
Starve Acre
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Richard Burnip
About this listen
An atmospheric and unsettling story of the depths of grief found in an ancient farm in northern England—now a major motion picture starring Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark.
The worst thing possible has happened. Richard and Juliette Willoughby's son, Ewan, has died suddenly at the age of five. Starve Acre, their house by the moors, was to be full of life, but is now a haunted place. Convinced Ewan still lives there in some form, Juliette seeks the help of the Beacons, a seemingly benevolent group of occultists. Richard, to try and keep the boy out of his mind, has turned his attention to the field opposite the house, where he patiently digs the barren dirt in search of a legendary oak tree. But as they delve further into their grief, both uncover more than they set out to.
Starve Acre is a devastating novel by the author of the prize-winning bestseller The Loney. It is a novel about the way in which grief splits the world in two and how, in searching for hope, we can so easily unearth horror.
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Critic reviews
"[Hurley] ably captured the vibe of the era’s demon-spawn novels like Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist. . . Top-shelf gothic-folk horror."—Kirkus (Starred Review)
“Hurley has a slow and steady hand in establishing a gloomy, nearly gothic atmosphere, allowing his characters’ grief room to breathe even as he tightens the noose in ways readers won’t see coming until the chilling and memorable conclusion. This is folk horror that knows how to take its time.”—Publisher's Weekly
“A tour de force of physiological fantasia . . . Writing of this quality - sensuous, exact, observant - ensures that other scenes, too, pulse with vitality . . . Hurley's gothic storylines send specters of deathliness through his fictional world. His prose brings it vividly alive”—Peter Kemp, Sunday Times (UK), Fiction Book of the Year pick
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Story
Lifestyle journalist Katrine escaped past traumas by moving to a coast renowned for seaside holidays and natural beauty. But when a vast hoard of human remains and prehistoric artifacts is discovered in nearby Brickburgh, a hideous shadow engulfs her life. Helene, a disillusioned lone parent, lost her brother, Lincoln, six years ago. Disturbing subterranean noises he recorded prior to vanishing, draw her to Brickburgh's caves. A site where early humans butchered each other across 60,000 years. Upon the walls, images of their nameless gods remain.
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Wrong Narrator
- By Jamie on 01-24-20
By: Adam Nevill
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Child of God
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In this taut, chilling audiobook, Lester Ballard - a violent, dispossessed man falsely accused of rape - haunts the hill country of East Tennessee when he is released from jail. While telling his story, Cormac McCarthy depicts the most sordid aspects of life with dignity, humor, and characteristic lyrical brilliance.
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And HE has sent me here?
- By Darwin8u on 04-14-13
By: Cormac McCarthy
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The Bog Wife
- A Novel
- By: Kay Chronister
- Narrated by: Shannon McManus
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a “bog-wife.” Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails—or refuses—to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future.
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Excellent writing that backs out of its own ending
- By Corinne on 03-22-25
By: Kay Chronister
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Slewfoot
- A Tale of Bewitchery
- By: Brom
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Connecticut, 1666. An ancient spirit awakens in a dark wood. The wildfolk call him Father, slayer, protector. The colonists call him Slewfoot, demon, devil. To Abitha, a recently widowed outcast, alone and vulnerable in her pious village, he is the only one she can turn to for help. Together, they ignite a battle between pagan and Puritan - one that threatens to destroy the entire village, leaving nothing but ashes and bloodshed in their wake.
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great book, but bottom of brom's selection
- By kyle gray on 10-04-21
By: Brom
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Nestlings
- By: Nat Cassidy
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Nat Cassidy
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Ana and Reid needed a lucky break. The horrifically complicated birth of their first child has left Ana paralyzed, bitter, and struggling: with mobility, with her relationship with Reid, with resentment for her baby. That's about to change with the words any New Yorker would love to hear—affordable housing lottery. They've won an apartment in the Deptford, one of Manhattan's most revered buildings. Reid dismisses disturbing events and Ana’s deep unease and paranoia as the price of living in New York—people are odd—but he can't explain the needle-like bite marks on the baby.
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One of my favorite new authors
- By Jess A. on 04-01-24
By: Nat Cassidy
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The Twisted Ones
- By: T. Kingfisher
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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When Mouse’s dad asks her to clean out her dead grandmother's house, she says yes. After all, how bad could it be? Answer: pretty bad. Grandma was a hoarder, and her house is stuffed with useless rubbish. That would be horrific enough, but there’s more - Mouse stumbles across her step-grandfather’s journal, which at first seems to be filled with nonsensical rants...until Mouse encounters some of the terrifying things he described for herself.
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Thoughtful build to a chilling, exhilarating finale. Also, the dog lives.
- By selkie86 on 12-29-19
By: T. Kingfisher
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The Silence of Ghosts
- A Novel
- By: Jonathan Aycliffe
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Dominic Lancaster hoped to prove himself to his family by excelling in the Navy during World War II. Instead he is wounded while serving as a gunner, and loses his leg. Still recovering from his wounds and the trauma of his amputation when the Blitz begins, Dominic finds himself shuffled off to the countryside by his family, along with his partially deaf sister, Octavia.
