Wow, this was an excellent debut novel! Atmospheric horror isn’t what I typically gravitate to, but I was hooked from the first page, and it continued to grab me all the way through.

Thanks to Quill and Crow Publishing House for the ARC!

Hinterland is about Kestrel, who wakes up in the woods with no memories, surrounded by members of a cannibalistic cult on a quest to climb the mountain, fulfill their purpose for the old gods, and bring about the end of the world. It is the dead of winter, and these strangers are dangerous, so he has no choice but to follow them up the mountain to survive while keeping an eye out for an escape path. Escape is not guaranteed, however, and the journey itself may change him forever.

The bleak tone and sinister atmosphere are extremely well done here. Right from the start, you, the reader, are ripped from any sense of time or space, just like Kestrel is with his amnesia. All there is now is the grim reality before you, and your focus narrows to each step Kestrel takes up the mountain. This is not a story with a lot of plot – it’s a rather simple quest, after all – but the intensity that bleeds into every second of this story more than makes up for it. Each member of the cult has their own secrets and agenda, and what will occur once they reach the top is a mystery, and that’s if they even survive the climb. The journey is intense, violent, and deeply disturbing at times, and it becomes increasingly clear that whether or not Kestrel makes it out of this alive, he will be a different person than he was before.

The prose is evocative and elegant, weaving a strong sense of sinister foreboding and eeriness throughout the entire unsettling journey. More than anything, the descriptions of the frigid mountain with its relentless blizzards really whipped me across the face – nature itself is a character here, and a ruthless and uncaring one at that. The author really nails the descriptions of everything so that the reading experience is truly visceral, for better or worse (there are some things I can’t unsee!)

I really appreciated the focus on religion and the questions the book asks about the power of faith, what humanity actually entails, and what we owe to one another in a community. The author clearly has a lot to say about doomsday cults, given his personal experience, and I think this was a fascinating exploration of that. The story can be read as an allegory (which is how I read it), but it also leaves much up for interpretation by the end, which I did not see coming. Overall, the ending is appropriately dark, violent, and philosophical, though perhaps slightly dragged out for 10-20 pages.

I would recommend this to any fans of atmospheric and religious horror, especially as a winter read, given the setting, and I will be following the author’s future works.

Note: The cannibalism and body horror in this book are no joke. There are very, very detailed descriptions of ritualistic sacrifice, and one of the most disturbing depictions of cannibalism I’ve ever read (I had to put the book down for a couple of days at one point), so note the content warnings if you are picking this up!