not only are the birds restless and more violent, but many people from the island have returned - or in some cases not returned - from war.

Leigh Welles has also recently returned to her childhood island after her father’s death. And when one of the island boys suddenly goes missing after attacking one of the sluagh, she joins forces with Iain to look for him, even after the locals readily give the boy up for dead. Together they uncover dark secrets on the island.

My take:
Let it be known that I love a good, moody, supernatural, atmospheric book and this one checks all of those boxes. Even better when nature turns on you. *shivers* SO GOOD. AND it’s set in mystical Scottish moors. I loved the mythical, supernatural quality to The Wild Hunt. Seckel deftly weaves Celtic legend into the story so seamlessly that it feels like real life.

My one critique is that even though it’s meant to be a slow build from reality to unreality, in the beginning it’s a bit too slow. In the first quarter of the book, I wondered if it might be a DNF. Fortunately though, once the pace picked up I couldn’t put it down. It’s a metaphorical stunner.

Read this if you liked The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, Annihilation by James Vandermeer, and Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds.

Also, the audiobook narrator slays this and sets the tone perfectly with her beautiful Scottish lilt.

The Wild Hunt
by Emma Seckel

A dark look at the history and social change after world war 2 in Scotland and England. a small island has been adversely affected by the war. The loss of boys, and men in the machine of the war is only the start. The loss of income, and stability of the economy make the small island life even more on the edge. The cross between the world of the mythos of the island and the devastation that changed society of the English countryside.
The story of a young girl who returned after her father's mysterious death. How it exposes the mysteries on the island is haunted. Its a dark look at the war, the ravages of PTSD, and economic devastation war. Great characters that are easy to connect to, and care about.
The audio version is especially scary because of the presentation of the reader.

I don't normally read horror, but I am trying to expand my boundaries. I love literary fiction and I thought a literary horror would be right up my alley. I have since learned that I do not like horror books, but if I did, I would say that this is a great one. It was CREEPY. It was subtle. It had great characters, development and tension. It got to me. There were several points where I had to stop the audio and take a deep breath because I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to handle it.

It was a fascinating story, and I loved the setting and context. It brought the horror to life and made it seems much more possible and real.

The narrator did a fantastic job bring the characters to life and carry the tension of the story.

Thanks to #netgalley for an arc of this book and letting me take a chance on something different for me.

Thank you so much HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for the audio ARC of The Wild Hunt.

I was drawn to this one as soon as I saw that it was historical fiction/horror! The novel takes place in an island off Scotland where the residents have only three rules: don’t stick your nose where it’s not wanted, don’t mention the war, and never let your guard down during October. Because October brings the sluagh to the island, mythical creatures rumored to carry the souls of the dead.

Initially I was taken aback by the narrator, I'm not too used to accented narrations. However, as I kept listening, I felt like she was the perfect narrator for the mood of the book. The story itself wasn't as spooky as I hoped even though the "haunting" the description is apt. Instead of the sluagh, the people of the island made me more uncomfortable at times. The grief and guilt of the characters were done very well. I also enjoyed the folkloric elements of the novel, and read up on them a bit afterwards.

Leigh Welles and Iain MacTavish have returned to their island homeland in the Scottish highlands. The island is dealing with the fall out from WWII and learning what life is with the missing family members, and the scars endured by the families left behind.

Leigh is relearning her place now that her father has passed and her brother has moved to a mainland city for work and a new kind of life. Left with the dog, two goats and a non working farm, Leigh feels that her once familiar home town is strange and strained.

Iain is stuck. His father has left him some money so without the need to work and without the war to make him feel a part of something, he spends a lot of days aimless and kept to himself. Only the thoughts of his war and the ghosts of the past keep him company, until this strange October when the sluagh come back terrorizing the island.

October is a time for spirits and the like. On the island a festival is held to keep the celetic bird-like creatures at bay. The sluagh have steadily been responsible for more dead farm animals and wreaking havoc on the villagers.

After a local teen lashes out at them during the ceremonial bonfire, the creatures seem to enactac a revenge on the island.

Now Leigh and Iain have a common goal, to investigate a missing person, and deal with the demons. Both internal and the omen flying through the skies.

This was a great historic horror book. Full of creepy dark foggy moors, ancient Celtic beasts and superstition. There was a good mix of post war and small town reality mixed into the tale making it just the right amount of creepy and realistic.

This book put me in the spooky season spirit. I wanted to put on my sweaters and light my jack-o-lantern. I'm going to be recommending it for sure!

Leigh left the small island she grew up on years ago to find something more for herself just after the end of World War II. When she receives word that her father has had an accident, she finds herself back in her childhood home just in time for the month of October. Every October, the slaugh – raven-like creatures who haunt the island – grow restless and terrorize the villagers. After she arrives, a boy goes missing, and Leigh finds herself working with an old friend to discover the secrets of the island.

This was an okay work of magical realism. The characters weren’t easy to connect with, and I didn’t become emotionally involved with any of them. They were lacking depth, development, and weren’t written in a relatable way. This unfortunately made it difficult to care much about the plight of the characters and the island itself.

