Well, that was rather weird. This dark, twisted fable of witches and woods starts like a Grimm’s tale: a woman lost in the woods seeks her way out, instead stumbling upon a surreal cast of critters and characters. However, this is the lost Grimm’s tale where the brothers got absolutely off their faces on magic mushrooms before sitting down to write. It is a bizarre fever dream of an adventure.

Beneath the witchy going-ons there is a dark tale of female empowerment that heads to some interesting places in the final moments of the book. However, the subtext is secondary to the haunted, discomforting atmosphere that Hunt establishes. Like Iain Reid, who I read last month, this is effective in many sequences even when I had very little idea what was going on. For many readers, this won’t appeal at all. I don’t mind a bit of weirdness but I didn’t love the overall story as much here.

However, I found it insidiously engaging enough to power through it in just a day, and a few of the images within the book will linger I’m sure. A decent Halloween read.