Book Review: "The Hungry Moon" by Ramsey Campbell

You probably don't want to hear me talk about folk horror, but here we are yet again.

One of the most expansive and further expanding genres of the the horror type, folk horror has been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic and slightly before. In the 1980s though, there was a surge of brilliantly clever folk horror novels, one of them includes Ramsey Campbell's The Hungry Moon. A multi-layered narrative about fundamentalism, this book includes several aspects of horror that may rival Stephen King's cult literature. Yes, it is realistic, yes it does have compelling characters and there is a brilliantly strange storyline of chanting, dead lizards, the Peak District and oddities that are encountered throughout the book. The Satanic Panic is real.

There is something really slow and atmospheric about this book too. One thing I do agree with is that Hollywood is a cult of decadence and degradation - it adds to the atmosphere of whether you agree or disagree with the people who act as the fundamentalists. The story of The Hungry Moon is brilliantly crafted and the writing is clever with some really great dialogue where people only say as much or as little as they need to.

Nick is a reporter and swears he remembers a place called Moonwell in the Peak District even if other people do not believe him. He remembers a woman with dark hair who worked as a teacher, she was from New York. As the story progresses, we as thrust back in time and meet the elusive child Andrew and his strange parents. As we meet more characters who have intertwining lives, we also sense that something is horribly wrong starting with the situation where the townswomen complain about comic books being sold at a stand at the church. These little pieces that are littered around the book to make the strange look stranger including the large and gaping hole at the Peak District that is seen by children on a school trip is the beating heart beneath the cult-requiem of the book and its events.

The influence of cult-like worship from the celtic lores of Northern England makes this the perfect late-night read for me and every single time you read something odd, or a little bit off, in the book you just know you're about to learn yet another twisted secret. One scene I loved is when there are two couples (I won't tell you who) that go to the local restaurant/pub and it is filled with people whom they assume to be a coach trip, but just as they sit down, the coach trip people get up and leave altogether. It is only a little bit later where the thoughts turn from 'how do these people all know each other?' to 'what do these people know that we don't?' It all becomes more frightening when you remember the image of the tents all around the Peak District, laid out in some sort of circle.

The weirdness of the church reminds me of Midnight Mass because there are small oddities that make up the really f***ed up storyline to the whole thing. When s*** hits the fan, it really hits the fan. From corporal punishment at school, to burning a hole in a Wonder Woman comic book, from someone being told their parents are dead and contemplating whether God only cares about numbers to children who are raised with puritanical values - this book is a chilling achievement of folklore, mixed with dark fantasy mixed with abject terror.

Another book this reminds me of is Stephen King's Salem's Lot because of the beginning. The start of the book is a denial about whether something really existed or really happened and then, we are taken back to the beginning of the book in order to see it for ourselves. Though Salem's Lot is something I read as a teenager and managed to scare the wits out of myself for a long long while, this book has the same pace, the same atmosphere of strangeness and the same fear of invasion.

I am very happy that I found this book because it is one of those rare books where I say 'ah yes, another perfect folk horror...' it has all the typical aspects of a folk horror novel and, if you like the genre too then you will love The Hungry Moon by Ramsey Campbell.