My Review of Haverscroft by Sally Harris

I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to review Haverscroft by S A Harris, and at what better time of year than the run up to Halloween. The nights are drawing in and our thoughts run to ghosts and goblins rather than the blasted cat when things go bump in the night. 

Harris has expertly utilised Gothic tropes of isolation, the supernatural, a damsel in distress, a strong male antagonist etc but then gives them a good and thorough shake thus creating something infinitely more modern and all the better for doing so.

Kate Keeling, ostensibly the damsel in distress, is an emotionally fragile wife and mother who finds herself living in Haverscroft with an emotional and physically absent husband. I loved the domestic noir element as any couple cohabiting can relate to resentment over loading the dishwasher and the boiler playing up. Harris cleverly exploits the readers' own typical life and exploits it for maximum fear for with these tensions in play, the natural closeness that would enable Kat to confide in Mark is strained. Throw in a judgmental mother-in-law into the mix and every reader gives a collective sigh of sympathy. However, Jennifer Keeling is more than just a stereotype and the reader always has to remember that Kat is our narrator but she's unreliable, if she's questioning her sanity how can we not? Similarly, Mark is a rubbish husband or is he? We're never quite sure, and Harris exploits this to keep the readers' nerves frayed and nails bitten to the quick right until the shocking denouement. 

Haverscroft is isolated but it is no Eel Marsh House cut off from the tide but on the edge of a village in Suffolk. This makes the isolation more emotional than physical and is all the more haunting for being so. Harris depicts naturally occurring events taking place alongside some distinctly unnatural ones too but its not always possible for Kat, or the reader, to tell which is which.  

I applaud Harris' use of strong female characters. Kat may be doubting her own sanity but that doesn't stop her trying to do what's right for her family. Shirley is ostensibly the domestic but is also a stand in mother, grandmother, chief advocate and friend. Both women feel fear at the events taking place in Haverscroft but carry on anyway. That old adage "Knowledge is power" seems most applicable in Haverscroft, as it is in real life, and therefore conversely the withholding of knowlege creates a sense of powerlessness that must be overcome. Harris ably exploits that sometimes people can act in what they believe are our own best interests without actually consulting us. Ultimately neither woman will be controlled by men, whether they believe themselves to be acting in their best interests or not and I applaud Harris for portraying them as such.

Haverscroft is a novel I enjoyed immensely and I have no hesitation in awarding it 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟.

Thank you to Emma Dowson and Salt Publishing for my gifted copy.