Richard wondered if the hare in some way felt as he did that spring was always bestowed. That it was an invitation to come and watch the world moving and be among its tremors. Here in the field, those first shocks of the season were starting now. [loc. 1005]
Originally published under the nom de plume of Jonathan Buckley, by the Eden Book Society [CAUTION: rabbit hole ahead], Starve Acre has been reissued under Hurley's name, with revisions. (I would be fascinated to be able to compare the two editions: here's a review by someone who has read both.)
Richard and Juliette have left the city to live in Starve Acre, Richard's family home, out in the Yorkshire Dales. They'd dreamt of an idyllic country childhood for their son Ewan, and for the other children they planned to have: but now Ewan is dead. Juliette is certain that Ewan is still with them in the house, making contact: through a friend, she has arranged for a spiritualist to visit. Richard, a lecturer in History, believes that 'the sum of human existence [is] collagen and calcium phosphate' [loc. 559]: he is haunted only by memories. True, Ewan was ... disturbed in his last months of life. He heard a voice in the dark, and sometimes did its bidding. But really, Richard thinks, he was only five. It was just a difficult patch.
Richard is excavating the field after which Starve Acre is named, a field where nothing grows. Local lore has it that this is because it was the site of the Stythwaite Oak. Richard is inexplicably keen to find some trace of the oak -- roots, branches ... In parallel he's performing a kind of excavation in his late father's study, a jumble of books and papers, where he finds old woodcuts depicting young men hanged from a bough labelled Olde Justice.
Then, in the field, he finds the skeleton of a hare, and brings it home to Starve Acre: and something starts to happen that he has no framework for thinking about.
This is an unsettling short novel, told from the viewpoint of a character who dismisses the experiences of those around him, while revising his own memories to a kinder shape. It gradually becomes clear that Ewan was not simply going through a difficult patch; that something may be altering Richard's perceptions; and that Mrs Forde's caution -- 'whatever it is you've brought into your home, get rid of it' -- was not the 'consummate performance' that Richard mocked, but a sincere warning.
Hurley's descriptions of the changing seasons are exceptional, especially his evocations of the advent of spring after a long winter: the damp smell of ferns, the 'flinty noise' of sparrows in the hedgerows, the astonishment of birdsong. It's all the more powerful when set against the disintegration of Richard and Juliette's home, and the shocking final image is like a nail driven home.
I read this because The Loney resonated with me. Starve Acre is a simpler story, more traditionally Gothic, but Hurley's prose elevates what might be a straightforward horror story into something mythic.
Thanks to NetGalley for a free advance review copy, in exchange for this honest review.
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