Mere by Danielle Giles

Danielle Giles’ debut Mere can possibly best be described as folk horror, although maybe folk creeping dread might be better. Set in a remote abbey in the East Anglian fens in the 900s, Mere is atmospheric, and based around power struggles both human and supernatural. But it is also a story about a relationship and a community, and how that community reacts under pressure.

When Mere opens, a young boy goes missing in the marshland that separates a remote abbey from the local town. The boy was accompanying the Abbess Sigeburg, the priest Botwine and his assistant Alwin but also with them is novitiate Wulfrun, a widow seeking to enter the order. Wulfrun wants to search for the boy but the fog comes in and she is told that the mere is dangerous. And so it seems, as some who go into the mere do not return and as winter sets in a series of setbacks and disasters eats away at the stored food supplies, destroys crops and livestock and challenges the community.

Mere is narrated by the Hilda, the infirmarian (chief healer) at the abbey. Hilda was an illegitimate child of the local nobility and has grown up at the abbey. She has her own way of doing things which puts her at odds with abbess and the abbesses more ardent followers. But it also aligns her with Wulfrun and the heart of the narrative is their growing relationship which becomes the worst kept secret in the community.

There are plenty of books around where the narrative twists and turns become predictable. Mere is not one of those books. Giles keeps readers hooked on this story by slowly turning the screws on her characters but then zigging when they expect a zag. And she builds this from the complex web of relationships within and around the abbey but also the clash of belief systems between the old ways of worship and Christianity. But also from the atmosphere that she creates – the relentless, damp cold and creeping waters of the mere, constantly eking away at the fields and the buildings – and the knowledge that death is a distinct possibility for any of the characters at any time.

Simply put – if you are looking to be swept up by a medieval, gothic, sapphic, folk horror novel, then Mere is a good place to start.

Mere by Danielle Giles

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8.0/10