Mistletoe (novel)

Last updated

Mistletoe
Littlewood Mistletoe.jpg
First edition cover
Author Alison Littlewood
LanguageEnglish
Genres Fantasy, horror
Publisher Jo Fletcher Books
Publication date
October 2019
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typeHardcover
Pages293
ISBN 978-1-78747-587-8

Mistletoe is a fantasy and horror novel by English writer Alison Littlewood. It was first published in the United Kingdom in October 2019 by Jo Fletcher Books, and is about a widow who buys a farmhouse in Yorkshire to start a new life, but is haunted by ghosts of the farm's former occupants.

Contents

Mistletoe generally received positive reviews from critics, and was nominated for the 2020 British Fantasy Society August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel. [1]

Plot summary

Leah Hamilton buys Maitland Farm, a derelict farm in rural Yorkshire. She recently lost her husband and young son, and wants to occupy herself with renovating the farmhouse. She also wants to escape the coming Christmas and start a new life. Leah's only contact with the outside world are her neighbours on the next farm, Cath, her brother Andrew, and Cath's young son, Charlie. They are concerned for Leah's safety, living there on her own, and warn her of Maitland's past.

Unbeknown to her neighbours, Leah's maiden name is Maitland and the farm had belonged to her ancestors over a hundred years ago. Leah is determined not to let the past bother her, but soon starts to see visions of people from long ago. Then she finds herself appearing to slip into the past and witness first hand events from that era. Leah soon learns that a child had been murdered and the man, who locals at the time believed was responsible, was hanged on the farm.

Background

Littlewood said that Mistletoe grew out of her interest in Victorian times and their tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas time. She explained that while Mistletoe is set in the present-day, the ghosts Leah sees are from the Victorian era. [2] Ideas for Maitland Farm came from several old farmhouses Littlewood had seen around Yorkshire. She said she chose Yorkshire as the novel's setting "because that’s where I live and I’m familiar with it and its folk and the way people talk". [3]

Mistletoe features prominently in the novel, and Littlewood said she incorporated folklore surrounding the plant into the story, including the belief that it made it possible to talk to the dead. [2] She researched folklore for the book extensively, adding that "if I’m going to use folklore or history in a story, I have to use it faithfully, even though I’m writing fiction." [3]

Critical reception

In a review in The Guardian , Eric Brown called Mistletoe Littlewood's "best [novel] yet", adding that it is "a creepy, page-turning triumph enlivened with excellent folkloric details, beautiful descriptions of winter landscapes and sensitive characterisation." [4] A review in The Crack called Mistletoe "[a] superior haunted house story ... with plenty of heart". [5] The reviewer said that while the novel's premise features often in literature, for example Hurley's Starve Acre, and du Maurier's The House on the Strand , Littlewood adds "plenty of new twists" to the theme with "a creeping sense of menace". [5] The reviewer added that the novel's "suspicious neighbours and mistletoe ... takes on Triffid-like qualities." [5]

Writing in the Sci-Fi Bulletin, Marie O’Regan described Mistletoe as "[a] haunting tale of love, loss and betrayal." [6] She said its landscapes are "vivid" and the characters "speak to the heart". O’Regan gave Mistletoe a score of 9/10. [6] Alyson Faye wrote in Horror Tree that Mistletoe is a "beautifully crafted seasonal novel", complete with "Victorian time-slip" and "gorgeous descriptions of the landscape, the farmhouse, and the scenes of Christmas." [7] She complimented Littlewood on the atmosphere she created, which Faye said evokes "aloneness, claustrophobia, snowy silence, isolation, and cold." [7] While Faye described the novel as "slow moving", she felt the reader is rewarded for their patience. She rated Mistletoe 4/5 stars. [7]

Related Research Articles

A changeling is a figure in West European folklore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robin Hobb</span> American fiction writer (born 1952)

Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, known by her pen names Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm, is an American writer of speculative fiction. As Hobb, she is best known for her fantasy novels set in the Realm of the Elderlings, which comprise the Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies, the Rain WildChronicles, and the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Lindholm's writing includes the urban fantasy novel Wizard of the Pigeons and science fiction short stories, among other works. As of 2018, her fiction has been translated into 22 languages and sold more than 4 million copies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tanith Lee</span> British science fiction and fantasy writer (1947 – 2015)

Tanith Lee was a British science fiction and fantasy writer. She wrote more than 90 novels and 300 short stories, and was the winner of multiple World Fantasy Society Derleth Awards, the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Horror. She also wrote a children's picture book, and many poems. She wrote two episodes of the BBC science fiction series Blake's 7 .

Maitland McDonagh is an American film critic, writer-editor and podcaster. She is the author of Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds: The Dark Dreams of Dario Argento (1991) and other books and articles on horror and exploitation films, as well as about erotic fiction and erotic cinema. In 2022, McDonagh was inducted into the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame. She is the founder of the small press 120 Days Books, which became an imprint of Riverdale Avenue Books.

Mythic fiction is literature that draws from the tropes, themes, and symbolism of myth, legend, folklore, and fairy tales. It is usually set in the real world and deals with realistic issues, but a mythic atmosphere prevails; however, not all mythic fiction is fantasy, and the fantastic component is not always blatant. Mythic fiction ranges from retellings of fairy tales to stories based on myths to those loosely inspired by myth and legend, using their motifs to create new stories.

