In the wink of an eye, as quick as a flea,
The Devil he jumped from me to thee.
And only when the Devil had gone,
Did I know that he and I'd been one...
Every autumn, John Pentecost returns to the farm where he grew up to help gather the sheep down from the moors for the winter. Very little changes in the Endlands, but this year, his grandfather - the Gaffer - has died and John's new wife, Katherine, is accompanying him for the first time.
Each year, the Gaffer would redraw the boundary lines of the village, with pen and paper, but also through the remembrance of tales and timeless communal rituals, which keep the sheep safe from the Devil. But as the farmers of the Endlands bury the Gaffer, and prepare to gather the sheep, they begin to wonder whether they've let the Devil in after all...
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[One late October day, just over a century ago, the farmers of the Endlands went to gather their sheep from the moors as they did every autumn]***
(John Murray, 19 October 2017, ebook, copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed)
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I thought Devil's Day was okay but some aspects left me cold.
I loved the setting of the novel, a remote valley in Lancashire. In a way, this serves as the main character rather than the people involved. The valley is harsh, almost sinister at times and not a place I can imagine anyone choosing to life. The beautiful writing brings the place to vivid life.
It's hard to define what this book is about. The secrets of the Endlands. The secrets buried deep in human hearts. Rituals passed down from generation to generation which start to take on sinister overtones when viewed through the eyes of a stranger.
I liked Kat and how, as a stranger, not raised in the Endlands, brought here by her husband who grew up in the area, she sees the sinister overtones of the remote, self-sufficient lives of the locals.
The issue is that, beautiful writing and a vivid sense of place aside, not a lot goes on in the book. The sinister overtones created by the author's prose and Kate's viewpoint never really go anywhere. I was expecting for some dark, sinister revelation but the story just sort of fizzes out. I also didn't feel really connected to any of the characters.
