In need of money, Jess is determined to find a better life for herself, away from her abusive former husband, and for her daughter, Izzy, to get her away from bullies at school. As such, Jess accepts a position as a care giver to “a shrunken figure within a wheelchair, Mrs. Florence Gardner.” The frail eighty-nine-year-old invalid suffers from dementia and lives in a huge, rambling manse, Nerthus House, “a dark warren that hasn’t been cleared, let alone tidied. In years.” Flo, in spite of “her rheumy eyes,” can be incredibly fast as Jess learns when she gets too close to the old woman, angering her, and Jess gets slapped and spat upon. Behind Flo’s “emaciated figure,” haggard appearance, and dully staring eyes, however, lies much, much more than appears—something both Jess and Izzy begin to discover much to their dismay. Isn’t it great to have a new Nevill on an almost annual basis? Well, it is for this reader. I’m admittedly late to the Nevill game, having only really dove into his work over the last four years or so, but in that time not only has he become one of my favorite authors, but reading his releases is always an education in storytelling, at least for me.

With Nevill, you know you’ll get darkness and despair, but you’re never totally confident on the medium of ‘how.’ With ‘Wyrd and Other Derelictions’ we got stories with no characters. With ‘The Reddening’ we had a folklore story set in a remote location. With ‘Cunning Folk’ we had a horrific story set in an idyllic small town location. And now, with ‘The Vessel,’ we get a pagan-tinged witch style story set on the lands of a large homestead. Flo’s vast home, Nerthus House, may resemble a stately vicarage in an idyllic village, but the labyrinthine interior is a dark, cluttered warren filled with pagan artefacts. It seems that The Vessel was written more like a screenplay and less like a novel from what Nevill mentions in the story notes. Maybe I prefer his novels?Some creepy odd stuff starts happening and there is something clearly mystical about it. Not overly scary but creepy and because of the quality of the writing you are really drawn into it all and that gives it that vibe that just keeps the story and the overall creepiness in your head - like in the middle of the night and you are just a little to creeped out to go to the needed washroom, lol.

An eerie folk horror novel from the author of Cunning Folk, The Reddening, The Ritual, No One Gets Out Alive and the four times winner of the August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel.Adam Nevill (also known as Adam LG Nevill) is an English writer of supernatural horror, known for his book The Ritual. [1] [2] [3] Prior to becoming a full-time author, Nevill worked as an editor. [4]