Angela Slatter is a writer based in Brisbane, Australia. Primarily working in the field of speculative fiction, she has focused on short stories since deciding to pursue writing in 2005, when she undertook a Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing. Since then she has written a number of short stories, many of which were included in her two compilations, Sourdough and Other Stories (2010) and The Girl With No Hands and other tales (2010).

<i>Among Others</i> 2011 novel by Jo Walton

Among Others is a 2011 fantasy novel written by Welsh-Canadian writer Jo Walton, published originally by Tor Books. It is published in the UK by Corsair. It won the 2012 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the British Fantasy Award, and was a nominee for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karen Lord</span> Barbadian writer of speculative fiction (born 1968)

Karen Lord is a Barbadian writer of speculative fiction. Her first novel, Redemption in Indigo (2010), retells the story "Ansige Karamba the Glutton" from Senegalese folklore and her second novel, The Best of All Possible Worlds (2013), is an example of social science fiction. Lord also writes on the sociology of religion.

Alison Littlewood is a British author of horror novels and short stories. She also writes under the name Alison J. Littlewood and the pen name A. J. Elwood.

<i>The Hidden People</i> 2016 novel by Alison Littlewood

The Hidden People is a historical fantasy and horror novel by English writer Alison Littlewood, first published in the United Kingdom in October 2016 by Jo Fletcher Books. It is based on the 1895 incident in Tipperary, Ireland, where Bridget Cleary was burnt alive by her husband who believed she was a fairy changeling.

<i>The Changeling</i> (LaValle novel) 2017 fantasy/horror novel by Victor LaValle

The Changeling is a 2017 fantasy horror novel by Victor LaValle. The novel received critical acclaim, winnings awards including the 2017 Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel, 2018 August Derleth Award, 2018 Locus Award for Best Horror Novel, and 2018 World Fantasy Award—Novel. The novel was adapted into a television show of the same name which premiered in 2023.

<i>Foe</i> (Reid novel) 2018 novel by Iain Reid

Foe is the second novel by Canadian writer Iain Reid. It was released in August 2018 in the United States by Simon & Schuster. The book has been described as a psychological thriller and horror fiction against a science fiction backdrop. Reid referred to it as a "philosophical suspense story". Foe is set in the near future and is about a married couple living on a remote farm whose lives are thrown in turmoil when a stranger arrives.

<i>The Mask</i> (Lem short story) 1974 short story by Stanisław Lem

The Mask is a science fiction techno horror short story by Polish writer Stanisław Lem written in 1974 and first published in literary magazine Kultura that year. It was the title story in a short story collection published in 1976 by Wydawnictwo Literackie. It is a story of an assassin android she-robot programmed both to love and to kill its human target and who gradually becomes aware of herself and her programming.

Marie O'Regan is a British horror writer and editor.

<i>The Cottingley Cuckoo</i> 2021 novel by A. J. Elwood

The Cottingley Cuckoo is an urban fantasy and horror novel by A. J. Elwood, pen name of English writer Alison Littlewood. It was first published in the United Kingdom in April 2021 by Titan Books. The book was inspired by the 1920 Cottingley fairy photographs, and is about Rose, a caregiver at the Sunnyside Care Home in the 2020s who is shown letters by a resident that were written in the 1920s soon after the fairy photographs were published. In the letters, the author claims to have also seen fairies, and maintains that he has proof of their existence.

<i>The Crow Garden</i> 2017 novel by Alison Littlewood

The Crow Garden is a historical fantasy and horror novel by English writer Alison Littlewood. It was first published in the United Kingdom in October 2017 by Jo Fletcher Books. Set in Victorian England, the book is about an alienist who becomes infatuated with an enigmatic patient of his at a lunatic asylum in Yorkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunyi Dean</span> Fantasy fiction author

Sunyi Dean is an author of fantasy fiction.

<i>A Cold Season</i> 2012 novel by Alison Littlewood

A Cold Season is a fantasy and horror novel by English writer Alison Littlewood. It is her debut novel and was first published in the United Kingdom in January 2012 by Jo Fletcher Books. It is about a young widow who takes her son to Darnshaw, the village of her birth after her husband went missing in action in Afghanistan; but the village has become sinister and foreboding, and snow storms prevent them from leaving.

<i>A Cold Silence</i> 2015 novel by Alison Littlewood

A Cold Silence is a fantasy and horror novel by English writer Alison Littlewood. It is the sequel to her debut novel, A Cold Season (2012), and was first published in the United Kingdom in September 2015 by Jo Fletcher Books. It is about a group of friends from the sinister village of Darnshaw who investigate the deaths of several people who had played a computer game called Archeron.

References

  1. "British Fantasy Awards 2020". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus. ISSN   0047-4959 . Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  2. 1 2 Bond, Charlotte (10 December 2020). "Five Questions with Alison Littlewood". Breaking the Glass Slipper. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  3. 1 2 Faye, Alyson (18 January 2020). "Horror Tree Presents … An Interview with Alison Littlewood". Horror Tree. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  4. Brown, Eric (8 November 2019). "The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – reviews roundup". The Guardian . Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 "Mistletoe". The Crack . Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  6. 1 2 O’Regan, Marie (7 December 2017). "Review: Mistletoe". Sci-Fi Bulletin. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 Faye, Alyson (22 December 2019). "Epeolatry Book Review: Mistletoe". horrortree.com. Retrieved 2 February 2023.

Works cited