The pacing of this work wasn’t great. The first half of the work is slow moving with almost no buildup of tension or dread. The last third of the book is fast paced with things actively happening and some secrets becoming exposed, making the work more interesting and enjoyable overall. I didn’t feel that the work was blended well – there are two main focuses (the supernatural slaugh and the aftermath of WWII), and they never came together in satisfying or meaningful way. I also felt that there were a lot of things left unanswered even by the end of the work, which made for an unsatisfying read. The last few chapters of the work jumped around dramatically trying to wrap everything up, but so much happened in so little time that it was difficult to have any real connections to these conclusions. They didn’t feel meaningful at all.

I think the work could use another round of editing. There were several instances where it felt overly repetitive, making those parts drag on. I didn’t feel like this work was very atmospheric and the setting descriptions left much to be desired, making the entire thing not as immersive as I hoped it would be. However, the narrator did an excellent job with the accents and different characters and excelled at bringing the characters to life.

Overall, this was an okay book. I didn’t find it as immersive or atmospheric (or spooky) as I wanted it to be. I still recommend it for an easy magical realism read, but it wasn’t quite what I wanted.

My thanks to NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for providing me with a review copy of this work, which will be published on August 02, 2022. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

ARC audiobook provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“The Wild Hunt” is a historical fiction novel that takes place on a small island in the North Sea off of Scotland in the wake of World War II. Leigh Welles was born and raised on the island, but left home years ago for what she believed would be a better life on the mainland. However, when Leigh’s father unexpectedly dies, she finds herself returning to the island and a life she left behind. This time around Leigh hopes to start fresh and escape the ghosts of her past: her mother’s abandonment, her estrangement with her brother, and the tragic echoes of World War II. Elsewhere on the island, Iain MacTavish passes through his days in a fog, merely going through the motions. Iain’s mind is trapped in the past, reliving his part as a RAF pilot during the war, surrounded by all the men he lost and the young wife tragically taken from him.

In the month of October, the island, too, is haunted. Bird-like creatures of Celtic legend, the sluagh, appear on the first day of October every year, disappearing with the end of the month. The birds are thought to carry the souls of the dead, and following the war, with so many many more souls to carry, the number of sluagh is unheard of. And they’re restless. When a boy goes missing on the island and fears of the sluagh escalate, the locals are still willing to quickly give up the search, instead chalking it up to simply being another victim of the sluagh. Leigh isn’t so quick to give up, and neither is Iain. Drawn together by their desire to find the truth, Leigh and Iain delve into the island’s secrets, finding so much more than they bargained on.

This book is absolutely brilliant, and no summary can adequately describe the well-rounded characters, the richly painted environment, and the depth of emotion a reader will experience. The ease of the author’s style of writing quickly pulled me in, and the world she created didn’t let me go until the very end. The characters are skillfully brought to life, making their lives and experiences feel real. The environment is beautifully flushed out, haunting, moody, and believable. The storyline felt wholly original and engrossing. Fact and fiction blended together seamlessly. I found myself emotionally invested in the story, hanging on with bated breath as events unfolded. As I progressed through the book, I felt myself dying to know what happened while simultaneously never wanting it to end. It did end eventually, but this is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

My copy of this book was an audiobook, and I felt that the narrator did an excellent job. Her overall narration was solid and engaging, and she created female and male voices that felt alive while blending seamlessly into the story.

Overall, the author did an exceptional job with this book. I highly recommend this book for adult and young adult readers and fans of fiction, historical fiction, literary fiction, and simply a great story. I look forward to more books by this author. Pick up a copy of this book, whether written or audiobook, immediately!

Emma Seckel created a very unique book. A little mystery. A little magic. A little romance.

In post-WW2 Scotland — on an island as far North in the North Sea as you can get, lives a community deeply rooted in superstition and grief.

I’m finding it difficult describing what I’ve just read. You have to experience it for yourself. The Wild Hunt is pretty slow-paced, mostly vibes and the inner thoughts of characters. The third person omniscient narration makes it had to track sometimes. None of these things are particularly bad.; they just are.

The characters are very lovable, and I found myself deeply invested in their happiness.

This book intrigued with the cover, the historical fiction, and the celtic folklore aspect. I enjoyed the Scottish setting and the Slaugh folklore as birds. I love ravens and crows so that was a very nice touch. This wasn't exactly the story I thought itnwould be. It ended up being more of a mystery mixed with a story of healing from trauma. The two main characters didn't capture me. I felt no chemistry between them so didn't buy their attraction. The sibling relationship while toxic was interesting to read about. While this was a fast paced story that kept me listening I often found my mind wandering away from the story. The narration wasn't the best but also not the worst. I appreciated the narrator changed her voice for different characters but Leigh sounded like a teenager which threw me every time I heard her voice. All in all it was an okay story but nothing spectacular.

I absolutely loved this book!! Full disclosure I was done a few days ago but already relistened to it. The narrator was amazing and the story flowed very well and gave an immersive fall vibes. I would give this 5 stars as it is one of the best books I've read in a while.

