Quiet Village by Eden Darry is a creepy, small town horror with a supernatural element and I loved every word.
When her sister is killed Collie Noonan gets custody of Lana, her ten-year-old niece. They decide that a change is in order and Collie lets her niece pick a new place to live when they leave London. Lana chooses a small village on the outskirts of Suffolk called Hyam. It’s safe and people won’t look at Lana like she is the kid who appeared in the news headlines.
At first the village is a little odd but they chalk it up to small towns taking a while to warm up to outsiders.
When Lana is told that she will be the star in the upcoming Spring Festival it sounds like finally something good is happening in her life, but can they ignore the strange feeling of being watched, the banging on the door followed by large, deep claw marks or the fear that comes every time they walk up their driveway?
Emily Lassiter is the new teacher in Hyam. She lives next to Collie and teaches Lana so it is inevitable that Emily and Collie meet. The attraction between them is there from the first time they see one another but it takes a little bit before they acknowledge it. And even when they do acknowledge it they cannot possibly act on it, Emily is there to find out what happened to her missing brother and Collie must concentrate on providing a stable home for her niece.
But things are weird and scary in Hyam and ultimately they need to band together if they want to get out of this alive. Can they figure it out in time, though? It seems doubtful.
The Characters
Darry created a cast of characters that were easy to tell apart, nice enough that you wanted them to survive and yet flawed enough that they were believable.
Special shoutout to Tony, Collie’s best friend. He is a sweetheart and I adored every moment with him especially how sweet his relationship was with Lana.
The Writing Style
This book is terrifying! I loved every moment of terror and applaud Darry for giving me a truly scary read.
Darry wrote a truly satisfying romantic sub plot. The chemistry between Collie and Emily was hot, the reason for them not being together was believable and I loved the back and forth pull and the realistic little omissions of truth between them.
My Favourite Part
Darry wrote an easy to read yet compelling novel. It’s chock full of page turning moments and the flip between the feelings of fear and the feelings of attraction was perfectly done.
Ah, this book is a glorious thing.
Heads Up
This is a horror. It is scary.
The Conclusion
Finding a scary book in lesbian fiction is difficult. I know because I search for them. I love to be scared and not a lot scares me. But this book did and it was thrilling!
Darry managed some great character work, excellent descriptions of the town, the chemistry between the leads and the building anticipation. Dare I say that it is the perfect horror?
If you love monster horror, being scared, lesbians in a creepy village then this is the perfect book for you.
Have I mentioned yet how much I love this book? I could not read it before bed because it was that scary and yet I could not love it more if I tried.
Happy sigh.
Excerpt from Quiet Village by Eden Darry
Why you’d want to move to the middle of nowhere is bloody beyond me,” Tony muttered as he put the last box down on the living room floor.
“You know why,” Collie said, opening Tufty the cat’s carry box. He stuck his fluffy black head out, seemed to consider a moment, then bolted up the stairs. “It was all over the news when my sister died. And that fucking internet journalist plastered Lana’s face all over their website. Everyone at her school knew what happened.”
“London’s a big place. You could have just moved north of the river,” Tony said.
“We wanted somewhere quiet where people didn’t automatically know who Lana was. Besides, me and Sasha grew up around here.”
“You lived somewhere in Southwold for the first four years of your life. Not Hymen,” Tony said.
“Hyam, you div.” Collie elbowed him. “This is Hyam. Besides, it’s only half an hour to Southwold.”
“You plan on visiting Southwold a lot? Because God knows there’s bugger all to do around here,” Tony said.
Collie had got that sinking feeling as they drove through the village. If you could even call it that. One mini-roundabout, a co-op, and a pub did not a village make. Well, when you let ten-year-olds make decisions, this was what happened.
Maybe she wasn’t being totally fair—there was a hairdresser’s, and a bakery. Collie sighed. Had she made a big mistake moving her and Lana here? Collie felt like she was feeling her way through mud as far as Lana was concerned.
Collie had never given any thoughts to children. They hadn’t really figured in her life plan. Now, here she was, raising her dead sister’s child. Lana, who had lost both her parents, seemed to be dealing much better with it than Collie, or at least that’s how it seemed. Collie was out of her depth. All she could feel was this overwhelming, crippling grief that lay on her chest like a concrete pillow. Sometimes it hurt to breathe.
Lana had seen the house online, on one of those property websites. She’d tapped the screen and said, “There. That’s where I want to live.”
“Why?” Collie asked.
“I googled the village—”
“Of course you did. I didn’t know how to google at ten,” Collie said and had immediately been given one of those looks. The ones all kids gave to hopelessly useless adults.
“Aunt Collie, you didn’t even have computers. Weren’t you still writing on stone tablets?”
“Cheeky little git.” Collie had laughed and thrown a pillow at the kid. “But seriously, what did Google say?”
Lana looked up and wrinkled her little brow. Collie wanted to eat her up. Lana recited, “Steeped in Anglo-Saxon history, the county of Woden is home to quaint farming villages and unspoiled walking trails through forest and farmland, along with beautiful walks along the River Woden. The village of Hyam is still full of medieval structures, including a group of ancient standing stones known locally as a miniature Stonehenge.”
“You memorized a tourist website? Wow, what a loser,” Collie joked, though Lana knew she was in awe of her ability to memorize things.
“Jealously is an ugly trait, Aunt Collie.” Lana grinned and laughed.
“Yeah, yeah. So you like the Anglo-Saxon history and the hiking?”
“I just think it looks like a really nice place where nothing bad happens. You know? And it’s a nowhere place. No one will know who I am there, or what happened to Mum,” Lana said quietly.
Collie swallowed the lump in her throat. She knew exactly what Lana meant. Even if she wasn’t sure before, she was now. She wanted Lana to feel safe, and if a sleepy little village in the middle of nowhere did that for her, well, that’s where they were going.
Collie sighed when Lana said that and pulled her into a hug. When she thought about the shitbag journalist who found Lana’s school picture and posted it online, she wanted to track him down and kill him. The London Eye was what the online rag was called. Collie had emailed and begged them to take the picture down, but by then it was too late.
So, here they were. Luckily it was only a rental, and they could move any time after this initial twelve months. Collie could do her work from anywhere, so that wasn’t a problem. They’d make the best of it. And Collie would do her utmost not to damage an already broken child even further.
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Bits and Bobs
ISBN number: 9781635558982
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
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