The Briar Book of the Dead
by A.G. SlatterAlso by this author: All the Murmuring Bones
Published by: Titan Books on February 13, 2024
Genres: Adult, Gothic, Horror
Pages: 368
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Perfect for fans of Uprooted and For the Wolf, a dark and addictive tale of witches, ancient mysteries and sins that refuse to be buried from the award-winning author of All the Murmuring Bones.
To the outside world, Silverton appears not to matter much at all. It sits on a remote mountain pass, far from the great cathedral city of Lodellan. It’s run by witches who, in the usual scheme of things, would be burnt. Yet a dispensation keeps the Briars safe for one simple, dangerous they are the custodians of the threshold between the civilised world and the Darklands, where Leech Lords hold sway. Vampires are especially feared by the ecclesiastics, for leeches steal souls as well as bodies, and mortal souls are the Church’s most valuable currency.
However, things are changing in Silverton, with new forces coming into play and ancient mysteries and sins refusing to stay buried − and Anni Briar, the first non-witch born into the family for three hundred years, will find herself at the centre of the maelstrom.
Content Tags:
Perfect for readers who want:
- Family bonds and coming together
- Even if, frankly, the family is kind of a hot mess
- Witches and magic
- A beautifully written, atmospheric gothic tale
- Ancient mysteries coming to light
- Plot twists and the unexpected
- Flawed people just struggling to do their best
I received a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes are taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.
I’ve been an A. G. Slatter fan since I devoured All The Murmuring Bones, so I was always destined to pick this up. Even better when I was offered an ARC, because waiting is hard and overrated. Slatter is the queen of the atmospheric Gothic novel, and I expected no less for this one. Plus, who can resist witches, ancient mysteries, and sins? It’s like the perfect Gothic trifecta!
The Briar Book of the Dead is a beautifully written Gothic exploration of family trauma, dark secrets, and the sins of our ancestors as this strong group of women come together amidst tragedy to solve a mystery that was generations in the making.
This was every bit the Gothic masterpiece I had hoped it would be! Silverton is sufficiently spooky, a town just waiting for things to go wrong, held together—albeit precariously—by the Briar family, who have lost their primary matriarchs. Things aren’t quite right in Silverton, and Slatter does a marvelous job of building a claustrophobic, creepy atmosphere. The only thing I found frustrating was that I guessed the ending very early on, which left me frustrated that none of the other characters picked up on the strange, suspicious things I thought were so very obvious!
Things aren’t quite right in Silverton . . . and the two mysterious deaths of the Briar matriarchs are only the beginning.
First, the death of Ellie’s Great-Aunt Maud, followed all too closely by her grandmother, the two matriarchs of the Briar family who ran the town and kept everyone safe. That alone should be enough to cause turmoil. But it’s only the beginning. Because something strange is happening in the farms outside of town, though Ellie can’t quite put her finger on it. The landscape is changing in unpredictable new ways. A darkness has settled over Silverton that has everyone on edge. And its ghosts are making their presence known after being dormant for so many generations.
Slatter does a marvelous job of creating a creepy atmosphere, weaving in supernatural elements. Silverton has the feel of a quaint historical village, but one teetering on a precipice in a way no one can quite pinpoint. The Briars have always held the town together before, but with this new generation of Briars only recently taking the helm, are they up to the task? Especially when so many things are going wrong all at once?
‘None know them better,’ I say. Except possibly bandits.
‘Well, when I collected that priest of yours — and he’s a chatterbox when the mood takes him — he’s busy telling me about a waterfall he’s just seen, not far from where I found him. So I tell him there’s no waterfall where he says there is — never has been. The river doesn’t run that way, winds off to the west it does.’ He scratches his hair. ‘But he’s so insistent about it, so bloody earnest, that I turn the wagon around. Follow his directions, and sure enough, there it is, just past the Havard farm, in fact.’
I stare at him. ‘Edgar, there’s no waterfall there. I did the outlier circuit only just over a week ago.’
He nods. ‘I know. And there it was.’ He chews through another few mouthfuls. ‘Told you it was odd.’
Ellie is the first person to be born into her family without powers. Which is a problem, considering her entire family are witches.
