Starve Acre

“[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)

“The best closing line of any novel we have read this year . . . A strange and unsettling read.”
—The Times (UK), a Fiction Book of the Year pick

“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

“Hurley is a graceful, confident stylist and for this reason alone he is a joy to read.”
—The Guardian

“Expertly paced . . . creepy and marvelous.”
—Daily Mail, a “Books of the Year” pick

“[Hurley] is one of the most interesting and eerie writers of contemporary horror.”
—The Scotsman

“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


“Brilliantly written . . . Evoking Ted Hughes’s style of writing, Hurley is adept at seamlessly intertwining the malignant savagery of nature with abstract use of imagery for horror effect. He has this uncanny ability of bringing the palpable supernatural to life with a neat, serene turn of phrase. All these hallmarks of superlative writing are in full display in this impeccable work of folk horror. Starve Acre is a haunting portrait of what happens in the liminal space between grief and sanity.”
―Irish Times