I feel like this book did a really good job at being a small town historical fiction novel, but did a poor job at leaning into any of the folklore or myth that it promised. I think that the setting and characters were strong, but the mythological undertones beneath the plot didn't go quite as far as they needed to go for me. I didn't understand how certain things were connected, like the sluagh and the war. And there were some things that happened in this story that never get an explanation, or at the very least a follow up?

The word that has clung to me after finishing this audiobook is “atmospheric”. I could feel the chill and damp seeping through the tone of every word.

The Wild Hunt follows Leigh Welles on her return to the small island town that is still reeling from the after effects of WWI following the death of her father. Laced with folklore and tradition and horror this novel paints a haunting picture of flawed people, nightmares that might just be real, and the importance of forgiving oneself to heal.

The narration of Ruth Urquhart in this audiobook was an absolute delight, her use of tone and pacing brought a heaviness that felt rather like the fog on the moors itself.

I never thought I would find myself describing a book as “hauntingly heartfelt”, but here we are. An absolutely fantastic debut from Emma Secket - I will be looking out for more work from her in the future.

Special thanks to NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for the ARC!
(NOTE: NetGalley is unable to find ISBN on Goodreads, Review will be posted separately there.)

I received an ARC from NetGalley in the form of an audio book. Leigh has returned home after WWII to the small island where she grew up. Every October, the sluagh flock to the island en masse but things are different now and the sluagh are behaving in more haunting and creepy way. How Leigh and the other inhabitants deal with the alarmingly actions of the sluagh and dealing with life after WWII makes for a very interesting read. I did enjoy this story but wish I would have read it instead of listened to the audio book.

This is a tough book to rate. I can see why some people would love it because there are some creepy elements to it and there are a lot of redeeming aspects to this book. The description of the location, the struggles small communities face after war, and the tying in of supernatural elements was clever. However, I just expected more with a title like The Wild Hunt. Especially when you look at what the Wild Hunt is in classic folklore/mythology. This book felt pretty slow, I struggled to connect with any of the MCs, and I wish there were more creative liberties taken in providing adventure/thrilling points in the book.

The word that best describes The Wild Hunt is haunting. Its evocative atmosphere and compelling characters had me hooked from the first line. It is a story that will stay with me long after reading the final words.

I was lucky enough to both read and listen to this book and I must say the audio book is STUNNING, the accents and cadence of the reader only add to this beautiful story.

In this story you will explore mist shrouded moors, attend Celtic festivals steeped in dark lore, and meet a cast of characters reeling from post WWII trauma. You'll primarily follow Leigh, who has been called back to the island after her fathers death and Ian who has lived there since his return from the war. When a young man goes missing, Leigh and Ian work together to unravel the truth about his disappearance and the otherworldly lore that could be entwined. The author also offers up small vignettes introducing us to other islanders making this a robust and curious cast of characters.

I am in awe that this is a debut! Seckel masterfully weaves magic into the mundane and captures the readers heart with a sorrowful and brutal look at the aftermath of war and the moments that never leave us. Fans of stunning prose, transcendental atmosphere, and raw human emotion will get lost and found within these pages!

Endless thanks to Netgalley and Tin House Publishing for the advanced readers copy.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley and HighBridge Audio in exchange for an honest review.

THE WILD HUNT is as much about the sluagh/the wild hunt (a mythology held in various forms by many different cultures of ominous otherworldly beings that foretell death/are the hosts for the unforgiven dead) as it is about how a small community grieves and slowly learns to move on from the aftermath of World War II. While the island is never named, given how the characters refer to "the big island" and "the mainland", I would gather that this takes place on one of the smaller islands that makes up Orkney.

Seckel does a good job of weaving together the real world details with the supernatural/mythological ones that make this story feel like it could plausibly happen in real life. While I didn't necessarily connect with any of the characters, I did care about the overall story and of the fate of the islanders as a whole. I thought that this iteration of the sluagh was very interesting as was their history on the island. I may look at crows differently in October from now on.

Ruth Urquhart does a decent job with the audiobook narration and I do appreciate that they used a native Scottish voice actor for this book.

This speculative fiction was immersive enough where you could fall into the world of this small Scottish island, their Celtic traditions, their trauma, and their fear over the bird-like creature that looms over them every October. The fear and mystery behind the legend's creatures and the whispers of the dead give this book a creepy aspect that allows the reader/listener to immerse themselves in it.
Coupled with the speculative fiction, there is also an aspect of dealing with the trauma after WWII. Loss, grief and tragedy was like a heavy blanket over both main protagonists as they tried to figure out where one of their own had gone missing, presumably taken by the birds.

The audio was fine - I wouldn't say there was anything special about it. The narrator had a Scottish accent but there was no challenge understanding anything and she did a decent jump with showing the differences between the two main characters and male/female voice inflections.

This book was fine. I didn't NOT enjoy it, it was a good immersive listen that momentarily let me slip away into a semi-horror(like) story. But it was not completely captivating. All in all, it's still worth picking up the audio!