Having listened to Jo on the chrons podcast, I felt I should say something about these books.
No secret my favourite book by Jo is Inish Carraig, I will haunt her till she writes a sequel. It's a book that pulls you in and makes you invest in the characters.
Waters and the Wilds, doesn't get enough credit, it sucks you in and leaves you wondering is Amy attuned to the fae or is she delusional?
The Wildest Hunt, is probably the best written, there is no doubt you've crossed the veil between the mortal and fairy realms. It was an amazing book to read at Christmas.
I may have already suggested to Jo there is more mileage in Amelia, could even have her help Amy find out who or what she is.
Just seeing this now, Nixie, thank you. Inish Carraig is my most popular. It stubbornly refuses to be revisited. The characters in the sequel haven't got the agency as they did in book one. I dunno, if I can crack why I'd finish it (most of the book is actually written) but I don't want to bring out something less than good.
Waters and the Wild, I love. It came from a 300 word story here, but it's definitely a standalone. The Wildest Hunt, though, was written to potentially be part of a series, if it did okay. Its launch was quiet, though, for various reasons (mostly the lack of time I had to release cover teases etc), and, despite great reviews, it's going slower than I'd like.
This is its most recent review, though*, and I think it's one of my best - by a reviewer I really respect. (Also,
@Phyrebrat he called it folk horror, which made me think of you!)
Back to dystopia with the next one, which is the first true young adult book I've written. I like it. Which probably means the readers will hate it. And then I'm working on a little magical realism piece, and I'd love to get back to Abendau and write both the prequel and a follow up trilogy but time is not my friend there.
*
THE WILDEST HUNT by Jo Zebedee
Last week I walked the loughshore at Glenveagh national park, a hauntingly beautiful wilderness of rugged mountains, pristine loughs, tumbling waterfalls and enchanted native oak woodland in the heart of the Derryveagh Mountains in the north west of County Donegal.
If I'd read Jo's novel before going I'd have kept a wary eye out for the creeping (sometimes galloping) horror she finds amongst the roots and rocks and sacred boughs.
As an unexpected snowstorm descends on the isolated Glenveagh Castle, young artist Amelia is commissioned to paint a landscape portrait for a shady client with a hidden agenda.
Amelia has a history of adding things to her paintings that others insist 'aren't there' - a ghost in the window of Ballygally Castle, a banshee on the harbour in Newcastle. Amelia is a sensitive, able to see into the world which lies beside ours; a world where demonic horsemen and marauding birds scream across the countryside in a Wild Hunt pursuing prey. Prey like little Belle who died at Glenveagh years before. Prey like Amelia.
Jo has created a beautifully realised folk horror faerie tale. The mythology and world-building is brilliant. Novels set in real places can often pull the reader out, but Jo knows Glenveagh is a deeply strange place, full of follies and ancient trees draped in moss and weird sculptures, and this really adds to the malevolence she creates.
Loved it.