This maybe has just a teensy bit of Encanto vibes . . . without the wholesome family message or the really catchy songs. While this is definitely a stumbling block for Ellie in terms of her cousins—who often leave her out, as the one person who isn’t really a witch in a family of witches—it doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a place in the family. Even if it’s a begrudging one. She’s been trained to take her Great-Aunt’s spot and serve as the steward for when her cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch. The steward is exactly how it sounds: basically, a glorified secretary and more a consolation prize. Don’t mistake it, though, the steward manages people and keeps the whole town in order every bit as much as the Briar Witch does. Just minus the magical requirement, which is lucky for Ellie.
Except it may turn out that Ellie isn’t necessarily without powers. Her powers are just . . . different. Unheard of, even in her family’s tales and legends. Almost as if they were wiped clean from the history books, for some reason. Chock it up to just one more mysterious thing happening in Silverton.
‘Get to know him. Get at his secrets.’ Good start, Ellie. ‘Do my best to control what he learns. Make sure Edgar leaves as soon as possible so the god-hound doesn’t give him a letter to carry to the Archbishop of Lodellan. That buys us all of wintertide — the priest’s unlikely to be foolish enough to set off in the snow and sleet.’ I rap my knuckles on the table. ‘We can always kill him later.’
‘That’s the spirit.’ A familiar voice — we turn. Audra stands in the doorway, bright as hope, bright as a new gold piece. None of us heard her arrive. ‘Now, cousins, who aren’t we killing today?’
The Briars are a family that is falling apart, while desperately trying to hold themselves together . . . a feat that becomes harder the more they learn about the mysterious history of their family.
Ellie and her cousins don’t always—or often—get along. There’s some tension with the fact that Ellie doesn’t have any magical ability of her own, of course, which often means she’s left out—due to spite more than anything. But there’s also a sense of due loyalty to the Briar Witch, a title that has now passed to Audra. Which means when Ellie notices that things aren’t quite right and voices her concerns, they’re summarily dismissed by reassurances from Audra. Even if the new Briar Witch is letting more than a few things slide by unattended. Even if Ellie is the one keeping the town from collapsing in her cousin’s stead.
When things are at their direst, though, the cousins have no choice but to set aside their differences and work together for the good of Silverton . . . and maybe each other. They have to challenge their preconceived notions and everything they believed to be true, especially as their investigations unearth more and more secrets—about their family mostly, but also about Silverton as a whole.
At its heart, The Briar Book of the Dead is a story about women—those with power and those without, those whose names are known and those who have been forgotten . . . and especially those who have been wronged.
It may not come as much of a surprise, given that this book focuses around a matriarchal family of witches, that women play a big role in this story. The most important women, though, aren’t always the ones you think. True, this is a story of cousins, brought together by the tragic loss of their grandmother, having to shoulder a burden that shouldn’t really be theirs to begin with. But it’s also the story of sisters, who loved but also betrayed each other. And it’s a story of mothers, gone too soon or taken before their time, and the whole their absence leaves behind. Women who betray men and who are betrayed by them.
Woven all throughout this book are little snippets of histories and legends of earlier Briars, as Ellie digs into the family history looking for answers. The more she learns, the more she realizes that stories have the power to take on a life of their own and become distorted. I loved all the little intricacies of the story, the way seemingly innocuous events can become tied up with others and mean so much more than they seem.
No ‘once there was and there was not.’
Their names are lost but they most definitely were.
And they began as neglected wives and ended as destroyers of the world.
About A.G. Slatter
Angela Slatter is the author of the supernatural crime novels from Jo Fletcher Books/Hachette International: Vigil (2016), Corpselight (2017) and Restoration (2018), as well as eight short story collections, including The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales, Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, and A Feast of Sorrows: Stories. Vigil has been nominated for the Dublin Literary Award in 2018.
Her new gothic fantasy novels, All the Murmuring Bones and Morwood, will be published under the pen name A G Slatter by Titan Books in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
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Loved your review! I’m struggling to finish all my February books, and I probably won’t read this until next month, but now I’m excited, especially for the matriarchal family of witches😁
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Thanks! I’m behind where I thought I’d be in February too. I blame the short month. xD I think you’d like this one, though. Slatter is really good at Gothic novels. 😀