Book Review: Gorse by Sam K. Horton

British folklore suffuses this magical, historical fantasy

Solaris, 2024

The water and the peat hold the history of the moor, bound up in the moss and the silt. An archive of the dead. Enmeshed in its layers are the ghosts of bears, of wolves, and the men who killed them. The pollen of flowers grown under a fresh-faced sun. It strips away everything, all flesh and bone until only a ghost remains. Memories free to head below without the weight of life to bind them, their bodies left to feed the earth.

I met Sam at 2024’s WorldCon in Glasgow through my writing pals MK Hardy, and I was immediately captivated by his pitch for Gorse, a period folk-horror set in the Britain’s south-west. Now we’re all agent siblings, I had no reason to not read it. After starting and stopping Gorse several times (for reasons unrelated to the book), I found my rhythm and tore through Horton’s vivid descriptions of a windswept landscape teeming with life.

Gorse, for all of its comparisons to folk tales, horror and historical fiction, is at its core, a murder mystery; one where the unusual setting plays a big part (in the best Gothic tradition) to hinder solving the central mystery — in this case, who killed the residents of Mirecoombe village.

I think the closest book I can compare Gorse to is China Miéville’s The City and the City, except Horton’s protagonist, Nancy, is a young woman navigating not just a world where Christianity becomes a predominant cultural force; but one where the Natural Order is threatened, and old bargains must be struck anew.

Particular praise must go to Horton’s magnificent prose, which is lyrical, verbose and appropriate for the setting; a strong, authorial voice in a publishing landscape which at times can feel sterile despite the current demand for the fantastical.

Gorse is a tightly woven and well-constructed folk-myth, written by an author who very much inhabits the majestic, haunting landscape so eloquently described.

This review originally appeared in Dispatch Edition #6.

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The Dispatch is a monthly roundup by British speculative fiction writer, Jordan Acosta. News, short reviews and more, published every first Thursday. You can subscribe at jordanacosta.co, and read previous editions, here.