Warding by Kev Harrison | Book Review

First published by Things in the Well, closing out the anthology, BELOW THE STAIRS: TALES FROM THE CELLAR (featuring stories by Clive Barker, Chad Lutzke, Ramsey Campbell, Paul Kane, Theresa Derwin and many more), 'Warding' is available for the first time as a standalone novelette.

Featuring stunning cover artwork by Graphics in Design, packed with easter eggs from the story, this revised edition of WARDING comes complete with an introduction and author's notes on inspirations, story craft and even music related to the piece.

From Kev Harrison, author of CINDERS OF A BLIND MAN WHO COULD SEE, THE BALANCE (coming early 2020) and more than twenty published short stories, comes WARDING, a tale of subterranean supernatural horror.

"When Kate moves into her new home, she is looking for a fresh start. All that changes when her dog, Tigger, starts digging at a wall in the basement. The rank smell gives way to a medieval relic pertaining to witchcraft and superstition. But, in this modern age, such things can be seen for what they are: pure hokum...

Can't they?"

Kev Harrison proves he can put his magic to anything, whether that’s writing about European Folklore or in the case of Warding, a story of supernatural proportions.  As always with Harrison’s work I was intrigued by the premise but let me tell you – nothing prepared me for the intensity and claustrophobia that would have me enthralled.  He is the master of uneasiness and reading Warding was no different.  It’s a novelette but incredibly fast paced with a small bunch of characters that are instantly relatable with values and working moral compasses. 

Warding has done the impossible.  How on earth can you pack in bucket loads of emotion, heart and fear into 55 pages?  There is something exceedingly toxic permeating the air and Harrison has captured that with consummate skill.  The history of witchcraft has always fascinated me.  The witch trials have always been a major miscarriage of justice and I’ve viewed them as a major case of misogyny.  The author captured the horrifying alongside the hope – an artistic ying and yang.  Harrison’s narrative seeps past the pages and into the reader’s mind.

Kate has recently bought a new house.  She’s exuberantly happy.  The only thing that isn’t sitting right with her is the decaying stench that seems to be originating in the cellar.  It smells like death and just why won’t her dog leave it alone?  The author has wrung out every bit of emotion in order to captivate the reader.  The chill and the worry is everywhere, like travelling down a beaten track at the stroke of midnight, hearing wildlife, twigs snapping, checking over your shoulder because you know something sinister lurks ahead.

ABOUT KEV HARRISON

Kev Harrison is a writer of dark fiction and English language teacher from the UK, living and working in Lisbon, Portugal. His nomadic lifestyle has previously taken him to various cities in the United Kingdom, as well as to Turkey and Poland. He has an unquenchable thirst for travel and is passionate about food, photography, and music, as well as fiction. He is a staff writer for This is Horror and has had short fiction published in a variety of magazines and anthologies. His first novella, The Balance, will be released early in 2020, through Lycan Valley Press.

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