Description

‘I had expected a different sensation from something so rural, so removed from the concrete I knew. The beaten-up shopping arcades, the steely faces nestled in bus-shelter glooms. The speeding boy-racers in their pulverising metal, the gossamer drunks stuck in the doorways of their boozers, lips ablaze with crooked fags. That was what I knew. Not the sight of it, but the feeling of it. That anchor of impending danger; the pub-fight flareup, the underage girls lousy on cider, throwing insults at me as I hurried past. All of that was a sense, all of it was inbuilt, a blueprint of discomfort drawn on the bones. As hard as it was to believe, I felt it there too, in the first part of the woodland.’ – From At Night, White Bracken

“Folk horror meets sink estate in run-down working class Britain: what have Danny, Cooper and Hickey unleashed?
Gareth Wood’s portrayal of urban desperation is so fiercely authentic it seems to pulse with darkness, but it leads to episodes of inspired weirdness and ultimately to an awe-inspiring vision that verges on the cosmic. He’s an impressively original talent, and the field is richer for his work.” – Ramsey Campbell

“Visceral, yet beautiful writing. The narration draws the reader immediately and deeply into the plot and narrator’s mind. One paragraph stands out for me as an example of his ability to communicate so much with only a few words: “I was the only attendee. There was no priest, no vicar, no guru, no shaman, no liar. It was just me and the trench, with one solemn worker keen to fill in the hole.
This is a gruesome, brutal book, and simply fascinating. It reminds me of the way Stephen King tells some of his stories, drawing the reader into a dark, perverted reality. It also reminds me of American Psycho and the Hannibal Lecter novels. This novel has that same type of believable brutality, but it also incorporates a supernatural element.
The vigilante realism and brutality could happen in life, perhaps the most horrific element of all. Gareth Wood builds tension and anticipation. I enjoyed the story and especially his style.” – CS Fuqua, author of Walking After Midnight