This is a nice little story about a strange child and a haunted property. As the mystery of the child’s death unravels, the author works in elements of folk-horror and the history of the Starve Acre property.

It’s definitely a crowd pleaser. Most people are going to feel intrigued, and find it a tiny bit creepy.

Don’t expect a literary masterpiece. It’s very light reading.

The book includes little to evoke the mood or setting (other than the beautiful book cover). I would have liked the author to create a more dismal, bleak atmosphere. But this might have impacted the simplicity and readability of the story for a general audience.

I was also hoping for a much darker finale.

At the end I thought ‘That’s it?’. It was left very open, which made me feel like the author just wasn’t sure what to do with all the story pieces that had been developed.

Don’t read the next paragraph if you don’t want any spoilers:

A major scene involved breastfeeding. This was intended to be the climax of horror in the story. I felt that this moment depended on the general taboo and repulsion some people have regarding breastfeeding. When I read this scene I just thought ‘that’s a little weird’, but it didn’t have much impact. So for me the story had no climax.

In summary, I think the author did a great job to achieve the goal of an appealing folk horror tale, but I just wasn’t the right audience for it.

Someone who reads a lot of folk-horror may find Starve Acre lacking.

Only 2 out of 5.

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