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Spooky story. All it lacks is the campfire.
- By DarylP on 10-09-15
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Dead End Tunnel
- By: Nick Roberts
- Narrated by: Derek Austin
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Maverick Hall has spent years trying to forget the chilling events of his thirteenth birthday in the summer of 1999. That fateful night, he and his best friends ventured through a seemingly innocuous tunnel on their bikes — a journey from which not all of them returned. Now, as an adult, Maverick is haunted by a sinister force that compels him to return to his old neighborhood, a place shadowed by secrets, deceit, and an unsettling sense of death. Drawn back against his better judgment, he must face the dark forces that have lurked in waiting, eager for his return.
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Haunting
- By Nick Roberts on 06-24-24
By: Nick Roberts
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Last Days
- By: Brian Evenson
- Narrated by: Chris Patton
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Still reeling from a brutal dismemberment, detective Kline is forcibly recruited to solve a murder inside a religious cult that takes literally the New Testament idea that you should cut off your hand if it offends you. Armed only with his gun, his wits, and a gift for self-preservation, Kline must navigate a gauntlet of lies, threats, and misinformation. All too soon he discovers that the stakes are higher than he thought and that his survival depends on an act of sheer will.
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Red Harvest for the 21st Century
- By Joe Kraus on 10-04-17
By: Brian Evenson
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Withered Hill
- By: David Barnett
- Narrated by: Ziggy Sobers
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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A year ago Sophie Wickham stumbled into the isolated Lancashire village of Withered Hill, naked, alone and with no memory of who she is. Surrounded by a thick ring of woodland, its inhabitants seem to be of another world, drenched in pagan, folklorish traditions. As Sophie struggles to regain the memories of her life from before, she quickly realises she is a prisoner after multiple failed escape attempts. But is it the locals who keep her trapped, with smiles on their faces, or something else, lurking in the woods?
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Amazing
- By J Caleb Mahan on 05-02-25
By: David Barnett
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The Salt Grows Heavy
- By: Cassandra Khaw
- Narrated by: Susan Dalian
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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You may think you know how the fairytale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three “saints” who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.
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Nothing burger
- By Robert on 05-17-25
By: Cassandra Khaw
The way the final scene ends is so predictable that it takes away slightly from the good atmosphere
Atmosphere
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Eerie
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Style - I am enchanted with Andrew Michael Hurley's style. His vocabulary and composition combine with relatable characters, rich folklore, and bleak settings to create scenes that feel like paintings birthed by Francis Bacon, Winslow Homer, and Theo Major. Hurley is a talented author who I hope is just beginning his journey to mastery.
Story - As much as I admire Hurley's writing, this story is not as well constructed as some of his other work. This story was adapted for the screen, and in this case I actually feel like the screenplay was a more appropriate arrangement for this story.
***MILD SPOILER ALERT***
Starve Acre begins by examining the lives of a couple in the aftermath of the loss of their only child. Hurley uses a familiar construction that sets up the manner and events of the child's death as a mystery and plots to and fro in time down a slow-burn folk-horror path to eventually reveal to the reader the circumstances of the child's death. This creates a sense of mystery around the death that I feel gummed up the works of the story engine.
For me, the elements of the story that propelled me through it were the terrible effects of grief on the couple's relationship, the guilt of having a "bad" child, the guilt of losing a child, the gravity of the dark supernatural forces being intensified by the loss, and the mystery of Jack Grey and the old tree. The manner of the child's death and the "reveal" around the mother's guilt were elements unnecessary to highlight. This just slowed down the ratcheting up of the tension for me though, it did not ruin the experience of a GOOD story.
I want to be clear that I did enjoy this book. It is well written, well voiced, and is a touching and terrifying story about parenting and loss and guilt and evil and blood debts being attached to a family and their land. Hurley is top of his class in modern folk horror. I have not found a contemporary of his that I like more.
I saw the reviews full of complaints about the build-up with no bang. Hurley's works are not fast-paced page turners full of scares. He doesn't pepper his stories with many tension relieving moments. He slowly ratchets up the tension in an unrelenting and very relatable way, artfully revealing a raw and ancient human darkness that pushes his characters into the most uncomfortable and complex situations. There is no ta-da moment that wraps up the story in a satisfying way. The payoff is the reveal of the beastly and tortured human masterpiece that you sympathize with, despise, and fear. It's like pulling the drape off an uncanny self portrait where all the worst and darkest things in you have been distorted and magnified by a talented painter, but you can still clearly see yourself in there.
Starve Acre is a very good book that could have been great with a little restructuring. Go check out Devil's Day and The Loney. If you liked this one you will love those. I can't wait to see what Hurley does next!
Image Mood Voice & Subject Matter
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Beautiful Language, Haunting Story
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delicious
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Pointless book
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Boring
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